4 woods?

[xander.uk]

ok the only woods i currently carry in my bag are my driver and 3 wood.

i am looking to replace my 3 wood but as i ONLY use it for tee shots ( and it is my go to club when i HAVE to hit the fairway i cant even remember missing with it)

i am thinking maybe i should consider replacing it with a 4 wood?
the idea being it would be a little easier for me to hit off fairways and even the 1st cut if its sitting nicely but shouldnt be too far down in distance on my 3 wood off the tee?

the problem i have being LEFT HANDED i cant find a local store that has a 4 wood for me to try..lol (they are happy for me to order 1 to buy but not to try) i know i can get either a 3 or 4 wood srixon AD-403 match up for my new driver but i wondered if you guys have any experience of a 4 wood?

does any1 carry a 4 wood? or is it just a bad idea?

thoughts please!

[gocchin]

I only carry a 4 wood. 16* loft and easy to hit off the fairway for sure. I use a 10.5* driver so going to 16* is okay in my mind. I may lose a bit of distance off a 14 or 15* 3 wood but I find the 4 wood much easier to hit thus more accurate for me. I use a 20* utility after the 4.

[Pingnut]

I'd have second thoughts about replacing my "go to" club when needing to hit a fairway. :p

I used to carry only a driver and 4 wood - but got tired of not being able to go for some par 5's. Now I have a mini driver 13* 3 wood and then a 20* hybrid I play at 5 wood length instead of the 4 wood. Maybe you can add a 16* hybrid to the bag instead of replacing the 3 with a 4?

[Samick]

I played a 4-wood for a while (before the face caved) and thought it was a great club. My 3-wood was going pretty far....almost too far for a go-to club on shortish ( 400 yards and under is my rule of thumb) par 4's off the tee, and too low off the deck. This combination of alot of length off the tee, and a low ball off the deck led me to the 4-wood. So for somebody like me, it was a no-brainer. IF you already hit a high ball, and dont have alot of length, the 4-wood may not be a good choice. By the way, the 4-wood I played was a Steelhead III. Good luck.

[nailer]

Try pick up a TM 200 17* Tour used excellent club.

[esidirop]

Ben hogan 4 woods at GT in scarboro with aldila nv-s shafts 78$, saw them yesterday. and i saw a couple lefties. (Amazing woods!!!!)

[KingCobra]

Love my 4W V-Steel, hell I love all my V-Steels. See if you can find any TM V-Steels around, great club, was #1 fairwaywood on tour for a while. The prices are finally starting to fall, great club if you can find one:D

[golferboy]

Stick with the 3 wood if that works for you.....I will go with the 3 wood(15*) and a 19-20* hybrid this year. Will hit the hybrid on shorter par 4s with tight fairways.

[kingplayer]

Even better than that, I carry a strong three wood (13) a four wood, dropped the 3 iron and put in a hybrid 3. This gives me the best of all worlds for a wide variety of shots and situations. :)

[xander.uk]

sorry should have pointed out that my current 3 wood is 15* and i am thinking of replacing it with the srixon Ad-403 4wood (to match my driver) which is 16.5*
i know different shafts etc are involved but i just think the extra 1.5* loft of the 4 wood would help me hit it more consistently off fairway lies!

i already carry 2 mizuno fli hi clk rescues of 20* & 23* but what i am looking for now is how to hit those very long par 5's that are just out of reach of either of the rescues or my 5 iron!
my 3 wood striking is only consistent off the tee and i am able to move the ball either left or right off the tee with it so its a very useful club for me! i also carry it about 230+ yards so most par 4's its all i need. with my rescue clubs off the tee i find it difficult to hit them anything other than straight! ( on purpose.lol) so i feel that the 4 wood might be a happy medium but i wouldnt want to sacrifice too much distance.

[dekker]

I did carry a 4wood but it was replaced by a 7wood of the same make,(Callaway steelhead) essentially an improved 5wood of yesterday.
IMHO the Steelhead was the best all round FW series.
The steelhead4,15yds.shorter than my 980F 3wood could handle light rough.The 7wood is superb from any rough.
If I was restricted to two woods,it would be the 3 and the 7 because of their versatility.

[kingplayer]

I did carry a 4wood but it was replaced by a 7wood of the same make,(Callaway steelhead) essentially an improved 5wood of yesterday.
IMHO the Steelhead was the best all round FW series.
The steelhead4,15yds.shorter than my 980F 3wood could handle light rough.The 7wood is superb from any rough.
If I was restricted to two woods,it would be the 3 and the 7 because of their versatility.

Take a look at the new Nike SQ Fairway woods when they come out in February, very nice looking!!!

