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Really need help off the tee guys, looking for a FAIRWAY FINDER

SuperStroke
Some very good info here and, like you'll see often on here, if you're looking for a new club then make sure you get a proper fitting. Ryebread's got a good suggestion which is to look at the possibility of a higher lofted driver. I hit my 7 iron 150 - 155 yds, so similar to your 8 iron, and struggled with an old 3 wood off the tee. I went for a fitting on a new 3 wood and walked out with a Callaway Diablo Octane Black in 13.5* loft and haven't looked back since. I've got pretty much the same loft as a 3 wood, but the larger head gives me a lot more confidence on the tee box and a couple of minor swing changes with a help of some lessons and I'm not hitting it straight out to about 220 yds, leaving me in good range for my second shot. Something more to think about!!
 
One great thing about going to the THP demo Day is I was looking for a 3 wood.
My 2.0 SF Taylormade hasn't shown me much Love.
I would have never tried the Cobra Baffler if I was shopping in the store.
Guess what, it turned out to be a winner for me at the outing.
Long and straight with a nice flight.
 
Since I only put driver, I will also say that on a tight short par 4 I will almost always play my Mashie M2. That little club is a definite fairway finder for me
 
I totally agree with you Shark. Had it not been for the Outing I would not have tried the Cleveland line and missed out in some of the best clubs currently in my bag.

TapAhoy!
 
SeeMoreGuy said:
I totally agree with you Shark. Had it not been for the Outing I would not have tried the Cleveland line and missed out in some of the best clubs currently in my bag.

TapAhoy!
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Uhm, time to update the sig?
 
All comes down to trying different things outdoors. Mashies are the best fws I've ever used, but they were not great indoors. When I got them outside and in play with real lies and in real conditions they amazed me. If I was lost with driver I could use the strong mashie fw no prob.

That's just me though. Only way I know to hit on something is to discover it for yourself. I would find a local demo and hit everything you can.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Griff said:
All comes down to trying different things outdoors. Mashies are the best fws I've ever used, but they were not great indoors. When I got them outside and in play with real lies and in real conditions they amazed me. If I was lost with driver I could use the strong mashie fw no prob.

That's just me though. Only way I know to hit on something is to discover it for yourself. I would find a local demo and hit everything you can.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2
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You are so right about the Mashies and hitting off mats. I remember my first swings with my Mashie were off mats and I was shocked at how awful I was with it. Came on here and spewed some venom. The guys calmly walked me off the ledge and told me to hit them off grass before writing them off. Good god that first hit off grass was a bomb!
 
I'm drinking the Cleveland Kool-Aid. The Launcher FL 3Wood always hits the fairway for me and I will be picking up the driver soon because that is also a fairway finding beast! The C.Kua shaft is great as long as you give it a smooth swing. I haven't tried the black or Classic but at the FLs price I can't pass them up!
 
To me, I don't think your problem is any certain club. I would go to your local course, ask the pro there to take a look at your swing with the driver/3 wood and go from there. It doesn't matter what club you buy if you have a "hitch" in your swing.

But if you are just wanting to know what some good 3-woods are out there, I have always enjoyed hitting Titleist fairway woods.
 
I cant recommend the Cleveland Classic enough. I put a Kusala Black in there and I am hitting more fairways than ever!
 
Thanks a lot so far guys. I'm going to see if there's a Cleveland or Wilson/Staff demo day coming up around me where I can get a chance to hit all the Cleveland fairways/hybrids as well as the Fybrids from W/S. And yup, definitely need it to be OUTSIDE... Golf Town simulators and the like are just terrible.

Also really interested in the TEE stuff... but probably wouldn't get a chance to hit them first. Particularly something like the 4W at 16.5*, where it could fill two roles, giving me that 230-240 off the tee and also with that new diamond-type sole allowing me to use it confidently as my longest club off the deck.
 
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drew4008 said:
Thanks a lot so far guys. I'm going to see if there's a Cleveland or Wilson/Staff demo day coming up around me where I can get a chance to hit all the Cleveland fairways/hybrids as well as the Fybrids from W/S. And yup, definitely need it to be OUTSIDE... Golf Town simulators and the like are just terrible.

