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.
Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei 1K Pro White Wood 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
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