With the outdoor golf season here we are starting to get plenty of questions about equipment so on this show we take on a popular topic among our community members – fairway woods, particularly the three wood. What makes for a good three wood; what features might be helpful when choosing one, and for those not ready to buy a new one, what are some of the most popular ones of the past?
We take all that one in our Back Nine. Call it a mix of advice and nostalgia and we blend expert advice with personal experiences from the last few decades of being around new product introductions.
On the Front Nine, we catch you up on the hot play of Stephen Ames on the Champions Tour, the continued success of Canadians on the PGA TOUR Americas, and some Eastern Ontario news regarding the Ottawa Valley Golf Association’s Junior programming, as well as an update on some regional golfers qualifying for U.S.G.A. Championships.
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[Music] instruction golf news equipment travel interviews course profiles and more your weekly fix of all things golf is about to begin it’s the flagstick podcast with your hosts Jeff fter and Scott McLoud well welcome golfers into the flagstick podcast I am your host Jeff B with me as always is Scott McLoud and the flag podcast is brought to everybody this week by Tailor mate golf every driver has an inertia number and the higher the inertia number the more forgiving the driver will be and now golf is about to discover the first ever driver that combines tailor made speed with forgiveness of 10K inertia the all new qi1 more forgiveness means long straight drives even on offc Center strikes the days of missing the Fairway are numbered get ready to experience your drives in 10k the allnew qi1 only from tailor made to learn more visit tailormade [Music] golf.car to us or following us across all social media networks Instagram X Tik Tok and Facebook and subscribe to this podcast on Spotify audible Amazon music and apple podcast we really encourage you to uh subscribe to the YouTube channel uh like us and click the notification Bell make sure you don’t miss any episodes or anything else that we might post there because new stuff is coming I guarantee that Scotty Mack what’s going on well you know I tell you it’s still not super warm out so I’m still not really ready to hit the golf courses just yet I’m I’m getting close though I feel like I’m getting close probably this weekend maybe maybe tomorrow night we’ll see maybe I’ll slip out for a few holes I’m feeling good though like I’m it’s lar season it’s like I’m wearing a shirt let’s we put four layers on let’s wear two let’s three I don’t know what’s going on so it’s just crazy I just want some consistency in our weather so I can kind of you know little less rain little less cold but it is what it is um much like it is it is uh as the the I got to say I have my own opinions about Liv golf as and sure many I know and you know I hate to go down this road again but you know what I don’t even pay attention try not to but I am active on social media as far as as far as watching things yeah and it was sort of brought to my attention from somebody like hey did you see what happened on live golf and it there was an incident with the with a water bottle you know getting thrown at somebody I thought oh I’m gonna check this out so I checked out not sure if that was a water bottle but might have been a beer can so the point is once you watch one thing yeah of course then you kind of start scrolling through because then there’s more things that come from that one thing so I start looking at some other things and it starts feeding me more stuff and I’m like and I and I came across a series of videos from one of the events and it was a bunch of highlights okay and I’m sure everybody is aware of the movie happy Gore sure great Adam Sandler movie great little fun golf probably one of the the greatest golf movies of all time most popular if you like comedy and you like watching Bob Barker get beat up um but just a fun movie but that’s the whole point it’s just a fun movie it’s just a movie it’s not supposed to be real life professional golf but gu gu what everybody it actually exists in real life I’ve I have seen it it is not AI it is the real deal I watched highlights from the last live golf event and this is the Australia event yeah I swear I swear that there was horns in the crowd there was yelling while people were putting and while they were swinging in the middle of swings like this is the kind of stuff with the on the PGA tour or any amateur golf event let alone professional but the hands go up quiet pleased that’s that’s part of what golf is the except for the Waste Management Phoenix Open yeah but even the Waste Management Phoenix Open the the the noise level while somebody is hitting is this it was not this I mean yes the crowds get rowdy at at at the waste Manion especially on the on the U the stadium hole yep but imagine every hole is a stadium hole mhm and and every hole there’s there’s music playing in the background it’s it’s like a party like it’s like live golf is like a professional golf party where you’ve got extreme like can you imagine in sport there’s always music that plays between things right so you go to a hockey game the music is playing between the plays while they’re timeouts the music is playing before the pucks drop baseball there’s music playing between Innings uh football I’m sure there’s music playing uh between at halftime always there’s something going on any sport there’s always something going on in between things golf is not one of those Sports where there should be something going on like music blaring while things are going on those Sports wouldn’t have the music blaring while the play was actually happening because it’d be impossible to hear a whistle or you know can you imagine tennis where the music is blaring while they’re playing as opposed to between points like it is an absolute it has become what I thought was once sort of something that was just Chang the rules a little bit wear shorts shotgun starts all this stuff okay it’s different whatever it’s different don’t like it don’t have to like it but can tolerate it because it exists and its professionals whatever but now my opinion has changed like immensely based on what I saw and I know that not every single event on the live golf tour is going to be the same way I get that cuz they don’t have the fans Australia does yeah but what I witnessed yeah has clouded my opinion of what of what live is cuz you just can’t do that’s not golf I’m sorry but on no Planet anywhere is that considered golf where you’re making that much noise and that being that boisterous and that obnoxious while somebody is playing while they’re hitting while they’re putting you know in between I can tolerate it as as long as you quiet it down when the hits happen but that’s part of what golf is is it’s that that sort of ethical um you know when someone’s hitting that respect that’s part of what golf is and I don’t and you can’t tell me that oh Jeff you know the the the golf industry is changing you know the the the this this has to change you know people have to be less hoyy toyy when it comes to gol no no you don’t you can change the way you dress sure you can wear your hat backwards wear no colored shirts wear shorts you know wear track pants as as pants instead of dress pants you know wear high top shoes I don’t care clothing is clothing appearances are individual I don’t care about that but when it comes to the game itself the Integrity of the game the ethics of the game the respect