A 7-wood used to be a club some golfers were, let’s say, embarrassed to admit they carried.
Those days are long gone. At the 2026 Presidents Cup, you could find one in the bags of Scottie Scheffler and Chris Gotterup, two players who need absolutely no help in the ball speed department.
They weren’t alone. Of the 24 players on the two teams, six of them had a 7-wood: Scheffler, Gotterup, Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, Cameron Young and Ryan Fox.
Jacob Bridgeman and Adam Scott went a step further with using 9-woods.
That’s eight players choosing a fairway wood with at least 21 degrees of stated loft. However, there are 16 players who did not carry one. It’s not some universal trend where every PGA Tour player automatically adds a higher-lofted wood.
Both numbers matter if you want to understand what’s happening at the top of PGA Tour bags.
Why would a powerful player carry a 7-wood?
The TLDR explanation is that these players are trying to hit a particular shot.
A long approach is only useful if it covers the right distance and does something predictable when it lands.
A 7-wood can, of course, help produce a higher flight and steeper landing angle than a comparable long iron. That gives a player a way to attack a green from distance, particularly when a lower-flying shot would release too far. It can also offer a different option from rough or an awkward lie.
So with the setup at Medinah (firm and fast greens), the higher-lofted fairway wood was a fit for several players.
Scheffler paired his 7-wood with a utility 4-iron. Cantlay, Henley, Young and Fox also had irons at the top of their sets. Their bags are a useful reminder that the question isn’t necessarily “wood or long iron?”
Sometimes a player has room for both because they produce different flights or cover different distances.
Then why didn’t everyone have one last week?
Because a 7-wood or 9-wood label does not solve a distance gap by itself.
Xander Schauffele had a 21-degree Callaway Apex UW in the position where another player might use a 7-wood. Sungjae Im carried a 19-degree hybrid (which he has been using for many years now). Collin Morikawa used a 5-wood followed by a utility iron.
Each had a different answer to the same basic question: What do I need between my longest fairway wood and my irons?
The 9-woods make the point even clearer. Bridgeman carried a 24-degree TaylorMade Qi4D 9-wood while Scott had a 24-degree Qi10 9-wood. A few years ago, many golfers would have ruled out that club on its name alone. Here were two Presidents Cup players making room for it because of what it could do.
The loft printed on a club is only part of the comparison. Shaft length, head design, your delivery and the ball flight you need all affect the result.
What should you take from the Presidents Cup?
Start with the club in your bag that you least want to hit on a long approach. Maybe it’s a 4-iron you strike well once every five attempts. Maybe it’s a hybrid that goes nearly as far as your 5-wood, leaving a gap beneath it.
Then test a 7-wood or a 9-wood against the club already in that slot. Compare carry distance, not just the longest ball you hit. Watch the height, the spread of your misses and what the ball does after it lands. Test shots from the fairway and rough if you expect to use the club from both.
The Presidents Cup showed that some of the game’s best and fastest players will choose a higher-lofted wood when it gives them a shot their other clubs can’t reliably produce.
So you should take a look, too.
Top Photo Caption: Adam Scott uses his 9-wood. (GETTY IMAGES/Richard Heathcote)
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