Fairway Woods Tips, How Many Should I Have In My Bag (Video) - by Pete Styles
Fairway Woods Tips, How Many Should I Have In My Bag (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you have decided that fairway woods are a good thing to have in your game the next decision is how many do you need? Because you could get a fairway wood two, three, four, five, seven, nine, 11 probably onwards from there if you’ve really looked hard enough. So it’s a question of how many do you need in your bag, because don’t forget your bag is limited by the number of clubs you are allowed to carry you are only allowed to carry 14 clubs, you can carry less but you can't carry more. Now generally speaking the higher handicap the golfer the more fairway woods they would probably have in their bag and the lower the handicap golfer down to tour pros the less fairway woods they have in their bag. And actually in my bag I only carry one fairway wood, I carry my driver then I carry my three wood and then I'm into my hybrids and my longer irons.

So depending on the number of shots you hit from distance and the number of times you actually use your fairway woods from the teeing ground could determine how many you put in there. You might consider that you use a lot of fairway woods because you don’t like hitting your driver, so you might use your three wood off the tee sometimes. You might consider well I don’t hit my irons all that far and I have got a couple of big par three's, so I actually use a fairway wood on the tee on a par three, but I want the ball to go high and I want the ball to come down and land softly, okay so I need a five wood in there or there's a hole that’s a bit shorter it's got water in the way, I'm never able to get that over the water and get the ball to stop on the other side, so put a seven wood in there. If you’re really struggling to get the ball air bone and you’re struggling to get it out of a longer grass in the semi rough you could put a seven wood and even a nine wood in there to launch the ball out of there. And if you really struggle with the appearance and the look and you just don't like the feel of hitting irons, but you can't hit a fairway wood from 100 yards out, put an 11 wood in there, an 11 wood loads and loads of loft it looks like a nine iron really in terms of loft a little pitch underneath the 11 wood just pops the ball up in the air, lands very softly. And that’s how you could get to a situation where you’re carrying four or even five fairway woods, but I could say genuinely the higher handicap golfer are probably going to put more fairway woods in their bag, lower handicap golfers coming down to maybe just one or two at most. The standard set for most golfers is driver and then three wood five wood, that’s genuinely the set you first get when you start, but don’t be afraid of adding to those fairway woods if you like them or taking them out if you feel you’re not using them very regularly. 2014-11-05

If you have decided that fairway woods are a good thing to have in your game the next decision is how many do you need? Because you could get a fairway wood two, three, four, five, seven, nine, 11 probably onwards from there if you’ve really looked hard enough. So it’s a question of how many do you need in your bag, because don’t forget your bag is limited by the number of clubs you are allowed to carry you are only allowed to carry 14 clubs, you can carry less but you can't carry more. Now generally speaking the higher handicap the golfer the more fairway woods they would probably have in their bag and the lower the handicap golfer down to tour pros the less fairway woods they have in their bag. And actually in my bag I only carry one fairway wood, I carry my driver then I carry my three wood and then I'm into my hybrids and my longer irons.

So depending on the number of shots you hit from distance and the number of times you actually use your fairway woods from the teeing ground could determine how many you put in there. You might consider that you use a lot of fairway woods because you don’t like hitting your driver, so you might use your three wood off the tee sometimes. You might consider well I don’t hit my irons all that far and I have got a couple of big par three's, so I actually use a fairway wood on the tee on a par three, but I want the ball to go high and I want the ball to come down and land softly, okay so I need a five wood in there or there's a hole that’s a bit shorter it's got water in the way, I'm never able to get that over the water and get the ball to stop on the other side, so put a seven wood in there.

If you’re really struggling to get the ball air bone and you’re struggling to get it out of a longer grass in the semi rough you could put a seven wood and even a nine wood in there to launch the ball out of there. And if you really struggle with the appearance and the look and you just don't like the feel of hitting irons, but you can't hit a fairway wood from 100 yards out, put an 11 wood in there, an 11 wood loads and loads of loft it looks like a nine iron really in terms of loft a little pitch underneath the 11 wood just pops the ball up in the air, lands very softly. And that’s how you could get to a situation where you’re carrying four or even five fairway woods, but I could say genuinely the higher handicap golfer are probably going to put more fairway woods in their bag, lower handicap golfers coming down to maybe just one or two at most.

The standard set for most golfers is driver and then three wood five wood, that’s genuinely the set you first get when you start, but don’t be afraid of adding to those fairway woods if you like them or taking them out if you feel you’re not using them very regularly.