2014 MOST WANTED – Fairway Wood (Accuracy Awards)

We know there are plenty of you who basically ignored yesterday’s Most Wanted 3 Wood for Distance and are now laser focused on today’s Accuracy results. I call you the smart ones.

Full disclosure, I’m not actually one of you. I want to be, but I’m still more distance obsessed than any rational man should be. I’m learning, and as we’ll discuss a bit later (not today), the 3 wood can be an exceedingly difficult club to hit. It’s an absolute nightmare for some people, and so while I can understand the desire to hit it long, our advice is to find one you can consistently hit straight, and stick with it.

For those who missed it yesterday, feel free to toggle the box below to help you better understand our testing process.

To minimize fatigue while still allowing for the necessary number of shots to be hit, each of the 22 clubs in our test was placed into 1 of 3 club groups. No 2 clubs from a single manufacturer were placed in the same group, otherwise group assignments were randomly drawn.

The order clubs were hit each day was also determined at random, but to ensure fairness and balance, the order was different for each tester, and we took steps to ensure that each club was hit near the beginning, middle, and end of each group.

All shots were hit from a fairway lie. We did not test from the tee or from the rough. Given the emergence of clubs like Callaway’s 2 Deep, PING’s Rapture, and TaylorMade’s Mini Driver, future fairway wood tests will almost certainly involve a tee component.

Each club group was hit over the course of 2 sessions by each each of our testers. In each session we collected 6 good shots per club from each tester (12 total – 6 shots * 2 sessions).

Final rankings are based on relative performance against our control club which was also hit by each tester in each session.

Golfers were given adequate time to warm up. Once ready, golfers took 3 swings with each club before moving to the next club. After 9 swings testers were given a break. The process was repeated until 6 good shots were collected with each 3 Wood being tested in that particular session. Testers hit an average of 65 shots during each session.

Accuracy Scoring

We’ve worked to make our accuracy scoring system as simple as possible. After having a moment of great inspiration during a call with a R&D guy at one of the big OEMs, we’ve  moved to a grid-based system for accuracy scoring.

Here’s a graphic to get you started.

With all of that administrative stuff out off the way, let’s get to the point of all of this.

2014’s Most Wanted 3 Wood – Accuracy Rankings

As much as we’ll tell you that there’s almost no correlation between driver performance and fairway wood performance, is anyone really surprised to see the PING G25 at the top of our list?

The filthy accurate G25 hit the 2nd highest percentage of fairways, was tighter to the target line than any club in our test, and on our grid-based point system, bested the control club by 1.25 points (no small margin). If you want raw distance, maybe look elsewhere, if you want to continuously hit the ball straight, just stop reading.

The ultralight Wilson Staff D-100 proved extremely accurate which comes as a bit of a surprise given the longer than average shaft. Some of have long argued that spin equals control, and that would seem to be the case here.

Like the driver the D-100 3 Wood is just a lot of fun to swing, and well…keeping the ball in play is fun too.

Callaway’s Big Bertha also proved to be a fairway hitting machine (I’d take 75% all day, every day), and was less than a yard further offline than the D-100.

Bertha is a very solid #3. While not quite the D-100 or the G25, take notice…it’s a wide gap between #3 and #4.

Some readers were a bit surprised not to see PING’s i25 higher on our distance list. It wasn’t far off the board, but the real story might be the accuracy.

65% of fairways, less than 15 yards offline, and it bested the control by better than half a point. That’s not bad for PING’s less forgiving offering.

The last time we tested a fairway wood Mizuno shocked the world and came out on top. Given what happened 2 years ago, we shouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see underappreciated Mizuno do well again.

Still, many don’t think of Mizuno when it comes to fairway woods, and many more will be surprised by the low spin numbers produced by the JPX-EZ as well.

ONOFF consistently hit the board in our Most Wanted Driver test, and they’ve done it again here. While they didn’t have low speed player’s eyeballs popping like they did last time around, the numbers were far from shabby.

Personally, the Yonex IEZONE was one of the biggest surprises of our fairway wood test. Very traditional in design, we didn’t think it would hold up well against some of these high tech juggernauts.  Instead, it finished with the majority for distance, and as you can see, more than held its own for accuracy.

When we didn’t actual test from everywhere this time, even if our testers didn’t love the feel, the Adams Tight Lies proved better than most when it comes to keeping the ball on target, and in the fairway.

Cleveland’s 588 once again hits the board. Despite really enjoying the Classic Series we haven’t talked about Cleveland much over the last couple of years. If they’re stuff keeps performing like the 588, that’s going to have to change.

The spiniest of the clubs in our test, the EZONE XP, like the driver, performed admirably. While we can’t say it’s for everyone, as you’ll see, there’s a group of golfers out there who definitely should take a look.

Here’s a funny thing: Our high swing speed players were more accurate with the PING G25 than our low swing speed testers. Remarkable right? Just look at the gap in yards offline between the G25 and EVERYTHING else.

Here’s the deal, the G25 isn’t the longest fairway wood in golf…nobody can make that argument, but if you’re looking for consistent accuracy, and don’t want to be looking for balls…winner, winner chicken dinner.

Our high swing speed players made easy work out of hitting the Yonex IEZONE.  The 2^nd most accurate club overall for the group. Like the Tour Edge clubs from yesterday, Yonex presents a compelling alternative to the mainstream.

Callaway’s Big Bertha once again makes a strong showing. Our higher swing speed guys found fairways, and when they missed, it wasn’t by much.  As a group, our guys loved this club.

We talk about performance gaps between clubs…it’s a no small hop between Bertha and the rest of the pack.

Not surprisingly, PING’s i25 performed more than admirably for our higher swing speed players. While you might have missed it yesterday, it finished above the average for distance, and now it has done even better for accuracy.

Here’s that pesky little Mizuno JPX-EZ again. Trust me fellas, it’s not going away. Mizuno has a real performer here, and as I already mentioned, pleasant surprise for those looking for low spin.

The Wilson Staff D-100 is the first of two clubs with which our slower swing speed players hit 100% of fairways. How nuts is that? It’s actually less nuts than 4.34 offline on average, and the highest accuracy score of any club in the test.

Also..look at the gap between 1^st and 2^nd place on this list. Lower swing speed players pay attention NOW! The Wilson D-100 is stupid. Stupid good.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that like the lightweight D-100, the also lightweight Cleveland 588 produced very solid results for our slower swing speed players.

Once again, our guys hit 100% of fairways, and were well under 10 yards offline on average. How much more do you want?

Here’s that Yonex EZONE XP again. The fairway with the big red head (no not Nike) posted solid result after solid result.

Like the two listed above it, we like the EZONE XP much more for lower swing speed players, but the real takeaway is this: we like the Yonex EZONE XP.

A 4^th place finish is probably all but expected given the Tight Lies reputation (particularly among lower swing speed players).

The closest thing to a get out of jail free card the golf equipment world offers should also prove adept at keeping you away from trouble to begin with.

Rounding out our Top 5 is the PING G25, which I should probably mention is the only club to hit the board in all 3 lists.

This is quickly becoming a repeat of the driver test. I’m sick of talking about the PING G25. It’s good. You know it. I know it. Let’s move on.

Come Back Tomorrow

Tomorrow we’ll announce our overall winner; MyGolfSpy’s 2014 Most Wanted 3 Wood for Total Performance. And of course…in case you missed it, be sure to check out our 2014 Most Wanted 3 Wood for Distance.