Hit your fairway woods consistently with these 5 tips:
- Control Your Low Point
- Develop A Stock Shot
- Increase Your Clubhead Speed
- Ensure You Have The Right Club
- Stay Within Yourself
For many golfers, being able to hit fairway woods, hybrids or long irons consistently is very important.
The golfer that lacks some distance with the driver, might find themselves hitting their fairway wood 5-10 times during a round.
We all want to be consistent with all 14 clubs in the bag. Golfers, too often, start to describe themselves as a good iron player or a good fairway wood player. Whatever your current mindset might be, the reality is that you can be good at both!
With some simple drills below, we can get you headed in the right direction and striking shots solid, on your target line, with a predictable curve that travels plenty far.
Stop settling for your same old golf game and let’s find a way to get better!
Update: One other tip I would add is to learn to hit your fairway wood different distances. I would recommend two key shots with every fairway wood: the stock shot and a “bunt” swing that produces a little less distance, but is more controlled. Determine what shot is needed for the situation and make your fairway woods more versatile.
How To Hit Fairway Woods Consistently
The fairway wood can be a difficult club to hit for some golfers, simply due to the length of the fairway woods. For example, a 3 wood is now between 42-43 inches, which at one time was the length of the average driver, which is now closer to between 45-46 inches in length.
This extra length can make it difficult to strike the ball solid!
When we work with our students we focus on three fundamentals in the full swing:
- Being able to control the low point in the golf swing
- Developing a stock shot (one that starts on intended start line and has a predictable curve)
- Having enough speed to play the course
The 5 tips or drills below are related to the three fundamentals.
Tip #1: Control Your Low Point
The bottom line with any fairway wood is that we must control the low point of the swing. This is where the club interacts with the ground. If your low point control is off by two inches and you strike the ground 2 inches behind the ball, you are going to struggle for a long time. If you make a compensation, you might hit the top of the ball. Either way, you end up with a chunked shot or a low line driver where you lose plenty of distance.
The best golfers are able to control their low point and often are consistent with their pivot and where their weight is at impact.
Below is a drill we believe can help you improve where your club enters the ground. The best golfers aren’t scared of taking a divot because the club will enter the ground just slightly after striking the ball.
With the 3 wood it becomes very important to control the low point, so you don’t end up hitting a 10 yard chunk shot where the divot flies further than the ball. Stop those embarrassing, round destroying shots and commit to this drill for at least 30 days.
Helpful Post: 3 wood vs 5 wood (complete overview)
The Drill: The Low Point Control Dril
- Take some yard paint and patina a 1-2 yard long line.
- Setup with 55% of your weight on your front side.
- Try to hit the target side of the line and see how many times out of 10 you can do this successfully!
- Repeat this drill every day for a month, tracking your progress and your ability to to this successfully in trials of ten.
- You may need to start with half swing and progress to full swings.
If you are struggling, put more weight forward and work on keep your head still to help control the low point in the swing.
Tip #2: Develop A Stock Shot
If you play any golf with really good golfers, you might notice that their game seems boring. They hit either a consistent fade or draw on command and often play the same shot shape over and over. They understand where the ball is going to start and have a predictable curve. The poor golfer might hook the ball one time and then slice it the next. They fight a consistent battle of where the ball is going to start and the direction it will curve. This leads to frustration and difficulty with course management.
With a fairway wood, it becomes important for us to develop a stock shot. We can stand a tee box or on an approach shot and have an idea of where the ball will start and what direction it will curve.
Helpful Post: When to use a 3 wood
The Drill: Stock Shot Drill
- At the driving range, set up an alignment stick about 6-8 yards in front of you, straight down your target line.
- If you have a second alignment stick, set the stick 3-4 feet right of the first stick (for a draw) or left of the first stick (for a fade).
- Complete your initial assessment see how many times out of 10 you can start the ball to the right or left of your target. Pick one side and measure your game at this point.
- The goal is to eventually get 7 out of 10 shots to start to the correct side and draw back towards the target.
Here is the drill being explained by Kyle Morris:
Tip #3: Increase Your Clubhead Speed
Golfers who hit a 3 wood often, might struggle with overall distance. They find themselves 200 plus yards on many par 4s and par 5s. Over the years, many have settle for how far they hit their club. Those days are gone! \
Having enough speed to play the game is essential and keeps the golfer from over swinging. When a golfer has the confidence that he or she has enough distance they can swing within themselves and keep their swing repeatable.
Let’s face it, we all want to hit the ball further! The good news…there is a way to increase your driver distance that doesn’t include spending $500 on a new driver.
You can train for speed and get some amazing results with SuperSpeed Golf. It worked for me and I believe it can work for many (especially if you make a commitment and actually use it)
I believe many used to believe, well this is just how fast I can swing.
Recent training tools have started to change many minds. We have seen many of the professional golfers get longer and longer with their tee shots as a result of additional swing speed. You will find many touring pros using the SuperSpeed System, which I highly recommend.
