Golf Impact Position, What Is Perfect For A Fairway Wood (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Impact Position, What Is Perfect For A Fairway Wood (Video) - by Pete Styles

So this question really focuses on the correct impact position for a Fairway Wood. Now the impact position can differ slightly from the certain sort of Fairway Wood shot that you're going to hit. So if you had a Fairway Wood and you're playing it from a tee, the impact position would be slightly different to a Fairway Wood played from the ground, particularly if the ground was in a bad lie when it was sitting on the floor.

So we've got our normal setup position. Take a nice big wide back swing; we’re coming down towards impact, body weight moving to the left hand side. Now we want to hit into to a nice firm front side. So at the impact position the front leg is going to start to straighten out. The head's going to stay down and over the top of the golf ball, the rear leg is driving and pushing the body weight forwards. If the ball is in a good lie the handle could be slightly back because the ball would be slightly forwards, and impact would be here. This would produce a nice high sailing flight. If the ball is in a worse lie, the ball would have been a bit further back therefore inherently the hands would be now be more in front of the golf club, and that would actually delofting the face slightly. That would produce a lower more penetrating trajectory, possibly less flight, but maybe a little more run and a bit more roll. So because your fairway woods are designed to do quite a few different jobs and can be played from the tee peg or can be played from the ground. It's difficult to pin point exactly the one impact position you would always need. Your body position would always be moving to the left, but sometimes if your ball was in a bad lie you would have your hands more forwards. If the ball was in a good lie, ball position more forwards, hands are going to be more level. A key to a really good impact with a fairway wood, 3-wood, or 5-wood, stay down, stay with it, don’t be popping out of the shot to see where it went. If you stay down for a good impact, and trust that the club has enough loft on it, the ball will sail nice and high into the sky for you. 2014-11-06

So this question really focuses on the correct impact position for a Fairway Wood. Now the impact position can differ slightly from the certain sort of Fairway Wood shot that you're going to hit. So if you had a Fairway Wood and you're playing it from a tee, the impact position would be slightly different to a Fairway Wood played from the ground, particularly if the ground was in a bad lie when it was sitting on the floor.

So we've got our normal setup position. Take a nice big wide back swing; we’re coming down towards impact, body weight moving to the left hand side. Now we want to hit into to a nice firm front side. So at the impact position the front leg is going to start to straighten out. The head's going to stay down and over the top of the golf ball, the rear leg is driving and pushing the body weight forwards.

If the ball is in a good lie the handle could be slightly back because the ball would be slightly forwards, and impact would be here. This would produce a nice high sailing flight. If the ball is in a worse lie, the ball would have been a bit further back therefore inherently the hands would be now be more in front of the golf club, and that would actually delofting the face slightly. That would produce a lower more penetrating trajectory, possibly less flight, but maybe a little more run and a bit more roll.

So because your fairway woods are designed to do quite a few different jobs and can be played from the tee peg or can be played from the ground. It's difficult to pin point exactly the one impact position you would always need. Your body position would always be moving to the left, but sometimes if your ball was in a bad lie you would have your hands more forwards. If the ball was in a good lie, ball position more forwards, hands are going to be more level. A key to a really good impact with a fairway wood, 3-wood, or 5-wood, stay down, stay with it, don’t be popping out of the shot to see where it went. If you stay down for a good impact, and trust that the club has enough loft on it, the ball will sail nice and high into the sky for you.