The Hottest Club in Golf

BY E MICHAEL E MICHAEL JOHNSON JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPH BY DOM FURORE DOM FURORE

HEADCOVER BY DORMIE WORKSHOP DORMIE WORKSHOP

Arne Thomas remembers the moment three years ago when he realised he had found a valuable addition to his bag.

Playing Oakmont Country Club where he carries a 2.4 Handicap Index, Thomas stood 205 yards out on the slightly uphill par-5 ninth. The hole was playing into a breeze with the pin behind the front-right bunker. Lengthy shots into firm, undulating greens require two things seemingly at odds with each other. They need to be hit long and with sufficient height to stop quickly on the green. The club Thomas pulled from his bag: a 7-wood.

“When that ball went up in the air and landed so softly on the green, it amazed me,” says Thomas, who is 56 and lives in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. “I had never been able to go after that pin before. I had to play left of the sand and try to run it up with a 4-iron. I can scoot a long iron the same total distance, but the carry distance and height of the 7-wood allows me to hold greens I would otherwise be rolling over. It has become my go-to club.”

“Go-to club” is a seismic shift from the days when just about any male golfer daring to use one would be subjected to ridicule. Today, however, it is diffi cult to fi nd a manufacturer of fairway woods that does not include an option at 21 degrees (the typical 7-wood loft) or higher in its line-up. The club has gone from a novelty to a necessity for many golfers.

Data collected by the golf-stat-tracking company Arccos reveals how much a 7-wood can benefit golfers of all abilities. The company measured the greens-inregulation percentage for players using a 7-wood and a 3-hybrid (the most logical comparison club) across handicap ranges (scratch to

25-handicapper) and distances (140 to 220 yards). The 7-wood’s greens-inthe moment three years ago regulation percentage was when he realised he had higher in 28 of 40 instances found a valuable addition (70 per cent). to his bag. Like many trends in golf

Playing Oakmont Coun- equipment, adoption on the try Club where he carries a PGA Tour has helped accel2.4 Handicap Index, Thomas erate the momentum with stood 205 yards out on the amateurs. Five years ago slightly uphill par-5 ninth. only a handful of 7-woods The hole was playing into were in play on the PGA a breeze with the pin be- Tour, but today about 25 per hind the front-right bunker. cent of tour players have one Lengthy shots into firm, in the bag. Although about undulating greens require a third of the fi eld still uses two things seemingly at a hybrid and another third odds with each other. They of the fi eld a 2- or 3-iron on need to be hit long and with any given week, the 7-wood sufficient height to stop is closing in fast, and regular quickly on the green. The golfers are noticing. club Thomas pulled from his “When people found out bag: a 7-wood. Dustin Johnson was using

“When that ball went up one, it took away a lot of in the air and landed so soft- the stigma and hesitation,” ly on the green, it amazed says Chris Marchini of the me,” says Thomas, who is 56 retail chain Golf Galaxy. “It and lives in Sewickley, Penn- opened up the dialogue with sylvania. “I had never been a lot of our customers.” able to go after that pin before. I had to play left of the sand and try to run it up with a 4-iron. I can scoot a long but the carry distance and height of the 7-wood allows me to hold greens I would otherwise be rolling over. It has become my go-to club.” “Go-to club” is a seismic shift from the days when just about any male golfer daring to use one would be subjected to ridicule. Today, however, it is diffi cult to fi nd a manufacturer of fairway woods that does not include an option at 21 degrees (the typical 7-wood loft) or higher in its line-up. The club has gone from a novelty to a necessity for many golfers. Data collected by the golf-stat-tracking company Arccos reveals how much a 7-wood can benefit golfers of all abilities. The company measured the greens-inregulation percentage for players using a 7-wood and a 3-hybrid (the most logical comparison club) across handicap ranges (scratch to 25-handicapper) and distances (140 to 220 yards). The 7-wood’s greens-inregulation percentage was higher in 28 of 40 instances (70 per cent). Like many trends in golf equipment, adoption on the PGA Tour has helped accelerate the momentum with amateurs. Five years ago only a handful of 7-woods were in play on the PGA Tour, but today about 25 per cent of tour players have one in the bag. Although about a third of the fi eld still uses a hybrid and another third of the fi eld a 2- or 3-iron on any given week, the 7-wood is closing in fast, and regular golfers are noticing. “When people found out Dustin Johnson was using one, it took away a lot of the stigma and hesitation,” says Chris Marchini of the retail chain Golf Galaxy. “It opened up the dialogue with a lot of our customers.”

