Hitting 3 wood great, driver not so much.

[Scrubby]

Anyone have this problem? 3 wood is a consistent 250 carry, upper 260ish rollout. With the driver, 80% of the time I'm hitting a spinny fade that rolls out only to the 250's. With the 3 wood, I use a closed/narrow stance with a significant amount of forward press to start the swing. A smooth swing produces penetrating draws most of the time. With the driver set up, I have a wide stance, ball inside the front foot with the right shoulder a good bit lower than the left shoulder, supposedly the proper technique with driver. 

 

I've tried all types of stiff shafts (Proforce V2, AD-UB 6s, tensei 1k black 6s) but I get 5000+ spin way too many times.

 

Could trying too hard to "hit up" with the driver be the issue? Just learned that too much "reverse" shaft lean can lead to a high, spinny launch that's never good. Maybe using the technique I use for the 3 wood would help? Any thoughts?

[phizzy30]

I do.  Whenever my driver is misbehaving, I put my driver in time out because I know 3 metal will get the job done.  For me it's about face control with driver and some days I have it, other days I don't.  I can reliably get 270 carry with 3 metal which is plenty long for most par 4's and even some par 5's.  Hitting up too much with driver can cause crazy inconsistency in terms of ball striking.  I used to be +5 AoA but have brought it down to 1-3* and am much more consistent.  My AoA with 3 metal is -2 to 0* depending on whether I'm trying to hit it clean or take a small divot. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by phizzy30

[GoGoErky]

58 minutes ago, Scrubby said:

Could trying too hard to "hit up" with the driver be the issue? Just learned that too much "reverse" shaft lean can lead to a high, spinny launch that's never good. Maybe using the technique I use for the 3 wood would help? Any thoughts?

Yes it can and if that is your swing thought it’s probably the culprit 

 

Not sure the 3w technique would help but having a swing that is more neutral

will

[KMeloney]

36 minutes ago, phizzy30 said:

I do.  Whenever my driver is misbehaving, I put my driver in time out because I know 3 metal will get the job done.  For me it's about face control with driver and some days I have it, other days I don't.  I can reliably get 270 carry with 3 metal which is plenty long for most par 4's and even some par 5's. 

 

If someone is holding a gun to your head and making you type "3 metal" instead of "3 wood," just type the safe word, and we'll get someone to your location immediately.

[Shankapotimous]

250-270 carry with a fairway wood? Holy molly! That's longer than Tour average distances?

 

Rory? Is that you?

[phizzy30]

Just now, KMeloney said:

 

If someone is holding a gun to your head and making you type "3 metal" instead of "3 wood," just type the safe word, and we'll get someone to your location immediately.

Hater in the house, lol.  Nah, I've been saying 3 metal for a long time since Johnny Miller started to.  It's stuck with me. 

[phizzy30]

Just now, Shankapotimous said:

250-270 carry with a fairway wood? Holy molly! That's longer than Tour average distances?

 

Rory? Is that you?

Rory is probably 280+ carry with his 3 metal.  Think about it.  He makes 185 ball speed with driver and 175 with 3 metal.  His average is 326 yards with driver.  Even if you subtract 30 yards for 3 metal which is generous, it's almost 290. 

[Cwebb]

Use the same setup, ball position, and swing for driver that you do with the fairway wood.  Just experiment with a tee height and that will work with the taller face

[bladehunter]

34 minutes ago, phizzy30 said:

Rory is probably 280+ carry with his 3 metal.  Think about it.  He makes 185 ball speed with driver and 175 with 3 metal.  His average is 326 yards with driver.  Even if you subtract 30 yards for 3 metal which is generous, it's almost 290. 

Yep. People don’t realize that rory Rahm Sheffler are poking a 3 wood 3 bills. They still believe that 270 with driver is playable on tour.  It’s not unless  it zero roll wet day on a short course.  They should publish top 40 tour average instead of overall. The guys who never make any money pull that average way down.  
 

for what it’s worth I can name 3 guy beside you on here that i know in person who can fly a 3 wood 250 100 % of the time …. 270 in the summer off a tee isn’t really rare.  Any college player can do that.  And I’m talking 15-16 degree clubs. Not 2 woods.  

[Shankapotimous]

41 minutes ago, phizzy30 said:

Rory is probably 280+ carry with his 3 metal.  Think about it.  He makes 185 ball speed with driver and 175 with 3 metal.  His average is 326 yards with driver.  Even if you subtract 30 yards for 3 metal which is generous, it's almost 290. 

 

Of course Rory is 280+.  I was talking about AVERAGE on Tour. 

