Your 3 wood is obsolete...

For decades, the standard setup in a golf bag was simple: driver, 3-wood, 5-wood. It was automatic. No one questioned it. But modern equipment, launch monitor data, and proper club fitting are telling a different story.

At The Fitting Lab in Regina, we’re seeing more golfers fit with no 3-wood in the bag — not because it’s a bad club, but because for most amateur players, it simply doesn’t perform optimally.

And the biggest reason is LOFT!

The problem most golfers don’t realize they have a traditional 3-wood has 15 degrees of loft. Off a tee, that can work. Off the turf, it becomes one of the most demanding shots in golf. Very few can hit a fairway wood solid let alone a low lofted 3wd.

Through club fittings in Regina, we consistently see mid-handicap golfers deliver:

• Launch angles between 7°–9°

• Spin rates under 2,800 RPM

• Low peak height

• Carry distances 10–20 yards shorter than expected

• Expectation for ROLL OUT and not carry distance.

For a 3-wood to perform properly off the deck, most golfers need to launch it closer to 12°–14° with 3,000–3,500 RPM of spin. Very few recreational players create those numbers. In fact almost none do unless you’ve got serious speed! Instead, the ball launches too low, doesn’t spin enough, and falls out of the air. What looks like a “strong” shot is actually a distance leak.

This isn’t opinion. It’s data.

One of the biggest misconceptions in golf equipment is that less loft equals more distance.

For elite players with high club speed, that can be true. For the majority of golfers, more loft creates more carry distance because it produces proper launch conditions.

When we replace a 15° 3-wood with an 18° 5-wood or even a 21° 7-wood; we typically see:

• Launch angle increase significantly

• Spin increase into a playable window

• Peak height increase

• Carry distance equal or longer than the 3-wood (Most of the time LONGER!)

• A steeper descent angle for holding greens

The result isn’t just more height — it’s more functional distance.

Higher launch + proper spin = optimized carry.

“But I need a 3wd. It’s part of a set. Right?”

Let’s address it. The 3-wood has always felt like its needed to be in the bag because… well because you need a 3wd right? We imagine it’ll fly far and high and get us to that par 5 in 2! Golf club fitting isn’t about tradition. It’s about performance. If you avoid hitting your 3-wood off the turf because you don’t trust it, that’s a performance problem — not a confidence problem. The right fairway wood should be a weapon, not a liability.

In our club fittings, when we test a 3-wood against a properly fit 5-wood with the correct shaft profile and head design, the data overwhelmingly favours the higher lofted option for most mid-speed players.

The 5-wood:

• Launches higher

• Carries as far or farther

• Lands softer

• Produces tighter dispersion

And most importantly — it’s repeatable. That’s the key difference between a “cool” club and a scoring club.

Should You Remove Your 3-Wood?

If you’re a high-speed player who launches it properly and uses it effectively off the tee and into par 5s, keep it.

But if you struggle to get it airborne, see inconsistent carry distance, or notice minimal separation from at the top end of your bag, it may be time for a professional club fitting and probably more loft!

Your bag should be built around optimized distance gapping and launch conditions — not tradition.

So what do you think? Is the 3wd DEAD?