Equipment

Not as risky as you think


Nick Cook

08 August 2022


Statistic courtesy of Golf Monthly (via Arccos)
Statistic courtesy of Golf Monthly (via Arccos)

Driver or fairway wood?

If you’re the type of golfer who looks at a fairway and takes out the driver while licking your lips, we envy you. If you’re the type of golfer who looks at the rough and dreads hitting your second shot out of there, we can relate to you.

If, like most golfers, that rough looks daunting, there’s a good chance you find yourself pulling out a fairway wood instead of a driver because you just don’t think it’s worth the risk. But, surprisingly enough, the above statistics show just how minimal the difference can be.

Of course, there will be times when a hazard or a dogleg lurks just at your driver distance, so maybe it’s not the right club to play. However, in terms of risk, what’s stopping you taking your driver when the hole allows?

PING G425 drivers

Why do you not hit driver?

One issue a lot of golfers cite is not getting enough distance over the other woods to make it worth taking the big stick. That’s why you’ll see so much brilliant engineering pumped into making drivers that go as far as possible. At the forefront of that is PING, which uses a precision-forged face, which flexes at impact, to optimise speed and, therefore, distance on every drive. Suddenly, you're playing your second shot - whether it's in the middle of the fairway or the slightly longer grass - from 10-15 yards closer to the hole than you would with a 3-wood. That could be a PW instead of a 9-iron!

From there, golfers who don’t ‘risk’ hitting the driver have two main reasons: too much dispersion & too much spin. To battle that first issue, PING made its G425 drivers in a Max version (for maximum forgiveness to tighten that dispersion), as well as an SFT version (with draw-bias weighting) in case you struggle with the slice. For the second solution, you can get an LST version (standing for Low Spin Technology and maintaining your ball flight for longer) that'll lower spin and increase your total distance.

Where to go from here?

If any of these sound like familiar problems for you, it may well be worth considering getting custom-fit for one of the brilliant PING G425 models. It'll make you suddenly feel much more confident in making the decision to hit your driver over your fairway wood.

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