Your essential guide to the latest and greatest in golf gear, tech, and equipment innovation.
Split Personality
Back in the day, golfers carried a mixed bag of niblicks and mashies, each tasked to propel shots a certain way. Iron sets later became uniform, but now we’re seeing a trend where more than 70 percent of PGA Tour players use a “split set” of irons with multiple head designs. Even many average-golfer sets – without the tour-level tweaking – feature different heads to optimise launch and spin. Moral: they had it right way back when. Every club in your bag has a specific job. Worry less about how it looks and more about what it does.
Your club for those ‘stretch’ distances
Is it a hybrid or a fairway wood? The answer depends on your swing.
We all experience that uneasy feeling of standing in the fairway, seeing that little flag in the distance and not knowing if we can get there. What makes it worse is, we might not even know whether we should be hitting a hybrid or a fairway wood. Of course, the right answer depends more on the player than it does on the club.
For instance, hybrid use on the PGA Tour is down about 80 percent from its heyday in 2010, when a typical event might have seen 140 hybrids in play. But what happens on tour shouldn’t dictate what happens in your bag. With an increasing array of hybrid options, along with the influx of high-lofted fairway woods, average golfers have more choices with their longer clubs than ever before. It actually might be causing as much confusion as relief. Indeed, when a fairway wood and a hybrid have basically the same loft, which one is the better option?
The first thing to consider is that just because two clubs have the same loft, it doesn’t mean they’ll go the same distance. If one has less loft, it doesn’t necessarily mean that club will go further, particularly when you’re talking about shots that are going to be hit off the ground. What’s the reason for the uncertainty? The differences in performance aren’t only about the clubs themselves. They are also tied to how you swing each kind of club and how consistently you hit the centre of the clubface, to say nothing of the differences in internal weighting (centre of gravity) and forgiveness (moment of inertia).
For some perspective, let’s take a look at the typical specs for a 5-wood and a 3-hybrid. A 5-wood has 18 or 19 degrees of loft and a 42.5-inch shaft, and a 3-hybrid has 19 or 20 degrees of loft and a shaft that’s more like the length of an iron (about two inches shorter than a 5-wood). Compared to a hybrid, a fairway wood has a larger clubface area to provide a bit more forgiveness on mis-hits, but its longer shaft makes it harder to hit for most average golfers. Conversely, the hybrid’s shorter shaft should be easier to control and result in more solid strikes, and its added loft can help moderate-speed players create a better launch and more playable ball flight.
However, that’s not what always happens when we put these clubs in players’ hands or test our theory using a swing robot. Golf Digest’s testing partner, Golf Laboratories, the leading outfit in the industry for robot testing, found that the fairway wood’s advantages weren’t always clear. In one testing session using both average and above-average swing speeds, the 3-hybrid carried further than the 5-wood and had a steeper landing angle, meaning it would be more likely to hold a green.
Still, it’s complicated. Specifically, we conducted robot testing at average swing speeds of 90 and 80 miles per hour (the equivalent of mid-90s and mid-80s for a driver). At the lower speed, when we hit shots with a level or more sweeping swing, the carry distances for both the 3-hybrid and 5-wood were essentially equal. When the swing was more downward into impact, the 5-wood’s lower loft produced five more metres of carry. At the higher swing speed, the hybrid’s lower spin gave it as much as a five-metre distance advantage. In every case, however, the 5-wood yielded better forgiveness: mis-hits lost less distance.
Results from our Hot List player testing were also mixed. For players who were carrying the 3-hybrid more than 180 metres, the distance difference between the hybrid and the 5-wood was marginal. Conversely, when we looked at average-to-moderate-speed players, the 5-wood showed a distance advantage averaging more than 10 metres. With the slowest swingers, it was sometimes as much as 23 metres longer than the 3-hybrid.
Why the differences? For the fastest swingers, high-lofted fairway woods can launch the ball too high and with too much spin compared to hybrids, thus cutting into distance. With a hybrid, the centre of gravity (CG) is closer to the face, which helps reduce the spin associated with a faster swing. (In robot testing, we saw about 20 percent less spin with the 3-hybrid versus the 5-wood.) For players with moderate speed, the higher launch and spin of a high-lofted fairway wood with its deeper CG helps shots stay in the air. Of course, fairway-wood designs that target faster swingers can help cut down the spin. That’s why a fitting is critical.
