- Hi, Adam Bazalgette, back here at beautiful Club Mediterra
in Naples, Florida.
I'm two time PGA Teacher Of The Year Award winner down here
and I'd like to tackle a subject today,
how to hit a fairway wood off the tee, stay tuned.
(upbeat music)
So, how to hit a fairway wood off the tee,
can be a very, very useful choice.
Now, in this episode, we're not so much
gonna give you a swing lesson,
we'll touch on it a little bit,
we're gonna give you some variables, three in particular,
three types of shots that you might wanna try
and why they can be really useful off the tee.
First one's just your generic shot, we'll get into that
and some reasons you might choose it.
Secondly, a safety shot
that's particularly useful on a tight hole.
And, finally, I'll give you some insights
as to why the average player may wanna pick a fairway wood
when they're trying to curve the ball off the tee,
especially hit a draw.
If you like the video please subscribe to the channel,
ScratchGolfAcademy.com's my website, lets get started.
So I've got a three wood here,
could be a five wood or whatnot off the tee,
and let's deal with the generic one first here,
why is it generically a good choice sometimes.
Well, certainly strategy could bear a factor,
there may be some bunkers out there
or some water or something I could reach with a driver
but not with a fairway wood, that would be a good instance.
Might fit the thing into a dogleg a little bit better
if it's a sharp dogleg.
But, generally speaking,
we might use a fairway wood off the tee
just cause it's easier to get out there,
more reliable and consistent to get in play
and there's two real reasons for that.
Number one, the shaft is a little bit shorter.
Now, it may not seem a lot shorter
but a little bit makes a lot of difference, believe me.
About 15, 20 years ago, on the senior tour
there was a bit of a fad
with some of these super long drivers
and players were getting a little more club head speed
but they found, after a while,
that the difficulty of hitting the ball dead flush
was accentuated there and they more than lost
the speed gained by the length of shaft
with the lack of flush hit.
So shorter drivers allowed them more solid hits
and it was the best way to go.
So this being a little shorter is easier to manage,
easier to hit solidly and, of course, secondly,
any time you're hitting a club with more loft,
your ability to tilt or curve the ball is reduced.
You will not curve the ball as much when you have more loft,
sand wedge won't curve nearly as much as a five iron.
Let's have a close up look as how you might tee it up
for a generic shot.
So, in our generic version, we're trying to treat this
as though it was a driver and just use it
in place of a driver and take advantage, as I said,
of the shorter shaft and the more lofted club.
So, I want more of a driver ball placement,
up here off the instep, and I want this thing teed
so that, like a driver, I can catch it
fractionally on the upstroke without hitting the ground
and still hit that ball center line
to fractionally above center line.
So there's a little space under that tee,
quite a bit more than, say, I'd have off an eight iron
on a par three shot and, as a very much an approximation,
about a third of the golf ball would be above that top edge.
Again, that allows me that fractionally upward hit,
and still hit it solidly
at least as high as the center line on the club face.
So that's our generic fairway wood off the tee,
the absolute safety shot, to me,
the easiest one to fit in there on a tight hole
and to be sure you're gonna stay in play,
sometimes easier in the wind, as well,
there's a little bit more where you play the ball
back a little bit, not way back
but maybe an inch and a half or so.
Tee it as low as you reasonably can.
In other words, it's a perfect lie
but there's no real air under the ball
and by playing it a little bit further back,
maybe in this area, and teeing the ball down,
I'm gonna have to lean the shaft more
and go down and get it.
And this gives me a couple of things
that are to my advantage.
It firms up that left wrist
and gives me stability in the club there,
there's a little less release, flights it a bit lower,
and when I squeeze down on it more like that,
generally you gonna produce a little bit more backspin
and its gonna help kinda hold that ball on line there
a little bit, so you'll get this little low stinger,
if you like, coming out of there,
a little bit more backspin,
ball doesn't get up in the air and curve so much.
You'll lose, likely, a little bit of distance
unless the ground's really firm and it can roll out
but it can be a very, very good shot to have
in your arsenal.
Let's have a look at the best in the game
doing the stinger, Tiger Woods.
So there is Tiger Woods,
this is at the seventh hole at Augusta National
and they've lengthened that in recent years
but in those days a very, very tight, shorter hole
and, as you can see, he's got a fairway wood,
the ball is teed well down, his sole goal here
is to just strike one straight down the middle
without distance as a major priority.
So you'll see he gets down in there,
drives it out there low.
You can see he's held off his hands a little bit
as he finished and that is a shot he can rely on
to squeeze out there into play
and obviously he hit a good one there.
With his confidence, long before it lands
he's down there to pick the tee up.
So our final segment on fairway woods,
why might they be a good choice?
Well, when you need to curve one, specifically draw one,
this is a perfect situation
to try to snake one around the corner there,
they can be a lot easier for most golfers.
Now, let me just say to you,
"The reality, the geometry behind it is the less loft,
"the easier the ball is to curve,"
but we're only dealing with a few more degrees
with a fairway wood and what we find
is once you start closing the club through impact,
which, of course, you have to have a club that's closed
to hit your hook or your draw,
you're knocking loft off the club.
Now, if you have the swing speed of Henrik Stenson
or one of these bombers out there,
you can still get plenty of height off the tee
when you deal off the club a little bit like that
but for many players, once they start turning the face
a little bit, the ball just really comes out
like a low knuckler, they just don't have the speed.
So choosing a three or a five wood, something like that,
first off, is just easier to hit,
as we've told you earlier in the video.
And so, when you're trying to manipulate some other factor
that makes the swing a little more challenging,
it's easier when you have a club that's easier to hit.
And secondly, like I say, "You can afford more draw shape
"and still get a decent trajectory."
So let's see what we can do here.
We'll start one out, hopefully, to the right out there,
(golf ball being hit)
and there's a pretty good roping draw around the corner
and it had decent height.
Well, I personally appreciate the time and interest
many of you have taken in my videos.
I certainly hope they're helping you
and I hope this gives you some fresh ideas
for fairway woods and some new, fun things to try out
when you get out there.
ScratchGolfAcademy.com is my home website.
That has all our videos and we're gonna have full courses
coming your way in every aspect of the game and, of course,
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Thanks again.
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