5 Wood

[drumdude96]

PING G25 is still a great 5 wood. No need to upgrade for me.

[Kevmonton]

TXG did a video about the 410 fairway woods and no disrespect to the members who hit their 400 well but they said the comparison is night and day compared to the 400. I think you will love it.

[jgaudy15]

I bought a Callaway optifirce 5 wood off eBay for $35 a while back. straightest fairway I've ever had and easy to hit off the deck or teed up. Best $35 I've spent on a club

[Dayjobdave]

Thanks, I hope (and suspect) you are right. It arrived yesterday so at least I got to unwrap it. The head seems quite big compared to the g30 in terms of footprint, and it's definitely wider, but still a reasonably shallow face. That's what I like in a fairway club, so hopefully I can hit the darned thing. First impression of the matte black is that it looks way richer and more 'classy' than it looked to me in photos, so I'm good with the look. It seems to sit more closed at neutral than the G30 does, but I'm going to open it up and de-loft anyway, so this shouldn't matter in practice.

[Millhill88]

I put the Cobra F9 5 wood in the bag because of the ability to adjust the lie angle upright to where I needed it. I ordered it with a HZRDUS Black Smoke 70 to match my 3 wood. Also jacked it up to 20*. For my swing, (105-107 driver S.P.), it flies 215 yards. At the stock 18.5* it could be that 230 club. Very straight, but movable when I need to.

[DLBTide7]

Save the price debate for a different thread.

[PalmettoDawg5]

I have a ping g30 3 wood 14.5, struggle to get the ball up with it. Should I consider a 5 wood with 18 degrees of loft or will 16.5 be enough?

[Dubbog]

I have a Callaway Epic Flash 5w that I really like. Easy to hit and long.

[myspinonit]

That depends on your swingspeed, angle of attack and just plain confidence looking at the loft at address etc. I haven't hit the G30 but read that it was harder to elevate than the later models. I played the G25 (16.5° 4 wood) , G (17.5° 5 wood) , G400 (SFT 16° 3 wood), and current G410 17.5° 5 wood. I think the 17.5 head and 42.5" shaft in the Ping G series and forward is a great way to go. You can try it a 16.5°, but the "loft change" only works if you return it to square, otherwise it's just a face angle/directional change. I really liked (needed) to have my G series 5w (and 7w) opened a to the large minus for direction; I was pushing some with the G410 5W at the open setting.

I just added a 3 wood shaft as an experiment to my G410 17.5° head. So it's really like a 4w at the square loft setting. Senior. Slow swinger. Just one range session and one round in but early indications are that it is great. High and straight, easy to hit, a bit longer than at stock length. A surprise to me was that I didn't notice any swingweight issues with the longer shaft, though it was a tad softer in the tip, which was ok. I purchased a 4g weight to use instead of the 7g the 5w came with to help any SW issues. But the few shots I tried with the lighter weight on the range felt tinny and were short and low.

[NoTalentLefty]

Not anymore. The Epic Flash 3 hybrid has the same loft with a shorter shaft and gets the same distance for me. Actually allowed me to add a wedge.

[kthomas]

I would consider looking at CPO for an Epic Flash 5 wood. I have the 3 wood and I'm incredibly impressed. Flies long and straight, and works well off the tee, off the deck, from the second cut. I bought it to replace my much less forgiving R11s, and it's turned out to be a high performing and forgiving replacement. I've been considering a 5w lately, and I think the epic flash is the route I would personally go.

Just bought my wife a G400 5 wood to replace her 3H, and that's a really nice club. Also really easy to hit, tee or off the deck. Ping always comes out with high quality forgiving clubs, so it's hard to overlook that brand. Haven't tried the 410, I'm sure it's amazing.

Cobra makes high quality clubs and you can find previous models for an excellent price. I don't have their fw's, but do have their hybrids and the rail system works really well. People seem to speak pretty highly of their fw's.

The quality of fairway woods that have been produced in the last 5 years is pretty amazing.

[third-times-a-charm]

I agree with the Epic Flash. Awesome club.

[James the Hogan Fan]

I too found 14.5 to be a bit strong for me to elevate. Is launch your only concern or other aspects of contact? I found an 18° 5w, put it in the bag and really honed a fairway wood swing with it. Then I bought the 3w from the same line at 15° and viola, suddenly I could crush that from tee or deck.

As such, I recommend starting with the 18° and working up to lower lofts, although 16.5 might do the trick if you are sweeping and getting solid contact from the 14.5 and are just unhappy with the flight.

[KiwiNick]

I'm really enjoying my Callaway XR16 pro 5 wood at 18*. The head shape is very similar to the Epic Flash SZ I have in 3w which make sense when you see the ball flight. The Speeder tour stiff shaft is awesome as well, sort of a soft x flex or stiff +. It controls spin really well. The headsize is tiny, 138cc I think, which lets it glide through the rough like a hybrid because it's damn near the size of a 'super hybrid'. Very niche club but can be had for a lot less than many new models.

[teedub21]

My exact set up. Works well for me.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

I have

TS2 18 degree

SIM Max 18 degree

PING G410 17.5 degree.

SIM is the longest, just a plain rocket.

PING flies the highest

TS is slightly lower flight than the G410

 

[PalmettoDawg5]

Contact is probably the biggest issue, really. But when I do it strike it well, its a low weak ball. Just over all not confident with that club. Can hit it on the range but really struggle with any lie on the fairway or rough. Hit a buddy's epic that was a 5 wood loft and it was night and day. Again, that was at the range so practice and maybe a more user friendly loft would be good for me.

[James the Hogan Fan]

Then yeah I'd go 5w because it worked so well for me. If you can get the 5 wood rocking and develop confidence, the 3w becomes just a bigger, longer 5w with the same swing basics. It was crazy for me after 2-3 months of 3 wood being a tee-only club and working 5 wood going down to the range one day and could suddenly hit the 3w. (And I swear, before this the 3 wood had a 10% success rate at best off the deck, now it's like 10% failure) Another tip I read on here is going back in time to the 2008-2010 model years are higher spinning and can help with launch and forgiveness.

[PalmettoDawg5]

That leads to the next question, what models should I be looking at? Rocketballz? Know someone on here knows.

[myspinonit]

Rocketballz has a higher swingweight, more upright and not as low profile as Pings. If you are already hitting the club low on the face it might not be a good option.

No one on here knows your swing. There already are a lot of model suggestions in this same thread for clubs. The real answer is to get fit and/or lessons. You have hit the Epic and liked it at least on the range. Maybe ask your buddy if you can hit a few during course time. If you like it, you could look at Callaway Prepwned for any deal price. Global Golf also has a playability try option.