4 Wood

[One Planer]

Just looking for opinions on the following.

Thinking of dropping my 3 and 5 wood in favor of a 4 wood.

I don't feel I'm going to lose out distance wise and feel that a 4 wood may give me a little more control around my home course.

Any and all opinions welcome.

 

[bobmac]

If you did, you would only have one club between your driver and 4 iron
I see nothing wrong with the following set up

Driver, 3W, 5W
3 hybrid
4-PW
52*GW, 58*SW

A nice even spread throughout the whole bag

 

[Ken_A]

Why not stick with a 5 wood - I went through the same a while ago, ditched the 3 wood and thought about a 4 wood. But I did not see the big difference between the 4 and 5. As I owned a 3&5 I did not think it worth buying a new 4 wood but if I was buying a fill set again I might get a 4w but not worth getting rid of just to fill a 'gap' - perhaps it's me being a bit foolish but I am not good enough to really notice a 20 yard gap at the top end of my distances.

 

[One Planer]

If you did, you would only have one club between your driver and 4 iron
I see nothing wrong with the following set up

Driver, 3W, 5W
3 hybrid
4-PW
52*GW, 58*SW

A nice even spread throughout the whole bag

Like I said Bob only considering it at the moment.

I'm sure the pro's of carrying a 3 and 5 wood (Such as you mention) would far out weight the cons.

It's just one of those nagging thoughts I've had in my head for a few weeks and (hence the post) was wondering if it was worth doing, or if anyone had any experiance having done it.

 

[njc1973]

Wouldn't a 5W & 3 hybrid be similar loft & ball flight?

 

[chris661]

Wouldn't a 5W & 3 hybrid be similar loft & ball flight?

There would be 3 or 4 degrees of loft between them I would imagine but would think the flight would roughly similar.

 

[One Planer]

Wouldn't a 5W & 3 hybrid be similar loft & ball flight?

There would be 3 or 4 degrees of loft between them I would imagine but would think the flight would roughly similar.

Good point that.

My superfast 5 wood has 18* loft and a 43.1/4" shaft.

The hybrid, again, superfast also has 18* and a 41" shaft.

So, I presume the extra length from the 5 wood would be down to a longer shaft

 

[USER1999]

I have not noticed any gap in my yardages since dropping the 3 and 5, and getting a 4w.

Mainly because I am not a pro golfer. I don't strike my fairway woods consistently enough to get a definite distance gap. My 5w could be as long as my 3w, and my 21 hybrid could be longer than either of them, or I could nob it 30 yards.

As a result I was top loading my bag with clubs which mostly went the same distance. Pointless.

Going to a 4w, and a 21 hybrid has made my gaps more consistent. It has also made decision making easy.

Doing this means I can carry 4 wedges. Some may not like this (Bob?), but it works very well for me. My short game saves me time and time again. I like to have the choice at this end of the bag.

 

[Snelly]

Just looking for opinions on the following.

Thinking of dropping my 3 and 5 wood in favor of a 4 wood.

I don't feel I'm going to lose out distance wise and feel that a 4 wood may give me a little more control around my home course.

Any and all opinions welcome.

With respect, I don't think replacing a 3 and 5 wood with a 4 wood will make much difference to your game apart from removing the choice of whether to hit one of two clubs.

Have you thought of using a hybrid with the same loft as a 4 wood? Another option I guess.

 

[One Planer]

Just looking for opinions on the following.

Thinking of dropping my 3 and 5 wood in favor of a 4 wood.

I don't feel I'm going to lose out distance wise and feel that a 4 wood may give me a little more control around my home course.

Any and all opinions welcome.

With respect, I don't think replacing a 3 and 5 wood with a 4 wood will make much difference to your game apart from removing the choice of whether to hit one of two clubs.

Have you thought of using a hybrid with the same loft as a 4 wood? Another option I guess.

It's an option yes, but I'm still not going to get the same kind of distance you would expectfro a 4 wood with a hybrid as, no doubt, the shaft will be shorter.

