PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Earlier this week at the Genesis Invitational, I asked several pros in the field to name the toughest club to replace in the bag. Although the answers varied initially, a consensus eventually emerged around one club in particular: the fairway wood.
It could be debated that no club in the bag is required to wear more hats than the fairway wood. Unless it’s meant to be a club that’s used strictly off the turf or tee, most fairway woods need to be able to do both — and hit a myriad of launch windows and shot shapes. Think of it as a Swiss Army knife.
Tiger Woods would’ve been a perfect example of someone who relied heavily on older model fairway woods before his arrival this week at Riviera Country Club. His TaylorMade SIM Ti 3-wood was released four years ago; the M3 5-wood dates back to 2018. Both are considered “old” by today’s Tour standards.
But even 15-time major winners playing older fairway woods find replacements for trusted gear companions.
In Woods’ case, he confirmed during Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference that his 15-degree TaylorMade SIM Ti will be replaced by a Qi10 Tour — with the same loft — that’s easier to draw and boasts a 50-gram sliding weight in the sole. For someone who likes to shape the ball more than his colleagues, having a reliable draw shot in the bag is incredibly important.
“The [Qi10 Tour] 3-wood is in play,” Woods said. “I feel very comfortable with the 3-wood. I had to find the right shaft for it and decided to switch the shafts and go with what I have on my driver. My 5-wood is different, it’s old, a little beat up, but it still works. But the 3-wood, I wanted to find something I could draw a little bit better and this one is definitely that.”
Regarding the shaft change Woods mentioned, he’s going from Mitsubishi’s Diamana D+ 70TX into a Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7X. The VF was a new addition to Woods’ Qi10 LS driver at the Hero World Challenge, and he appears intent on using the same low-launch profile in the 3-wood as well. A Diamana D+ 80TX was still affixed to the 5-wood on Wednesday, so this isn’t an across-the-board shaft change. (It’s important to note Woods is also switching to the ‘24 Bridgestone Tour B X golf ball.)
Woods spent the last few days on the course getting familiar with Qi10 Tour, hitting multiple balls off the tee with the fairway wood to better understand how it might fit in his plan to attack Riviera. The shots he executed looked crisp and consistent, but as Woods will tell you, practice rounds and tournament rounds are two different beasts.
For the moment, it’s earned a spot in the bag as the 1B option to the driver. The only thing left to do is see how it performs in a game situation.
We won’t have to wait long to find out.
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