3H further than 3W mystery

Hi,

I just recently acquired a 3H (19deg) and a 3W (15deg) both R flex.

At the range, I find that I hit my 3H straighter and further than my 3W. Looking at 160m vs 125+..

Any possible reasons what could be causing it? I'm consciously applying the same swing and similar setup. How diff should 3W setup and swing be from a 3H for max effect?

Thx

I think it's how you max out from the club; from your swing.
Years back, I had the same issues with my irons. 5 iron and 7 iron gave me the same distance. Some times, I can even hit further with my 7 iron.

I think you feel more comfortable when handling your 3H. You could be using the same method of swing on your 3H on your 3W.

FW requires clean sweeping action at contact, while your hybrid can be played like an iron swing with setup between your FW and long iron.

Just practice more to gain your confidence on the FW.

I think 3W you need to setup with the ball closer to the left leg, like your driver. Try your driver swing with your 3w it might help.
However if it doesn't, you can always put up the 3w mystery FC 714 up for sale. I would love to have a go at it.

Cheers, Merry Christmas.

Maybe you can try to place the ball same position as your 4-5 iron.

actually its just the swing plane, speed and impact...

last time i also the same, worst is my long iron distance is shorter than 7i.
It took some time to adjust and get the body to memorized correct swing plane and impact.

I got my 4w for 160 sometime (usually 140)... while my driver still 150+ (on good swing 180)   

I learned modern golf, which basically the swing and ball position is the same(or they say so). Then for wood and driver, with wider stance and more flat swing plane.
My irons... 3i distance is same distance with 7i... still cannot get the correct swing and impact. Still been trying hard to get that, 3h is having good distance... still have lot of fade thought...

3W for 125m is really something wrong. I think you might be duffing too much and not launching the 3W. Maybe due to longer club.

Suggest you ask your coach or someone to take a look when you practice.

I guess you are hitting pretty sweet on 3h and prob fat on 3w. If you are hitting half decent on 3w, it's quite impossible to hit only 125. What abt ur 5w?

Why would u need a 3w that goes 125m since u have a 3h that can go 160m and beyond

My coach told me that the 3w and lob wedge R the 2 clubs in the bag that always cause me to make the most mistakes 

So now. I'm happy with my 5w that goes 180m. Anything more, I lay up

Anyway what are the chances of me putting it on from 190m?

Just some food for thoughts

anyway my 3w is for show only. Whenever I use it. Sure not good result 

If I don't put it in the bag. I will have withdrawal syndrome

Haha

skybobo wrote:

I guess you are hitting pretty sweet on 3h and prob fat on 3w. If you are hitting half decent on 3w, it's quite impossible to hit only 125. What abt ur 5w?

It's quite bad. And sometimes my 3W shots do an almost 90 deg swerve to the right. Never had a 5W. Would it make a diff to have one in the bag considering the loft (usually 18deg) is v close to my 3H (19deg)?

18deg 5w can give longer distance than a 18deg hybrid


Cos the shaft is longer

That's what I'm told. Unless I have been told wrongly

Anyway the ball flight is different and the behavior of the ball when landing on the green is different also

andrew-golf wrote:

anyway my 3w is for show only. Whenever I use it. Sure not good result 

If I don't put it in the bag. I will have withdrawal syndrome

Haha

Given the number of clubs I can really hit well, I think I just need a range bag the next time I go out to the greens  

But seriously in my last game, I somehow did quite well with my 3W and my caddy (a 10.4 handicapper) recommended that I use it for all tee shots given the consistency vs my driver. I checked with him off and on and he estimated the distance to be ~ 160m. But back at the range, it didn't work the same way as on the course..

samuelng2902 wrote:

andrew-golf wrote:

anyway my 3w is for show only. Whenever I use it. Sure not good result 

If I don't put it in the bag. I will have withdrawal syndrome

Haha

Given the number of clubs I can really hit well, I think I just need a range bag the next time I go out to the greens  

But seriously in my last game, I somehow did quite well with my 3W and my caddy (a 10.4 handicapper) recommended that I use it for all tee shots given the consistency vs my driver. I checked with him off and on and he estimated the distance to be ~ 160m. But back at the range, it didn't work the same way as on the course..

Range balls will not go as far as normal golf balls and balls that lands on the fairway will have additional distance from ball roll.

For me, i tee off quite a bit with my 3w and in-fact i am getting more FIRs as compared to my driver. My dispersion for my driver is horrible and i dont hit my driver as well, so my 3w is my go-to club off the tee.

samuelng2902 wrote:

skybobo wrote:

I guess you are hitting pretty sweet on 3h and prob fat on 3w. If you are hitting half decent on 3w, it's quite impossible to hit only 125. What abt ur 5w?

It's quite bad. And sometimes my 3W shots do an almost 90 deg swerve to the right. Never had a 5W. Would it make a diff to have one in the bag considering the loft (usually 18deg) is v close to my 3H (19deg)?

It's called a slice for your shot. It's the swing problem, out to in. Incorrect Shaft do play a part too.
Would suggest get a coach to rectify it before it becomes a habit.

Find 10 golfers in Singapore with handicap between 10-18, give them a 3 wood and a 5 wood of the same model and shaft and my guess is that 9 out of 10 will find not find any additional distance from the 3 wood when hitting the ball off the grass (different story off the tee cos you can swing up on the ball to launch it).  If fact, I would also guess that for 5 out of 10 of these golfers, the average distance and dispersion from the 5 wood is going to be better that the 3 wood.

