ward in the driver, thereby shifting the CG in
that direction, resulting in a tendency to
counteract slices.”
As for how this shaping helps MOI in fairway
woods and hybrids, John Hoeflich, COO and
golf club designer of Nickent Golf, says: “We’ve
used the same technology in our new 5DX
Ironwood that we used in the 4DX Evolver
driver. We tried to push the weight plugs as far
back in the clubhead as we could, which in
the driver makes it more stable and gives it a
higher MOI.
“So what we’ve been able to do in the 5DX,
by adding those little wings and the weight
plugs back there, is get the MOI in an ironwood over 3000. What it does is make it a more
stable ironwood head. Obviously because of
the dimensions front-to-back of an ironwood
compared to a driver, you can’t get the MOI up
to the 5000 range like you can in a driver – the
head’s just not wide enough – but we were able
to move it up from 2000 in the old 3DX GenX to
approximately 3200 in the 5DX.”
Tour players are telling Nickent that it’s a
little bit more stable and a little less prone to
hook – which is what they love about it.
“They don’t have to worry about it going left,”
says Hoeflich.
“I’ve learned a lot in the seven or eight
years since the original Rescue Mid, in which
the goal was to push as much weight back
away from the face as you could, to make it
more stable than an iron. We’re getting close
to fairway wood MOI now in hybrids.”
So because the MOI cannot reach 5000 like
it can with a driver, is the full effect wasted on
smaller-headed clubs? That depends, says
Mark Christensen, business unit leader for
woods and hybrids at Cleveland Golf. “Honestly,
the geometric shapes in fairways and hybrids
have less to do with performance and more to
do with matching the shape of the drivers of the
same product line,” says Christensen. “Because
the fairway wood/hybrid clubheads are so
much smaller than the drivers, designers have
more discretionary weight to play with.”
In other words, designers have more weight
to pile inside the head in the optimal places
low and deep, once they have the general
shape designed. “Because of the smaller head,
geometric shapes can’t move the CG as much
as the larger driver heads,” adds Christensen.
“Consequently, a square-shaped fairway or
hybrid is only increasing MOI slightly by putting weight in the corners vs. a much larger
driver clubhead.
“Basically, the weight can be moved very
far from the CG in a driver, not nearly as far
away in a fairway wood head and very little in
the small hybrid heads.”
That said, fairway wood clubheads have
grown in size over the past few years: The
average size in volume is substantially larger
from almost every major OEM today. This
translates to a higher MOI. And because of this,
fairway woods should be easier to control and
more forgiving today than a few years back.
Callaway Golf’s Colton adds that as fairway
woods have gotten larger and feature much of
the same technological advancements as the
drivers, “golfers are asking themselves, ‘why
shouldn’t I have the same benefit deeper into
my bag?’”
Then there’s the distance gapping purpose, behind these clubs.
A full set of drivers, woods and
hybrids can theoretically mean
that every distance range is covered
throughout the long end of the set.
And because many hybrids are
intended to be long iron replacements,
golfers are seeking proper distance gapping
throughout the entire set in their bag. Better,
more sophisticated golfers, claim manufacturers, tend to buy hybrids independent of
their irons and fairway woods.
However, there’s another group of players
who fall for manufacturers’ other motive in
making their fairway woods and hybrids
resemble their drivers: Marketing. Those golfers
just want to buy matching sets of clubs. And
that makes sense for some players – particularly
high-handicappers who don’t know where to
start – “especially if their handicap is north of
10,” says Hoeflich. “They could benefit from
clubs that are pretty much the same because
the problem those golfers have is consistency.
“When you buy this driver from one brand,
this wood from another, these hybrids from
yet another, etc., you’re likely to get a set from
a weighting point of view that can be mismatched.”
That can add three or four
strokes a round to your game.
“All you have to do is go
to the PGA Tour, where
there are incredibly fine-tuned swings, and give a
guy two drivers: One with
a 65-gram shaft, then
another with the exact
same specs but with an
85-gram shaft,” says Hoeflich.
“Watch him try to alternate shots
with them on the range and he’ll hit it
all over the block.
“That’s what an average guy does, who uses
a steel-shafted fairway wood and a graphite-
shafted hybrid: Their swing can’t recover the
difference in weight from one swing to the
next. Which is why buying a homogenous set
adds consistency.”
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