 

[NWJocko]

Just looking for opinions on the following.

Thinking of dropping my 3 and 5 wood in favor of a 4 wood.

I don't feel I'm going to lose out distance wise and feel that a 4 wood may give me a little more control around my home course.

Any and all opinions welcome.

With respect, I don't think replacing a 3 and 5 wood with a 4 wood will make much difference to your game apart from removing the choice of whether to hit one of two clubs.

Have you thought of using a hybrid with the same loft as a 4 wood? Another option I guess.

It's an option yes, but I'm still not going to get the same kind of distance you would expectfro a 4 wood with a hybrid as, no doubt, the shaft will be shorter.

Depends on the hybrid I guess.

I got a 17degree Mizuno CLK hybrid and it was going the same distance as my 3 wood (15*)

So I got a 13* 3 wood instead.

 

[Imurg]

Difference in distance between a fairway and a hybrid is more to do with swingspeed than length of shaft. Take a fairway with 18 degrees and a hybrid of the same loft and an average speed of swing will hit the fairway further due to the increased spin from the lower C G of the fairway head - it keeps the ball in the air longer. A faster swinger will see less difference mainly due to excess spin from the fairway and a generally better strike from the hybrid due to the shorter shaft.

I have a 3 1/2 wood really. It's 17 degrees but has the head size and shaft length of a 3 wood. I was finding so little difference between a 3 and 5 wood that carrying both seemed a waste of a club.

I think your setup needs to take into account the course you play most and how good your long/short game is. Probably a slower swinger should have a 3 and a 5 as long as there is a real difference. I hit the ball quite a way and a 10 yard difference between 3 and 5 is irrelevent from 220/230 yards out or off the tee

 

[Region3]

I don't think a slower swinger (I have no idea what the OP is) gets any advantage from a 3 wood over a 4 or even 5 wood due to the better launch angle and therefore carry.

My driver swing speed is around 100-105 and my 4 wood goes as far as my old 3 wood used to. I replaced my 3 wood and 19° hybrid with a 4 wood because I like carrying my 3 iron and lob wedge and needed to lose a club somewhere.

At the fitting for it I got more distance with it adjusted up to 19° like a 5 wood than leaving it set at 17. Less loft doesn't always mean more distance.

 

[One Planer]

This is the thing Imurg.

At my level of play I do notice a difference in distances when I catch them flush but, as has been previously said, not being a tour pro my striking doesn't merit nor is it consistant enough to set a distance to them that I regularly hit.

With this in mind, is it worth "splitting the differance" and carrying one club rather than two and adding a hybrid or better still a proper 3 iron?

 

[Imurg]

I think at our level it's down to how many wedges you want to carry. Work that out first then fit the rest of the bag around them.
2, 3 or 4 it doesn't matter - but sort them first in my opinion.

 

[One Planer]

I think at our level it's down to how many wedges you want to carry. Work that out first then fit the rest of the bag around them.
2, 3 or 4 it doesn't matter - but sort them first in my opinion.

Couldn't agree more Imurg

I carry 4 wedges. Not to annoy Bob (Much), but because I like to have a little variety at "scoring end" of my bag.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think at our level it's down to how many wedges you want to carry.

Not with a short game like mine. My chipping last night was as bad as its ever been. Totally shot now standing over the ball and don't know wehter to stick or bust. End up with 300 swing thoughts and any natural feel is shot to pieces. I even tried using the V-easy and it helped while I was using it but take it away and back to rat crap again. I'm sure a lot of its in my head now but also a lot is down to tempo and swinging too long and then short and being stabby or too slow (where double hits are found with regularity)

 

[shewy]

I recently popped a 4 wood in and find I carry it as far as my 3 wood so much that I got rid of the 3 wood.
Really it depends on what you are comfortabel with,some guys are woods guys some more hybrid guys.Personally I get a good gap between my driver 4 wood and hybrid and it free's up some space in my bag for extra wedges should I need them in future.