SuperSpeed Golf is one option to increase your swing speed through a science based overspeed training approach. In simple terms, you train by swinging a lighter club (20%) faster than you swing your driver. Over time, by training at a higher speed, your mind and body feel safe to swing that fast with your normal driver, resulting in an increase in driver swing speed.
The SuperSpeed System provides 3 different weighted sticks and takes the golfer through a training protocol every other day for about 15 minutes. The golfer can expect to see a 5-8% increase in swing speed, resulting in 20-30 yards for most golfers. The great news is that the 5-8% can be expected as early as the first training session. The additional speed will become more permanent after about 30-60 days of training.
Helpful Post: 3 wood vs Driver distance (Complete Overview)
My own experience has been an increase of 7-10 miles per hour on average from between 98-101 all the way up to 106-109. My goal is to hit the PGA Tour average of 113 mph in the coming months. I will continue to train every other day and watch in amazement as I am hitting drivers longer now than ever before!
Phil Mickelson has been known to increase his swing speed in the past year or so and is close to 120 miles per hour in his swing speed. There are potential results for golfers of all ability levels and age!
Check the current price on SuperSpeed Golf System, here!
| Original Swing Speed | After 4-6 Weeks | New Carry Distance | Total Distance |
| 95 | 102 | 245 | 265 |
| 100 | 108 | 259 | 279 |
| 105 | 113 | 271 | 291 |
| 110 | 118 | 283 | 303 |
Tip #4: Ensure You Have The Right Club
There are three major factors you want to consider with your fairway woods:
- The loft of each club
- The length of each club
- The shaft in each club
If you have any of the three at the wrong setting for you, chances are you will struggle. If you are struggle with low point control, you might consider shortening your club by taking 1 inch off. If you struggle to get the ball in the air, you might consider a fairway wood with additional loft.
If you find yourself being consistent with the direction of your shot, you might have the wrong golf shaft for your game. If you have a faster swing speed, you might need a shaft with a stiff rating vs regular.
Find a way to experiment with different fairway woods by going to your local sporting good store and testing out the different options or even consider getting fitted for the right fairway woods.
Helpful Post: 3 wood vs 3 iron: Which one should I carry?
Tip #5: Stay Within Yourself
Too many golfers try to swing hard instead of fast. Swinging hard is a recipe for disaster as the body tenses up and you pull down too hard from the top. Instead keep your hands tension free and allow the club to whip through the hitting zone.
Keep those arms with a loose feeling on the backswing and keep your body moving.
BONUS TIP: Ball Placement
With the fairway wood, you will want to place the ball forward of the center of your stance, but not too far forward. Ideally, you will make a slight divot and interact with the ground. The ball will be just in front of the low point of the swing with the fairway wood and catch the ball slightly on the way up. We want to ensure we aren’t chopping down with a fairway wood.
Secret to Golf Improvement
The biggest game changer that allowed me to strike my irons pure was being able to practice and play golf everyday. Living in a part of the United States that has some difficult snowy winters did not stop me from playing golf 365 days a year in my Golf Simulator Setup in my Garage. This was a complete game changer.
No longer did the snow, rain, or time of day stop me from enjoying and practice the game that I love! I was able to reduce my average score by 4-6 shots and increase speed with my clubs through the SuperSpeed System.
I ended up purchasing a SkyTrack from Rain or Shine Golf. They have awesome customer service and some impressive financing deals. The cost of a simulator has decreased over hte years and now you could have a solid, impressive setup in the 5-7 thousand dollar range.
I have linked many of my golf simulator related posts at the bottom of this post. Make sure to check them out.
Some direct links to Rain or Shine Golf for pricing and financing:
Check out our recipe below for improving your game. Starting hitting those irons pure, hit more fairways and of course gain some distance. The recipe below will help you achieve all three:
Take Action – What You Can Do Today to Get Better
What does this mean for you? I believe in the following recipe to get better:
1 – Improve your motion in the golf swing by identifying a golf instructor. Here are some options:
Here is a list of golf instructors that we have reviewed:
2 – Train to swing faster and improve your swing speed. Here are some options:
Looking to gain more Speed and Distance in your swing. Two Options:
3 – Understand course strategy and work to break through your next barrier. Here is a series on breaking through:
We have provided guides on how to break 100, 90, 80 and 70. Check out more below, if interested.
4 – Practice Frequently
Did you know that I build a golf simulator in my garage and have played over 500 rounds of golf on my SkyTrak system? It has been a game changer and one worth checking out. Here are some of my other posts on golf simulators frequently asked questions:
- Is a Golf Simulator Worth It?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator?
- What is the Best Golf Simulator?
- Golf Simulator Accessories?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for under $7000
- Top 11 Reasons to Buy a SkyTrak
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for Under $1000
- Why Build A Golf Simulator?
- What Space is Needed?
- Can A Golf Simulator Improve My Game?
- How Much Does A Golf Simulator Cost?
- Don’t Forget to Check out our 15 best golf swings of all time.