MANY OF THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD CARRY A 7-WOOD, SO WHY DON’T YOU? CARRY A 7-WOOD, SO WHY DON’T YOU?

Johnson is just one of several elite players who carry a 7-wood. Adam Scott, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann have 7-woods. Patrick Cantlay’s clutch 7-wood shot led to an eagle in the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele use 7-woods for certain courses.

JJ VanWezenbeeck, director of player promotions for Titleist, says the 7-wood has increased in popularity among the game’s best for a few reasons. “Majorchampionship-type set-ups or courses with four par 5s bring in part of the experimentation,” he says. “But sometimes players such as Max Homa put a 7-wood in play, get a win, and other players are like, Oh my gosh, this club can do so much.”

The PGA Tour has always been to some extent a copycat tour. A two-time major champion like Johnson playing one catches the attention of other players, or someone will play with another tour pro and see him pull a club out and hit a shot he wasn’t expecting. “When they’re told it’s a 7-wood, it piques their interest, and that’s when we get the phone calls saying, ‘Hey, I played with so and so, and I’d like to try one.’ That happens a lot,” VanWezenbeeck says.

Ease of use is another big reason. Although many would consider a hybrid easier to hit than a 7-wood, Kenton Oates, PGA Tour rep for Ping, disputes this. “The 7-wood is an easier club to spin than a hybrid,” he says. “It has a higher peak flight than a hybrid, and it’s more consistent for left-to-right ball flights, especially with

PRO TIP #1

SWING LIKE IT’S A MIDDLE IRON

“One of the main mistakes players make with a 7-wood is setting up as if they were about to hit a driver — with a forward ball position and tilted shoulders,” says CJ Nafus, a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher. “You should set up with the same ball position as a middle iron, with the ball below the logo on your shirt. When you swing, keep your shoulders pretty level (above). The attack angle at impact should be level to slightly downward.”

how we tend to build them for our tour staff. We often build 7-woods an inch shorter than typical — 41 inches instead of 42. We then use the hosel adjustment and put it in the big minus or small minus loft setting. For all intents and purposes, we’re building a 6-wood in loft and a 9-wood in length.”

Still, convincing players to switch to a 7-wood isn’t necessarily easy. Oates says Niemann, who played a hybrid as an amateur and then as a professional, was difficult to persuade. But then in 2020, the tour played backto-back weeks at Muirfield Village. After playing the first week in the Workday Charity Open, Niemann came to Oates before the Memorial seeking a higherlofted hybrid because he couldn’t hold the firm greens from 250 yards out — a shot needed because of Muirfield Village’s four par 5s. “I told him he needed a 7-wood, and he looked at me like I had three heads,” Oates says. “He’s like, ‘I am not playing a 7-wood’ because he was afraid the ball would go too high. But we convinced him to hit it, and he loved it, and now it’s not even course dependent. He plays it every week.”

The 7-wood has other important advantages. It’s better than a hybrid or utility iron from the rough. With its longer shaft, the 7-wood launches higher and spins more. That’s vital because playing out of the rough reduces launch and spin. It’s also more forgiving. When golfers talk about how forgiving hybrids are, they are comparing them to the corresponding iron, not a 7-wood. A 7-wood head is considerably larger than a hybrid, making it much more forgiving with a moment of inertia (which increases stability and mitigates ball-speed loss on mis-hits) that is significantly higher.

The success of those using a 7-wood is undeniable. At last year’s Ryder Cup, six players used 7-woods. Since the start of 2022, six winners have had one in play the week they won. Players aren’t simply using 7-woods; they’re flourishing with them.

