Replace driver or fairway woods first?

[Guest]

Hey all, I’ve been in the process of replacing an old bag of clubs for the last year and am now to the point of my woods. I’m happy with my bag putter thru 5 iron and have 4 spots left in the bag!

Im wondering what everyone’s opinion is as to whether I should get fit for a driver first or fairway woods first. I’m going to be doing them at separate fittings for sure as I only have the money to do one or the other right now. My thought is that maybe it’s best to replace driver first and hopefully get that to a more consistent point, then can concentrate on gapping/specific distances with my fairways? But then I wonder if I should just replace the fairways first and get a few more options in the bag for long approach shots now, and just worry about gapping from my 5 iron up? Any feedback would be appreciated!

[tannyhoban]

Driver. Point A sets everything else up.

[Guest]

That makes sense to me. Thanks for your response.

 

[Oqvist]

Driver is supposed to go longer then anything anyway so can as well go last. All depend what you need most first :).

If you like the idea of max distance from tee that is likely the driver. Though I hit my 3wood nearly as long and is usable from the fairway and may get you into the habit of hitting the center.

Swing is still a bit different though compared to driver.

 

[Oqvist]

[TourSpoon]

Get the driver nailed down so you will only need to hit the fairway as a second on par 5s or off the tee for shortish par 4s. Getting a driver that works for you is priority.

[Myherobobhope]

driver, assuming you have the clubhead speed to hit it... even then, driver... it just might be replaced with a 3 wood.

find the club you are going to tee off with and spend the time getting it right.

[Guest]

I have decent club head speed. I hit a 10 year old off the rack Adams driver With a regular (46 inch! I choke up) shaft about 265avg.

I know when I got fitted for irons I picked up about 15-20 yds on all of them so hoping to get something similar from newer and properly fit woods!

[Myherobobhope]

Driver seems like a good place to start, then... i think getting fit is probably the best approach if you don’t mind the initial upfront cost... I tend to buy used, but I know what I’m looking for.

ill probably get fit the next time around, though... unless I find a cheap st200g next season with a shaft I like.

[Roejye]

I say driver, find the club that goes the longest, then you can work on gapping the fairway woods.

[Oqvist]

If you dont hit straight more distance just produce more oob as you get less angles to work with and need more precision.

But stiffer shafts may help a bit with precision. Not sure about new drivers though that go longer on misshits.

[Guest]

I seem to be one of those borderline stiff/ regular shaft guys. That’s why I want to make sure I get a good fitting and can try some different shaft options!

[Floris]

I started with the woods. But my reasoning is probably different than yours: I couldn’t hit the 3wood off the deck as well as I wanted :)

The next issue was that I then hit the woods much further than the clubs they replaced; the gap to the driver got too small. So then I got fit for a new driver.

This all happened beginning of July, still waiting on the drivershaft unfortunately ? (I’m loving the old Oban so much I might not want to swap it out for another HZRDUS Green anyway, would save me a bunch of cash too! ?)

[ChipNRun]

Go with a driver. That sets up everything else in the game. A fitting will tell you what you need off the tee (loft to match clubhead speed, etc.)

And, selecting driver will nail down distance gap to 5i.

If your current fairway woods are trouble, get a 5W out of the used club bin that will work until you have more $$ in play.