Alright, so today was the day. I’d been putting it off, but my 3-wood off the fairway has been, well, let’s just say less than reliable. More like a lucky dip where you mostly get nothing. I figured, enough is enough, I gotta dedicate some real time to this.
Getting Started at the Range
So, I grabbed my clubs and headed down to the range. Got myself a big bucket of balls because I knew this wasn’t going to be a quick fix. Started off with a few wedge shots, then a couple of 7-irons, just to get loose, you know? Trying to find some rhythm before tackling the beast itself. My thinking was, if I can’t hit a 7-iron okay, what chance do I have with the 3-wood off the deck?
Then, the moment of truth. Pulled out the 3-wood. Stood over the first ball on a decent lie on the mat. Took a swing.
The Ugly Truth and Trying to Fix It
And… yeah. It was pretty much what I expected. A low, skittering shot that barely got off the ground. Maybe rolled 100 yards if it was lucky. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to cover it. The next few weren’t much better. I was either topping it, hitting it super thin, or occasionally catching it heavy and taking a huge divot out of the mat (well, as much as you can with a mat).
I started to go through my mental checklist:
- Was my ball position okay? Tried moving it a bit further forward, then a tiny bit back. Seemed like an inch made a world of difference, mostly for the worse.
- Was I trying to lift the ball? Probably. That’s usually my go-to fault with fairway woods.
- Was I swinging too hard? Almost definitely. That feeling of needing to smash it to get it airborne.
I took a breather. Watched a couple of other folks hitting. One old guy was just creaming his fairway woods, smooth as silk. Made me even more annoyed, ha!
Okay, new plan. I decided to focus on just one thing: trying to sweep the ball. Not hit down on it like an iron. I kept telling myself, “brush the grass, brush the grass.” I also tried to slow my backswing down, really feel the club head.
It took a while. A long while. More topped shots. More duffs. I even shanked one, which was a new and unwelcome development with the 3-wood. But then, I hit one. Just one. It wasn’t perfect, a little bit of a fade, but it got up in the air, decent trajectory, and actually flew a respectable distance. That sound, that thwack instead of a thud or a scrape – music to my ears.
Finding a Little Something
That one good shot gave me a bit of hope. So I tried to replicate what I thought I did. Main thing seemed to be a wider takeaway and really trying to complete my turn, then just letting the club release through the ball. Less arm, more body. Easier said than done, of course.
I hit maybe five or six more decent ones out of the next twenty or thirty balls. Not world-beaters, but they were playable. They got airborne and went roughly where I was aiming. The bad ones were still there, lurking, but they weren’t every shot anymore. It felt like I was making tiny, tiny bits of progress. The key seemed to be not forcing it and really focusing on that sweeping motion, almost like I was trying to clip a tee pegged super low.
My hands started to hurt a bit from gripping the club so tight on the bad shots, and my back was starting to feel it too. Called it a day after that bucket was empty.
What I’m Taking Away
So, am I magically fixed? Absolutely not. But I walked away feeling a little less hopeless about hitting my 3-wood off the fairway. I think the biggest thing was finding that feel of “sweeping” it and not trying to murder the ball. It’s a constant battle, this game.
Next time, I’m going to try the same drills, maybe even try to hit some off actual grass if the practice area isn’t too chewed up. Focus on that tempo and the sweep. It’s a long road, but today felt like I at least found the map, even if I’m still lost in the woods a bit. Pun intended, I guess.
