Shaft Choices For Those who Top or Thin Fairway Woods

My common miss from the fairway with a wood is a topped or thinned shot, enough so that I'll tend to hit a iron or hybrid short to avoid possibly making a par 5 in two. My bad shots tend to be topped or thinned. If I have a good round going I'll usually avoid the hitting my 3 wood off the deck. 3 wood off the tee isn't a problem. I did some research and found that a way to combat this is with a shaft that neutralizes some of my positive attack angle. I understand working on delivering a more negative angle of attack will eliminate this but, if there is some shaft choices help move my strikes higher on the clubface I'd appreciate the info?

I don't think a shaft will mask your swing flaw. I have the same issue you describe, and need to continue to work on staying down on the ball as if it were an iron and not coming up on it like a driver.

How exactly will the shaft fix your angle of attack? You need to hit down on fairway woods, like like an iron/hybrid.

@Krt22 @ckay Saw this video and it was discussed and seem to give a good result to the person getting fit. Thought there was some worth to it....maybe not?

TXG does a great job, but they'll be the first to tell you that it is 100% dependent on the player. You might find that you get better contact with a different shaft based on any number of different variables (weight, balance point, tip stiffness, overall stiffness, etc.) but there's no one specific shaft anyone can recommend that will cure your tops. If you want to know if there's a shaft out there that will help you then go get a proper fitting and see what is out there. Everyone reacts to different shafts differently. No one is going to be able to just give you a recommendation and have it work, you're going to need a proper fitting to try different profiles and see what, if anything, works better for you than your current setup.

Eh, I would take that video with a grain of salt. I can hit the club after warming up with no issues. It's when I step up to the ball counting on the shot. There's no redo mid-round, while there is one in a fitting booth or on the range. I think you are much better off focusing a practice session on how you are delivering the club and creating a repeatable swing than trying to find a shaft to band-aid it.

It's like having an insanely good ball-striking session on the range the night before a round, and it takes you 3 holes to get back to what resembles a golf swing.

Thanks guys, fortunately I'm still long enough that I only have opportunities for a good 3w off the deck would benefit me maybe once a round...as father time catches up I'm sure that fairway wood will be more important down the road. I agree whole heartedly sound fundamentals are best but, we all mask our flaws to some degree with perimeter weighting, loft, draw bias or that shaft that keeps that minimizes hook ect. Thought this may be a way to help out with something not great at.

Sounds bass ackward but shorten the shaft. It’s much easier to get the right angle of attack with a shorter shaft.

> @mogc60 said:

> Sounds bass ackward but shorten the shaft. It’s much easier to get the right angle of attack with a shorter shaft.

Agree with this 100%. I play my woods 3/4" short and make much better contact that way.

Different shaft profiles can definitely move strike point for some players, but not enough to make the difference between a thin/top and a normal strike. If you want to experiment though, the stiffest tip shaft you can find will raise strike point IF everything else is the same, which it rarely is. Forward/lead deflection is what can influence this with more causing the head to deflect a greater amount forward and lower strike, and vice versa. But don't count on it fixing a topped shot.

In no way am I boasting but I’m a pretty good player, former club pro and was quite competitive for many years. I couldn’t hit a 43 or 43 1/2 inch 3 wood to save my life. One day I took my 3 wood cut it down to 41 1/2 inches and loaded a little lead tape on it and murdered it. 260 off the deck no problem. No loss in distance and my contact was never an issue since. I could never get the angle right with the longer shaft but at a shorter length it’s a non issue. I’ve been using that length for 15 years now.

Cobra bio cell+ / matrix m4 black tie 80 13.5* at 41 1/2” has been my setup for the past 5 years or so. Its my auto club.

No shaft will fix that angle. Bottom line if you hit your 5 iron well and can’t hit a 3 wood off the ground you are not making the necessary adjustments to allow for the additional 5 inches in shaft length?? I may be crazy but I don’t know how possible that really is to make and keep a similar angle of attack. Tee it up a half inch and you aren’t trying to use the same angle of attack and you hit it fine with less compensation. There seems to be a large number on this site that have great improvements with shorter shaft lengths in woods and drivers. I don’t think it’s by accident.