 

The poster above said they are basically little over 10 yards shorter than... Rory... lol

 

I have to say, I admire you guys for being able to hit above tour averages. That is some damn good ball striking. 

[bakere]

I don't think you necessarily have to be a good ball striker to hit the ball far. I am mid handicapper and with my cobra radspeed big tour 3 wood set to +1.5 I carry it 265. Now, unlike tour pros, I don't always carry it 265 because I often mishit. So is my "average" carry 265? No. However, if I put even a decent swing on it will go 265, so I usually plan for that.

 

Now, would it be better if I slowed my swing down a bit and hit it 250? So far the answer is no. When I try to slow down with Driver and woods my low point issues get even more exacerbated.

 

So in summary. Am I a good golfer? No. Can I carry my 3 wood 265? Yes.

[KMeloney]

3 hours ago, phizzy30 said:

Hater in the house, lol.  Nah, I've been saying 3 metal for a long time since Johnny Miller started to.  It's stuck with me. 

 

JM starting it was enough reason for me to never say it! LOL

[phizzy30]

6 hours ago, Shankapotimous said:

 

Of course Rory is 280+.  I was talking about AVERAGE on Tour. 

 

The poster above said they are basically little over 10 yards shorter than... Rory... lol

 

I have to say, I admire you guys for being able to hit above tour averages. That is some damn good ball striking. 

Yeah, tour average is low 170's for driver.  I'm in the mid to high 170's, granted my ball striking isn't even close to being as consistent as a tour pro. 

[Shankapotimous]

That's what I am saying - average. 

 

I mean, I am not going to say that I can carry my driver 330 because I connected few times, when in reality, my average is more like 260-270. It's more important to hit that club consistently. That will give you realistic distances. 

 

What is the percentage of times that you carry your wood 270? 90?80? If so, then yeah, you carry it 270. If it's 30% or anything low like that, then that carry number is lot lower. It's just not reliable. 

 

 

[phizzy30]

4 hours ago, Shankapotimous said:

That's what I am saying - average. 

 

I mean, I am not going to say that I can carry my driver 330 because I connected few times, when in reality, my average is more like 260-270. It's more important to hit that club consistently. That will give you realistic distances. 

 

What is the percentage of times that you carry your wood 270? 90?80? If so, then yeah, you carry it 270. If it's 30% or anything low like that, then that carry number is lot lower. It's just not reliable. 

 

 

75+% of the time I can carry 3 metal 270.  It's my go to off the tee when my driver is misbehaving.  For a tour pro, that average goes up to 95+%. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by phizzy30

[Shankapotimous]

Damn, that's very impressive. That is above Tour average. What's your driver carry 75%? 320?

Edited July 14, 2023 by Shankapotimous

[bakere]

5 hours ago, Shankapotimous said:

That's what I am saying - average. 

 

I mean, I am not going to say that I can carry my driver 330 because I connected few times, when in reality, my average is more like 260-270. It's more important to hit that club consistently. That will give you realistic distances. 

 

What is the percentage of times that you carry your wood 270? 90?80? If so, then yeah, you carry it 270. If it's 30% or anything low like that, then that carry number is lot lower. It's just not reliable. 

 

 

But in statistics they throw out outliers. I probably carry my 3 wood 265 50% of the time. But the other 50% I top or chunk, so it goes less than 200. Should those contribute to my average when I plan a shot? Should I use 220 when I plan my shot, and then when I put a decent swing on it, have trouble if it goes the 265 I know it can go? Right now I plan before every shot to hit a decent shot. If I put a decent swing on it, the ball probably goes +/- 5% (club dependent) of what I was expecting. If I screw up the swing and it goes significantly shorter and gets in trouble, I just think, crap that was a bad swing, not oh I should've planned for that to go 40 less yards.

 

Once again I am not good at golf. I am working on getting better. Maybe I am wrong, but before every shot I am optimistic that it will fly my distance with normal (not herculean) effort.

[Shankapotimous]

If you plug in all the stats in some app, it will show you all those outliers and it will give you average distance, not calculating those in. 

 

I am not disputing anything. I am just pointing out to the posters that say they carry 270 with their fairway wood, that those are above average tour numbers. That's very impressive. 

 

But I am 15 HC, lol...so for me, it better be damn impressive! 

 

 

 

 

[phizzy30]

55 minutes ago, Shankapotimous said:

Damn, that's very impressive. That is above Tour average. What's your driver carry 75%? 320?

295.  No way 320, not even in my wildest dreams, LOL. 

[Shankapotimous]

295 average driver carry.. that's still amazing...

