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In the market for a new 3-wood? Equipment editor James Savage picks out his top five models
What are the best fairway woods 2018? Are you looking for a new 3-wood to mix it up off the tee or to reach those par-5s in two?
I think a reliable 3-wood is a essential club for any golfer’s bag.
It can step in if the driver is misfiring or give you a little bit more accuracy to a tight fairway.
For me personally, I prefer to hit a 3-wood off the tee rather than the deck.
If I hit a decent drive and I’m faced with 220-230 yards to the pin it’s either a par-5 or a very tough par-4. And I’ll be getting a shot on the latter so there’s no need to be a hero.
I don’t expect to be that accurate from 230 yards out as a mid-handicapper. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s sitting up perfectly (preferably in the first cut of rough) I’ll give it a go.
But I’m looking more at performance off the tee here and if it feels me with the confidence to hit it off the deck as well then that’s a bonus.
Oh, and I’ve only picked out a top five which was very difficult.
We’ve been very impressed with both the Vertical Groove driver and 3-wood this year.
It’s no surprise to see them having huge success on the PGA Champions Tour being use by the likes of John Daly Rocco Mediate and Mark Calcavecchia.
There are two versions available a 14˚ Tour and a regular 15˚ model. We tested out the former and we able to get some great numbers.
For me personally, I like to see a flat flight with a 3-wood that doesn’t spin too much and runs out a lot.
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And that’s exactly what I found with the VGG 3-wood. It frames the ball really nicely and had quite a deep face to make it ideal for use off a tee.
It seems to me like the vertical groove technology does work as I wasn’t getting any unwanted left to right spin which can balloon the ball up and costing me distance and accuracy.
I actually got fitted for this driver over the phone which was not the most ideal scenario but it certainly helped and was much more worthwhile than just being sent a random stock sample.
I was able to send over some Trackman screenshots, talk about my current 3-wood, what I wanted to see and what I didn’t.
As I say, not the most ideal fitting but it was definitely worthwhile.
We’ve seen Callaway’s Jailbreak technology (two titanium bars connecting the crown and sole) introduced into fairway woods for the first time in 2018.
So I was keen to see if it had improved the performance over the Epic fairways which were fantastic.
Firstly, the look at address of the Rogue is almost identical to the Epic with that sumptuous carbon crown.
I have to say I wasn’t wowed by the performance quite as much as I had expected to be. I wouldn’t say they were any longer or hotter of the face that the Epics.
And these don’t fill me with as much confidence when hitting off the deck as some of the others in this list.
But that’s not to say these aren’t right up there with the best fairway woods out there. And I may have had better results with a slightly softer shaft. I was using the Project X Hzrdus Yellow and I know the Black version works better for me.
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One thing that always impresses me about Callaway woods is the face – the ball just feels and sounds like it’s absolutely flying off it.
There has definitely been a bit of a double-pronged attack with this one as it’s a club I was fitted into nearly two years ago.
And my colleague Steve Carroll was fitted into it more recently for his season-long testing project.
I’ve always been a huge fan as I love the grey finish on the crown, think it sounds and feels fantastic and the numbers are great.
It also has the added bonus of the SureFit CG in the sole which can really fine-tune the flight.
Steve uses this club a lot off the tee as he can almost hit it as far as his driver and is very accurate with it. It’s probably the favourite club in his bag.
When a club has a lot of adjustability like (there’s also the SureFit hosel) this it can often take something away from the performance.
But from looking at the numbers, it’s right up there so there’s no trade-off from being able to get properly dialled in.
More information can be found on the Titleist website.
2. Best Fairway woods 2018: Ping G400
This club has been in my bag pretty much since it was launched in autumn 2017.
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It has a lovely sound and feel off the new maraging steel face and works really well on heel and toe strikes.
I’ve found this club to be really reliable if I need to hit it 220-230 and need to be a bit more accurate than I can be with my driver.
As I’ve said, a 3-wood is very much a driver alternative for me but out of all the models I have tested this year, the G400 fill me with the most confidence when I do hit it off the deck.
It just seems to sit nice and flush to the ground making it seem easier to sweep the ball away.
Also, I use the Ping G400 Max driver and the shafts are very similar so I don’t feel like there’s a massive change in feel when switching between the two.
That’s something very personal to me but is definitely something to think about when going through the fitting process.
TaylorMade fairway woods have been awesome for as long as I have been testing golf equipment.
It was the Rocketballz 3-wood which first introduced me to how good they were. And it seems they’ve maintained the standard and improved on it ever since.
When we test drivers and hybrids, the numbers from every model we test always seem to be pretty close with, at most, a five yard swing either way.
With the fairway woods we tested this year, all models averaged out at about a 220 yard carry. That’s just from me testing them by the way.
But with the TaylorMade M4 it was more like a 235-240 carry. That’s better than some driver numbers I have had this year.
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It was exactly the same with the last two iterations of the M2 fairways.
I think the TaylorMade Speed Pocket technology works really well in fairway woods as we/I can have a tendency to strike them low on the face. And that’s where it really helps.
The M4 3-wood also looks great, is light and very easy to swing.
I have not put this club in my bag this year as it’s doing a job that is too similar to my driver. It goes too far – what a nice problem to have!
