Higher lofted fairway woods have become more popular in 2022. This has left golfers wondering if the fairway wood or hybrid is the best for their game. At a True Spec golf fitting, we can use our launch monitor technology to determine which of these clubs gives you the best results. Here’s a look at determining if the fairway wood or hybrid is the best choice for your game.
Fairway Wood Benefits
The benefits of the fairway wood include longer club length, larger head design, and great distance. Golfers that struggle to get the distance they want off the tee can often recover on a hole if they have a fairway wood they trust.
However, with the club being longer, controlling a fairway wood is a bit harder, making the dispersion rates a bit higher.
Hybrid Benefits
The hybrid is a shorter club, has a slightly smaller head design, and is much easier to hit out of the rough. With a hybrid in your hands, control is considerably easier, and there can be times when stopping the ball on the green is also much less complicated.
With the hybrid, the only real negative is that they sometimes don’t fly quite as far as the fairway wood.
Which Should I Use: Fairway Wood vs. Hybrid?
During a True Spec golf fitting, our job is to determine which club, the fairway wood or the hybrid gives you the best overall results. Most golfers love to get distance, but one of the most important fitting factors to consider is control. Let’s remember that distance in the wrong direction is a problem.
Here are the things to consider when choosing between fairway wood and hybrid.
Descent Angle
The descent angle is how the golf ball falls from the sky as it makes its way back down the ground. There are perfect descent angle rates that will help promote more distance or the ability to stop the ball on a green.
Peak Height
The peak height is how high your golf ball goes after making contact and before starting its descent. When the peak height is in the correct range, golfers have a much easier time maximizing distance and controlling the way the ball lands.
Proper Gapping
Last but certainly not least, loft gapping comes into play. The idea of both fairway woods and hybrids is to bridge the gap in the loft between the driver and the longest irons in the bag. Therefore finding the proper set makeup that allows that to happen is a major consideration.
Final Thoughts
Some golfers are fairway wood-type players, and others do better with hybrids. In the end, the best way to decide which golf clubs you need is to head out to a fitting with a True Spec Master Fitting Professional. The information collected during your club fitting will not only help you decide if a fairway wood or hybrid is better but also the exact fairway wood or hybrid that maximizes your potential.