of the game that is part of what golf is defined as it it just I can’t get around that and and I lost it and I’m just like I cannot believe this I am so talking about this on podcast don’t know if anybody if everybody shares my opinion I’m sure those people that tune in to to live to say ah you know golf should be more fun golf should be more you know less stressful it’s like well yeah but there’s ways of having more fun playing golf and and you know playing your music and your Cur within your group I can live with that as long as the music’s not so loud that everybody on the golf course can hear it I get that cool I I I I don’t mind it until the point that the golf doesn’t matter you know what I mean if people are all of a sudden there where they’re not there because of golf you know doesn’t that what it feels like with live at at times it feels yeah but it’s not just live it’s I mean we’re see like I said even the waste management like I waste management has gone it’s it’s gone too far and needs to be dialed back yeah and I’m not a you know I’m not a kudin I mean I want to entertain new audiences and so but I also want people be to be there for the the sport itself you know and have some interest in it as as opposed to just you know we’re just going there to get hammered you know what I mean yeah I mean you don’t think the players like what happened in the waste management they like sort of that you know they they get into it they bring stuff for the crowds to a point there’s a there is a limit there’s a cap on this when it starts to interfere with play that’s that’s you know if you talk to players and caddies and and especially at that particular event and I obviously I haven’t talked to you know a player or caddy from one of the Live Events or whatever but yeah there’s definitely a point where there’s there’s interference and it sort of boils over to a little bit too much and it’s not again it’s not about respecting the game or whatever the case for them it’s just a case of let’s just respect the course of play while it’s happening uh the level of interactivity so there is a limit but people have to understand you know you you you kind of you get what you ask for but you also got to understand where the limits of that and what are you opening the door to as well so yes it’s not a case of let’s just have no rules at all and you know it’d be very interesting to hear the perspective of of of a lib player that’s not a lib player anymore that’s maybe not getting the money not that we’re ever going to see that or hear hear from somebody on that uh and you know do they have a different opinion as opposed to a paid opinion and the fact that they’re in that environment and you know what are they saying behind the doors exactly right now the ones that are currently participating in it that have been paid big money aren’t going to be saying anything negative about anything you know I mean I think Brooks cap probably the closest one to saying some things that would indicate that maybe he’d rather be back on the PJ tour but he’s you know he’s that’s not going to happen for a while for him I’m sure um so whatever okay you know what enough live I’ve said my piece I’ve got your opinion let’s move on from it you got to play some wooden sticks some wooden sticks um Ontario uh of Fame kind of thing yeah so the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame is next week and they have a ceremony for that and they used to have a Partners day that was affiliated with that now they’ve separated it out so I went up to the partners day uh on Tuesday uh got to join up with Chris fry who’s now the director of community marketing Communications for for golf Ontario uh Jason Logan from score which actually part of the reason of playing with Jason was sort of prompted our topic on the back nine because he had a historical uh fairway wood in his bag so got me thinking about that a bit um course is great uh they’re in the process of building uh some new clubhouses or not club houses new uh uh new guest houses that they have up there um it’s always fun to go play that and it was a little bit wet in the in the morning there but again just nice to get out I’ve only been out that’s my second 18 um but it was just uh good to see and they’re about to celebrate I think 25th anniversary our friend Tony Harris is doing a little painting I can’t reveal what course he is but I have seen I’ve seen said painting and it looks great um but yeah it was it was fun to get out and see some other friendly faces as well Owen rig our buddy from the north oh the big rig yeah he does uh obviously he’s a regional director with golf Ontario so he’s looking forward to coming down playing in the flag stick open and uh yeah it was good to catch up with him and a bunch of their other staff as well prior to the Mayhem of tournament season for golf H yes exactly it’s the Cal before the storm it is um well you got two more 18s in than I have so and by the time you get to six you’ll probably have six more 18s in than I have and uh then we’ll just set to you know we’ll see what happens but hey well all good all right we got a good show as always um we’re going to get yall caught up that’s what we do on the front nine and on the back nine we’re going to uh we’re going to talk about Fairway woods so further to what you just said that spurred the uh the topic of discussion for the for the back nine this week yeah uh we’re going to talk about fairway wood so let’s get to the front nine right now uh presented by metf Golf Club a natural setting a pleasant Challenge golf season is here start preparing for the upcoming well not the upcoming season start preparing for the season that’s here get on the wait list for memberships and leagues and purchase some game passes start the season saving some money compared to regular green fees visit metcap golf.com to shop now okay um front nine yeah we’ve been talking the last bunch of shows about how about the dominance of Scotty sheffler we’ve been talking about the do dominance of uh of Nelly Corda yeah um but I think maybe we’ve been missing somebody it’s kind of Fallen falling down through the cracks a little bit and a Canadian nonetheless because Stephen Ames um on the champions tour has been ripping it up yeah um second win of the year on the week second six six wins in his last 29 starts I know which is fantastic and and you know Stephen’s great uh we interact a fair bit with him on social uh but it was nice to see 60th birthday back at TP TPC Sugarloaf just outside Atlanta there uh third time winning on that golf course and made a beautiful bomb birdie uh on the last to kind of close it out and uh yeah he’s he’s just been tearing it up like you said eight uh six wins in those last 29 starts so I mean that’s that’s pretty impressive yeah pretty impressive so so let’s not forget let’s not forget Stephen am no better better keep an eye on that one for sure he and he’s top of the Charles Schwab cut uh points list right now so okay so somebody other than Bernard longer is at the top of that list well Bernard’s obviously been injured he’s back this week after ripping out his Achilles tendon there last year so he’s he’s back at it but we’ll see how well he uh he plays okay um another K steuart McDonald um second winner in a row from Canada on the PGA tour Americas and uh he picked up this title at the Diners Club Peru open yeah um which is great for him I mean he won an event I think it’s 2017 in Peru uh as an amateur and then the cool part was um he had his dad Robert on the bag and uh his dad was uh very sick uh you know they weren’t sure if he was actually