[rooski]

9 minutes ago, phizzy30 said:

295.  No way 320, not even in my wildest dreams, LOL. 

 

That's interesting, because I have similar 3 carbon numbers to you. Wherein I hit my 3 carbon roughly 270-280 carry, but my driver numbers are closer to a 315 carry on a well struck shot. I wonder if I have a lower spin driver setup or something

[SNIPERBBB]

5 minutes ago, rooski said:

 

That's interesting, because I have similar 3 carbon numbers to you. Wherein I hit my 3 carbon roughly 270-280 carry, but my driver numbers are closer to a 315 carry on a well struck shot. I wonder if I have a lower spin driver setup or something

What's the loft on your driver vs 3w? 

[rooski]

1 hour ago, SNIPERBBB said:

What's the loft on your driver vs 3w? 

 

9* and 14.5*

[SNIPERBBB]

9 minutes ago, rooski said:

 

9* and 14.5*

Looks Ike you're getting the most out of you 3w then. 

[GungHoGolf]

How much longer is your driver than your 3 wood? Most ams can’t handle the length of off-the-shelf drivers these days, and strike the ball all over the face. Catching it low-heel will take 15% off the carry, turning what should have been a 290 drive into a 246 yard spinny fade. Catching it low on the face adds spin, and often happens when trying to hit up on it, and heel shots often happen when the shaft is too long. 

 

Try choking down 1-2”, teeing it low, and moving it back in your stance, under your left armpit from the face-on view or even further, and put a draw swing on it with no thought of hitting up, only on seeing the ball go straight or draw. You might need to set its loft higher to get it in the air, but that will increase the smash and get the spin down. 

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by GungHoGolf

[phizzy30]

30 minutes ago, rooski said:

 

That's interesting, because I have similar 3 carbon numbers to you. Wherein I hit my 3 carbon roughly 270-280 carry, but my driver numbers are closer to a 315 carry on a well struck shot. I wonder if I have a lower spin driver setup or something

295 is my carry average.  If I hit one on the screws and swing harder, it carries a little further.  Also, my driver set up is the same head as yours with the TR Black so I get about 10-12* launch with 2300 rpm.  I'm not looking to get max carry and am willing to sacrifice some distance for accuracy. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by phizzy30

[Jayjay_theweim_guy]

6 hours ago, rooski said:

 

That's interesting, because I have similar 3 carbon numbers to you. Wherein I hit my 3 carbon roughly 270-280 carry, but my driver numbers are closer to a 315 carry on a well struck shot. I wonder if I have a lower spin driver setup or something

Just screwing around with Foresight's trajectory calculator, 14° with 2,000 RPM at 186 ball speed gets you just about 320 for carry. 185 won't.  Of course I live in a sauna; this likely won't work, playing golf somewhere civilized.  123-124 driver speed gets you to 186 if you optimize it like Howard's recommendations.  The PGA Tour stats site has guys averaging 1.51 and .52 smash in some cases. 

 

Mind-blowing.  Remember when we were geeked by what John Daly could hit?

Edited July 15, 2023 by Jayjay_theweim_guy

[rooski]

2 hours ago, Jayjay_theweim_guy said:

Just screwing around with Foresight's trajectory calculator, 14° with 2,000 RPM at 186 ball speed gets you just about 320 for carry. 185 won't.  Of course I live in a sauna; this likely won't work, playing golf somewhere civilized.  123-124 driver speed gets you to 186 if you optimize it like Howard's recommendations.  The PGA Tour stats site has guys averaging 1.51 and .52 smash in some cases. 

 

Mind-blowing.  Remember when we were geeked by what John Daly could hit?

 

It is shocking that they could average those smash factors. My good drives are like 1.45 or 1.46, shocking that somebody could be hitting it that much better, on average

[SNIPERBBB]

8 hours ago, rooski said:

 

It is shocking that they could average those smash factors. My good drives are like 1.45 or 1.46, shocking that somebody could be hitting it that much better, on average

Every point of smash you get  at 100mph swing speed is an extra mph in ball speed. At 120 mph ss, is closer to 1.2 mph gain. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by SNIPERBBB

[iacas]

2 hours ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Every point of smash you get  at 100mph swing speed is an extra mph in ball speed. At 120 mph ss, is closer to 1.2 mph gain. 

 

I mean… it's exactly 1.2 MPH gained. That's how math works. 😄 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by iacas
Just poking fun, please take as lighthearted. We try to couch our words so often we sometimes do it when we don't have to. :D