Johnson had a 21-degree TaylorMade SIM Max 7-wood in the bag when he won the 2020 Masters at Augusta National and had a perfectly logical reason for why one of the longest hitters on tour used such a club. “I looked at a 5-wood, but it kept going too far,” Johnson says. “The 7-wood goes 255 to 260 with the height I need. It fit a specific yardage gap. I put it in play in the middle of 2020, and it’s been in the bag since. The 7-wood gives me a little more ammunition to bring one in high and soft on the greens.”

Playability is one reason for an uptick in 7-wood usage, but advancements in golf-club and golf-ball technology also have played a role. Tour-calibre balls continue down a path of less spin. Although this is good for driver distance, it isn’t always good when trying to hold a green from long range. “High launch, low spin” has become almost as much a part of golf lexicon as “fore,” but the reality is that golfers with slow to average swing speeds often benefit from more spin to help keep the ball in the air and en-

PRO TIP #2

USE IT LIKE A CHIPPER

“If you hate tight-lie chip shots, you’ll love your 7-wood as an alternative,” says Nafus, director of instruction at Roxiticus Golf Club in Mendham, New Jersey. “Choke down almost to the shaft [above], then do everything else like you would with your putter —

hance carry distance.

The 7-wood has other technological advantages over a hybrid or a long iron. The larger size provides a larger — and likely springier — hitting area and room for a low and deep centre of gravity that can boost dynamic loft. The longer shaft should generate additional clubhead speed, and the bulge and roll

from grip to ball position to stroke. When you hit the ball, it will come off with a bit of loft and then run out like a putt. It’s a perfect shot for chasing it to a back pin.”

PRO TIP #3

MAKE A STABLE SWING FROM FAIRWAY SAND

“If you don’t have a lip to contend with, a 7-wood works great from flat fairway-bunker sand,” Nafus says. “To flush one from here, choke up half an inch on the grip, stand about an inch farther from the ball than you would from the fairway, and avoid digging in with your feet. These adjustments help prevent the club from taking too much sand when you swing. I don’t change my ball position from a stock shot — under the logo on my shirt — but I try to keep my lower body more quiet than normal for stability. Note how grounded my feet are [above].”

on the face of a 7-wood (compared to an iron with a flatter face) produces a gear effect that brings toe and heel hits back toward the centre.

VanWezenbeeck cites Lanto Griffin as an example of a player who immediately saw the advantages. Griffin put a Titleist TSi2 7-wood in play at the US Open at Torrey Pines expecting it to be a one-week fix to combat the juicy rough. What Griffin found was far more than that. “He talked about how the 7-wood allowed him to make a normal golf swing and create so much elevation that he could attack par 5s differently than he did before,” VanWezenbeeck says. “Before, he carried a 2-iron, and though he believed that was a great club off the tee, he found himself having to overthink shots and alter his swing on approaches into par 5s. With the 7-wood he believes he can make a normal, iron-like swing, launch it high, and if he hits a high cut, it comes in really, really soft.”

Although the increase in tour usage seems fairly recent, Oates says it dates back nearly three decades, when Christian Peña, Ping’s tour operations manager, championed the club. Peña played professionally in the early 1990s and early 2000s, mostly in Asia. He won three events and made the cut in the 1995 US Open and often used a 7-wood. He knew its value to professional golfers. As a Ping tour rep at the 2013 US Open at Merion, Peña walked the course and decided to build every one of the company’s staff players a 7-wood. “Only a couple of guys put it in play that week,” Oates says. “But he continued to push the 7-wood hard to our staff. It’s to his credit we have so many in play today.”

Marchini says he noticed an increase in the 7-wood’s popularity among average golfers about a year ago. “We have a large group of relatively new golfers ready to get fit and build a bag specifically for them,” he says. “A lot of fitters are suggesting a 5-wood/7-wood combination instead of 3-wood/5-wood. We had a hard time keeping them in stock in our stores.”

As much as the industry wants to tell golfers to hit hybrids, a lot of players can’t hit them successfully. Those with a sweeping swing in particular struggle. Also, golfers have gotten more educated over the past several years. They are paying attention to where the gaps exist in the bag, and loft fitting now is critical to get those yardage gaps correct. In short, the 7-wood is not a fad; it’s a trend. “I would say for middle- to high-handicap players, a 7-wood is almost a necessity,” says Ken Morton Jr, vice president of retail and marketing for Haggin Oaks, a Golf Digest 100 Best Clubfitter. “‘Loft is your friend’ is a phrase we use a lot today.”