[avidgolfer]

sorry should have pointed out that my current 3 wood is 15* and i am thinking of replacing it with the srixon Ad-403 4wood (to match my driver) which is 16.5*
i know different shafts etc are involved but i just think the extra 1.5* loft of the 4 wood would help me hit it more consistently off fairway lies!

i already carry 2 mizuno fli hi clk rescues of 20* & 23* but what i am looking for now is how to hit those very long par 5's that are just out of reach of either of the rescues or my 5 iron!
my 3 wood striking is only consistent off the tee and i am able to move the ball either left or right off the tee with it so its a very useful club for me! i also carry it about 230+ yards so most par 4's its all i need. with my rescue clubs off the tee i find it difficult to hit them anything other than straight! ( on purpose.lol) so i feel that the 4 wood might be a happy medium but i wouldnt want to sacrifice too much distance.

I replaced my 3 wood with a 4 wood late this season for the same reasons you mentioned (more versatility off the deck and to match my driver). I feel that the 4 wood loses about 5~10 yards in distance off the tee for me. It flies higher, lands softer with much less roll and is easier to hit off the deck.

Lately, I have been hitting my hybrid and long irons well and my woods not so well. So I am in the process of getting a 16 or 17 degree hybrid (which may be another option for you) and see how they play in comparison to the 4 wood.

[xander.uk]

i personally dont see much point in going below 20* for a hybrid as for me it would be as hard to hit as my 3 or 4 iron which i can hit reasonably well,of course the rescue's are more versatile regards lie but i am happy with my bag as it stands currently except for the fact that i only use my 3 wood off the tee peg but i feel i could use a 4 wood for that and also get the benefits of it on the fairways.
my 20* hybrid flies a long way but i find it difficult to try to move the ball if you need a slight draw/fade with the smaller heads of the hybrids,whereas i can shape my shots well with a 3,5,7 wood so i assume i would be able to do that with a 4 wood.
also i am getting along very well with my srixon driver so i am hopeful that getting the matching 4 wood (also the srixon AD-403) with the same shafts etc would help with consistency of both clubs?
its just a niggling doubt about loss of distance off the tee peg dropping to a 4 wood instead of my 3 wood as for most short to medium length par 4's i can hit my 3 wood and still just leave a shortish iron into the green (very useful for narrow fairways)
like every1 i guess, i have better accuracy with my 3 wood then when going all out with the big dog.
i would be quite happy to lose 15-20 yards switching to a 4 wood but i wouldnt really want to lose more than that.
i am hopefull that as my 3 wood is a real old model and quite lofted @ 15* (ram v series) that i wont lose hardly any distance at all as i used the ram v series driver before the srixon and i have gained maybe 25 yards on my drives since switching (a bit more accurate too!)

well i think i might go back and get the srixon 16.5* 4 wood tomorrow (or order 1 anyways as they havent got a leftie in stock!)

if it goes wrong i can always switch to plan .B ( i just havent thought of plan B yet.:D)

[Johnson]

Good question Xander.uk. I am facing the same situation. I bought a SQ 4 wood this year hoping it would complement my SQ driver and provide more distance than my 5 wood. At GT the guy recommended Have a 1,3 and 7wood. My preference has been to stick to my irons so why should I use a 7 W when I can play a short-mid iron.

I also picked up a couple of hybrids not sure of the lofts (1,3,4h). I was hoping by having a 1W 4W and either using the 3 h or 4 h I can cover my bases and perhaps free up a club in my bag to replace with a wedge. Any thoughts? I do see how the 1W 3W 7W make sense. :confused:

[xander.uk]

well personally johnson i took my 7 wood out of my bag.i find that a 23* hybrid is much better from dodgy lies (and good lies) but the 7 wood was a little better ( 4 me anyway) off the tee in terms of shaping the shot.
i agree with you regarding my iron play.......i prefer to hit maybe a 6 iron rather than my 7 wood off a fairway lie and in the rough i prefer to hit my hybrid.
for me the issue is purely wether i carry a 15* 3 wood which has been my most consistent club this season ( so much so it needs replacing even if its with another 3 wood.lol) or do i take the opportunity to go to a 16.5* 4 wood which hopefully i can still be very consistent off the tee with it ( i hit all my woods very well off the tee as a rule ) but with the added bonus of reaching those par 5's were i just cant quite get there with my 5 iron.
my 20* rescue which replaced my 3/4 iron is in danger of being replaced itself with the 4 iron again as my ball striking is a little cleaner with the iron than the rescue (from the fairway ) i am going to give the 20* a little more time to see if i can get the hang of it (as it is more versatile on the whole) but my 4 iron was generally good.
i had intended to order the 4 wood by now but unfortunately havent had time yet but i am going to order it and just carry an extra club in my bag for a while and try them out (obviously only for practice rounds!).
i have made great progress with my golf in my 1st season but my brother is a scratch golfer and when next season starts i want to be ready to half my current handicap mark ( 20 at present) and give him a bit more of a challenge!
i am happy with my game but need to work on the 100 yards and in range (dont we all???) as thats where shots slip away from me.
to do that i have re-arranged my bag through the season to carry extra wedges (52* and 60*) and i see the 4 wood if it works out for me balancing it up nicely.

