Equipment
Rarely used or secret weapon?
Here’s a question for you, how do you feel towards each club in your bag? You’ll certainly be reaching for you putter on every green, but how often do you have a fairway wood in your hands?
You may well prefer to play with longer irons when you’re approaching the green or if you’re seeking better accuracy on a particularly tricky tee shot, but the fairway woods in your bag may well be an underutilized secret weapon.
Most golfers have a 3-wood and a 5-wood in the bag, but have you ever played with a 7-wood? These clubs are very popular with players on tour and are renowned for being easy to hit while offering plenty of launch, and they help the ball stop quickly on the greens too.
Today we want to illustrate how versatile these underused lofted woods are, and offer you an excellent recommendation in the form of the latest clubs from TaylorMade.
Your secret weapon
First of all, the clue’s in the name. Fairway woods are excellent tools at helping you find the fairway off the tee. If you have a tricky tee shot with a narrow fairway ahead, it’s a decent trade off to put your driver away and pull out a fairway wood, sacrificing a little distance for much greater accuracy.
Fairway woods also give you an excellent sense of course management. If you have a par-5 or long par-4 ahead, you can use a fairway wood to power your second shot over bunkers and bodies of water to keep you from getting caught in a hazard. The larger heads also offer lots of relief and forgiveness which makes them in many cases a better club than an iron, particularly when striking from the rough.
If you don’t have the most confidence in your short game or find chipping around the greens a bit of a challenge, a fairway wood can be an effective means of punching your ball onto a green. You’ll be nicely on the short grass without worrying about thinning the ball or chomping your clubhead into the ground.
Another thing to consider is that as we age, we don’t hit the ball as far as we used to. Fairway woods are an excellent alternative to irons that promise a reliable impact with the ball thanks to the larger clubhead, and it’s easier to gain distance with them on average too.
So, in a word, yes, these lofted fairway woods are very versatile and don’t need to be restricted to being played from the fairways. We’ll now take a look at what makes TaylorMade’s line of Qi35 fairway woods such a beneficial club to take to the course with you.
The TaylorMade Qi35 fairway woods
The TaylorMade Qi35 fairway woods look stunning and are packed with tech to help you succeed as you make your way around the golf course. There are four models in the range, all of them featuring a multi-material blend of aluminium, carbon, and tungsten to create a phenomenal sense of feel when you strike the ball.
The standard Qi35 model is the fairway wood most golfers will get on well with. This club has an internal weighting system that allows for precise swing weight adjustment, helping you find your ideal club setup when experiencing a custom-fitting. As with each fairway wood in the range, the Qi35 clubhead design is a tour-inspired compact shape that looks excellent from every angle.
An excellent club to add to the bag if you’re seeking more forgiveness off the fairway, the Qi35 Max model will help you find more distance with easier launch. This club’s center of gravity has been modified to improve energy transfer between the club and ball to help you hit your shot further, and the 4˚-degree loft sleeve allows you to find your ideal setup in seconds.
Should you have a naturally slower swing speed, you’ll get on well with the Qi35 Max Lite fairway wood. This model has all the same tech as is found in the Max model but has a super-lightweight construction that includes the grip, shaft, and clubhead. The result is a club that packs a punch while being easier to swing through the air, helping you build up swing speed to produce greater distance on your strikes.
If you’re a skilled player, you’ll certainly benefit from playing with the Qi35 Tour fairway wood. This club has a 40g weight on the back of the clubhead that you can slide from front to back, varying the CG placement to allow you to customize your launch. This club is effortlessly workable and will have you pulling off exactly the shots you’re looking for on any given situation.
Fairway woods really shouldn’t be overlooked for their usefulness at different stages of the hole! If you’re in need of some new clubs and you’re unsure which would best suit you, we’re available in the pro shop to offer you our expertise.
