Wood (golf)
The change to stronger materials has allowed the design of the modern woods to incorporate significantly larger heads than in the past.
During the 2010s, golf club producers popularized the idea of woods and hybrids that can be adjusted by the player to provide different settings, such as loft and lie angle.
It is possible to hit a modern driver off the fairway turf, but it requires a high degree of skill and a certain amount of luck regarding the lie of the ball.
Certain 2-woods are available with a similar deep-faced design but a higher loft, which can be used in situations when a player needs slightly less distance than their average drive, or must make a driver-distance shot from the fairway or rough.
However, 2-woods of any kind are uncommon, as a player in these situations will more often opt for the 3-wood, and save the space in the bag for a less specialised club like a wedge or hybrid.
As a comparison, the upper end of the retail drivers is comparable to the price of an entire matched set of irons, and the next most expensive single clubs, the putter and the fairway woods.
[5] Ladies and seniors typically have slower swing speeds (60–85 mph), and so to maximise distance, it is important to increase "hang time" so that the lower horizontal velocity at launch can carry the ball farther.
[5] These changes can correct certain problems with a strong swing, such as torquing in the clubhead "closing" it at impact causing draws, and the normally low and forward centre of gravity causing excessive backspin which can make drives "balloon"; the shot will start low but curve upwards in flight, then "stall" and drop onto the turf, reducing total distance.
These are commonly professional-level stiffnesses due to the rarity of amateur players capable of hitting swing speeds over 110 mph, although these also occur sometimes.
Maximum length shafts are unpopular even in professional golf, due to the shot inconsistency and smaller error margin they provide.
These two design features enable players to hit fairway woods off the ground with greater ease than modern deep-faced drivers.
7-woods are rarer in men's clubs but more common in ladies' and seniors' sets, again as a substitute for lower-lofted irons which are difficult to hit well and whose low launch angle can be risky on a hilly or undulating fairway.
The head of a wood is roughly spherical in shape with a slightly bulging clubface and a generally flattened sole that slides over the ground without digging in during the swing.
Modern club heads are usually hollow steel, titanium or composite materials, and are sometimes called "metalwoods" or more recently "fairway metals".
In 1979 Taylor Made produced a traditionally shaped stainless steel wood head called "Pittsburgh Persimmon" which achieved market acceptance by the mid-1980s.
Graphite shafts are usually preferred for woods due to their light weight, which enables users to generate higher clubhead speeds and thus greater distance.
Graphite shafts gained widespread popularity in the mid-1990s; although the carbon-fiber composite technology had been available since the early 1970s, it was very expensive to produce and nearly impossible to mass-market.
[1] Advances in producing, forming and curing composite materials have made carbon fiber much cheaper, and now virtually all new woods, regardless of price, have graphite shafts.
The flex of a shaft allows it to store energy from a player's downswing, and release it as the head makes contact for increased club speed at impact.
Titanium has a higher strength to weight ratio than steel and has better corrosion resistance, so it is an ideal metal for golf club construction.
Traditional woods had a very thick hosel, often wrapped with thin cord, which provided a very secure joint between shaft and head at the cost of a higher center of gravity.
