Mismatching woods is detrimental to your golf. Discuss

[Tiger]

Right first and foremost this is a question to hopefully generate some debate not an overanalysing of the game (I'm over all that!) Though having read Scott's thread about over thinking the game I thought his was quite a mischievous post

Was on the forum today and noticed something that was interesting (well to me anyway).

1. a lot of bags go Driver, 3 wood, 5 wood/hybrid/iron
2. A few people have matching woods, quite a lot don't

Now I know some of this stems from finance and that for a lot of people changing all your woods at the same time is too expensive.

But let's put finance to one side for the moment. When designing clubs manufacturers apply their R&D insight to a family of clubs they also install shafts with consistent performance characteristics in all their woods. So here you have a driver and fairway woods that are designed to complement each other.

In theory then your swing speed, tempo, transition and idiosynchrosies will help you navigate to a preferred driver and logically you should buy the matching fairway woods. But if you don't and go with a different brand that may have a different club weight, face forgiveness and shaft properties are you causing yourself problems?

Then again you might not get on with the matching fairway, it might be as long as the driver (RBZ), or you might have an old faithful 3 wood but cannot find the Driver you need.

So is having a mix and match approach to your woods potentially damaging to your golf? Over to you...

 

[fundy]

Have always tried to have the same or a very similar shaft in my 3 wood as in my driver, outside that Im not normally too fussed (dont carry a 5 wood and hybrid shaft is more a case of being similar to iron shafts for me), that said currently all are Titleist 910s (I added the 3 wood and hybrid when I found them going for decent prices with the right shafts in)

 

[SaintHacker]

Interesting question. Ive recently upgraded to an RBZ driver with a stiff shaft, which I'm hitting really nicely (for now). Unfortunately my 3 5 and 7 woods I can't hit for toffee anymore, to the point that I'm about to take the 5 and 7 out of the bag and just use long irons instead, and try and persevere with the 3 if I need a bit less distance off the tee. Was thinking about upgrading to an RBZ fairway (probably a 5) for this very reason, and just sticking to the two woods in my bag.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Interesting point about manufacturers matching the shafts through their ranges of woods. Not quite sure that is the correct philosophy though. I want my driver to have a penetrating, lowish flight whereas I want to be able to hit my 3 wood with a bit of height off the deck so I can get it to stop on the green.

So, horses for courses which is why I don't have matching woods.

 

[chrisd]

I never think that there is such a thing as matching in woods. I have a Titleist 910 driver, a Mizuno 3 wood and two Taylor made rescue clubs of completely different models. I think that its better to cobble together what works than what looks good in the bag.

I had a Titleist Trackman fitting and we checked their 3 wood against my Mizuno and they said that in all honesty that they couldn't offer anything that the stats would improve upon what I already had.

 

[CMAC]

TM driver with reg shaft (after 25+ years of stiff

Callaway 4 wood- Stiff shaft

Titleist 910 hybrid - stiff shaft

you use what works with each head for your swing

 

[RGDave]

So is having a mix and match approach to your woods potentially damaging to your golf? Over to you...

Can't say it is. I've just swapped from a Mizuno to Ping driver, which now makes my Mizuno fairways seem mismatched. I also have 2 x Wilson Staff hybrids, not that I ever carry both.

I could spend a small fortune and match the whole lot up. Can't see the point though as they don't see much action (I can do whole games without the 3w or 3h getting a shot) and t.b.h. when my game is on song (that's the long/fairways game) they all go pretty much where I want them to.

Like my wedges really. I get a feel for my shot as I'm walking up to it and working out the distance (if over 50 yards, say). If I'm carrying 3 (not that I do very often), then I'm going to be reaching for a certain wedge to play the shot a certain way. My personal opinion is that the shaft will always do it's job if I hit it right....exactly the same as my woods.

 

[JT77]

Don't think I've ever had matching woods or hybrids, even my wedges don't match, works for me, down to 7 now playing a mismatch but maybe its not for everyone.

 

[User 105]

I'll put in the bag what works best. I'll usually try the same manufacturer but if I consistently hit another brand better in that club, that's what I'll use.

I've just changed my 3w to an i20, and I changed my hybrid last month to an RBZ. I use a 910D2 driver.

I hit the i20 best of the bunch of 3w's I tried and the RBZ best of the hybrids. So that's what went in the bag.

 

[duncan mackie]

a few months ago I upgraded my 3 wood to the match of my driver - and really haven't got to grips with it yet!

yes I can (have) hit a few shots that illustrate it's me not the club, but then again this thread is about whether miss matched to each other is a bad thing - my view would have to be no, it's about being matched to you in your head, rather than in theory!

 

[kev_off_the_tee]

TM driver with reg shaft (after 25+ years of stiff

Callaway 4 wood- Stiff shaft

Titleist 910 hybrid - stiff shaft

you use what works with each head for your swing

Interesting that you use a driver and 4 wood DV. Im thinking about going down the same route after selling my 3 wood and hybrid, and soon to be driver. I guess it all stems from finances as other have mentioned but I've tried my 3&4 iron and seem to get on with them so would just make the decision on 3 wood then 3 iron or 4 wood then 4 iron

 

[thecraw]

Probably more important to get the shafts similar than the club/manufacturer.

 

[AMcC]

Probably more important to get the shafts similar than the club/manufacturer.

Interesting point, I have recently swapped the shaft in my 3 wood to be the same as my 5 wood, but have been hitting my driver really well for the last few months. Would I have been better matching that shaft, which was a Proforce V2 high launch regular ?

 

[bigslice]

Interesting point, I have recently swapped the shaft in my 3 wood to be the same as my 5 wood, but have been hitting my driver really well for the last few months. Would I have been better matching that shaft, which was a Proforce V2 high launch regular ?

interesting my 4 wood has a new stiff shaft in it from today

 

[kev_off_the_tee]

Interesting, Interesting, Interesting AAAAAAAARRRRGH

we sound like shrinks and should stop using the word

 

[bigslice]

Interesting, Interesting, Interesting AAAAAAAARRRRGH

we sound like shrinks and should stop using the word

as we play at the same course perhaps i should have said 'snap' but you make an interesting point:ears:

 

[kev_off_the_tee]

Doh

 

[CMAC]

as we play at the same course perhaps i should have said 'snap' but you make an interesting point:ears:

Thats also interesting

 

[srixon 1]

Have a butchers on the internet at "What's In The Bag" and you will see that most of the top pro's have different shafts/woods in their bags. It's what works best for you that matters, not how pretty your matching headcovers look

 

[Achilles]

This is something I'm still trying to resolve. I had a Titleist fitting a few weeks back which confirmed my distances - definitely need a new hybrid to fill my current gap and the 910h ticked all the boxes. The best shaft was the one I have in my driver, so the theory of matching woods makes sense from that perspective.

The R11s price drop keeps tempting me though...had a few swings with a friends a while ago and was hitting the 3 & 5 woods so sweetly I wanted to cry....

As to whether matching woods etc are better, I think this is totally down to the individual.