Play Swing Science
Driver vs. 3-Wood New data to consider in the tee-shot debate by e. michael johnson
t’s one of the worst feelings in golf. You’re on a par 4 with a narrow landing area. You reach for your 3-wood to ensure you get it in play but miss the fairway anyway. Can you still hold your head up that the 3-wood was the smart choice? Maybe not. Data from ShotScope, a Scotland-based company that produces watches with shot-tracking capabilities, studied millions of tee shots from everyday golfers and found the percentage of fairways hit using a driver is very close to the percentage using the seemingly more accurate 3-wood. This was true for amateurs of several skill levels. It’s also worth noting from the data that the 3-wood tee shots forced golfers to hit much longer approaches into the green. For example, the group of players who had an average handicap of 14 hit the fairway 46 percent of the time with a driver and 48 percent with a 3-wood, with an average
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Photograph by Victor Prado / Illustrations by Jameson Simpson
length of 207 yards and 188 yards respectively. When the outliers (duffed shots) were tossed, the gap increased to 222 yards with a driver and 194 with a 3-wood. Even the farthest shots hit with each club showed how many yards are being sacrificed with a 3-wood (246 versus 222). For those middle-handicappers, that’s a twoto three-club difference on approach shots in exchange for hitting two more fairways in 100 attempts than if they used a driver. The logical conclusion is it’s better to hit driver every time, but you also might want to learn how to find more fairways with a 3-wood. If you improve accuracy with that club, you’ll lessen the distance gap with the driver because shots that hit the fairway roll more than those in the rough. Mark Blackburn, who coaches Chez Reavie (last year’s driving accuracy leader on the PGA Tour), has advice on how to use both clubs better—so you can keep your options open.