going to make it this was some months ago and then uh he was a able to join him and they host that trophy trophy together I can’t even talk today I don’t know what the deal is I didn’t have enough coffee I guess um too much yeah maybe that’s it so yeah very neat to see and and have your dad there as the caddy and you know his dad caddied for him a lot uh through the years but to be there for that wind that’s great and then uh the tour is on to Ecuador right now playing in 9,000 feet in uh in Ecuador this week so good so why don’t you start drinking your coffee from a real mug and say some dainty little Starbucks Christmas cup look I there’s it’s water in there I don’t have C I don’t care what’s in I don’t care what’s in it that cup is tragic tragic look at that thing what’s this freaking stars on a Christmas all right next thing you know you’re gonna be breaking up some freaking Santa Claus hat um okay A little bit of regional news uh to to go through um this week the ovga junior uh the ovga started junior development team started their outdoor training uh this week at The Meadows y um 18 team members aged 11 to 18 um it supplements their work with the person coaches so it’s not in replacement of the coaches that they currently work with um you can um you can follow their progress this here to see how things have been go how things are going uh across social media uh on Instagram at te ovga uh on X team ovga and on Facebook team ovga yeah so follow team ovga yeah when you’re searching for it it’s team ovga yeah you can pop up to flag stick.com if you want to see the name of all the members of the team there and uh nice little picture of the group too it isir they passed that along which was nice and uh most of that team if not all of them are going to be in the field this weekend because the obga is getting their uh tournament schedule started okay so it’s May May 3rd 4th if uh you Haven me listen this podcast after that date uh that’s the junior spring classic which is going to take place in The Meadows which is great they got to practice there kind of last weekend and uh 100 plus players in the field it’s a qualifier for a number of events Ontario event an optimist event and a golf Quebec event so uh you know the links to the pairing and the scoring are all up at flags.com so if you catch that beforehand that’s fine but if you want to catch up on the leaderboard afterwards you can do that as well very cool very cool some uh some hold and one action uh around the region um Justin greenham scored his second Ace uh in the month of April isn’t that crazy that’s crazy I’m I have two lifetime I have two lifetime no you have more than that you’ve got four I have two I think you have four no Garrison and Mississippi oh okay just two then all right yes kind of two okay I thought never recorded two um he aced the ninth hole on the second day the club was open yeah and then in the rain this past Monday he um hit that perfect shot on the 17th hole so now he has three total but two in the two in the month of April yeah what a way to start the year right that is a good way to start the year so either things can go really well from this point forward or things can go terribly wrong so sorry Justin to bring that up and put put the the hex out on it but it’s either going to be a great golf year for you or terrible one or the other yeah I was talking to Steve Martino the GM from there and just said you know Justin’s only been a member there for a few years but he plays a lot um so they were everybody’s happy to see and even the story that we posted we had a lot of responses to it so obviously popular guy and yeah uh what start the year I mean most other people haven’t picked up a club yet yeah exactly hands up hands up um got it big anniversary laram Golf and Tennis Club I don’t know if if if anybody hasn’t played laram um you don’t know what you’re missing you got it’s a N9 Hole Golf Course uh Chelsea Quebec just great condition cool opening hole Yeah like coolest opening hole you’re not going to make you’re not necessar likely going to make a bogey that opening hole but probably not very short par for short drivable par for beautiful beautiful opening hole but uh they happen to be celebrating their 100th anniversary this year and they’re doing so with a series of events now the full story of what’s going on is up on flag it will be up on flag stick.com uh.com and uh it includes a golf day with Hickory shafted clubs um that will be played there um as they as they would have been back in 1924 uh guest speaker is architect Christine Frasier who we know very well Christine Frasier y um and uh who’ll spend a few days at the club in August as well so is Jo is Joseph involved in the Hickory I don’t know they have they so they do have the golf they gotta be involved yeah I probably is they have the uh the golf Historical Society of Canada involved with that uh I guess they’re going to play the original layout which was five holes and then they’ll have some other things happening on the nine uh David Stockwell who uh is the gentleman who we wrote a feature on years ago who’s played all the royal golf courses in the world uh he’s actually Penning the piece that we’re going to have up on there about that soie I like it a guest piece which is good so and Christine’s great she’ll be she’s gonna spend time with uh you know men’s groups ladies groups so forth to do some speaking be part of that and uh yeah they’re just putting together some fun stuff and uh it’s neat to celebrate those golf courses and they have so much Heritage there’s so many stories and so many people that have filtered through you know clubs like this through the years so um yeah good on them to to make it a big thing and not just kind of a a one-time thing but to celebrate kind of all year long cool cool all right well congratulations laram on celebrating your 100th anniversary hopefully we get a chance to spend some time up there this summer yeah um the uh do you want to get talk about this next one Scott because actually the next two because they kind of blend in together a little bit there so we obviously we follow a lot of uh different qualifiers and things for various events and uh one of the events that’s you know just came came into play last couple years the USGA started what’s uh they called their adaptive open which is like a disabilities Champion uh disabilities Championship has various categories that people will compete in and so forth uh we have some players that you know have played in these in the past um but the fun one is uh Russell Aid who’s from Sterling who’s only 16 who’s like 6’8 now this kid is just stretching out uh he was had a qualifier in New Jersey which there was only one spot available and uh he man to shoot three under shot 69 got a spot in the field and the event’s going to take place in Kansas later this summer he competes in the arm and parent division um so good for him to qualify and get through and then also Eastern ontarios Curtis Barkley obviously we know we’ve talked about a fair bit he he’s already exempt uh last year and then uh yeah I think I mentioned it’s the second year in a row Russell has qualified and gotten through Curtis is exempt from his g4d tour ranking uh so he’s which is fif yeah is he yeah I think he’s five yeah he’s fifth so uh and then he he was playing this week they had a g4d event um in concert with the CJ cup Byron Nelson down in Texas and which is the first time they’ve had one of the golfer disabled tour events in in concert with a PJ tour so that’s new for them down there uh they played Monday Tuesday he finished seventh down