In general, the lower the loft of the club, the more speed is needed to launch the ball to a sufficient height to optimise distance, even if you make solid contact.

http://golfweek.com/news/2011/jul/05/club-fitting-series-3-wood-or-no-3-wood/

That being said, a lot depends on what is the intended use for the fairway wood in your bag.  Are you planning to use it off the tee as a driver replacement only and probably never hit balls off the grass with it?  In that case, you only need to consider the performance when you tee it up.

If the intention is to use it from the fairway often, then you need to have a club that have the best AVERAGE distance and dispersion (including the not so good shots).  A club that you duff 7 times out of 10, 2 times hit slightly more than 100m and 1 time get it half right with good distance and poor direction is not something you want to be using on the golf course.

My personal experience between 18-19deg hybrids vs woods is that while woods go slightly longer on good hits, on average, there really isn't much between them distance wise given my level of ball striking.  I used 3 hybrids for quite a while and switched to 5 woods to try and quick fix the hook issue i was having on the hybrids (didn't work, it was the Indian, not the arrow, i managed even more spectacular hooks with the wood once I got used to it).  So to me it is more a choice of what I feel more comfortable with (currently a 5 wood),

When I first started, the club I used most often off the tee was the 19deg hybrid, and the club most often off the grass was the 25deg hybrid.  Off the grass, my ball striking on the 3H was not that consistent but I was pretty confident that my 5H would go 120m-150m 85% of the time (the shorter distance also meant less chance of going deep into trouble even if direction was poor).

So instead of getting a 5 wood, perhaps looking at a 25-27deg hybrid might be more beneficial to your scores.

As for the last guy of the 10 golfers, the one with consistent distance and distances gaps between all his clubs including the 5 wood and 3 wood, who probably has a killer short game and nerves of steel as well ...

that is what is normally referred to as a KSLS 18 Hcap   

Use and work with the club that gives you the best desired result. There's no guidelines as to which club(s) to deploy on course ~ as long as it gets the job done...... It's not how you drive, it's how you arrive.

Given a choice to top 2 shots and arrive on the green or sky 4 shots and arrive in 5, what would you choose....?

my 3w is significantly longer than my 3h; 175m vs 150m

zhenxua wrote:

my 3w is significantly longer than my 3h; 175m vs 150m

What I know is your PW is longer than my 8W

Derek wrote:

As for the last guy of the 10 golfers, the one with consistent distance and distances gaps between all his clubs including the 5 wood and 3 wood, who probably has a killer short game and nerves of steel as well ...

that is what is normally referred to as a KSLS 18 Hcap   

Talking abt yourself...... 

zhenxua wrote:

my 3w is significantly longer than my 3h; 175m vs 150m

Your 3w is significantly longer than my driver + my Pw.....

zhenxua wrote:

my 3w is significantly longer than my 3h; 175m vs 150m

As it is, your wedge is longer than my 5 iron

Derek wrote:

Find 10 golfers in Singapore with handicap between 10-18, give them a 3 wood and a 5 wood of the same model and shaft and my guess is that 9 out of 10 will find not find any additional distance from the 3 wood when hitting the ball off the grass (different story off the tee cos you can swing up on the ball to launch it).  If fact, I would also guess that for 5 out of 10 of these golfers, the average distance and dispersion from the 5 wood is going to be better that the 3 wood.

In general, the lower the loft of the club, the more speed is needed to launch the ball to a sufficient height to optimise distance, even if you make solid contact.

http://golfweek.com/news/2011/jul/05/club-fitting-series-3-wood-or-no-3-wood/

That being said, a lot depends on what is the intended use for the fairway wood in your bag.  Are you planning to use it off the tee as a driver replacement only and probably never hit balls off the grass with it?  In that case, you only need to consider the performance when you tee it up.

If the intention is to use it from the fairway often, then you need to have a club that have the best AVERAGE distance and dispersion (including the not so good shots).  A club that you duff 7 times out of 10, 2 times hit slightly more than 100m and 1 time get it half right with good distance and poor direction is not something you want to be using on the golf course.

My personal experience between 18-19deg hybrids vs woods is that while woods go slightly longer on good hits, on average, there really isn't much between them distance wise given my level of ball striking.  I used 3 hybrids for quite a while and switched to 5 woods to try and quick fix the hook issue i was having on the hybrids (didn't work, it was the Indian, not the arrow, i managed even more spectacular hooks with the wood once I got used to it).  So to me it is more a choice of what I feel more comfortable with (currently a 5 wood),

When I first started, the club I used most often off the tee was the 19deg hybrid, and the club most often off the grass was the 25deg hybrid.  Off the grass, my ball striking on the 3H was not that consistent but I was pretty confident that my 5H would go 120m-150m 85% of the time (the shorter distance also meant less chance of going deep into trouble even if direction was poor).

So instead of getting a 5 wood, perhaps looking at a 25-27deg hybrid might be more beneficial to your scores.

Thx for your advice.

I'm using my 3W as more of a driver replacement and my 3H (19deg) and 5H (25deg) from the fairway. Noticed in my last game that my caddy also kept handing me 3H and 5H on the fairway instead of the 3W.

Derek,
Thanks for sharing that nice write out!
It's indeed a good course and self management on the golf field.

now playing 3w similar as driver using same 'swing pattern', it helps my driver and 3w compare previously when am playing 3w like iron. 
disclaimer： 20hcper and still controlling the dispersion.