Stop Using Your 3 Wood
I’ve always been told that a 3 wood is basically a more accurate driver. It’s meant to go nearly the same distance, but with improved accuracy, they say. That’s the biggest reason why I’ve always carried one in my bag.
For me, it’s never been about hitting it from the fairway. In my opinion, hitting a 3 wood from the fairway might be the most difficult shot in golf. It’s such a high risk, low reward play. Sure, maybe you hit it perfect and it rolls up onto the green of a par 5 in two, but that’s typically only if everything goes perfect. A more likely scenario, even if it’s well-struck, is that it misses the green and you’re still needing to get up and down for birdie.
Ask yourself this, “How many times do you hit a shot knowing you have a significant chance of failing?” The answer is probably not often. If it is, you may need to rethink your mental game approach.
Personally, I’m not hitting a shot if I’m not confident that the outcome will more than likely be positive. There are moments where it’s worth taking the risk, but hitting a 3 wood from 250+ yards out in the fairway on a par 5 just isn’t it. It brings in too many bad outcomes. I may be able to hit the 3 wood far, but that also means I can miss big. That just comes with the territory.
Back to the 3 wood off the tee, though.
Putting a peg in the ground reduces the possibility of a big miss with the 3 wood. I have no disagreement that it’s a more accurate club off the tee than the driver, but is the decreased distance worth the gained accuracy? I think you can guess my answer by this point; no.
The 3 wood has essentially become the most useless club in golf. It used to have a purpose before the days of hybrids and drivers with incredible forgiveness. The increased loft provided enough forgiveness and distance to fill a much needed role. But that’s just not the case today.
According to Shot Scope data, the average golfer hits their driver 20-30 yards farther than their 3 wood. For a 2 handicap, that’s 251 yards and 225 yards, respectively.
Let’s discuss a hypothetical scenario. You’ve got a narrow 400 yard par 4. You could hit the driver and, with the distances above, face about 150 yards into the green. The other option is to hit the 3 wood in hopes of increasing your chances of hitting the fairway. That’d leave you 175 yards left on your approach. For me, a standard 150 yard shot is between and 8 and 9 iron. 175 yards is between a 6 and 7. In this scenario, I’d be gaining about 2 clubs on my approach shot.
Before we get too far down the hole, let’s go back to the data off the tee box. There’s no debate that your driver goes farther than your 3 wood and your 3 wood is more accurate. Again, the question is if the accuracy you gain is worth the reduced distance.
According to Shot Scope, the average 2 handicap hits 60% of fairways with their driver. With their 3 wood, they hit 61% of fairways. One percent. That means, over a stretch of 7 rounds (approximately 100 total shots), if a player played two balls off every par 4 and par 5, hitting both the driver and 3 wood, they would hit one more fairway with the 3 wood.
Now, you might be saying, “But I’m not a 2 handicap.” Ok, let’s look at a 20 handicap. That player would hit 41% of fairways with their driver and 42% with their 3 wood. The difference between the accuracy of the two clubs doesn’t change by handicap. The added accuracy isn’t significant at all.
How valuable are those 20-30 yards gained with the driver, though? Much more significant.
According to TrackMan, the average distance from the hole an average male amateur will be from 184 yards is 100 feet, from 165 yards it’s 78 feet, and from 102 yards it’s 33 feet. As you can see, the proximity to the hole drops pretty significantly. Being 20-30 yards closer to the hole after your drive can directly result in 20-30 feet closer to the hole. That distance can be the difference between hitting the green and not. It could be the difference between a 2 putt and a 3 putt.
Arccos found that, from 20-25 feet, the average 1-5 handicapper will 3 putt about 9% of the time, the average 6-10 handicap will 15%, and an 11-15 handicapper will about 16%. From 25+ feet, those same players will 3 putt almost 20%, 25%, and almost 27% of the time.
Now, maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot. I guess it’s not a ton of distance, but it is significant.
Think about it like this…
Let’s take an 8 handicap who hits 52% of fairways with their driver and 53% with their 3 wood. Over a 7 round stretch, they’ll hit about 51 fairways with their driver and 52 with their 3 wood. That means they’ll miss 47 with their driver and 46 with their 3 wood. We’ll look at the ones where they hit the fairway. That 20-30 feet is applied to every time a fairway is hit, so 51 times. If we take the low end of 20 feet, that’s 1,020 feet of added proximity to the hole over that 7 round stretch. Maybe on that one hole where the 3 wood hit the fairway and the driver did not, the 3 wood makes up a bit in proximity to the hole, but that’s not necessarily the case either. The missed fairway with the driver is still closer can could very easily finish closer to the hole after the approach.
Data shows that the average amateur golfer will hit the same percentage of greens from the fairway and rough when separated by only 25 yards. That means if a player has a shot of 150 yards in the fairway and 125 yards in the rough, their chances of hitting the green on both those shots are essentially the same. So, you’re not gaining much by hitting the fairway, but being further from the green on that one hole where your 3 wood is more accurate than your driver.
The 3 wood just isn’t what it used to be anymore. It’s an antiquated club and without purpose in the modern game. Replace it with an extra wedge or another hybrid, something you’ll actually use effectively.