Equipment
What's your mix?
There’s a big gap between your driver and your approach irons, so which clubs do you use to get close to the green if you’re still a long way out?
Some players prefer to play with fairway woods, while some use utility irons and others swear by hybrids. There’s no right answer as each of these kinds of clubs nicely fills the gap between your driver and scoring irons.
By-and-large, hitting woods and hybrids off the deck will help you pack a punch and they’re easy to make good connection with the ball with, but longer irons provide that much-sought-after length and accuracy.
We’re seeing a modern trend of tour players opting for smaller fairway woods like 7-woods to help bridge the distance between the fairway and the green.
So, while there are different options open to you, what are the benefits of lining your golf bag with fairway woods?
Why use a fairway wood?
We all know that golf is a very challenging game, and as we’ve already hinted at, fairway woods will help give you a better connection with the ball when you’re hitting straight off the fairway rather than teeing off. The soles on fairway woods have been meticulously designed to power through the short grass, allowing you to translate that momentum into distance on your strikes.
When you play with a fairway wood, your strikes will simply glide across the top of turf and will have the power to give you both a higher ball flight, and a better landing on the green. The sole on Cleveland’s Launcher Halo XL fairway woods has two distinct rails that help keep the face travel in a straight line when impacting the ball.
While it can be tempting to reach for an iron simply because you’re hitting off the fairway, there are potentially more benefits to hitting a fairway wood. If you tend to suffer from either a fade or slide when hitting the ball, fairway woods will give you a higher launch on your strikes, and have better shot-correction tech built into the larger clubhead.
Why use a hybrid?
You may be inclined to fill this gap between your clubs with a hybrid, and they’re an excellent choice if you do. Hybrids won’t give you as much power on your strikes when compared to fairway woods, but they’re very maneuverable to swing and will help you punch though the turf if your shot has landed in a poor area.
The Launcher Halo XL hybrids have similarly effective tech on the sole, Cleveland’s Gliderail tech is composed of three individual rails on the hybrid model, allowing you to escape from tough scrapes with ease.
Why use a utility iron?
Some golfers prefer to play with utility irons when they find themselves a good distance from the hole. A huge benefit of adding long irons to the bag is your set up to the ball and swing are similar to your scoring irons, allowing you to retain a consistent sense of feel when striking the ball from the fairway to the putting surface.
The longer irons in Cleveland’s ZipCore XL irons have a system of cavities milled into the backside of the club to create a MainFrame that helps the iron flex on impact for faster ball speeds.
Cleveland Launcher Halo XL woods
The latest fairway woods from Cleveland, the Launcher Halo XL, don’t just look fantastic. There’s a lot of tech that’s been packed into the clubhead to give you a trouble-free time on the golf course.
As we’ve mentioned, these fairway woods have Cleveland’s Gliderail tech on the sole to help you punch through the ball on your strikes. The large head design allows for more MOI generation, meaning you’ll be making consistently accurate shots too. With a low-and-deep weighting, you’ll be getting plenty of height on your shots too.
To give you even more variety, Cleveland has released a club that sits between a fairway wood and a hybrid, their unique Launcher Halo XL Hy-wood. This club gives you all the power of the former with the manoeuverability of the latter. The Rebound Frame within the clubhead directs energy into the ball when making contact, giving you excellent distance.
Helping you escape from unwanted situations with ease, the Launcher Halo XL hybrid is an exceptionally versatile club. With similar tech to its cousins in the range while being in a more compact form, this club will be a huge asset to have ready in the bag.
These fantastic Cleveland fairway woods are available right now in the pro shop. If you pop by the shop, we’d be more than happy to book you in for a custom fitting.
