Top 5 Easiest to Hit Fairway Woods for High Handicappers

Here is a list of the top 5 easiest to hit fairway woods for high handicappers:

Additionally, if you’re interested in what makes a fairway wood easy to hit, please continue reading below…

Top 5 Easiest Fairway Woods for Beginners and High Handicappers to Hit

Fairway Wood Description	Fairway Wood Details	BGST Rating
	Callaway Rogue Fairway Wood 2018 Triaxial Carbon Crown Lighter Overall Feel High MOI (forgiveness) Adjustable Weighting Boeing Aero Package Lofts: 3W (shown), 3+W, 4W, 5W Heaven Wood, 7W, 11W	4.8/5.0
	Cleveland Golf Launcher Hi-Bore (HB) Fairway Wood Throwback Design 460CC Club Head Large Sweet Spot Low Center of Gravity (CG)Lofts: 3W (shown) – 15 degrees, 5W – 18 degrees	4.7/5.0
	TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood Twist Face Technology Adjustable Hosel Adjustable Weighting 460CC Club Head 5-Layer Carbon Crown Low Center of Gravity (CG)Lofts: 3W (shown) – 15 degrees, 5W – 18 degrees	4.6/5.0
	Callaway XR-16 Pro Fairway Wood Ultralight Shaft 460CC Club Head Draw Weighted Low Center of Gravity (CG)Lofts: 3W (shown) – 14 degrees, 4W – 16 degrees 5W – 18 degrees	4.5/5.0
	Ping G400 Fairway Wood Dragonfly Technology Turbulators Adjustable Weighting Generous Sweet Spot Lofts: 3W (shown), 5W, 7W 9W (Senior Flex Only)	4.3/5.0

 

BEST IN SHOW: Callaway Rogue 2018 – Most Technologically Advanced

This technologically advanced 3-wood from Callaway may be the best fairway wood of 2018 for beginning golfers. It has all the features that make a wood easy to hit. It has a large sweet spot, high Moment of Inertia (MOI) and the titanium club face material is extremely light. It has a lot of other, really cool sounding technical stuff straight from the Callaway website, such as…

“Jailbreak Technology, X Face VFT technology…”, titanium bars inside the head right behind the face and a lot of other really cool sounding and technological advancements – some of which I admit I do not fully understand.

What I do understand is that all this fancy technology allows me to hit the ball much farther and with the slower swing speed of a high handicapper (beginner) and straighter – even when I don’t hit the ball perfectly, but THE BEST PART: this this club comes in more fairway wood loft configurations than any other club on this list!

 

RUNNER-UP: Cleveland Launcher HB 3-W Fairway Wood – Simple to Set-Up

The coolest thing about this fairway wood is it’s simplicity. There are no moveable weights, there is no adjustable hosel, there is nothing to set-up. It’s just like the HB Launcher Driver and I LOVE IT JUST AS MUCH!!!!!! Cleveland golf must have thought about what makes a fairway wood easy to hit for beginning golfers and came to the conclusion that NOT HAVING TO SET UP ANYTHING IS EASIER THAN ADJUSTING A LOT OF STUFF…GENIUS!

The best part is this 3-Wood is that this club rocks! It comes set up for you and me and almost any beginning golfer and it’s set up perfectly for any golfer short of Tour Pros. Thank you, Cleveland Golf, for saving me time and hassle and from having to use tools.

The price is very affordable too. If there is one negative about this club it is that it doesn’t come in many different loft configurations.

 

THIRD PLACE GOES TO: TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood – Best Club Face Design

The new M4 Fairway Wood from TaylorMade has a curved face that makes it extremely forgiving. Known as Twist Face Technology, the face of this fairway wood has been curved to counteract the negative effects of off-center and less-than-perfect hits. I wrote a detailed article about what Twist Face Technology is and this concept has really revolutionized the standard golf club face design.

The TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood has a large sweet spot and is a very light club. The only negatives I’ve found is when looking down at the top of the club while in my swing stance I found it difficult to line up the golf ball with the large sweet spot. Not sure why, but maybe because the design on the top of the club is somewhat disorienting. The second negative is that it’s one of the more expensive fairway woods in this list.

 

 

 

FOURTH: Callaway XR-16 PRO Fairway Wood – Best Budget Friendly Fairway Wood

 

The Callaway XR-16 PRO Fairway Wood is yet another club that high handicappers will love. It’s similar to the Cleveland HB Launcher 3-Wood is that it requires NO SET-UP WHATSOEVER! It is also a great fairway wood for golfers on a budget. It’s very lightweight and sleek looking with its black, blue and red colors.