there uh but that’s a big step for the tour they’ve been mostly playing events in concert with the DP World Tour which is you know obviously very expensive expensive for the participants as well they have to go over and and take part in events in in Europe and and so forth even you know I think Curtis’s last event was in Kenya um so it’s cool to now have these happening in conjunction with the uh the PGA Tour yeah because the PJ tour players get exposed to it as well so I know Curtis uh had uh pictures posted he was with mck Hughes um he was playing around with Adam Scott’s putter uh there’s all sorts of different things that happened he had a good experience I’m looking forward to having to chat with him after he gets back from Texas but yeah he’ll be in the field there for uh in Kansas for that USGA adaptive open as well and I know Tessa Trojan and there’s a couple other Canadians that have already qualified but uh we’ll C we’ll catch up on that and we’ll get a full list soon cool cool there you go all right uh well that should cover getting you all caught up I think for now for today for this week today yeah go tock.com there’ll probably be some more new stuff up there this afternoon tomorrow in the next day um all right we’re going to get out of here we’re going to take a break when we come back we are going to get into some discussions about Fairway Woods uh we’ll find out what that’s all about when we come back from this break stay with us you are listening to the flagstick podcast with Jeff water and Scott McLoud forgiveness isn’t just a feeling it’s a number you can measure the higher the number the more stable and forgiving the driver in introducing the allnew qi1 max with the stability and forgiveness of 10K inertia the most forgiving driver we’ve ever made 10K forgiveness meets tailor speed in the allnew qi1 max only from tailor made all right well welcome back to the flag stick podcast with myself Jeff B and the other guy Scott McCloud hope you enjoyed the break we did coffee’s refueled and and we are ready to tackle the back nine the back nine presented by Celtic Golf Center located only 20 minutes from Ottawa in beautiful kempville Celtic Golf Center is indoor golf on another level featuring five state-of-the-art trackman simulators two unicore simulators with GS Pro Celtic Golf Center has over 10,000 golf courses that you can choose from as well as options to play rounds with friends practice with full swing analysis or play golf games visit Celtic golf center.com to learn more about booking tea times in the fall maybe probably I know he’s still open uh but uh I’m sure that that will change soon even though he’s been away on vacation again all right back nine topic as we all Andy Andy it’s he creates the mess himself you got it um but we love you anyway Andy looking forward to seeing you at the open um all right Fairway Woods Scotty Mack let’s talk about Fairway Woods best of all time what makes a good Fairway Wood well I mean let’s talk first of all about what makes uh what makes a fairway wood a good Fairway Wood uh especially because the three Woods are particularly hard to hit off the turf um and they also can be used off the tea as well and sometimes they’re a better option than driver in a lot of CAS but let’s first talk about what makes uh what makes a good Fair what makes a fairway wood good yeah I mean we’re seeing a lot of people you know change up their configurations in their bag we’re seeing a lot of high lofted uh Fairway Woods being put into play but you know we’re particularly talking more about three Woods here so we’re not really talking about something that’s off the deck uh but as you mentioned it has to be sometimes used off the tea as well which you know that change in tasks means you know we need something that can do both jobs and help us do both both jobs um I think the biggest thing is that you know a lot of people hang on to their Fairway Woods for a long time we we do see that just because they find something that they’re very comfortable with for sure and as I mentioned you know previously just you know playing on Tuesday uh with you know a fellow journalist and look down in his bag and he’s got his you know old old school Tour Edge you know which is a club we’re going to talk about later on here um that he makes use of because he trusts it he knows you know it’s consistent it does what he needs it to do uh and and that’s that’s where we need to start with and talk about the fact that you know just like any club in the bag these are tools that’s it you know we get involved and we like the looks of them and stuff and you can do that you can you can buy stuff for that purposes um because you know you’re just trying to enjoy the game and you want something that looks good and you like it for a particular reason but um when we’re talking about function uh that’s the most important thing more than anything and it is a tool to help you do a job to achieve a certain shot so the first thing you need to do is kind of you know where’s that Gap in my bag and what do I need this club to do is it something that you’re going to be hitting as an alternate Club off the tea is it something that you’re expecting to hit in on uh long par fours or into par fives those are slight those are different tasks so we have to look at our our clubs that way thankfully uh a lot of the Fairway woods now especially in the three Woods as we talk about it um we have some adjustability now and and have some wider ranges because we have adjustable hles some of them and that’s not to say it has to have an adjustable hle but that gives you some options as far as range of Lofts and how you’re going to tweak the club for what you’re going to do so for an example a fairway wood that I normally have in my bag now is I have a three-wood that’s a higher Loft 16.5 um I knew probably on Tuesday there was a couple of t- shots that I would want to make use of it but I didn’t quite need as much trajectory and spin I need to you know kind of juice it a little bit more distance off the te um I knocked it down to 15.75 so it gave the adjustability there are models that have an extremely greater range of adjustability up to like four degrees uh and again you can change that around based on what the task is for the golf course and when you’re playing it we don’t have to all a just leave it in one spot so adjustability is important when you’re kind of looking at them if you know that that’s something that you’re willing to do or wanting to do might not be important for some players that just want to to do kind of one task more than anything so um but you know it’s a nice bonus over you know kind of years past and you know that adjustability as well obviously goes into uh you know the shaft uh being able to change that in and out and and to look at that from a fitting perspective whereas you know back in the day when they were just glued hles uh you know you got the shaft and kind of that was it that was the Loft you got and and you know if you wanted to make a change you basically threw out the club more than anything so um yeah so I i’ start with adjustability as as as an important aspect of it um I mean what do you look for in in your Fairway Woods I mean we we have a chart here of talking about some things that are important but um you know for you what have you seen over the years appearance appearance is probably when it comes to Fairway Woods um yeah appearance is probably the biggest one for me I I don’t like a particularly high like a high face I like right I like the face to be shallower I feel like as a fairway wood I’m used using that