According to a report from Sports Marketing Surveys, just over 10 per cent of Tour professionals have a 7-wood, or higher, lofted fairway wood in their bag.
A 7-wood typically has a loft of 21-24˚ (these are the typical lofts of golf clubs) so something similar to the loft of a 3-iron and 4-hybrid. Historically, it was seen as a club more suited to higher handicappers.
But in recent years, there has been a moving trend in the professional game for more tour pros to include more lofted fairway woods in their bags.
With there being stronger lofts in some of the best irons, the 4-iron has become more obsolete and the 7-wood has taken its place in a lot of bags – and, with it, they bring more height, increased ball speed, more versatility and ease of use.
One of the latest examples of a big player turning to a 7-wood was Scottie Scheffler at The Genesis at Torrey Pines in February.
His caddie Ted Scott looked at the stats from the Farmers Insurance, also at Torrey, and suggested that a more lofted fairway wood would be beneficial from the thick rough. Scheffler requested that the TaylorMade team built him up a 5-wood to tick off the yardage of 245 yards, the number that sits between his longest iron and 3-wood.
That was then travelling too far so they put together a more stronger-lofted TaylorMade Qi35 7-wood. The precise details were a 19.75˚ club that was tipped two inches so it was exactly an inch shorter than his 3-wood.
Scheffler was launching it at 11˚ with 4100-4200 rpm of launch, producing about 128 feet of peak height, which would be around 20 feet higher than his 3-iron.
“He wanted it to go 245 yards, so for him, 5-wood's not 245, a 5-wood’s going to go 255-260,” TaylorMade's Tour rep Adrian Rietveld told GolfWRX.com.
“So I suggested we do it in the 7-wood, or a strong 7-wood. So we built up a Tour and our core offering in the Qi35 and tested them on Tuesday about midday-ish. And then we just hit the course with him (for the Wednesday pro-am).
"Geez, he’s using it way more than I thought. On 12, he had 180 out of the rough (and he hit the green). Then he hit a 4-iron from the same spot afterwards and couldn’t get it 50 yards.
“He’s pretty comfortable with it out of the rough, and off the fairway and in the par 3s, as well.”
Scheffler would finish the week in a tie for third with Ludvig Aberg, the winner in California.
• 7-wood• 294 yards• Ludvig Åberg• 😳😳😳😳😳😳You MUST wait for what is quite possibly the best caddie reaction ever. Someone please make it a meme. pic.twitter.com/WoYuLvSslLNovember 19, 2024
Other top players who use 7-woods
Aberg is another who trusts a 7-wood, albeit a different TaylorMade model, and he famously put it to stunning effect at last year's US Open.
The Swede uses a Stealth 2 which was released at the beginning of 2023 and Aberg loves its versatility.
“I feel like I can hit it a lot of different ways, I can hit it high, hit it low, turn it over, cut it. We played around with it a little bit, me and my caddie, Joe.
"If you get a half decent amount of rough you can sort of hit it out there. I'm not going to leave it out of the bag anytime soon,” Aberg said after an opening 63 at The Farmers, the first time the PGA Tour visited Torrey Pines this year.
Dustin Johnson was one of the first big players to turn to more loft in their woods – he would also include a 9-wood. Xander Schauffele followed suit in 2021 when he put his Callaway Mavrik SZ 7-wood into play. The two-time Major Champion had gained some extra yards and therefore had to mix up his bag.
"The switch into the 7-wood came for the same reason as the 3-wood; we saw distance gains in the previous 5-wood that was just too far for that part of the bag.
"The 5-wood was touching 170 ball speed, so with the loft increase in the 7-wood combined with a heavier (and shorter) shaft, we could dial back yardages to a previous yardage and launch profile he felt comfortable with. Proper yardage gapping is essential," explains Callaway performance rep Kellen Watson.
Otherwise Joaquin Niemann still employs the Ping G425 Max 7-wood, Adam Scott uses the TaylorMade Stealth and Tyrrell Hatton has the Ping G430 Max in there.
Hatton is already a winner in 2025 and he had the Ping 3 and 7-wood in the bag for his victory at the Dubai Desert Classic. The Englishman has gone with the updated G440 Max in the 3-wood but the 7-wood isn’t going anywhere and he continues to be one of the best players with a lofted fairway wood in his hands.
