Should you use the same shaft in your driver and fairway woods?

Finding a shaft profile for your driver is hard enough. When you find one you love with a driver head that works for your swing, it feels like you’re unstoppable. Finding a perfect fairway wood combination, however, can sometimes feel impossible. I don’t actually have a 3-wood in the bag because I’ve found it so difficult to find the “perfect” one for me. Most of that insecurity is due to the difference in the swings. I can feel invincible with the driver, but as soon as you tell me to hit a fairway wood off the turf, I’ll fall apart.

As I’ve experimented more with trying to find the right 3-wood for my game, my shaft selection has been all over the place. But one thing, particularly in the 5-wood category, that I actually love dearly, is that the profile needs to be different than my driver shaft. With my driver, I hit up on the ball pretty heavily, but with the fairway woods I like to be able to pinch the ball and even take a small divot. The difference in those two swings can be pretty dramatic, and that’s what causes the need for a different shaft profile.

I’ve made videos on my Instagram before talking about matching up a shaft profile to the player’s unique swing, which also means making sure that they entire build combination of head and shaft needs to work properly as well. However, even the same player can have different swings throughout the bag. The shaft profile in your driver may not end up being the same shaft profile you need to play in other areas of the bag.

For me, and lots of players on the PGA Tour, it’s easier to pair my driver with a lower launching part and my fairway woods with a higher launching part. For the driver I like to use something like the Mitsubishi Diamana WB or the Tensei 1k Pro White to help keep up with a bit more of an aggressive swing from the top, that I lean back on to hit up on the ball. I want the tip section to be a bit more stable so that it’s not providing any additional kick at impact. Since I am already providing a bit more dynamic loft naturally with my swing, I don’t want the tip of the shaft to increase that even further.

Currently Jake’s gamer driver shaft

Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei 1K Pro White Wood Shaft

NOW AVAILABLE — TENSEI™ 1K Pro White is built for the player who seeks perfection. Created using extraordinary 1K Fiber that is 3x thinner than Carbon Kevlar for a tighter, more consistent weave. This super premium fiber produces an amazing “1K feel” by transmitting more of the high frequency vibrations needed to feel the true quality of impact. Constructed utilizing the new dual-phase XLINK Tech Resin System for a carbon-rich structure that is both stronger and more responsive. Boron fiber in the tip caps off this exceptional design. Available from 50R to 80TX, giving a wide range of players the opportunity to play a super premium 1K shaft.

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In a fairway wood, I like something a bit softer. I’ll end up getting my attack angle more neutral, or even slightly down on the ball with the fairway woods, and my swing mechanics will change slightly. Getting closer to an iron swing, where I also have a shaft profile with a slightly stiffer handle section and a slightly softer tip section. Having a slightly softer tip section with something like a Tensei 1k Pro Red or a Diamana RB helps to feel a bit more confident getting down on the ball and pinching it off the turf. This helps to manage a nice launch and spin window, and I’ve also seen it actually increase speed as well in the fairway woods for me compared to a stiffer tip profile.

Who SHOULD play the same profile in both clubs?

It really all comes down to the fit. Lots of players at the highest level are playing the same shafts in their driver and fairway woods. The LPGA’s Hannah Green is on quite a run this season sitting second on the points list for the LPGA after two wins and a recent top-10 at the first major of the year. She plays a Mitsubishi Diamana RB in both her driver and her fairway wood; increasing weight by one class heavier in her fairway wood compared to the driver.

Hannah has a more similar swing with both her driver and the 3-wood, so it’s more comfortable to stay in the same timing and the same feel by sticking with the same shaft. Any player at any skill level who is delivering the club in a similar way is probably going to feel very comfortable with the same shaft profile in each club. I’ve also tended to see a trend in players on different ends of the speed spectrum fall into the same profile. Players, like a Xander or a Matt Fitzpatrick, that are more powerful and really need help controlling the club head tend to stick to the stiffer profiles throughout most of the bag. The same can also be said for players that are on the slower side of swing speeds. These players, like Hannah Green, tend to stick to the same swing no matter what part of the bag they are in, and having the same profile helps produce a bit more launch and ball speed at that level of swing speed.

Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana RB Wood Shaft

Diamana™ RB (Red Board) – the third profile in the most recent generation – is designed with all the traditional branding that made Diamana so beloved – including a return to the original 53/63/73/83 weight class designations – and all the engineering prowess and material innovation that made the brand dominant on tour.  Offering a slightly higher launch angle than BB, Diamana™ RB was engineered to promote ease of launch while also maintaining control down field. Diamana RB is a classic “Red Board” profile — not available since the 2nd Generation of Diamana — that features an active tip section while still retaining the same material technology package and low-torque control characteristics as its lower launching counterparts.

$360.00 from Fairway Jockey

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In the middle are the players at any speed who have a bit more tempo in their swing, and they aren’t linear in their speed. These are players that oftentimes end up in smoother stiff profiles in the driver, like the Diamana WB, but softer profiles in their fairways. They’ll typically rip the driver a bit harder from the top, but stay a little smoother in transition with their fairway woods. These are players who will love to switch to something like a Diamana BB or a Tensei 1k Pro Blue (like Cam Young) in their higher-lofted fairway wood options.

As always if you’re looking to get yourself dialed in for the right combination of heads and shafts for you bag, visit your local True Spec for a fitting.