Re: Why have a 3 wood?

i use mine to tee off with.
im actually longer and straighter with it than driver.
i played in a 3ball at the weekend with a 10 and 11 handicapper and managed to match them off the tee with my 3 wood.
it's my ideal driving club!

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

For your situation Chris, I wouldn't bother with a 3 wood/1 iron hybrid.

Driver
5w/2h
3-PW
GW,SW,LW
Putter

If you're not knocking the 3 wood on, then why carry it? Otherwise you'd have to drop something else (and I'd suggest the 5w or 2h).

I'm amazed at two things, generally:

1) How many people are afraid of the gap wedge. It's a necessary club in modern sets. It's un-necessary in pre 1980 sets. Here's the kicker - a modern gap wedge is a 1970 PW, loft wise. Forget what's stamped on the sole, know what the loft is, and fill the gap.

2) How many people are afraid of a 60° wedge. "It's too hard to hit". "I need a lot of practice to get good with it". But you're oh-so-much better at hitting a modern 3 iron - which has the loft of an old school weak 1 iron? Give me a break. Even if you've got a hybrid 2 or 1; they're harder to hit than a 60. Seriously.

Take the extra wedge, and give yourself one more option from scoring range. You're much more likely to get close to the flag with a 60 from inside 100 yards than you are with a 3 iron from outside 200.

You may snag slats' idea, and go with a high-lofted driver (aka Thriver). You may not even notice a distance loss, and get more accuracy. Certainly worth a try.

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

10.5 deg Driver
3 Wood
19 Deg Recovery
22 Deg Recovery
5 to 9 iron
PW / GW/ SW / LW

This will cover anything the course throws at you.

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

Why 10.5 for the driver?

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

Getting more common as well, over here they are generally tagged as "max" e.g. 10.5 12 & max which is often 14.

Like Slats I'm matching the driver length off the tee of guys with my 14 degree steel headed bargain bucket 3W, mainly because they (mid / high caps only - my 8 cap mate smacks it 260 plus) only get around 220 yards with low lofted drivers - plenty of machismo but sod all flight I guess.

My local shop has suggested a I test a max driver - on the basis that the same loft plus an extra inch on the shaft (as the Bishop said ) will make a big difference in distance without losing too much accuracy.

I don't carry a driver at the moment (I have a 189cc steel Ping i3 in the garage) so I may well give it a whirl - If I ask them nicely I'll be able to take it out for a round as well as playing on the range.

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

I carry a 3 wood for the days where I know I'm not hitting my 1 iron all that consistently...

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

Why not? 12 if you prefer. To me a 10.5 gives enough spin to reduce some of the side spin usually found with higher handicappers drivesand will generate suitable trajectory for distance.

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

I do prefer 12. Or more. Let's assume the high capper does two things consistently: Slices the ball and swings at a low swing speed.

The higher loft will reduce sidespin and increase backspin (relationally); as well as achieve more carry as a rule as the average beginners' swing speed is very low (relationally) until they learn how to swing.

Some beginners to the game (those picking it up in their later years) may never have to move away from their Thriver. Younger players (teens, twenties, eg)may elect to closet it, or sell it once their SS comes up.

I was just looking for some justification as to that particular loft, is all. It just seemed rather arbitrary.

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

Bizarrely, I woke up in the middle of the night worrying that no one had answered the question! But I guess Lowpost does. The answer is that more loft converts sidespin into backspin, which explains why it's so hard to shape shots with a pitching wedge, and why Slats and everyone else here who's better than me (which is everyone ) may take a 3 off the tee, particularly on a difficult hole.

It's also worth remembering that 3 woods are good out of rough, because the head has a tendency to glide through it, and that the argument doesn't stop there, but it may be worth considering a 5 wood, and 7 woods aren't unknown.

The received wisdom is that beginners should have a hybrid. I've never hit one, so I can't comment, but I would say, Lowpost that I have no trouble with my 3 iron. Does that make me a freak? my set ATM is 1W (12^), 3W, 5W, 3-SI, Putter, 64^ bonkers wedge. On the course I play it works for me.

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

My three wood is a great alternative to driver on tight holes. When I don't have the confidence, or it's a dogleg, and I just have to get the ball out there 225-245 or so to get around, the three wood is the perfect club off the tee. There's this one hole on a course I play at occasionally--par 5 dogleg left with a lake at 250 yards. You can't cut the dogleg unless you're Bubba Watson. Hit it 250 straight and you're dead. Hit it 235 and it's perfect. So out comes the three wood.

