I ditched my driver for a strong 3 wood

[PowderedToastMan]

Just bag both. Why does it have to be one or the other? That’s what I have done for decades.

[Chuck905]

I actually agree with you. It cracks me up because it’s one of those reoccurring threads where is goes; 3 wood over driver and thrown in Stetson's name to justify my decision making lol

[Jifmoli]

Yep, me too. Though I still have 2 of the bloody things I will not waste any more money on a driver again. Though I love bombing one down the fairway, sad statistic is that an avergae driving day is hitting 4 of the 14 fairways, and a good driving day 7. Not worth the money then when I have better results witha 3w or better still, a hybrid. I hit a decent distance which means my misses are big as well. Yes, I miss with tge 3w as well but not so dramatically, as I don't over swing it normally. Something with the big dog makes me belt the thing too often.

I played a round recently with a 3 hybrid as the longest club and did well , reaching 2 of the 4 par5s in regulation..

[grisham]

Thanks for everyone’s advice. I kept my driver which is a PXG 0811X 10.5* standard PXG length (45”). I just bought another shaft on eBay and I plan in cutting it down to 44” and adjusting the loft to 12*. My Ping Rapture is 43.5” and my Cleveland HiBore 2 wood is 44”. I’m willing to try a shorter driver but I don’t think I will gain that much distance because the length is the same or .5” shorter.

[jplroper]

I think it boils down to scoring, what gets you the lowest possible score , not the what if lowest possible score. Quite a awhile back I played only 3w, 5w , 5-pw , sw, and putter. On the courses I played that worked great and eliminated alot of wasted shots. I now have a driver but its an old Steelhead with a steel shaft at 43.5" and I keep it in play the majority of the time.

[SylvesterLundgren]

What if I told you that calmer “slow” feeling swing still put a good strike on it and with distance. ?

 

.......that little sting you gone feel...it’s pride fookin with you......Fook pride...pride only hurts it never helps. You grind through that and a couple weeks from now and golf sessions later.... you going to be like thank you, youre right.

 

(FYI)— I’ve worked through seeing the driver face and accepting that I have to allow myself to strike it just as any other club. Seeing a straight face (closed or open) with lower loft than a wood can make people feel they gotta do more to get out more but in reality If you play it with a consistent paced swing (nothing dramatic reminiscent of the same swing you’d hit with a wood) you’d find that the turn out is not negative.

it’s like that drill of hitting your drive to the 150 sign and grooving the feel of it before trying to swing harder. My most important share is that regardless you have to commit to the strike as you would with any other club.

 

just my .2 cents and a helpful jokey joke

[Millhill88]

I carry a driver, but hit my 3 Wood off the tee 90% of the time. Like the OP, I loose some yardage with the 3 wood, but I'm always in the fairway. (265 w/driver - 250 w/3 wood)

IMO, who cares if you loose 15 yards? I play with guys who hit driver on every hole. They poke it 270-280, but are always playing from the crap, or from behind tree's, etc, and wondering why they shoot 90 each round. Others I play with only drive the ball 230-240, with their driver. But they are in the fairway. They shoot low 80's.

Use your strong 3 wood. If you are able to hit your irons the way you should, then hit 1 extra club on your second shot....

[phonguy10]

I'm 66 years young. I have struggled over the years with consistency with the driver. I played for the first time since last October. Haven't even hit a ball until i stepped to the 1st tee. Used my old Cobra hypersteel 13* 3 wood off the tee. Had one of the best enjoyable rounds of golf in quite awhile. Because I was playing my 2nd shots from the fairway not looking for my ball in the woods. There's nothing like hitting driver 250-280 in the fairway, but inconsistantly enough where golf wasn't fun anymore. I'm losing about 15-20 yards not using a driver but playing from the fairway is much more fun for me. I even surprised myself with a couple of drives with my 3 wood were around 260. Not seeing myself putting the driver back in my bag, for now.

