Fairway Woods

These new 3-woods recorded the fastest ball speeds during robot testing

By: Jonathan Wall March 14, 2024

Callaway's Paradym Ai Smoke 3-woods have plenty of gas in the tank.

Jonathan Wall/GOLF

callaway paradym ai smoke fairway woods — Callaway's Paradym Ai Smoke 3-woods have plenty of gas in the tank.

Jonathan Wall/GOLF

With the help of Golf Laboratories’ swing robot, GOLF’s 2024 ClubTest continues to deliver robotic testing insights on the newest equipment releases. We’re continuing fairway wood insights with the five fastest models in the marketplace.

Not every golfer tees it up at a course where driver is the prudent play off the tee. Speaking from experience, the track I played while living in the Northeast had just four holes where you could hit driver and not have to sweat a reload if the shot shape wasn’t absolutely perfect. Fairway woods and long irons wound up being the path to lower scores.

When driver isn’t the right call, it pays to have a 1B in the bag that produces enough pop to stay within shouting distance of the driver — and doesn’t have trouble finding the fairway.

In most cases, the 3-wood is the logical option to assume the role.

So where do you start if you’re on the hunt for a fast 3-wood? Using Golf Laboratories’ swing robot, we narrowed down the field of offerings to a select few that earned high marks in the ball-speed department.

Just to be clear, it’s important to conduct testing and undergo a proper fitting before pulling the trigger on a new 3-wood, but these offerings are a good place to start if more speed is on the list of wants.

(How we calculate: All testing was conducted with a 15-degree 3-wood at 95 mph, with six shots recorded from the geometric center, 3/4″ high toe and 3/4″ low heel.)