What’s the upshot here? We think that players with above-average swing speeds should go with hybrids (and even utility irons) over higher-lofted fairway woods to replace their long irons. But for the majority of average golfers, a high-lofted fairway wood provides a distinct advantage over a hybrid, especially when it comes to forgiveness on not-so-perfect hits.
In short, the right club for those reach-back-and-rip-it shots shouldn’t only be about the loft stamped on the clubhead. It’s how that club works with your swing to optimise distance. Remember, you have options with these long clubs. Think before you hit. – Mike Stachura
Hot list testing
The best fairway woods and hybrids make long-distance approach shots less intimidating. Here are a few of our Hot List testers’ faves.
Fairway woods
Peter Lee, 56
7-handicap
Callaway Elyte Ti
“The ball flight, the consistency of the shots, was above average. It was very easy to hit a repetitive shot. A very subtle sound to it, like a silent assassin.”
Alejandra Bedoya, 26
5-handicap
Srixon ZXi
“Understated. No distractions, but still elegant. Sounds powerful but feels smooth. Easy to get up in the air. Rewarding in distance, and little baby draws made it a pleasure to test.”
Hybrids
Thomas Allen, 60
7-handicap
Ping G440
“My initial impression was confirmed: it’s an absolute launcher. Super-easy to hit with a large sweet spot. Had a great ringing sound to go along with it.”
Ricky Brown, 46
+3-handicap
TaylorMade Qi35
“Consistency, consistency, consistency. I was able to hit a bunch of different shots. Chased one down the fairway, then hit one higher and higher again. Love the grey finish.”
Why the long putter never disappeared
Q: I thought anchoring was banned, but I see long putters on tour. Should I try one?
As of 2016, anchoring a putter against any part of your body is illegal, but long putters are still OK. Mike Davis, the USGA executive director at the time of the ruling, explained the difference.
“We’re not going to take away your long putter,” Davis said. “All you need to do is [hold the club away from your body], where you control the whole club with your hands. So long and belly putters are still legal, as long as you don’t anchor them.”
That ruling let tour pros such as Adam Scott, Lucas Glover, Akshay Bhatia, Will Zalatoris and Bernhard Langer to keep – or start – using these clubs by holding them away from the body.
As for whether you should try one, that’s a question of commitment. Long putters are very upright, allowing the putter to move less on an arc and more straight back and straight through. That’s a comforting feel, especially on short putts, but it takes some getting used to. Also, the split grip they require and the sheer weight of the putter take your wrists out of the stroke, leaving the shoulders to control it. Again, that can be a big benefit, but it does take some practice.
If you have the patience, Sonny Burgo, a master fitter at Pete’s Golf, a Golf Digest 100 Best Clubfitter, has some advice. “It offers a fresh start,” Burgo says. “It also involves, in a way, a learning period, so there’s no pressure and offers hope to golfers in the struggle.”
Burgo also notes the learning curve can be tough. Long putts can be hard to gauge and finding a putter demands a fitting. In addition, some players think people will be constantly watching them to make sure they aren’t anchoring.
Pro tip: wear a tighter shirt so those watchdogs will clearly see the space between your chest and putter.
Q: I buy my golf shoes at a sporting goods store, but I’m rethinking that. Any advice?
Consider this: golfers who walk take about 11,000 steps in 18 holes. There’s no doubt that a properly fit pair of shoes will help you feel and perform better.
A look at your old shoes can provide clues to what you need. The inside of a worn shoe might indicate pressure points where the shoe is not fitting right. If your insoles have deep impressions, consider an extra cushiony design.
On the outside, severe wear along the inner part of the heel suggests you should be wearing shoes with more arch support. Conversely, excessive wear on the outside of the heel indicates that a more flexible shoe would make sense.
Don’t forget about weight. If 18 holes is 11,000 steps and you reduce the weight of a shoe by even just 30 grams, that’s a saving of 330,000 grams – or 330 kilograms – of leg fatigue during a round.
Start with the fit. Using a Brannock device (found wherever shoes are sold), measure your feet while standing and wearing your golf socks. Measure for length and for width at the ball of your foot. Always measure at the end of the day, when your feet are probably swollen.
Once you find your fit and a style you like, consider buying a couple of pairs and rotating them. That’ll help your feet and maybe even your scores.
Answers by Golf Digest equipment editors Mike Stachura, E. Michael Johnson and Jonathan Wall
Photographs by: sarah fabian-baddiel/heritage images/getty images • J.D.Cuban • Bhatia: Sarah Stier/Getty Images • shoe: j.d. cuban