The XR-16 PRO has a compact, aerodynamic head shape for even more speed off the face, which is sure to help golfers with slower swing speeds get more distance. Callaway has vastly improved the aerodynamics of this fairway wood’s compact head shape to create even more clubhead speed that, in turn, translates into more ball speed and greater distance.

The reasons I didn’t rate this wood any higher is because it didn’t feel like it had quite the solid feel through impact that the clubs ahead of it had. I really like the low center-of-gravity (CG) feel and am a fan of fairway woods that feel like they just won’t twist even when swinging with one hand.

 

 

 

FIFTH PLACE (Mainly Due to Price): Ping G400 Fairway Wood – Most Solid Feel

 

The G400 fairway wood from Ping may be the ideal golf club for beginning golfers and golfers with higher handicaps because anyone can hit the golf ball with almost any part of this club’s face and the result will still be a decent shot. And that’s saying something for a club with a slightly smaller head.

This club has a titanium composite face for more flex and speed. The G400 is back weighted for a deep CG and a very high MOI that combines to provide generous forgiveness on almost all off-center hits. This club sports a thinner crown and Dragonfly Technology (according to Ping) for an improved aerodynamic feel throughout the golf swing.

I actually love this club. The sweet spot is generous for a fairway wood with a smaller head and when I tested it it seemed like the golf ball jumped off the club face like it was somehow repulsed by the club! The only, only reasons this club was not rated first or second by me was that it requires some adjustment (and I hate using tools) and it is one of the more expensive fairway woods on the list.

What makes a fairway wood easy to hit?

And what the heck does easy-to-hit mean anyway?

Let’s talk about the meaning of easy-to-hit?

Easy to hit simply means that you don’t always have to make perfect contact with the golf ball and the result will still be acceptable….

I know that’s a pretty vague definition. Let’s talk…

An acceptable result (to me) is when the golf ball still goes somewhat straight and far enough for me (you can each determine what far enough means to you).

So an easy-to-hit fairway wood is a club that allows me to not hit the ball perfectly and still get an acceptable result.

Now back to the original question: So what makes a fairway wood easy to hit?

I classify a fairway wood as being easy to hit (also referred to as forgiving in golf lingo) if it meets the following criteria:

1. The golf ball is easy to get in the air even when hitting off the deck
2. The club is light enough to swing all day without becoming fatigued
3. The distance is acceptable for beginning golfers (who generally have slower swing speeds)

The factors that make all three qualities above possible are exactly what I look for when evaluating the easiest to hit fairway woods. So, let’s take each item above and see what aspects of the golf club makes that particular item possible.

Item 1: As a beginning golfer, it si sometimes more difficult to hit the ball perfectly when it is not teed up. So I look for a fairway wood that has a low Center-of-Gravity (CG) and good balance. This will allow any golfer to get the ball in the air quickly – even when hitting off the ‘deck’ or ground, which is what you want in a fairway wood because most of your shots will be from the fairway. In order for this to happen, I recommend beginners look for a fairway wood with a low Center-of-Gravity (CG). The center-of-gravity is the lowest point of balance of the club. The lower and more centered this area, the easier it will be to get the ball in the air when hitting from the fairway or imperfect lies.

Item 2: The weight of the club needs to be light enough to swing all day long. Most newer fairway woods are made out of ultra lightweight material, but what I’m looking for when recommending an easy to hit club to a golfer with a high handicap is a material that is very light and strong, like titanium or some of the newer carbon fibers, but also a material that may be a little less expensive than a professional golfer may use. This will help keep the costs of the club down because affordability is another important factor when evaluating the top fairway woods for beginners.

Item 3: Amateur golfers generally have slower swing speeds than professionals. With that in mind, I still want to recommend a fairway wood that anyone can get a reasonable amount of distance from. And the factors that affect distance are shaft flex and Moment of Inertia (MOI). I like to think of MOI as the golf club’s resistance to twisting – especially at the point of impact with the golf ball. So the fairway woods I recommended above are going to have a decent amount of flex (to accommodate slower swing speeds) and a high MOI (or a high level of forgiveness).

Please understand that the reason I go into such detail above is so that you don’t have to just rely on what fairway woods this website or any other golf website tells you to buy, but so that you understand how to evaluate these clubs yourself to make the most informed buying decision you can.

So there you have it: The Top Five Easiest to Hit Fairway Woods for Beginners and High Handicappers. I realize these are just my opinions and others may agree to disagree (as a matter of fact, please add a comment below whether you agree with my list or even if you have your own suggestions for a good fairway wood for a beginner).