Why You Need This: In this video, you’ll discover how to hit a fairway wood like a pro.

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about how you should hit your fairway woods.

Growing up I was told to sweep my fairway woods...

And to come down like a hammer into my iron shots.

Is that advice correct?

Do the pros follow that advice?

Well, you'll find out in the video!

Analyzing great swings is a bit easier nowadays with the introduction of launch monitors and other technology.

In this video, you’ll learn the data and discover the degrees at which different clubs come into contact with the ball.

And you’ll be surprised at what angle you should be hitting with your fairway woods.

Later in the video, you’ll get 3 keys to making great contact with your fairway woods.

Learn these 3 keys and you’re sure to increase your consistency.

Watch this video now!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:58

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, and welcome back. I’m Clay Ballard with Top Speed Golf. Today we’re going to talk about one of the most frustrating parts of the game for a lot of players.

If you’ve been told that you want to sweep your fairway woods, I’ve heard this a lot, I heard that growing up is imagine we have a broom and we’re going to sweep the grass with our fairway woods, and then with our irons we’re going to hit down more into the ball a little bit steeper, kind of like hitting with a hammer down into the ball.

I remember reading that when I was younger, and I tried to follow hat for a long time. That’s not exactly what we see happening with the top players in the world. So now with the advent of launch monitors, radar launch monitors, I use a FlightScope to track a lot of data when I’m giving lessons and for my own game.

What we’ve shown is that the top pros were hitting down into a pitching wedge at about a -5° angle of attack. So the angle of attack, if you can just imagine the center of the weight in the club, which direction is I moving? Is it moving own or is it moving up when we actually hit the ball?

When we hit the ball, the club head is moving down with a pitching wedge about -5°, so it’s coming down into the ball. It looks something about like this.

Now that’s not a very steep angle of attack. If you imagine a one minute on a clock face, so the difference between 12:00 and 12:01, that little one-minute hand is going to be 6°, so it’s hitting down a very small amount.

As we work through the longer and longer irons as we go down to 6 iron, 3 iron, they gradually get shallower and shallower. If you’re looking at a 3 iron, you’re coming down into the ball at I believe around -3.1° or so, on average, is the PGA Tour average.

So 5° down with the pitching wedge and 3° down with the 3 iron, and mostly the difference there is that the shaft is longer and that’s naturally going to make a bigger, wider arc which is going to shallow things out.

The way that we swing, the way we feel the swing, is going to be very, very similar. If we take that out to a 3 wood, when we have the same idea of sweeping, well we see that a 3 wood is about 2.9°, or basically 3° down again.

There’s almost no difference, very small difference in the angle of attack. Only one-third of one minute on a clock. So very, very shallow angle of attack with all of our irons and fairway woods.

So that’s the first key, is if you’ve been struggling, you feel like you’ve been sweeping your fairway woods, you’re hitting them thin, you’re not making that good contact, I’ve got three keys for you that are really going to help you to hit these crisp, clean shots.

So number one, we want to make sure that we are hitting down on the fairway wood. We want to take a bit of a divot. Like I said, the pitching wedge is going to down, the 3 iron is going down, the 3 wood, they’re all going down taking a little bit of a divot.

As I set up to this ball, I want to rough up the grass or take a little small amount of a divot as I’m coming through there. I should see a little bit of dirt or a little bit of the roots from the grass after I hit. If the grass is tightly mown, then we’re going to see a little bit of a divot in there.

Number two, I want to make sure that I deloft this club so I have some nice forward shaft lean. When I come into the shot, as I’m coming into contact, I want some forward shaft lean with this fairway wood. That way I can really compress the golf ball.

That’s going to allow me to be very, very consistent. If my hands are in front of the golf ball, that’s going to allow me to stabilize the face and to come through contact nice and consistent, time and time again.

So by doing this, what I want you to focus on not only are we going to be hitting down a slight amount, I’m going to feel like my right hand, the palm of my right hand, is working down to the ground, and then releasing as we get to the straight line release in front.

When I do this with a club in my hand, now the club shaft is leaning forward and then t’s going to release on out in front. So the angle in my right wrist is going from down, it’s releasing through contact but my hands are still forward, and then out in front at about a 45° angle.

So we call this the straight line release in our Top Speed Golf System, and about 45° past impact, you could draw a straight line from my chest, then my arms and my club would be splitting this line.

That’s what I want you to do to make sure that you get the hands in front. You may also feel like the logo of the glove when your back hand -- your lead hand, excuse me – is facing down to the ground and then it’s releasing out 45° in front.

That’s going to make sure that you get that consistent contact and you get that nice little clean divot. It’s going to help you to hit on a slightly descending blow.

The last thing, is where we want to hit this ball on the face. The bottom of the face, let’s imagine we have 15° of loft on this 3 wood. The bottom of the face is going to have a little less, maybe 13°. As we get toward the top of the face, it’s going to get toward 17°, maybe even 18°, 19° as we’re going toward the top.

I want to make sure that I’m making contact toward the top half of the face. What that’s going to do, is as I contact the ball, it’s going to launch a little bit higher.

So even though I have a little bit of forward shaft lean, I am hitting down into the ball, I’m getting that good loft from above the sweet spot, it’s going to get a higher launch angle, and now when the ball is coming down into the green or into the fairway, it’s going to be able to stick.

Especially when you’re hitting in the par 5s on your second shot, you want that ball launching high so it comes down and stick on the green, even when you’re using a 3 wood. So you put these pieces together.

Number one, I want to be focusing on a very small divot. Number two, I want to make sure my hands are in front as I’m at contact, and releasing just after contact. Number three, I want to make contact just above the center of the face.

Now if I put all three of these together, I should be able to hit a nice clean shot right down the middle of the fairway. Let’s see how I do. There we go, took a little bit of a divot, right down the center, roughed up the turf there a little bit. I definitely came down into it, hit on the top of the face.

I can see a little bit of grass above the sweet spot, and that’s why I got a nice, high launch. So good luck t you guys, pay attention to those three keys. You’re going to be a better fairway wood player. I’ll see you guys soon.