[hogannut]

Ben hogan 4 woods at GT in scarboro with aldila nv-s shafts 78$, saw them yesterday. and i saw a couple lefties. (Amazing woods!!!!)

I have one of these Hogan 4wd's and absolutely love it!!! It is 17 deg and is a great compliment to my strong 3 wd of 13. I use the 3 wd off the tee and the fairway, but the 4wd filled in my 225-240 gap I had when I only carried 2 woods. I dropped an iron and tweeked my lofts a bit between my 2 & 4 iron to get a consistent 4 degrees between irons. I'm really loving this new set up.

I know for sure that Golfsmith has a 17 deg 4wd in their Snake Eyes line up. 4 woods can be hard to find, but they are out there!

[xander.uk]

Ok as my updated signature now says i today received my new Srixon Ad-403 4wood.
its gone straight in the bag to replace my old reliable 3 wood (fingers crossed)

if all goes well thats the bag i will begin next season with (and that i will use for my winter golf campaign :D )

Just as an after thought if anybody is thinking of changing their driver or fairway i can REALLY highly recommend the Srixons!
These Ad-403's are my 1st experience of Srixon golf clubs but i doubt very much they will be my last!
I use srixon balls so i know they are excellent and i suggest the clubs may well be just as good!

[Snipes5150]

going to a 4 wood is a good idea. I picked up a Titleist 904F 4 wood earlier this season, with an X-stiff graffaloy shaft in it, and it's wonderful. I'm hitting it around 250-260 off the tee, and it's a great trajectory (I'm 15). Off the deck it's still easy to hit and easy to control. I would recommend picking one up, and I also believe it is available in a left handed model.

[GQuizzle]

I wouldn't take the "go to" club out of the bag... ever think of picking up a 5-wood for the longer fairway shots? Or a hybrid perhaps?

[xander.uk]

i have 2 hybrids in my bag.....i do already own a 5 wood but what do i leave out my bag to accomodate it?
all the clubs in my bag are required so its a straight fight (for me anyway) between keeping the 3 wood or replacing it with the 4 wood!

anyways if u look at my signature my new Srixon Ad-403 4wood is in the bag now!

the hybrids are very good but i just wanted something longer off the fairway and i dont want to go below 20* in the hybrid as i may as well hit my 3 or 4 iron.

well the 4 wood gets its chance and its a match up for my new driver (which is performing very very well-touch wood!)
i think it will work out ok i didnt want to lose too much distance from the tee between my 3 wood which was a weak 15* or my4 wood which is 16.5*

on the range testing it out it appears as though i wont lose any distance off the tee as the srixon is spanking it nicely (240 off the tee).of course i will have to see how it goes on course and also what happens when the wind blows as the 4 wood flight is a little higher (as expected).

if you guys can get your hands on srixon woods out there give them ago!

my new driver is the business and the 4 wood appears the same! (they arent generally highly rated over here maybe because they arent considered 1 of the big boys manufacturing wise............but trust me they are QUALITY clubs!
I believe they are highly regarded back home in Japan? (gocchin might be able to tell us a little more?)

[xander.uk]

FOOTNOTE:

taken the 4 wood out twice now................safe to say its staying in the bag!

if you are maybe struggling with your 3 wood off fairway lies then give it a try. i think you will be pleasantly suprised!

there is a par 5 on my local course 492 yds but it has a ditch that cuts right across the fairway at 230-260 yds! depending on the angle you come in at as its a slight dogleg with out of bounds down 1 side.(the idea is to force you to lay up of course) i have only ever carried it with my driver as it is generally into the wind!

today i took my 4 wood to lay up and carried the ditch...lol.........scared me to death as i thought it was in the ditch at 1st and it was a tight match (its the 15th hole!) then hit it again off the fairway nice and gently and had a nice 2 putts from about 40-50 feet for a birdie! (sealed a win for me!)

I have NEVER birdied that hole before! and i sure wasnt trying to clear the ditch:)