Thanks...a shorter shaft make sense. I hit hybrid, 4-5 irons solid. I have struggled with 3w off the deck for years. To be fair I don’t practice it very often unless I know I’m going to play a very long course. I can get into a rhythm on the range and hit it well, it just a very infrequent shot for me. When we need it I pull it off I hit it well maybe 40% so I usually opt to hit my hybrid up short and try to get up and down for my birdie.

> @Valtiel said:

> Different shaft profiles can definitely move strike point for some players, but not enough to make the difference between a thin/top and a normal strike. If you want to experiment though, the stiffest tip shaft you can find will raise strike point IF everything else is the same, which it rarely is. Forward/lead deflection is what can influence this with more causing the head to deflect a greater amount forward and lower strike, and vice versa. But don't count on it fixing a topped shot.

Thanks, not expecting miracles...maybe turning that topped shot into a thinned, and a thinned into a lower strike is realistic? Maybe not? More inclined after everyone’s input to try a shorter shaft.

> @mogc60 said:

> In no way am I boasting but I’m a pretty good player, former club pro and was quite competitive for many years. I couldn’t hit a 43 or 43 1/2 inch 3 wood to save my life. One day I took my 3 wood cut it down to 41 1/2 inches and loaded a little lead tape on it and murdered it. 260 off the deck no problem. No loss in distance and my contact was never an issue since. I could never get the angle right with the longer shaft but at a shorter length it’s a non issue. I’ve been using that length for 15 years now.

> Cobra bio cell+ / matrix m4 black tie 80 13.5* at 41 1/2” has been my setup for the past 5 years or so. Its my auto club.

> No shaft will fix that angle. Bottom line if you hit your 5 iron well and can’t hit a 3 wood off the ground you are not making the necessary adjustments to allow for the additional 5 inches in shaft length?? I may be crazy but I don’t know how possible that really is to make and keep a similar angle of attack. Tee it up a half inch and you aren’t trying to use the same angle of attack and you hit it fine with less compensation. There seems to be a large number on this site that have great improvements with shorter shaft lengths in woods and drivers. I don’t think it’s by accident.

I agree, I have a hard time with "modern" length 3 woods as someone with a fairly steep AoA with everything but the driver. I felt the same inability to get the angles right and always felt like I was stuck between hitting it like my driver and hitting like an iron, ending up with the worst of both worlds. The solution was either to double down on length and play it long to take the driver approach (positive AoA, in to out path) or shorten it up and take the long iron approach (negative AoA, neutral path). That is why I prefer heavier shafts as well since I prefer the latter. I'm currently setting up several shafts for different 3 wood applications (longer, shorter, different bend profiles) to figure out exactly what works the best for me.

heavier and softer flex. I get thin on woods if the shaft is too light

Lessons over shaft change to stop topping it.

You need a low CG, low profile head. Ping G series from G - G400 - G410 should all fit the bill. Deep face fairways are going to be your nemesis, you need to look at ones that easily elevate the ball and these are it. Ymmv

Hi,

Try a more lofted 3 wood, 16.5°, 16° ?

For the most of us, the longer the fairway wood, the lighter the overall static weight, the more difficult to keep it down and through for a clean contact.

Fairway 3 wood , in my opinion is one of the most difficult club in the bag to use, if not THE most difficult club to use it well.

he key for a clean contact is not to over swing the fairway wood. When dealing with the length of the club and how the golf ball sits on the turf, maintaining balace to get a solid contact is more important than trying to stretch your limit by swinging out of your shoes.

I also firmly believe in taking a shallow divot with the fairway wood. Not like irons digging upthe turf but kind of like shaving off the grass from the soil ( which requires observation of the the lie just like a delicate green side chip ).

For those of us whom could not practice enough or other reasons... go shorter in overall length and heavier weight ( watch to balance the swing weight while increasing the overall static weight ), will definitely makes it easier to achive better contact off the turf. The catch is, when shorten the length with increased weight, that could in itself cut your distance if you don't have the swing speed to compensate for the change.