O/T: Anyone else having trouble getting 3 wood airborne?

[cary lichtenstein]

I like every club in my bag except my 3 wood. Up north, I could always hit my 3 wood great, but in Florida with the hard fairways and tight lies, I have lost confidence. Off a tee, no problem.

Am I alone with this problem?

[Bill_McBride]

Is there room for a 4-wood in that bag?    I've always found you can hit down on the 17* loft 4-wood a lot more easily than the 13-15* 3-wood.  With the harder and tighter fairways, you probably wouldn't lose any distance.

[Steve Lang]

 

1) get more flexible shaft or one with lower kickpoint
2) try an old Orlimar or Tight lies head...

I have an old Orlimar low profile 13 degree in the garage..  I use an Orlimar 12 degree as a spoon...

[Bryan Izatt]

I always thought the ball sat up better on Florida bermuda than on our great white north bent fairways.  And, I always thought that FL fairways were soft.  I somtimes get the same problems off tight lies.  There's not much margin for error in hitting a 14* 3 wood too thin.

You could try a Wishon 515.  It has what's called zero roll technology.  Normally roll on a club face makes the loft less than stated at the bottom of the face and greater near the top of the face.  The 515 has no roll, so it launches at the same angle whether you hit it a little thin or a little fat.  Works for me.  As Steve suggests, a lower kickpoint shaft should help too.

If you come by Toronto this summer, let me know, and you can try mine out off of some really tight lies.

[A.G._Crockett]

Try the UST V2 high launch shaft.  Very affordable, very good, and designed just for that situation.  A cautionary note, though.  Hitting a 14* club off the ground is NEVER going to be easy; the 4 wood idea is a good one.

[Joe Hancock]

Try to use more of a sidearm motion, launching the club in a horizontal plane......

Joe

[noonan]

Tight Lies....Golf Galaxy has them for $49.95

[kurt bowman]

Cary,

Yes!!! I have problems hitting my 3-wood. As a matter of fact I have not hit my 3-wood well since high school. I am a right to left biased golfer. The problem as I see it is that most manufacturers design 3-woods with a big draw bias for average golfers that slice, and that makes it impossible for me to hit well except on a tee, and I still hook it to much. I went through a hotstix fitting a few months ago, and if I order the 3-wood they spec me I could probably could hit it in the air. BUT that would cost about $600 so I probably will continue to hit grounders with my equpment.LOL

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Cary,
I have tried more 3 woods athan I care to admit for the same reason...I have always struggled to get the ball as airborne as I think it should be...certainly the new ust v2 shaft is wonderful for getting a better ball flight and I would agree that is certainly worth trying.
I assume you have already checked that the loft is at least 15*..if not check that out as well....in this day and age of shaft matching technology...there IS something out there to solve your dilemma...now its just a case of finding it.

[Geoffrey Childs]

Cary

The shaft advise was sound and could really help with trajectory.

However, the head itself is the major factor in launch angle and spin. The shallow face 3-woods are really easy to get in the air BUT they tend to do poorly off the tee. If you use your 3-wood off the tee a good deal it is not a great solution. There are very distinct differences in the CG (center of gravity) of heads and you might look into ones with a lower CG without having too shallow a face.  Combine that with a soft tip high launch shaft and you should have better results. If you hit your other clubs well there is no reason you can't hit the 3 wood off the deck.

[Jim Franklin]

Sonartec. I tried many many many 3 woods over the years and finally found one I liked. My Sonartec is the oldest club in my bag by 5 or 6 years. I picked it up before Duval won the Open with one. I even had a backup made with the same specs as my original.

[wsmorrison]

Contact George Izett and buy either their shallow faced fairway woods or their deep faced fairway woods.  They are magnificent clubs.  I use the deep faced fairway woods and have no problems getting them in the air off the fairway and they are terrific off the tee.  Now I can be a Jekyll and Hyde kind of golfer, I don't know who is going to show up on a given day, but it isn't because of the clubs.  Izett irons and woods are very impressive.  Hey, if Bill Dow can hit them as well as he does, so can you.  Yes, they are a local firm, but they've been around for 80 or 90 years and do everything right.  Talk to George or Mike Morrison (no relation) and better yet, visit the shop.  Then you have an excuse to play Philadelphia area golf.  

[Dan_Callahan]

If you can get your hands on one, try the Taylor Made 200 series 3-wood. Don't know why they stopped making this club. Over the last 5 years I have replaced every club in my bag except my Cleveland sandwedge (okay, I replaced it because the grooves disappeared but came back with the exact same model and specs) and my Taylor Made 3-wood. It's actually the only Taylor Made product in my bag, but it won't come out until it breaks. Great off the tee, great off the deck, easy to line up, and damn long as well.

