The History

The fairway wood or woods have been around as long as the sport. Traditionally they were made out of hardwood such as beech or ash in the 19th century. This was then changed with the turn of the century into persimmon or maple. However, with the change in the materials used, metals such as titanium and composites such as carbon fibre, these clubs can be referred to as Metals or metal woods but this is highly unlikely.

The first metal fairway wood was invented in 1976 by Pinseeker Golf Corp and named it the Bombshell. However, after an unsuccessful marketing campaign the product was discontinued. This then gave way to TaylorMade who designed the Pittsburgh Persimmon in 1979, which was a more traditionally shaped and made out of stainless steel. This product took a while to gain a foothold in the market as it didn’t reach recognition until the mid-1980s.

Despite the name change the overall purpose of a fairway wood has remained the same. It is used for trying to reach a Par 5 or long Par 4 in 2. It can also be used off the tee for when accuracy is needed over distance. As a result of having this purpose a fairway wood will have more loft than a driver, but it will also have shallower and smaller head size. A fairway wood will also have more loft than a Driver but less loft than a long iron or hybrid. This makes the clubs easier to hit off the turf than a drive but still quite difficult compared to an iron or a hybrid. This causes there to be a lot of risk involved when trying to attack a green in 2 with these clubs.

To reduce this risk, manufacturers have come up with many ways to increase forgiveness. The earlier models had a smooth and flat sole which helped to glide over the fairway and a shallower club head to make it easier to hit the centre of the clubface. Since then, the clubs have evolved to maximise distance and forgiveness. This has included many innovations such as V-shaped soles, metal rails on the sole of the club, the way the mass of the club is distributed and many more. A key design feature to increase forgiveness is a slight bulge in the club face of the wood. This is designed to reduce the effect of the gear effect, which causes the ball to spin away from the target dramatically on off centred hits.

Brands:

Each brand tends to have its own technology it puts on its woods. With TaylorMade using Twist Face technology, which reduces the gear effect. As a result, it causes off centred hits to be a lot straighter. TaylorMade also have a speed slot behind the club face. This is a hollow area that allows the thin club face to bend more allowing for essentially a bigger recoil and compression, therefore increasing the force at which the ball will be repelled off the club face. With the newest models of Stealth and Stealth Plus they have a V - steel sole to reduce friction and improve forgiveness.

Cobra have also been a leading brand in the fairway wood market, they have several modern woods currently in the market. They have the King RADSPEED and the LTDx. The RADSPEED has weight distributed throughout the club by weights underneath the sole. This causes low spin and a high launch, which helps to improve forgiveness. As well as this it has two hollow split rails, which create 70% more flex on the sole to increase flexibility of the clubface and it also channels the club to make contact along these rails, causing less friction and better performance. The LTDx places weight forward and low down in the clubface for faster ball speed and less spin. The 3 woods in the LTDx have no rails but the 5 and 7 wood do.

Another major brand is Titleist, as of 2022 they offer 3 different types of fairway wood, the TSi1, TSi2 and TSi3. The TSi1 is much lighter than other fairway wood (50g lighter) and has a weight at the back to shift the centre of gravity back to increase launch angle. As well as this the TSi1 has ARC 4.0, which is very similar to the speed slot on the TaylorMade. As it also increases flexibility of the clubface. The TSi2 also has ARC 4.0 but it has a more pronounced weight distribution throughout the head to lower the centre of gravity. The TSi3 also has all of the features above, but it has options to adjust the weight distribution to create different ball flights and shot shape.