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4-wood vs 7-wood vs hybrid – GolfWRXers discuss

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In our forums, our members have been discussing optimal setup at the top of the bag. WRXer ‘Layts14’ is torn between going 4W, 7W or hybrid, and explains his predicament to begin the thread saying:

“Recently won a fairway metal or hybrid and struggling to choose what to get. Currently have driver, 3W, 5W, 23* hybrid. I am tempted to try something new in the bag like a TSi2 4W or 7W. 

Another option is to upgrade the hybrid to a 24* TSi2 or a G425 26* hybrid to gap between 5i and 5W. 

Is it time to experiment with a new fairway loft? And if I go 7w, so I go 70g shaft like 3W and 5W or bump up to 80g since shaft length is decreasing?”

And our members have been sharing their thoughts in the thread.

Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

  • bazinky: “I’d vote for the 7 wood. I plan on experimenting with one soon since it seems that Par 5 approaches and the longer par 3s on most course now often require something that stops faster than a long iron or hybrid.”
  • Billfitz: “I got rid of all my fairway woods, replaced them with hybrids (in my signature). The hybrids are just as good off the tee, better off the deck, and they handle the rough. I’d stopped carrying my 3w for a long time, as I almost never used it. I use my 2H on average four shots every round.”
  • hammergolf: “I can tell you for me, putting a 7wd in the bag has been one of the best decisions I’ve made. Much better than my previous 3 hybrid. GREAT at coming out of the rough. I still carry a 4hy, but I play 3wd, 7wd. I just hit shots with my 7 wood that I can’t hit with a hybrid. As crazy as it sounds, I look at my 7 we as a scoring club now. I’ve lost count of how many birdies I’ve made with it. My playing partners hate to see it come out of the bag….”
  • buynagame: “I have 4 wood then 19 and 22 G410 hybrids. Works great for me. The shorter shafts on hybrids make them more accurate. The 4 wood is used on the short tee shots and rare trying to hit par 5 in 2.”

Entire Thread: “4-wood vs 7-wood vs hybrid – GolfWRXers discuss”

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Matt

    Sep 15, 2021 at 2:31 pm

    I personally play a strong 5 wood, strong 7 wood, and a short heavy 5 hybrid before going into my irons at 5 iron. Current driver swing speed around 112. I took out one of my wedges to add a club at the top end of my bag and I have never scored better. Long par 3s are no longer a scare due to my hybrid and I have multiple options for 2nd shot an par 5s in addition to multiple options for positioning off the tee. It’s my belief that more people would benefit from having more options at the top as long as they are properly fit and gapped.

  2. Jorge

    Sep 15, 2021 at 10:25 am

    Love my 7 wood Ping G425… and it’s perfect for clipping over the corner trees of a dogleg, it goes high and gives me the same distance as my 5 wood. I know that sounds odd, but I think the 7 wood is lighter and I can get higher club speed.

    Considering a hybrid to replace my 3 and 4 irons that wound up in the lake. Accidently.

  3. Donn

    Sep 11, 2021 at 5:37 pm

    Such problems. Have fun go 7 wood. With today technology it probably is groovy.

  4. MattS

    Sep 9, 2021 at 5:30 am

    Can’t comment on player’s question without knowing his yardages and gapping and dispersion variances for the clubs in his bag. However, one should choose correct gapping and not concern oneself with the number showing on the bottom of the club.

  5. James

    Sep 9, 2021 at 1:17 am

    What’s the loft of a 4-wood?

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Whats in the Bag

Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)

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Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX

5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX

Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)

Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4

More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.

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Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

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Webb Simpson equipment Q&A: Titleist’s new 2-wood, 680 blade irons, and switching to a broomstick Jailbird

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With seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including a U.S. Open victory, Webb Simpson is a certified veteran on the course. But he’s also a certified veteran in the equipment world, too. He’s a gearhead who truly knows his stuff, and he’s even worked closely with Titleist on making his own custom 682.WS irons.

On Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Simpson to hear about his experience with Titleist’s new prototype 2-wood, how Titleist’s 680 Forged irons from 2003 ended up back in his bag, and why he’s switching into an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser broomstick putter this week for the first time.

Click here to read our full story about Simpson’s putter switch on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, or continue reading below for my full Q&A with Simpson at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

GolfWRX: It seems like you’ve been a little all over the place with your irons in the past six months or so, and now going back to the 680’s. Is that just a comfort thing? What’s been going on with the irons?

Webb Simpson: Titleist has been so great at working with me, and R&D, on trying to get an iron that kind of modernizes the 680. And so the 682.WS took the T100 grooves, but kinda took the look and the bulk and the build of the 680’s into one club. They’re beautiful, and awesome looking. I just never hit them that well for a consistent period of time. It was probably me, but then I went to T100’s and loved them. I loved the spin, the trajectory, the yardage, but again, I never went on good runs. Going through the ground, I couldn’t feel the club as well as with the blade. So last week, I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna go back more for…comfort, and see if I can get on a nice little run of ball striking.’

So that’s why I went back.

 

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A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

OK, that makes sense. I know you had done some 2-wood testing recently. Is that in the bag right now?

It’s like day-by-day. I used it at Hilton Head every day. Valero, I used it one round. And this week, me and my caddie will do the book every morning, and if it’s a day where we think we need it, we’ll just put it in and take the 3-wood out. I love it because it’s a super simple swap. Like, it doesn’t really change much.

Yeah, can you tell me about that club? I mean, we don’t really know anything about it yet. You know? I haven’t hit it or anything, obviously.

It has grooves like a 3-wood. Spin is perfect. And it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it. So, a Hilton Head golf course is almost too easy to talk about because, you know, there, so many holes are driver 3-wood.

Valero, our thinking was we had two par-5’s into the wind, and we knew that it would take two great shots to get there in two. So instead of hitting driver-driver, we just put it in. And I used it on those holes.

Hilton was a little easier because it was off-the-tee kind of questions. But Colonial will be a golf course where, you know, there’s a lot of driver or 3-woods. It’s kind of like a backup putter or driver for me now. I’ll bring it to every tournament.

So it’s, like, in your locker right now, probably?

Well, it would be. It’s in my house [because Webb lives near by Quail Hollow Club, and is a member at the course.] It’s in the garage.

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Do you know what holes you might use it out here if it goes in play? 

Potentially 15, depending on the wind. Second shot on 10. Could be 14 off the tee. The chances here are pretty low (that he’ll use the 2-wood). But, like, Greensboro would be an awesome club all day. I’m trying to think of any other golf courses.

There’s plenty that it’ll be a nice weapon to have.

It’s interesting, the wave of 2-woods and mini drivers. Like, it’s just really taken off on Tour, and all the companies have seemed to embrace it.

Yeah. The thing I had to learn, it took me, like, at least a week to learn about it is you gotta tee it up lower than you think. I kept teeing it up too high. You need it low, like barely higher than a 3-wood. And that was where I got optimal spin and carry. If you tee it up too high, you just don’t get as much spin and lose distance, I don’t know if that’s just a mini driver thing.

And you obviously have a Jailbird putter this week. What spurred that on?

Inconsistent putting. I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open minded – I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’

If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on Tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all the sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup Playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’

My caddie, David Cook, caddied for Akshay at the Houston Open and he putted beautifully. Then, I watched Akshay on TV at Valero, and he putted beautifully. And, I’m like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’

I’ve never tried it for more than a putt or two, and I just ordered what Akshay uses. It was pretty awkward at first, but the more I used it, the more I’m like, ‘Man, it’s pretty easy.’ And a buddy of mine who’s a rep out here, John Tyler Griffin, he helped me with some setup stuff. And he said at Hilton Head, he wasn’t putting well, then tried it, and now he makes everything. He was very confident. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll try it.’”

And you’re going with it this week?

Hundred percent.

Alright, I love it. Thank you, I always love talking gear with you. Play well this week. 

Thanks, man.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

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