That wasn’t the case 35 years ago when before the 1987 Skins Game at PGA West in La Quinta, California, Lee Trevino visited the TaylorMade plant and saw an odd-looking prototype metalwood in a barrel with the number 7 stamped on it.

“That little club turned out to be the best stick I ever had,” Trevino told Golf Digest in 2009. “I could hit it high or low, draw or fade it, hit it 165 yards or 210, all with barely changing my swing. I hit a 190-yard fairway-bunker shot over water to five feet on the ninth hole at that Skins Game—a shot I couldn’t possibly have played with an iron. There’s no sense trying to squeeze something out of your swing if you can let your clubs do the shotmaking for you.”

Arne Thomas, numerous tour pros and a host of everyday golfers are starting to find out exactly what Trevino is talking about.

PRO TIP #4

PLAY IT MIDDLE FROM THE ROUGH

“The 7-wood can help you escape bad lies, like punching out of deep grass while keeping it under tree branches,” Nafus says. “To hit this shot, play the ball centred in your stance and choke up an inch [above]. Make a three-quarter backswing, but don’t chop down. The ball position takes care of the steeper attack angle. It will fly low with plenty of runout.”

7CLUBS TO ACHIEVE BLAST OFF

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF VIABLE OPTIONS FOR GOLF’S NEW ‘IT’ CLUB

CALLAWAY ROGUE ST MAX HEAVENWOOD, RRP AED 1,750

The 20-degree model with a 4-wood-length shaft is designed to minimise excessive spin. Bars behind the face sti en the body, allowing for more face fl ex.

Harvey Penick once said that in golf your strengths and weaknesses will always be there, but if you can improve your weaknesses, you will improve your game.

The legendary instructor was stressing the need to practice parts of the game in need, but his advice applies to putting the right equipment in your bag, too.

The range of 7-wood options available today — seven shown here — makes this easier. There is a 7-wood to fi t every type of golfer: from compact heads made for better players to larger and shallower ones to help get the ball in the air.

Skilled players with fast swing speeds will likely hit a 7-wood just as far as the equivalent hybrid — only higher.

Golfers who swing 90 miles per hour or less should hit the 7-wood farther. Why? Fairway woods tend to create more ball spin than hybrids. This helps produce more carry, especially for the slowest swing speeds. In other words, it’s a good bet to improve your weakness.

TITLEIST TSI2, RRP AED 1,450

Modern technology in a classy-looking head: The TSi2 7-wood checks in at 21 degrees but has a 16-way adjustable hosel that allows loft to be moved higher or lower and the lie angle to be adjusted fl atter or more upright.

TAYLORMADE STEALTH, RRP AED 1,575

The compact 21-degree clubhead appeals to better players and tour pros such as Dustin Johnson. Turf interaction is paramount for a fairway wood, and the V-shaped sole provides help here. The cut-through sole slot also delivers a nice distance boost.

CLEVELAND LAUNCHER XL HALO, RRP AED 1,145

The large, non-adjustable 21-degree head combines with a low-profi le face to deliver a low centre of gravity that makes launching shots high a breeze.

COBRA LTDX, RRP AED 1,395

Cobra o ers a 22.5-degree club in its LTDx and LTDx Max models. The di erence: The LTDx is more forgiving with a weight chip in the rear, and the Max pushes weight toward the heel to help mitigate a slice. Cobra’s hallmark sole rails help the club glide through the turf.

PXG 0311 XF GEN5, RRP AED 1,945

This adjustable 22-degree model gets its speed from a high-strength maragingsteel-alloy face insert, and the squared-o face o ers more hitting area.

PING G425 MAX, RRP AED 1,750

This 20.5-degree model can be adjusted plus or minus 1.5 degrees. The rear tungsten weight provides stability on o -centre strikes and assists with launch. Want even more height? Try the 9-wood.