The woods in a typical golfer's bag will include a driver and one or two fairway woods, most commonly a 3-wood and a 5-wood. For those who are "lightweights" there are 7-woods or 9-woods, too. The 4-wood is another common wood, and there are those golfers who carry an 11-wood.

 

Woods feature front-to-back-deep clubheads that are made of metal, usually steel or a titanium alloy. They are called "woods" because for centuries the clubheads were formerly made from wood. Metals did not come into wide use until the 1980s, and "fairway woods" are now sometimes called "fairway metals". Steel costs less, but titanium adds some "oomph" because it is a lighter material.

 

For beginners, the driver, which is also known as a 1-wood, will be one of the most difficult clubs to master. It is the longest club in the bag (typically 45 inches), which makes it the toughest to control in the swing.

 

Fairway woods, like irons, are progressive in nature; that is, a 3-wood has less loft than a 4-wood, which has less loft than a 5-wood, and so on and so forth. Due to this fact, a 3-wood will go farther than a 4-wood, which will go farther than a 5-wood, and so on and so forth.

 

A 3-wood is usually the second-longest club in a golfer's bag (there are 2-woods available, but they aren't very common and pros are the ones who care about them). Fairway woods have smaller heads than drivers and get progressively shorter than drivers. That makes them easier to control in the swing than a driver, and for that reason beginners are often encouraged to use a fairway wood off the tee rather than trying to "whack a driver" right from the start.

 

Beginners might want to consider carrying some extra fairway woods (such as 5-wood, 7-wood and 9-wood) in place of the long irons (2-, 3-, 4- and even 5-irons). As a rule of thumb, fairway woods are easier to hit than long irons for most beginners and recreational golfers.

 

Drivers and fairway woods are intended to strike the ball either on the upswing (in the case of the driver) or at the bottom of the swing (in the case of fairway woods). For that reason, the ball is placed forward in the stance when using a wood. Distances with each club will vary from player to player; there is no "right" distance, there is only your distance. Typically, a driver will go 20 yards or so farther than a 3-wood, which will go about 20 yards farther than a 5-wood. A 5-wood is roughly equivalent to a 2-iron in the distance it will hit the ball; a 7-wood is roughly equal to a 4-iron.

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