If I'm feeling brave, I drag my 8.5-degree driver out, but I'm inconsistent with it, so I've been experimenting with a 10.5-degree. I don't hit it as far, but it's a lot straighter. I have to tee it low, though. Otherwise I rocket the cotton-picking ball into the stratosphere and it lands 150 yards away.

my clubs:
Wilson Deep Red 10.5 degree 400cc--bargain bin find! 35 bucks!
or
Cleveland Launcher 460 8.5 degree
ben hogan c455 3-wood
hogan 19, 21, 24-degree hybrids
hogan apex 50 blades 5-E
hogan wedges 52, 56
john byron x-11 putter

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

bulldog, you allude to some course management. Wingman gives us a picture - I'll come right out and say it.

'The Driver' is a misnomer for the 1 wood. 'The driver' is the club you tee off with on any given hole. Yes, I realise that 'driver' and '1 wood' are currently synonymous, but it wasn't always so.

For the OP, a 3 wood isn't a necessary part of his bag makeup. He figures to only use it to try and hit par 5's in two, so there's no need. While you bring up good points, bulldog, they're moot as far as the OP is concerned.

Now as for your point about hybrids, IMO they're a top replacement for high lofted woods and low lofted irons. Their shorter length and wood-like soles make them truly utility clubs. I would not recommend them to folks who think they already hit the ball high enough, however, as they're higher launching than their equivalent irons.

But course management and which club to hit off the tee is simply math. Now that I'm bringing more management to the course, I hit terrible shots whenever my strategy off the tee is 'get it out there as far as possible'; because I have no target. I carry a golf GPS unit, and use it to get a number to the 150. If it's within reach, then I tee off with whatever club will carry me there - leaving me with somewhere between 100 and 150 as an approach. If it's not within reach, I divide the yardage in half, and hit a couple easy clubs to inside 150, then hit my approach. A basic primer in course management that took me a year to implement (granted, when you spray the ball all over the place, and can chunk or slice one off the planet at any time, there's no point in really laying up).

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

God I talk some **** sometimes. Apologies to all for trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about. The more I play, the more more I realise the less I know

What's crazy is I've found myself in EXACTLY this situation, albeit for different reasons;

I started hitting my driver straight - a bargain bucket 10.5 square headed Slazenger Blockbuster. I love this club - am not hitting it miles, but far enough, but more importantly, I'm hitting it straight - usually 75% or 80% FW found (9 or 10 out of 12). Accordingly I panic about taking my 3W instead. I'm more erratic with it - not sure why - my best guess is it's largely psychological, from both the look of the 460 behind the ball and the small 3W, coupled with the success I've had with the driver which makes me use it more and the 3W less, and the circle spins round on itself.

I have no par 5's on my home course, though I do use the 5W increasingly.

So now I have a redundant club, and I feel I might as well replace it. The problem is, what with? I could replace it with a hybrid, but I'm hitting the 3I ok - certainly off the tee, perhaps not quite as well off the deck, but still not too bad.

For the record, my bag ATM is:

Driver 10.5
3W, 5W
3-SW
64^ lob wedge with loads of bounce
Putter

Now, at the wedge end of stuff, it's interesting; PW, SW (not much bounce), 64^ with loads of bounce. I use the 64^ lots in bunkers where I get tight to the lip - again, partly as a confidence thing. I use the SW much less, though increasingly am using it on the FW approaches because there's not much bounce, whereas I keep thinning my lobs with the 64^. I think I need to rethink my wedge stuff a little, because I don't know the lofts and more importantly the gaps in my set, but at the moment, it works ok.

So the issue is - I have a club I'm not using, but I don't have a different club instead at the moment that I think I should have. Does that make sense?

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

Tom Kite has a quote:

"If you have a club in your bag that you are uncomfortable hitting, take it out".

That's what I did with mine....

Chessbum...

Re: Why have a 3 wood?

I used to use my 3w off the tee all the time, until I got the 12* lofted driver, which I can hit about as straight as my 3w, but generally farther. I never got the knack of using the 3w on the fairway, so I stopped carrying it. I have a 17* "recovery" hybrid that I've been on and off with--lately off. When I connect, it goes about 220 yds, but I have a real tendency to hit it thin and low. I just need to take it to the range and work with it, but I use it in lieu of a 3w, if I use it at all.