club more off the out of the Fairway um than I do out of the rough for instance I’m I’m T I’m I mean I’m just not good enough strong enough um to be able to hit a fairway wood out of any kind of rough shallow rough that’s the cas that’s the case for a lot of people right and I think people I think people over overthink their capabilities especially when it comes to a three-w distance where they you know they’re not capable of doing that we don’t see a lot of tour Pros sometimes you know hitting a fairway wood out of or a three wood for an example out of rough if it’s if it’s rough that’s if it’s shallow rough sure I mean if if the ball sitting up enough that you can get a fairway wood on it then sure otherwise I’m hitting a higher lofted iron and just trying to hit it down in Fairway as far as I can um I’m not even going with like a I find hybrids easier to hit out of the rough than Fairway Woods anyway for sure but I I I do like the shallower look to it um and that appearance that appearance is important I mean a lot of I mean that’s the number one thing that you know that shelf appeal as we know back in our retail days or whatever when people would sit it down it could be a it could be a non-starter right away no matter what the club would do for them or how it would perform when it was matched up with their golf swing or what their needs were if they look down at it and go that that doesn’t look so great then you know they’re they’re not going to have that much confidence in it I would say the one the thing that probably changed the fairway wood game for me um was the the uh was when Adams introduced the tight lies and then there was the tight then there was the Adams uh tight lies tour which you had a 17 degree Forwood with a uh an alela um what the heck was the shaft the green one the ei7 the E7 it was a a dark green shaft and you hit that was a bomb you hit that like a bomb but that and the orar tri Metals right when they came out with the with the shallow face wider wider Soul so you had sort of like the the traditional ones that were out there that that were Fairway Wood sized but they still sort of that pear-shaped look with the the very the pointed Leading Edge so it’s it’s kind of like that sort of rounded bottom but Adams and and orar had the tri metal in it was just the way that the the front edge the front Leading Edge was a wider Leading Edge so it seemed like more of the fairway wood would come in contact with the ball when it was um on a flat surface like on The Fairway or in the rough there was more face that so those M hits would still catch face like it just seemed like that’s the shape that they had uh whereas some of them they had and I think um Taylor Made had the V steel uh which I had um I had a v steel with a steel shop love that club yeah and they brought back that St Soul shape in their Sim line as well so so that was sort of my go-to and I think those were the the clubs that were introduced change that for me yeah um you know I I think the one issue with the is the shallow face clubs is it can be a it can be good and bad obviously it’s it’s inspirational for a lot of people because they feel they can launch the ball but if you look at the height of that face unless they’re able to match that up quite well when you’re swinging uh sometimes it can be a challenge for some players so you’ll see their their strike be high or low in the face and have a real variance as far as spin so one of the things I think has been cool with some of the designs that we’ve seen being you know based on that and knowing that was super important we’ve started to see some designs start to you know plump up a little bit more in height but they’re able to push that Center gravity low and kind of back so you get that easy to launch but you get a little bit more face and I think even you know that Adam the one you mentioned that tour which I think I have a 13 and a 17 and they’re they’re down in the basement in the dungeon someplace still or whatever but they were but they were deeper in face than the original TI tour and as a result of it it was a little bit easier to kind of get some effective strike out of it and still get some launch out of it a little bit lower spin or so so forth but um but that’s the key is to kind of get that launch but also not kind of you know increase the spin up by a ton but also to make sure that you can you know you kind of strike it on the face and um you know that also leads you mentioned the V steel the one thing is that you know we always get romantic about some of the older clubs and stuff like that and that’s easy to do as we go back and we we’ll start to talk a few bit more about some of the different woods and stuff like that but you know I’ve gone back and and hit some of the original V Steals and hit them compared to uh the newer tailor made Sim model with the V steel and it’s way different as far as ball speed uh the original V steel worked great launched great but you can definitely see there’s a difference as far as the speed off the face um but the design characteristic was definitely good and man those those old original ones are tiny too you know it’s it’s it’s interesting Scott that you bring up you know because you have this your simulator too you have the ability to kind of do some of this testing of the new versus the old for sure there’s always the argument these days that you know okay these club companies keep coming out with new stuff every year or new stuff every two years and it’s like oh you know well probably can play just as well with the stuff that I had from five six years ago 10 years ago you know the fact that you can sort of see that I look at a club like a V steel and I say you know what I like the look of that way better than some of this modern stuff right but then you you you you see and you realize that that may be true but there is truth to what the manufacturing the companies are saying like the the tailor made uh stealth HD or the or the new the newest you know you get into the new tailor made Qi stuff H you know and it’s okay you’re saying okay well is it really that much better you can tell truth is yes you can tell the difference you can can see a difference in the numbers you can see a difference in ball flight and how it reacts yeah so yes what’s new is better yeah you might doesn’t necessarily mean that what’s new is that you’re going to hit it any better but you might yeah I think the biggest thing is that you might not see the change like you know one year to the next or every two years because it’s so incremental as far as the change um occasionally there’ll be a club that comes along that gets to be a bit of a unicorn and and you know it’s much easier to hit depending on the player might be more suitable for them but certainly if you go back and look at generations of stuff that’s you know five or 10 years old and compare it there’s definitely some tweaks and some technologies and things that have definitely enhanced it and you know we see that particularly in the in the speed off the face we start to see now that um you know we get ball speeds and and uh you know co co which is really basically the efficiency of the of the club head we’re seeing now Fairway Woods that you know almost have the same as a driver as far as that efficiency so you definitely see them faster the ball coming off faster versus kind of the Dead some of the older ones when they had thicker faces and so forth so um yeah that fast faced is is helpful as well especially for for low speed golfers that you need to because speed not only helps them get distance but it also helps them launch