Rescue Wood ?

[Oops!]

Hello !

When I started playing golf back in the 1990th, there where plenty of so called "rescue woods" with a quite special ("V"-) shaped sole. I think its intention was to "split" the rough so that the club would pass through and hit the ball without any leaves of grass between ball and clubface.

A good example might be this one.

When now - after some time of a break - looking for a new (very forgiving) club to play balls slightly off the fairway from the semi rough to make up some distance, but quite precisely nevertheless, I didn't find any of that shape any more. Obviously it didn't become widely accepted - and I wonder why ?!? Didn't it work as intended ? It seemed to make sense to me !?

What (kind of) club would you today recommend instead ? I still have a Taylor Made SLDR S RR, but I'm not happy with it and in the end I prefer the "normal" wood 5 instead, because it obviously suits me better ... !?

BTW, I'd consider myself as an "advanced beginner" ... ! ;-)

TIA !

 

[Orikoru]

Not used one myself but I've heard good things about the Cobra woods with 'baffler rails' I think they call them. The F8 has them: https://www.clubhousegolf.co.uk/acatalog/Cobra-KING-F8-Golf-Fairway-Wood.html

You can see the rails on the sole there, obviously meant to cut through the grass a bit. Maybe someone who's used one will be along to verify.

 

[Crow]

I think Petron did one called the Ferret, they come up on ebay fairly regularly, no reason why it still can't do the job.

 

[jim8flog]

do you mean something like this




This is a Wilson Invex. Mine is 7 wood on 3 wood shaft. Fantastic club out of the rough when you want good distance.

 

[Oops!]

do you mean something like this


View attachment 28123

This is a Wilson Invex. Mine is 7 wood on 3 wood shaft. Fantastic club out of the rough when you want good distance.

I'm not shure : It looks quite different from the pictures I linked above !?!

 

[jim8flog]

I'm not shure : It looks quite different from the pictures I linked above !?!

Yes very difficult to get a good photo of the shape but the principle is very similar to the Ginty wood. i.e. very little of the sole is contact with the ground when the shot is being played and as the club passed through long grass there is minimal contact from the sides of the club with it's pear shape.

Similar idea from Adams with their fairway woods (which were reckoned to be the best in their day).






Ps the Adams head is for sale for £5 if interested.

 

[casuk]

Not used one myself but I've heard good things about the Cobra woods with 'baffler rails' I think they call them. The F8 has them: https://www.clubhousegolf.co.uk/acatalog/Cobra-KING-F8-Golf-Fairway-Wood.html

You can see the rails on the sole there, obviously meant to cut through the grass a bit. Maybe someone who's used one will be along to verify.

I used both 2/3 and 3/4 19° and 21.5° f7 hybrids both are great clubs high ball flight and as straight as anything iv hit, the rails keep the club face on plain, even slightly open face will snap back on the swing path, it works and I personally see a huge improvement,

 

[SocketRocket]

The Tailormade V steel did this. Not sure if you can still get them.

 

[Oops!]

A quick interim report :

I tried both the
- Cobra KING F8 Hybrid and the
- Ping G400 Crossover,
both with a loft of 22°, but only from the driving range yet.

A priori I assumed the Cobra to fit me better as I feel quite comfortable with a wood 5, but to my utter surprise, the balls went significantly higher and for a longer distance with the Ping throughout the whole session !

Unfortunately with both clubs allmost all balls drifted more or less heavy to the right ("slice") unlike with my wood 5, so in the end my tests didn't turn out satisfactorily so far.

I'll have a lesson on friday in order to find out what's goin' wrong and keep you informed ... !

 

[*TQ*]

I've got a Cobra King F8 3/4 wood set to 15.5 degrees and find the rails really help when hitting out of the rough but I do think some of it could be psychological, the rails give me a lot more confidence hitting out of the longer grass.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The Tailormade V steel did this. Not sure if you can still get them.

Golfbidder have one in stock https://www.golfbidder.co.uk/models/923/Taylor_Made_Fairway_V_Steel.html

 

[Oops!]

It took me quite a while, but I recently found the „original“ club I mentioned in #1 and didn't want to keep this from you : It‘s a Ginty Wood by Stan Thompson - and they are much older than I presumed !

If you look here, you‘ll find more information and photos which really show what I tried to describe so poorly - sorry again for that !

 

[Klimski]

I like the look of the Ginty. If I was playing a full on retro set, I'd game one for sure. A bit more modern is the Cleveland Mashie line, of which I game the 5 wood. The 7 wood also looks the business. Good to hit from fairway and rough alike