Fairway woods are often an overlooked part of a golfer's bag considering the wide variety of shots they are required to hit. Despite not being used as frequently as a driver, irons or wedges, it’s really important to have fairway woods in the bag that can be relied on as they are often required in a high-stakes scenario - going for a par 5 in two or used instead of driver to hit a tight fairway.
Watch: We test the best fairway woods on the market in 2024
Despite most of the top 10 in the world gaining clubhead speed over the past couple of years, the courses the best golfers face will often stretch well over 7,300 yards in length and require some lengthy approach play into the par 4s and par 5s in order to set up birdie opportunities. Hitting fairway woods well from different lies is one of the more challenging skills in golf and having the right model and setup in the bag gives you the best chance at succeeding.
While some of the longer players in the game may not need to hit fairway woods into greens regularly, they may opt for a setup that helps them hit more fairways or hit a specific yardage they are looking for. That’s where the mini-driver is a trend has been particularly beneficial for many, offering a larger footprint than a standard fairway wood and with a loft that falls between a fairway wood and a driver. However, some will go down a different route and choose to play higher lofted fairway woods such as Tommy Fleetwood, who has been using a 9-wood on and off over the past couple of seasons. This high-lofted wood allows for a towering ball flight that lands softly into the firm, fast greens these players often face.
There is a lot of variety of fairway woods in the bag of the best in the world and that’s because they will require these clubs to execute slightly different shots on the course. It's worth pointing out that there are more forgiving fairway wood models on the market that may suit higher handicappers and even models that fall in between and would be best in the hands of mid handicapped golfers, it’s always interesting to see what equipment the world leaders trust to help them play their best golf.
1. Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler has been a dominant force in the game of golf over the past 12 months ranking 1st in Strokes Gained off the tee and in approach play. The Texas native won seven times in the 2024 season and had a further 16 top-10 finishes. Scheffler averaged 303 yards from the tee in 2024 which placed him 55th on the tour in driving distance. With a decent amount of speed to burn the world number one uses a TaylorMade Qi10 fairway wood in 15° and has it fitted with a Fujikura Ventus Black 8x shaft.
Interestingly the Qi10 fairway wood seemed to find its way in the bag of more players on tour than the smaller headed and lower spinning Qi10 Tour fairway wood. While the addition of an adjustable hosel helps amateurs dial in ball flights as their swing continues to change and develop, the best in the world are working with the best fitters in the world on the tour truck to find small wins with their equipment. A bonded hosel as opposed to an adjustable sleeve allows for weight saving and redistribution, resulting in potentially more speed and more forgiveness.
2. Xander Schauffele
Schauffele has made some serious speed gains over the past year and this is reflected in his equipment. The American has been using a Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood but set at 16.5° compared to a standard fairway wood loft of 15°. The Triple Diamond head is the lower spinning out of the Ai Smoke range and has proven to be extremely popular on tour with Callaway staff players. Schauffele uses the same Mitsubishi Diamana PD TX shaft in his fairway wood as he does in his driver, which is otherwise known as the modern version of the popular Whiteboard shaft that was used by Tiger Woods. The high lofted fairway wood is counteracted with a low spinning head and low launching shaft to create a high launch, low spin combination - the recipe for more distance.
3. Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy is often regarded as one of the best fairway wood players in the game thanks to his ability to hit the ball extremely high and therefore attack pins and greens that many others can’t. The Northern Irishman carries virtually the same three wood set-up as the world number one - a TaylorMade Qi10 (15°) with a Fujikura Ventus Black 8x. Rory does opt for a Golf Pride MCC grip as opposed to Scottie using a traditional Golf Pride Tour Velvet. McIlroy is a player who typically carries multiple fairway woods depending on the course set up and conditions, with McIlroy often calling upon his TaylorMade Qi10 5-wood (18°) with a Ventus Black 9x shaft. When venturing onto links courses or where there requires more strategy from the tee box, Rory will usually swap in a TaylorMade P760 2-iron, which you may recall he hit that spectacular shot with to set up a tournament winning birdie on the 18th hole at the 2023 Scottish Open.