the golf ball a little bit as well keep the ball in the air which becomes really important so uh yeah a feature like that is certainly important as well all right well let’s take a look Scott um let’s take a look at some of the uh some of the best um now they’re in no particular order and this is not some kind of like that this this list could be a 100 deep we’re just uh we’re just going out a few here that um that you know we kind of feel maybe you know some of the best in no particular order um so they might not be something they might not be something you know that are in the Wheelhouse of some players that they never even would have thought to hit or it’s not suitable for them if they’re a highspeed player or a lowp speed player it’s just ones that we’ve noted over the years okay so let’s start off let’s start with the uh uh tailor made stealth HD yeah so this one’s kind of unique because it wasn’t the it wasn’t the main um line let’s to say the core product the HDs uh were really designed for a higher handicap or somebody who struggled to get the golf ball in the air but man there were just there’re so easy to hit and you know it’s some of those designs that are sort of are on the periphery that you don’t see because they’re maybe not marketed as much as what the you know the tour stuff you know which obviously you know people put that on a on a stage that okay this is the premium stuff this is the thing these are the clubs that kind of sneak in there and you know they had a stealth HD set of irons that again were were fabulous and I saw Nick from ta made on Tuesday and he actually had a qi1 irons in his bag and he’s a good player this is a guy who but that’s more of a game improvement right but this is a guy who was you know won a a Nova Scotia junior Championship you know in in his younger days but he put this in here and he’s like man these things might stay in my bag so the the HD model in the fairway wood it was we’ll call it a little bit more triangular in shape Mass really pushed really far back again easy to launch in the air so I mean it was kind of again a little bit more of a secret uh kind of club and you know if you if you run into one and looking for something that you want to launch yeah it’s a good one all right so let’s move on to another one U and sorry folks you’re going to hear more Scott and Les Jeff in this little section because this is kind of this is going to be kind of Scott’s wheelhouse so um if I have something to say I’ll say it but it’ll probably be a joke or something stupid um Cobra F9 yeah uh another one that you know if people look at from a performance standpoint um high level of adjustability um shape really clean uh fairly shallow uh again a model that was fairly you know a little bit older I mean we’ve still had a lot of progression like if you look at the you know some of the dark speed stuff that’s out now you know it really progresses as built upon that platform that really came out in kind of that F9 but you know it’s it’s an older product that still you know it still slaps let’s put it that way as the kids would but it you know what I mean it’s a good Fairway Wood adjustable easy to launch real simple to look at you know came in multiple color options as well if people are into that there’s blues and yellows and all sorts of different things ladies and gentlemen Scott McLoud trying to invoke his inner inner young adult slaps it just it just came out of my brain um but yeah the the Cobra F9 which you you know again it sort of uh it set a platform for a number of Cobra clubs to follow okay so let’s let’s move on let’s talk about ping now ping has a look it ping when it comes to Fairway Woods or Woods in general but the G Series of of ping Woods we’re going to talk about the ping g400 but that’s sort of more the beginning of the the the series for Ping and they haven’t gotten any worse sense uh no not let’s talk about the let’s talk about the g400 the 400 series that started at all yeah yeah well you know we go back to the original G I guess when we especially when we talked about drivers and stuff but that 400 was one that sort of hits a sweet spot for a lot of players I still see a lot of show up yeah I see a lot of them show up on the on the leson T all the time very shallow face so that’s a little bit of a warning for some players if they don’t really control their kind of their Arc height of their swing yeah they can get underneath that thing in a hurry they can definitely get underneath that thing in a hurry for sure but lot of mass push way back larger profile which is great for some players because they sit it down and they’re like man that just inspires a lot of confidence where you get a fairway with that’s you know a little bit too small for some players so you know mid to higher handicappers really like this one for sure just got to be careful as far as controlling that strike but again just a just a great Fairway Wood model um that you know continued as a platform like the Cobra did for or the F9 did for Cobra to be a platform that they kind of built on from there so we’re going to talk about the next Club we’re going to talk about is not this is kind of off the you it’s a little bit off the the normal chart uh with with tour the Tour Edge CB now Tour Edge is not I mean trust me the equipment the Tour Edge makes is phenomenal this is highend stuff you see a lot of it on the champions tour right now definitely um so that may be part of the reason why some people maybe don’t Focus too much on it it’s not a senior’s Club okay not at all so this stuff is really wellmade uh good quality merchandise but you don’t see a lot of it in the same realm as some of the other ones but the Tour Edge CB is one to kind of pay attention to yeah and it it was the one that sort of started it all for them because it was sort of that um we’ll call it the secret Club where you start to look around the bags even on a PJ tour for an example um players that were under contract but maybe had you know we they’re under contract for 12 clubs or 11 clubs and they needed something that was kind of hot and they wanted uh it was it was started really a lot of players that were not contracted to play it and that was kind of the thing and eventually obviously they built out a a team and they sort of as far as endorsed players they really focused mostly on the champions tour but uh I think it was players like brand sneaker for an example you know he had the tour at CB in there there was a number of other players as well that you know he just sort of became that sort of cult favorite uh within and you know they progressed Beyond there but I still see a lot of them out there uh so a player could be dedicated towards a particular brand um but you know you’ll still see that club sort of sneak in there and you know it was just a hot Fairway Wood uh it was one of the ones that had kind of the the fastest faces early on and it just had the right combination of sound uh as well at impact which is really important because you know you get a certain perceived sound when you hit it and you get a certain feel feels nice and dense but it also has the nice uh high enough pitch that it feels like you’re really hitting it again exactly uh and and it did so uh yeah definitely see a bunch of those out there right now okay um now I know there’s some more on the the uh the list of some of the best in no particular order but let’s let’s move past that we don’t want want to get through a few of these other ones too so let’s let’s move to some of the ones a couple of that that we would consider underrated um so let’s first talk about um you