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Should you have a fairway wood, hybrid or driving iron when it comes to filling the gap at the top of your bag between your driver and your irons? You may already have a 3-wood in there, so which should be the next club down for you?

When you come for a fairway fitting, hybrid fitting or driving iron fitting the first question we ask is what role does this club play in your bag.

If you need a club to use from the tee then a fairway wood might be the best choice due to the larger head and extra forgiveness. Even from the fairway, as its name suggests, the wood can still be a great choice.

If you stray from the fairway and find yourself in less than perfect lies, then a hybrid offers a more compact head to dig the ball out. The shorter shaft will also create a greater feeling of control and accuracy.

Driving irons are becoming less common, but still have a role for certain players with high swing speeds. They can also be tailored to suit certain conditions such as wind or firm running links where accuracy into greens and tee shots that run out are required.

To demonstrate the differences, we compared a Callaway fairway and hybrid, plus a Cobra driving iron hitting premium balls outdoors with Trackman. Each model is set at 19° loft to illustrate the differences in the performance from each type of club.

The fairway wood generated the most clubhead speed as it is the club with the longest shaft. With the deepest head the CG will also be furthest back from the face which mean that it will create the most spin. This is not necessarily a bad thing as if the ball flies higher then it also lands steeper and therefore is more likely to stop on the green if you are using it for approach shots.

In our test the hybrid still managed to generate the same amount of ball speed from a slightly slower clubhead speed thanks to the shorter shaft. It could also be due to the smaller head being able to access the back of the ball better at impact. The hybrid generated less spin as the CG is closer to the face, so therefore the carry was a little longer. However, the lower flight and landing angle meant that a 19° hybrid might not be enough loft for at this swing speed to use as an approach club, but a higher lofted version could be ideal.

The driving iron has the shortest shaft of the three and so has the least clubhead speed. The more downward attack of an iron at impact creates the additional spin to generate almost the same height and landing angle as the fairway, but it did not carry as far.

At 19° loft with this swing speed the fairway wood is probably the best option as it was the most consistent for distance and dispersion. The driving iron was next best as it was accurate and if you wanted a club just to get you in play off the tee then this would be the one, especially if you are a high swing speed player.

The hybrid was the least optimum at this loft and swing speed, but with more loft it could be a contender to deliver the right flight combined with the best distance. It would also have the option of being used from the semi-rough and even around the greens.

The top of the bag gap is one that needs careful consideration and as this test shows, it is worth trying out all the options as it could be a combination of 5-wood, 4 hybrid and maybe even a 4-driving iron that gives the best combination before you reach the longest iron in your set.

Check out the video below of Chris Dennis who came for a 7-wood fairway fitting and left with something else to see how SGGT can fit you into the right long game clubs for your game.

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