Club tested: Thomas Golf Fairway Woods (#3, #7, #13)
Club specs: Hand – Right; Lofts – 14° (3-wood), 22° (3 iron), 33° (13-wood); Length – 44” (3-wood), 42′ (7-wood), 39” (13-wood); Shaft – Graphite, “R” (regular) flex.
Price as Tested: $95 per club (regularly $178)
About Thomas Golf Products: All equipment made by Thomas Golf features the company's patented Shot Accuracy Technology, an alignment indicator on the top of the club which helps assure precise aim. The company offers free custom fitting of all clubs on its website and sells its products exclusively online.
The Club: First glance at one of the Thomas Golf Fairway Woods will give you a certain comfort you have been desiring in a Wood. The Patent designed straight flat top-plane Alignment Indicator is on every club building the confidence you need in every shot. After our tester swung the 3-wood, he stated that “The Wood forces you to align the club and ball to the target line easily and precise.” The Fairway wood selection comes in a glossy silver copper tone color. Looking clean and inviting to use.
The Thomas Golf Fairway Wood lineup includes 14 total clubs, from 2-Wood (12° loft) through a 25-Wood (55°) designed to match a standard sand wedge. After the tester was able to cleanly hit the 7-Wood (3-iron) from the fairway with no problem he was eager to try the higher 33° 13 wood.
The club heads are all made from 17-4 stainless steel, the same material used by other top manufacturers. There are three shafts available to suit any player's physique: Ultralight – Low Torque Graphite, Standard – weight Steel with mid/high bend-point, and Light weight step-less steel with mid bend-point.
Addressing The Ball: The Fairway Wood collection features a traditional style club head shape with the bonus Alignment Indicator for better club to target line. The head sizes are as followed; 160 cubic centimeters for the 3-wood, 160cc for the 5-wood and 150cc for the 13-wood bringing a unconventional look and feel to the higher degree clubs. The higher degree clubs (42° – 55°) have a rounder head with the hosel behind the front lip eliminating side spin and making it easier to square the club.
When our tester first addressed the ball with the Thomas Golf 7-wood, he stated that the perception of the wood seemed to have a degree face of a traditional 5 or 6 iron giving an easier launching feeling. After hitting a few pure shots off the fairway, he said that there was no trouble hitting the sweet spot of the face repeatedly. The alignment line was very useful and the hosel is slightly behind the face making a shank feel near impossible.
The Swing: Pure, strong, lightweight, confident were few of the words our tester said about the shafts of the Thomas Golf Fairway Woods. There is a low torque to the shafts to reduce head twisting and lagging hitting through the ball. The 13-wood was able to cut through longer grass with its wood shaped head very nicely.
On The Course: Thomas Golf Fairway Woods really excelled in a variety of ways during the testing. Our tester felt like he had total control off the tee with the 3-wood and was able to shape his shots nicely from the fairway with good distance and roll. The 3-wood ripped through rough allowing the club speed to keep its course all the way through the ball. The wood shaped clubs allow the golfer to feel comfortable aligning every shot because of the same look throughout the set. The tester liked the feeling of using a wood on every shot instead of changing the look from tee shot to approach (wood to iron.)
Fairway Woods Are In: The Thomas Golf Fairway Woods are truly special in many ways. Only Thomas Golf provides an Alignment line on all their clubs and custom fit each golfer for free. If you are looking to eliminate any cause of a shank than the well tested, pushed back hosel design on the fairway woods is the way to go. Once you play with one of the fairway woods you will want to experience the whole set of 14. The higher lofted woods makes play out of the rough easy. Our tester was very impressed in how lightweight the fairway woods were and how comfortable he was with both lower and higher degree woods.