know some beautiful equipment but let’s talk about Muno St yeah uh z z230 um z230 Canadian American however you want to say it but the mauno um they make some fantastic irons but little do you know about their Woods yeah um you know I’ve played around a fair bit with their drivers in the past but uh again a brand maybe a little bit under the radar when it comes to Woods as you said they’re you know they’re highly known for their irons but um those Fairway Woods seem to be the one when you’re down at the the PGA show and somebody goes wandering over to the Muno both booth at the demo day and they come back and they’re like yeah that that 3-wood was pretty good it just um you know it’s I I won’t call it spectacular right it doesn’t it doesn’t like go 10 out of 10 on every category but it’s one of those ones that hits the sweet spot on a lot of different things you know you like The Sweet Spot don’t I know why I know I said that twice um but the shape is really really good and and you know it is a little bit more on the compact side um but the shape is really good sets up really aligns really well inspires a lot of confidence as a dark finish to it just as as a you know like the the another one that we’re going to talk about in a minute here um and it just again it’s underrated probably didn’t sell as many as they should have at retail and as a result of it um You probably see you know a few more of them floating around and you know if you if you see one yeah don’t be afraid to try it out and just because it’s not a brand that you particularly know uh for Fairway WS it’s one to give a shot to okay so another uh we’ll classify as the underrated category yeah is the Srixon ZX MK2 I see the smile on your face well I mean there is a bit of a smile on my face because you can go on this one we um we we’re not gonna we’re not going to sugar coat this too much but the fact that these are in my bag yeah um I just moved from the um the previous Renditions of the uh the Srixon ZX Fairway Woods to um the ZX uh MK2 it’s a so this is another one of those lower profiles like the Ping uh shallower face which I really like and they’ve now s switched the um the line from the sort of shiny graphite top um finish to the um to the matte black finish yeah so they went from a gloss to a matte which is extraordinary for me that’s one of the one of the huge selling points on a fairway wood for me or a driver for me or on a hybrid for me is that matte black I don’t I’m not a big fan of the shiny shiny yeah uh I used to like like the white I used to like the white because of the fact that it didn’t have that shininess to it and now we’re kind of getting into more with the the uh the matte black finish beautiful Club launches the ball very high um I’m not going to I’ll let you get into sort of the technical specs of it all but for me this is the club that fits right into which is you know one of the reasons why um I have the the driver the fer wood and the hybrid in my bag uh this year upgraded to the new version um I love these um underrated yes yeah I think they’re very much like the mauno I mean a lot of people have come to know as rickon um you know a lot for the irons more than anything um and you know I guess you know this is a club that you know if you talk to Club Fitters um they definitely you know get this in the hands of some people and it’s a really it’s a really good fit and people should understand that you know not every Club is going to be suitable for every person um and really we portray a lot of these is just because they are lots of really cool options um again it’s just another one that you know don’t ignore it if you have a chance to try it out or hit it uh don’t don’t just pass by go now Ron’s good for irons I’m not going to hit their Woods uh as you mentioned really easy to launch and I think that’s a that’s a really important feature I see too many amateurs out on the out on the golf course especially off the deck you know especially if you get a golf course that has a little bit tighter lies and stuff like that they have a hard time and they struggle to get their overall distance just because they can’t get the golf ball in the air as much that’s why we see a lot of them moving to you know weaker lofted three Woods or five Woods for an example get the Airborne right just to get the Airborne but this is a case of where you can retain Loft so you can retain more speed retain a little bit more distance but still be able to launch it so uh another one just to give a look to for sure all right um now I know we’re getting we’re going to get up against it pretty pretty soon here and we’ve talked about a number of these already so we’ll just kind of throw a few names out there because so we’ve talked about what the the sort of the the best ones and the underrated ones y someone just talk a little quickly about old school um and we already mentioned the the previous we talked about the tailor made V steel has one of those old school ones that still has appe peal yeah R1 too I didn’t put that one in there but the r the R11 Fairway Woods I think I still have a for Forwood around here someplace that I and you still see them people buying them used uh you know I I’m in a played Again Sports you know Corey is good friend of mine he’s one of the owners of the three of the play again two of the Play Again Sports here in Ottawa and they they have you know this is what they have you know people buying used uh the V Steels Callaway steel heads um you know you got to remember these was the the next rendition of the of the Callaway warbird uh Callaway Big birth Aline when they had the steel head steel head plus as well which I think the only problem with the steel head plus was it remember I don’t know if you remember this one but um they started to thin out the faces a little bit on the steel plus we had a lot of cracking so it was It was kind of there to kind of ramp up the speed a little bit and I can remember playing around with a I think I had a I’m going to guess I had a two wood and a fourwood or something like that um but yeah definitely saw some phase collapses but you know again they were just an easy to hit if you go back and look at them now it’s quite funny cuz you see how small they are I know you don’t think about it in your mind you’re thinking n they’re not that much smaller than the the ones out there and I was like oh yeah they are and and speaking of much smaller the next one we’re the now this thing was a rocket though uh the Titus PT Fairway Woods I remember I think tiger played yes that’s why that’s why it sort of boomed in popularity you know he had he had that fairway wood and he had that in his bag and you know a lot of people are like oh that’s a Players Club and stuff this I thought it was like a when I remember when I remember of it it was a hard feel to it like when you hit a Callaway or you hit it Taylor Made uh back in the day um it had that sort of it felt like it was launching off the club face like it had that sort of tinging sound but it felt hot the Titus PTs did not feel hot they came off it felt like they were hard but man oh man it was it was like it just rocketed off the face yeah um very compact Mass was in a small bit of uh small area so generally you know if you made contact the thing went fairly low spin they didn’t really launch super high so as a result of it you you got a little bit of juice out of it but boy you better be a good player to strike this thing for sure a lot of players you know had them in the bag with like steel shafts in there in the 3-woods and stuff which were kind of heavy and again this is one of