Should you use the same axle on the driver and freeway woods?

Finding a shaft profile for your driver is quite difficult. When you find someone you love with a driver head that works for your drive, it feels like you’re unstoppable. Finding the perfect fairway wood combination, however, can sometimes seem impossible. I don’t actually have a 3-wood bag because I’ve had such a hard time finding the “perfect” one for me. Most of that uncertainty is due to variation in swings. I may feel invincible with the driver, but as soon as you tell me to hit a loose wood from the fairway, I’m going to fall.

As I’ve experimented more with trying to find the right 3-wood for my game, my shaft selection has been all over the place. But one thing, especially in the 5-wood category, that I actually really love is that the profile has to be different from my driver shaft. With my driver I hit the ball really hard, but with the fairway woods I like to be able to catch the ball and even get a little separation. The difference in these two swings can be quite dramatic, and this is what causes the need for a different shaft profile.

I’ve made videos on my Instagram before talking about matching the shaft profile to the player’s unique motion, which also means making sure the whole combination of head and shaft construction needs to work properly as well. However, even the same player can have different swings throughout the bag. The shaft profile in your driver may not end up being the same shaft profile you need to play other areas of the bag.

For me and many players on the PGA Tour, it’s easiest to pair my driver with a lower launch and my woods with a higher launch. For the driver I like to use something like Mitsubishi Diamana WB or to Tensei 1k Pro White to help me continue with a little more of an aggressive overhead swing that I rely on to hit the ball. I want the tip piece to be a little more stable so it doesn’t give any extra shock on impact. Since I’m already getting a little more dynamic loft naturally with my swing, I don’t want the shaft tip to increase it even further.

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In a cheap wood, I like something a little softer. I’ll end up making my angle of attack more neutral, or even a little lower on the ball with the fairway woods, and my swing mechanics will change a bit. Approaching an iron swing where I also have a shaft profile with a slightly stiffer grip section and a slightly softer tip section. Having a slightly softer tip section with something like Tensei 1k Pro Red or one Where is RB? it helps to feel a little more confident sitting on the ball and pressing it off the ground. This helps to manage a nice launch and spin window, and I’ve also found it actually increases speed even in the fairway woods for me compared to a stiffer tip profile.

Who SHOULD play the same profile in both clubs?

It’s really all about fit. Many players at the top level are playing the same shafts in their driver and fairway woods. The LPGA’s Hannah Green is on a roll this season, sitting second on the LPGA points list after two wins and a top-10 finish in the first major of the year. She plays one Mitsubishi Diamana RB in both her driver and her fairway wood; increasing the weight by a heavier class in its fairway wood compared to the driver.

Hannah has a more similar swing to her driver and 3-wood, so it’s more comfortable to stay at the same time and feel while hitting the same shaft. Any player of any skill level who is swinging the club in a similar manner will probably feel very comfortable with the same shaft profile in each club. I’ve also tended to see a trend in players at different ends of the speed spectrum falling into the same profile. Players, like a Xander or a Matt Fitzpatrickthat are more powerful and really need help controlling the clubhead tend to stay in the rougher profiles for most of the bag. The same can be said for players who are on the slower side of swing speeds. These players, like Hannah Greentend to stick to the same swing no matter what part of the bag they are in, and having the same profile helps produce more launch and ball speed at that swing speed level.

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In between are the all-speed players who have a bit more speed in their movement and are not linear in their speed. These are players who often end up with softer stiffer profiles in their drivers, like the Diamana WB, but softer profiles in their drives. They’ll usually rip the driver a little harder off the top, but stay a little quieter in transition with their fairway woods. These are players who will want to move up to something like a Diamana BB or a Tensei 1k Pro Blue (like Cam Young) in their higher pitch wood options.

As always, if you’re looking to find the right combination of heads and shafts for your bag, visit your local True Spec for a fit.

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