[Geoffrey Childs]

If you can get your hands on one, try the Taylor Made 200 series 3-wood. Don't know why they stopped making this club. Over the last 5 years I have replaced every club in my bag except my Cleveland sandwedge (okay, I replaced it because the grooves disappeared but came back with the exact same model and specs) and my Taylor Made 3-wood. It's actually the only Taylor Made product in my bag, but it won't come out until it breaks. Great off the tee, great off the deck, easy to line up, and damn long as well.

Dan

For MANY years the TM 200 was in my bag and nothing could knock it out - UNTIL I tried the Tour Edge Exotics.  It is sick just how good theis club is and they are available cheap now on ebay because the new model came out earlier this year.  

Jim- Tuco plays the Sonartec 2.5 3 and 5 woods.  They come with the Fuji Tour Platform shaft which is just what Cary needs - softer tip and high launch.  The Sonartec 3.5's have a deeper face and not what he would be inclined to need.

[Adam Clayman]

Cary, Don't take my word for it, take Sam Snead's.
Watching an old episode of "Celebrity Golf" from Behr's "Lakeside" a few weeks ago we were treated to a 3 wood lesson from Mr. Snead. Hs advice to get the ball airborne was play the ball slightly forwrd in your stance and hit down on it.

Don't you just love counter intuitive advice, especially in golf?

[SL_Solow]

Another possibility is to try a very stong hybrid (14 or 15 degrees).  Many find these easier to hit and obtain similar distance.

[Mike Benham]

Try to use more of a sidearm motion, launching the club in a horizontal plane......

Simper is smiling at this comment ...

[Garland Bayley]

I guess I don't understand the advice to get a new shaft that will bend more so it adds more loft to your club. Why don't you get a new clubhead with slightly more loft and use the same shaft?

Dr. Logic
 

[Bob_Huntley]

Cary,

This from Ben Doyle.

Stop trying to add power with the arms and hands, let the pivot take care of it and HIT DOWN ON THE BALL.

Bob

[Kevin_Reilly]

Here is the fairway wood "Hot List" from Golf Digest.  I recently (yesterday) bought a Bobby Jones driver after trying it at a demo day on Saturday (most of the OEMs were there, and the Bobby Jones was my favorite driver by far)...I'm thinking about trying the 3 wood as well.  Only hesitation is its shallow face...hitting it off a tee...but I guess that could be solved by teeing it lower (duh).

I hit my Tour Edge Exotics 15* lower than I'd like off the deck.  I suspect that its loft is lower than advertised (possibly how they get their yardage claims for the club).  

Anyway, some good choices in the below list.

[Ken Moum]

I like every club in my bag except my 3 wood. Up north, I could always hit my 3 wood great, but in Florida with the hard fairways and tight lies, I have lost confidence. Off a tee, no problem.

Am I alone with this problem?

You're about 4 years older than me....

Up until we were in our 40s, a three wood had a shallow face and about 17 degrees of loft.

Now they are bigger, and they have 13-15 degrees of loft. Worse, metal woods vary in loft by more than a degree +/-.

You haven't changed, they have.....

Try a 17* fairway wood, and make sure you get it measured for loft by someone who knows what they're doing--and who isn't trying to sell you a golf club.

Me, I've been using a wooden 5 wood that measures 17* a lot lately.

K

[Adam Clayman]

Cary, Don't listen to these shills for the equiptment companies.

Bad Indian who blame arrow.

[Chris Cupit]

Just play for the "top"

My 3-wood is pretty much decorative only.

[Jerry Kluger]

Cary: You talk about tight lies - Sand Hills made a 7 wood a challenge to get airborne. It does seem that most 3 woods set up closed for the higher handicap player to use an alternative to a driver.  I've always had trouble getting it up in the air and it is easy to understand why - it has the least loft of any club you're hitting off the deck and you're hitting it strictly for the purpose of seeing how far you can get it down the fairway.  What that means is that it is the least forgiving club being hit with all the wrong intentions.  I can sometimes hit it okay if I relax and concentrate on staying over the ball and finishing the swing - a slight sway or any coming out of the shot means disaster.

[Garland Bayley]

I found the following by Tom Wishon on his website forum. It sounds to me like he is suggesting replacing the head, not the shaft!

If it was me and I felt that the 3w length was not part of the reason I can't get the ball airborne as well with the 3w loft, I would take the 5w and put it 1/2" longer than what your normal 5w length would be. With most light graphites and normal grip weights, you would not have a swingweight problem at +1/2".

TOM

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