those most romantic clubs that people go back to and they’re like oh I had that during high school and whatever and then you know they get 50 years old and they go back and they they they get one because they find it on eBay and and then they sit it down they’re like how did I hit the ball with this thing so oh I no it’s crazy and you almost had to you almost had to have a if you were a player you almost had to play a 17 degree in order to get the height because you could get the distance of a three-wood out of the 17 but you couldn’t get the height the yeah the 13 and then the 15 you almost had to go with the pt7 just to be able to get the that sort of trajectory to stop a ball yeah this one here I I don’t really remember um sonar Tech I don’t remember too much about it sonar Tech was a the Royal collection was a Japanese a JDM brand so it had a black head to it and um and then basically it was sort of one of again became one of those cult favorites it sort of had a little horseshoe undercut on the bottom and then it was po on the tour now the problem was with it uh the brand was brought over and it was Peter pocklington the former owner of the edmenton Oilers that got involved with the the thing went sideways as far as the business uh I’m sure the license bounced around a little bit and we saw some different product come out even in the last few years with the name on it uh but again it was just a hot it was R it looked very much like that Adams tight light tour right the deeper faced um but you know a lot of people it was just a hot 3-wood one of those ones that again you know guys on tour see it they see another guy play it another guy play it it gets into a bunch of bags it’s hot for kind of a year and then it sort of disappears which is a trend that we see with you know shafts and some other clubs as well um but yeah it it was one that we uh we saw around for a fair bit and you know if players were familiar with it in the late 90s early 2000s I guess they they would know the name okay last one we’re going to talk about real quickly and then we’re going to get out of here um is we already talked Adams tight L we’re not going to get into that one but orar Tri metal yeah uh this was the maraging face yeah and now if I remember correctly okay oramar Tri metal came out yep after the patent ran out on that was that not when kzg started to release because kzg created correct the the concept of the of the maraging face and they were unable to release that because they owned the so they like they licensed it to oramar so they would get a licensing fee out of that and oramar basically popped up as one of these um you know direct consumer on TV brands uh you know the face was Jess a guy named Jesse Ortiz and I think I don’t know if you remember I don’t know if you were at that one when they debuted them they did a big event at Grand Cypress in order I remember it I wasn’t at that one but I do remember it yeah and I was like David off cigars and you know it was oh wait a minute I was at that yeah k hanging out and had all these endorsements with lots of different things so uh again it was it was just a hot you know Club I think I have a hip tie which was a progression of it I think I’ve got a 14 degree in that Fairway Wood downstairs but again this is just a low profile thing around the same time as Adams a lot of people were jumping on that lowprofile train this trap happened to have some multiple uh weights in it so it was a multimaterial club uh had some brass weight inserts in the bottom I think they’re brass might have been tungsten or whatever uh but whatever the case it was lowprofile felt super hot they tried to kind of progress from there and kind of build out into other products but really they were kind of a one-trick pony uh the name got bounced around a little bit and passed around over the years they’re still around as far as that brand but um you know it’s not what it was but they were hot for a while and and again uh big thing as far as a lot of people uh you know the 13° the 15° they had as low as 11° Loft in a fairway wood yeah I remember that yeah yeah so um but yeah people people wanted them because they thought they were magic so and then short shortly after after the uh licensing ran out uh with kzg kzg started to release their own stuff and kzg became very known within the club making uh um Market the club making industry Club makers used kzg I had a number of kcg irons and and woods over the years I think I still have a driver in the garage it was K blade irons down like we had like really good stuff scared some students with the two iron two iron awesome I had a one iron that scares me they had they had remember they had we actually had on our cover we had the zero offset iron yes which they had down to a zero iron in that thing so yeah the zos the zoos those are great I had like a like a brush Metal finish in those things Eric cook back of the old swing syn uh made a number of sets for me over the years and um and Don Irving made me a set once and yeah so I’ve had lots of kzg and I I said I think there’s still a driver in the garage that I broke a shaft in or something you know the Fairway would like I said for a lot of people you know it’s a very difficult Club from a fit standpoint so you know when you get something that’s going to perform for you feel you know have in the bag for a while if you trust that thing have it um but certainly take your time when you’re processing and trying to find one from a fit standpoint but lots of great ones over the years but don’t always just be romantic about it make sure it functions and does what you needed to do but it’s not like a retro hockey jersey people they don’t just look cool you put them on and everybody loves them some of these old school stuffs they look they look great they feel they feel you got that whole yeah look at this old school bad boy right here it’s like yeah well it’s an old school bad boy for a reason uh good luck with that yeah time to move on all right great show great discussion but F words I love I love going uh going all retro but uh um we’re not going to do that every week but it was great to go there this week um thanks everybody for listening thanks to our sponsors uh mecf golf club Celtic Golf Center presenting sponsor this week tailor made golf every driver has an inertia number and the higher that inertia number the more forgiving the driver will be now golf is about to discover the first ever driver that combines tailor made speed with forgiveness of 10K inertia the allnew qi1 most more forgiveness means longer straighter drives even on offc Center strikes the days of missing the Fairway are numbered get ready to experience drives in 10k with the allnew qi1 only from tailor made to learn more visit tailor made golf.car to us and watching hope you’ve been enjoying it follow us across all the social media platforms Instagram x Facebook and subscribe on spotifi Spotify audible Amazon music and apple podcast do not forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel like this click the notification Bell make sure that you never miss a single episode of this podcast uh get over to flag stick.com for more amazing golf content delivered every single day and please sign up for flag stick digest weekly or newsletter sent out three times a week all this great information we Post online goes right into the newsletter three times a week and is delivered directly to your inbox um can’t get any better than that uh but as always we appreciate you tuning in but until next week I’m Jeff B let’s go down M Cloud remember always go for the stick [Music]