4. Collin Morikawa
The Californian native showed his class this year, bouncing back from a mildly disappointing 2023 by his high standards. The UCLA alum racked up eight top-10 finishes in 2024 on route to a second place finish in the FedEx Cup standings. Like Scheffler and McIlroy, Morikawa is a TaylorMade staff player but actually chooses to use a fairway wood model he has had success with in the past - the TaylorMade SIM Ti. This fairway wood is 14° and is powered by a Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX shaft. This is a great example of a player who has confidence in a club to perform a certain way under pressure and isn’t worth replacing just because something newer has been released - something a lot of amateur golfers can learn from. Aside from the links course events during the summer, Morikawa also chooses to use a TaylorMade Qi10 5-wood (18°) in the exact same Diamana shaft found in his 3-wood. The American uses Golf Pride Z Cord grips on all of his clubs aside from the SuperStroke Tour 2.0 found on his custom TaylorMade Juno Putter.
5. Ludvig Aberg
The 24-year old Swede backed up his sensational maiden year on tour with a solid season in 2024. Aberg finished 16th in the FedEx Cup standings and picked up eight top-10 finishes including finishing 2nd three times. Aberg signed an equipment deal with Titleist shortly after turning professional but actually uses some older TaylorMade Stealth 2 fairway woods from his final year as an amateur. Like everyone else, Ludvig will change his wood set-up depending on conditions and the course but he usually travels with a 3-wood (15°), 5-wood (18°) and 7-wood (21°). Both his 3 and 5-wood are equipped with a Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8x, with the 7-wood in a heavier 9x.
6. Wyndham Clark
Clark is one of the most powerful golfers in the professional game and ranks 6th in driving distance on the PGA Tour. His rise to the top 10 in the world has been fairly quick after picking up another win this year, albeit in a reduced 54-hole tournament at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Due to his high speed, Clark chooses to game a 16.5° TaylorMade Qi10 HL fairway wood powered by a Project X Smoke Black RDX 80 TX shaft. Like Xander, Clark uses a higher lofted fairway wood in a lower spinning shaft to achieve maximum height alongside distance. The Qi10 fairway wood has a fairly shallow face which makes it particularly easy to launch from the fairway which is one of the reasons this fairway wood is extremely popular among many of the game’s best.
7. Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyma’s performance on the course had been fairly subdued since his heroic win at the 2021 Masters but he rose to form once again during the 2024 season. The Japanese star is another player to use the TaylorMade Qi10 fairway wood (15°) and has this fitted with a Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX. High-spin, low-launch shafts seem to be a trend at the moment with fairway woods thanks to the versatility they offer. The high launch nature of this shaft allows for ease of use when playing into greens but has plenty of power in reserve when being used as an alternative from the tee. Matsuyma has a trusted Cobra King Radspeed Tour 17.5° fairway wood set to 19°. This 5-wood also is equipped with the same Graphite Design shaft in his driver and 3-wood just in a heavier 100g TX shaft.
8. Viktor Hovland
The 27-year old Norwegian had a fairly quiet year on the PGA Tour despite picking up two runner-up finishes and finishing 12th on the FedEx Cup standings. While Hovland's short game has thrown up some question marks in the recent past, the same cannot be said for his ball striking. The 2023 FedEx Cup champion is known as an elite ball striker and while he has played the same Ping G425 LST driver for a few years now, Hovland is the 7th player in the top 8 to play a TaylorMade 3-wood by way of the Qi10. He also has this fairway wood fitted with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X, which is one of the most popular driver shafts on tour thanks to its extreme stability in the tip section of the shaft.
9. Patrick Cantlay
Despite the new Titleist GT driver and fairway woods proving to be extremely popular on tour, Cantlay still chooses to use his Titleist 915F fairway wood. He has this set at 15° and then he chooses to use a TS2 7-wood set at 21°. Cantlay is by far one of the best on the PGA Tour with his fairway woods ranking 5th in Strokes Gained Approach from 250-275 yards. The lofted 7-wood nicely fills the gap between his 3-wood and 4-iron and if any gaps started to arise he could easily adjust the hosel in order to gain or take yardage away. Cantlay uses the same Mitsubishi Diamana ZF TX in driver through to 7-wood and uses Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips on all of his clubs.
10. Bryson Dechambeau
Despite his face bulging irons taking the spotlight in the US Open champions bag, Dechambeau has a pretty unique set-up the whole way through his bag. Bryson’s 6° Krank Formula Fire driver means his fairway wood set-up also looks a little different compared to the rest of the players in the top 10. For much of this year Bryson has been using a TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver at 10° (the same loft as a lot of players' drivers) and then has a 13° Krank Formula Fire fairway wood. With his extreme speed, the American has to play lower lofts in order to control the ball flight and achieve optimal distance and gapping with his clubs. As someone who swings the driver at around the 130mph mark, Dechambeau uses very strong Project X HZRDUS T1100 shafts which are very low launching and spinning with very little torque.
