Fairway Woods or Hybrids

[Greenmantle]

Taking my golf more seriously this year since I am now in semi retirement.
Would like to play most of the year.

Purchased a new driver which has upped my game - hopefully leading to a drop in handicap.
Drive is now 230 carry plus roll on top
Swing speed isn't slow but isn't superfast either.

The bag consists of:
driver
7, 8, 9,
sand
putter
and picking 3 out of 5 available wedges.

Obviously from above I have a huge gap for:
par 5 holes
200ish par 3 holes
longish par 4 holes

I am thinking 2 more clubs will do and the collective PH Golf Wisdom is required.

My initial thinking:
Fairway Woods = probably not 3 but starting at 4 plus maybe a 7.
Hybrids = maybe a 3 with a 4 or 4 with a 5.

[Challo]

What irons do you have and do you know the lofts?

Some irons are very strong lofted, so your 7 iron might actually be a 6 or 5 irons in old money. If you know your loft than you can match it what clubs you might need.

[Iain0140]

A 7 wood can fill a lot of niches and get you out of trouble, I find it the easiest club to punch out low from under trees etc, but also be a reliable club to hit 4 iron sort of distance and keep in play.

Id go with 1 of them and probably a 6 iron or a high lofted hybrid depending on personal preference.

[Hobo]

Its quite a large assumption to make, but if your getting 230 carry from a driver you probably have a club speed or around 95mph (maybe slightly less), and therefore based on that your looking at the following club distances as a starter;

7i - 135 yards carry
8i - 125 yards carry
9i - 115 yards carry
GW - 105 yards carry

If the above seem about right, then personally I'd stay away from the 5i and potentially 6i as you probably won't get much more distance out of them over your 7i as you may struggle to get them up in the air.

I also personally find fairway woods easier to hit that hybrids, so if I were you I'd be adding;

5 wood - circa 185 yards
9 wood - circa 160 yards
Couple of wedges, maybe a 54/56 & 58/60

I wouldn't bother with much else as in all honesty not sure you'll need it currently. As you game improves, your distances will change, and your ability to hit different clubs will change respectively, at which point maybe look at a 3 wood and 6 iron at least, and then maybe a 5 iron as well.

If the distances above are wrong, let us know as that will help people give recommendations as it may be you hit your irons miles and driver not so.

[Greenmantle]

Challo said:

What irons do you have and do you know the lofts?

Some irons are very strong lofted, so your 7 iron might actually be a 6 or 5 irons in old money. If you know your loft than you can match it what clubs you might need.

good point
the irons are Callaway Pros so less loft than the standard version

[Greenmantle]

Iain0140 said:

A 7 wood can fill a lot of niches and get you out of trouble, I find it the easiest club to punch out low from under trees etc, but also be a reliable club to hit 4 iron sort of distance and keep in play.

Id go with 1 of them and probably a 6 iron or a high lofted hybrid depending on personal preference.

yep - read recently some really good stuff about the 7 wood. Was thinking rather than the 7 I would get a Ping G440 SFT 5 wood just because I felt that I would be short during wet and muddy days. On hot sunny days I'm sure that the ball will roll quite far.

[Wills2]

If you're averaging 230 yds carry rather than "when I nut it out of the centre swinging 4 degrees up on it" then your swing speed will be higher than 95mph unless you hit a perfect launch/spin every time, you're looking at least 100mph to average 230yds carry due the impact of those less than perfect shots on average distance.

As for trying to extrapolate iron carry from driver distance that simply doesn't work with HC golfers, I know people that can really hit their driver 110mph+ but put an iron in their hands and they lose all strike the same is true the other way.

My advice would be go get a gapping session with a pro in a studio and take it from there.

[fat80b]

Hobo's post makes sense to me. (And those numbers are pretty much where I am on course) - I think there is something else I'd ask though - which is around ball flight and shot shape as there seems to be correlation with those that get on with a hybrid?

For me, I play off 17, and rely on my hybrids a lot, but I hit a nice high ball and am very comfortable defaulting to my hybrid in numerous situations (tee, fairway, rough etc). I carry a Ping G440 20 and a Mizuno flyhi 23 hybrid and love them both. I can rely on them anywhere from 150 (gripping down the mizuno) to 220 (stepping on the ping). (Stock yardages are 170,185)

I also have a 3 wood, but it doesn't get that much use (even though I've hit some great shots with it in the past) mostly because the hybrids are my happy place with my high ball flight.

But -- lots of the mid handicapper chaps I play with hit a much lower, longer running ball - ie. they don't play a high ball into the greens but hit a sort of chippy iron that has a much lower apex than my ball flight and runs on. I would say that almost zero of the chaps I come across play a hybrid like I do -- They almost all play 5w / 7w in the places where I play my hybrid. And when they do play a hybrid, they complain of struggling with consistency and thin a few too many...

p.s. try one - This https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/297955899885 with the high launch shaft would be a cheap weapon for me