Striking a three-wood from a tough lie can be very challenging, but don’t avoid this club for this reason it can only hurt your game. After your driver the three wood is the longest club in your bag, so you’d be sacrificing some distance and the chance to hit shorter iron shots into the green if you leave it out of the bag.
Unlike irons, which are most effective when the ball is struck with a downward swing, Fairway woods instruction requires a sweeping motion that strikes the ball as the clubhead moves parallel to the ground.
When you practice this technique, try to take a wide stance, just the same as you would with the driver. Position the golf ball opposite the left heel, spread your weight evenly and comfortably on the balls of your feet.
Start the golf swing sequence on a low path that almost skims the grass, and try to repeat that shallow path on your downswing. Try to remember, keep your right shoulder level with the ground and pull through with your left hand.
Maintain your head position and upper body behind the golf ball and make sure you extend your arms toward the target on the follow through. The three wood is not meant to go sky high, so don’t feel like you need to assist it to get it into the air, just try to keep the clubhead on a level track through impact. Your three-wood and fairway woods have more than enough loft to send your golf ball on it’s way.
To play the high golf shot, where say, you need to go over water or need more loft, play the golf ball a bit further forward in your stance and drop your hands slightly at the address position. Try to place a little extra weight over your back foot by leaning your spine away from your target.
Implementing these changes can position you for a much better swing to sweep the ball off of the fairway, while adding more loft to your shot.
To hit a golf shot with a lower, piercing ball flight, just do the opposite. Meaning, place the golf ball where you would normally play a mid iron from, it’s about 2 ball widths back towards the middle of your stance, then place more weight onto your front leg.
These slight changes will help to take the loft off the club at impact and produce the low ball flight you need to enable the golfball to run up to and hopefully onto the green.
Altering your stance to hit a different shot with your fairway wood is the much preferred way when you need to produce differing golf ball flights from the same golfclub. It’s more beneficial, safer and simpler to choose this alteration in your stance than changing your golfswing.
Fairway Wood Instructions to hit 3-wood from a tight lie:
1. Play your golfball back in your stance
2. Sweep the golf ball off the fairway
3. Strike your golfball with a descending blow
4. Shift your weight to your lead side
5. Swing through the golf ball
The key to hitting different shots and taking strokes off your game with your fairway wood is to adjust your stance, not your swing, to achieve the lofts you need.
It pays to remember one thing, don’t just assume you’re going to hit the perfect shot. Release the tension. Don’t let stress and tension slip into your set up. Usually it’s a lot better to tee up the ball on the side of the trouble, this can guard against a possible bad shot. Always aim for a clear definite target in the distance and within reach of the club your using, And don’t worry about distance, It is more of a priority to have accuracy.
Related posts:
[...] than a normal shoulder turn.5. For your second shot from the fairway, using fairway woods, see fairway woods instruction for your iron shots see irons instruction6. One thing to be mindful of is the grain of the green, [...]
A great golf piece of golf instruction. I was hitting my three wood like a five iron – no wonder I was mis-hitting it so often.
This tip has been most helpful help and the demonstration shot was brilliantly taken.
Many thanks
Pete Gerdes
Hi Pete,
I am glad you found this tip helpful, I’m sure it will improve your game. Be sure to come back and read more golf tips here as you need them. Thanks for stopping by