Delo’s Divots: Hitting a crisp fairway wood that sails down
toward the green is one of the more rewarding shots in golf. But
let’s face it. The difficulty factor of this shot is up there. You
are hitting a long club with low loft off the ground. How much more
difficult do you want to make it?
Hitting a crisp fairway wood that sails down toward the green is one of the more rewarding shots in golf.
But let’s face it. The difficulty factor of this shot is up there. You are hitting a long club with low loft off the ground. How much more difficult do you want to make it?
The key to success in this shot lies in the angle you strike the ball. When hitting an iron, you want to strike the ball as the club is on the downward arc. When hitting a driver off the tee, it is struck on the slight upswing. So, the fairway wood is, as you might have guessed, is struck somewhere in between.
That somewhere is directly at the bottom of the arc. If you strike it on the downswing, your shot will go very low and, often times, won’t even get airborne. If you strike it on the upswing, you will top it every time.
A good drill to get confident with a fairway wood is to go to the range and hit several shots with the ball teed up slightly. Every 10 balls or so, drop the tee height down until you are, in fact, hitting it off the ground.