[Myherobobhope]

150 vs 135 yards is a big scoring difference for me... and 15 yards is the minimum distance for me driver vs three wood.

if I want to score a low score, I have to hit driver and hit it well. Giving up distance for fairways is a short term solution.

if your goal is to lower you handicap and play your best golf, driver is a necessity. If your goal is to shoot your best score with the game you have, three wood in play makes sense.

[mattHFX]

Are you me? I struggle with releasing my driver as well. Ironically, despite the theme in this thread I went back to 45 inch driver shaft when I got fitted for a Mavrik subzero this winter - I found cutting down my driver shaft a few years ago brought two way misses in to play for me whereas the longer shaft I really struggle (at 5'8) to turn over left, which has given me more confidence so far to swing through the ball with my driver and know its gonna go straightish, or move right. I'm okay with that. But that was a small digression... I hit my 3 wood really well off the tee. I feel like I consistently hit it 90% or better in terms of distance consistency (like 220-250). Whereas historically with driver, I feel my carry range is between 220 - 270 (I can get my driver clubhead speed in a sim up to 110, but on course I think it plays more in the 105-107 range) because I feel like I really struggle to consistently release the big fat driver heads. So back to the first part of the comment, I'm holding out hope that being freed of the fear of missing left will let me swing more freely with driver now and hopefully get its carry distance more consistent. Also the subzero is 450 CC and does look slimmer compared to the standard mavrik and the max, which might also be helping me to release it better.

 

[0351Duffer]

I carry my driver, but I recently switched to a 4 wood and ditched my 3 wood. I hit the 4W 90% of the time. The driver rarely comes out of the bag anymore unless it's a wide fairway on a par 5.

[dmeeksDC]

Tempo. I routinely try to hit my driver too hard. I usually am more consistent with fairway woods off the tee because I swing them like I typically do off turf — smooth, relaxed tempo, solid strike.

When I do the same with my driver, I don’t feel rushed to impact, I get a correct swing/weight shift sequence and hit it great. I try to look at it as if it’s a 7 iron and I’m hitting a shot to a spot, not thinking of trying to hit it as far as I can. When I do that, I hit it as far as I can.

[kstrong84]

Another great option is the newly released TaylorMade Mini driver...that thing is a beast!

[Ri_Redneck]

On 5/20/2020 at 3:15 PM, grisham said:

I’ve stopped using my driver and strictly use a strong 3 wood/2 wood off the tee.  Over the years I’ve gone through countless drivers. I’ve been fitted and taken lessons. But, I’ve never been consistent with my driver.  Recently I’ve been using a strong 3 wood/2 wood off the tee and it’s so accurate and consistent. It’s easy to hit and my fairway percentages have increased dramatically. On average I lost 10-15 yards but that’s if I hit my driver perfect.  I currently have a Ping Rapture 13.5* Ping G400 Stretch 13* and a Cleveland HiBore 2 wood that I rotate through.  Anyone else ditch their driver?

If you can hit a strong 3w off a tee, there's no reason you can't hit a driver off the tee. It just need your driver to feel like the 3w and you need to swing it like the 3w. Once you do that, all your driver troubles will go away.

 

BT

[Billfitz]

My driver pretty much sat in the bag for the first 20 years that I played golf. I almost always used 3 wood off the tee. That changed with my first modern oversize driver, sometime in the mid 1990s. Drivers today are just as accurate as fairway woods, if you can't hit driver it's either the wrong driver or it's you. Or both. Guys I play with who can't hit their drivers tend to have the same problems. One is that they use drivers with too little loft and too stiff a shaft. The other is that their swing mechanics suck. The worst results come from the combination of both, because a bad swing needs all the help it can get, and you don't get it from 9 degree lofts and XS shafts.

[brutus27]

On 5/23/2020 at 6:23 AM, jol said:

IMO, confidence is a huge component of the game. If you feel more comfortable hitting your 3 wood and can still reach the green in regulation. Go for it! It worked for Henrik Stenson.

If he’s posting here on WRX, OP is no Henrik. As many have already said, OP needs to work on his swing, mental game, or find a good fitter. Probably all three. You can do it!