Also really interested in the TEE stuff... but probably wouldn't get a chance to hit them first. Particularly something like the 4W at 16.5*, where it could fill two roles, giving me that 230-240 off the tee and also with that new diamond-type sole allowing me to use it confidently as my longest club off the deck.
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The 4w could be a flexible option. I'm not a big swinger and I get a straight to slight draw solid 220+ out of my Ping G15 4w. I like that you don't have to baby tempo it like some of the lightweight shafted options. With the stock stiff TFC shaft, I just take a deliberate backswing, pause a beat and then fire hard through the shot.
 
Drew: I had a XCG3 4 wood that I bought to bridge between the driver and the 2 hybrid. The idea was that the extra loft of the 4 would make it more playable off the fairway, but the extra length from the XCG line would give me the distance of a 3.

It was a gorgeous club that really had a high quality of manufacturing. The cover (which shouldn't factor into buying a club) was the most attractive of any I've personally ever seen. I was a sucker for the big old X that marked the spot. I loved the sound and the feel.

I'm not a big hitter (5 iron for 155, about 230 on average with the driver), but I could absolutely kill it (for me) with that club off the tee. If I teed it low, swung easy and made good contact, it was a rocket. I honestly hit it consistently between 215 and 230. I had tried high loft drivers in the past and didn't get as much distance with them. Maybe I was getting higher swing speed with the smaller head, or maybe the smaller head was forcing me to hit the sweet spot, or maybe the smaller head made me slow down and focus on pace. Regardless of what it was, it was like magic for me off the tee.

I'll admit that I'm not a long hitter but I think that many people exaggerate about their distances. Among golfers that shoot in the 80s or higher, I don't find that I'm significantly shorter than most that I play with. Yeah, people might really connect on one and knock it 30 yards past me, but a lot of times we'll both hit and be about 10 yards apart distance wise. Driver to driver it's often kind of a wash.

That was the cool thing about the XCG3. I'd shank a drive or two (typically a slice OB) and pull out that 4 wood on the next hole. It's hard to miss it with the bright red and silver shaft. I'd then routinely step up and hit it as long as people were hitting their drivers. After about 2 holes of that, people would be asking me about it, wanting to hit it, etc.. When I had it, that was the club that was "borrowed" more than any other one I've had. A lot of people didn't know much about the Tour Edge products, but were intrigued by the looks and the distance off the tee. I'll admit that it felt good for a bad golfer like me to have something that others wanted to try based on my results.

The question would be why I sold it. The problem was off the deck. For me, it was absolutely awful. Place it on the ground and the face would want to fall open. I don't just mean a degree or two either. It'd literally just roll open, regardless of lie. I'm a natural slicer, so a club that I have to fight to get closed on flat ground is like kryptonite. I just could not hit it off the deck or out of the rough. If I tried to compensate with alignment, then I felt like I was re-introducing some old, bad habits that I'd worked quite hard to eliminate from my game. I was determined to align correctly, make the proper swing and get the right results. I found that I wasted a lot of shots going right. Unfortunately sometimes when I would make good connection, I'd overcook it. The last round I played with it I lost a ball in the water this way. I was about 260 yards from a lake (600 yard par 5) where the last 30 or so had a downhill slope towards the lake. I and said "there's absolutely no way I can hit that water regardless of what I hit." That's the time I made a solid shot, only to watch it shoot over the hill never to be seen again. Frustrating.... What good was a fairway wood that I couldn't hit from the fairway?

I mention this not to steer you away from the Exotics fairways. I'm a huge fan, think they are great clubs and I love seeing a "little guy" make a good product. I believe that all of the XCG fairway woods (and drivers) are open faced and play even more open. They also have a rather large head (as large as drivers from 15 or so years back) which can be intimidating in a bad lie (kind of the opposite of a hybrid). If your miss is right or you don't feel comfortable hitting a large displacement club from the ground, then they may not be the club for you. If you're a straight or draw hitter and are good with a fairway wood off of the deck, then they may be just the ticket.

Hope this helps!
 
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