Dustin Johnson’s bag included a TaylorMade SIM2 Max 7-wood at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January. (TaylorMade)
Chew said the emergence of 7-woods on the PGA Tour is the result of several factors. First, manufacturers are making fairway woods with hotter faces that produce more ball speed. Second, modern golf balls do not spin as much as they did a few decades ago. Finally, the greens on the PGA Tour are getting faster.
A decade ago, 7-woods generated too much spin for fast-swinging pros to consider. Today, however, with manufacturers reducing spin on fairway woods and balls spinning less, the extra loft in a 7-wood makes it easier to get the ball high into the air and bring it down more vertically, so it stops faster on the green
“We have been able to add so much ball speed to our fairway woods that going up in the loft allows us to have a higher launch and control the yardage for people,” Van Wezenbeeck said.
“The 7-wood is just such a forgiving golf club,” Oates said. “Hybrids are more forgiving than a 4-iron, yes, but if you put a hybrid and a 7-wood down together, you see how much bigger the 7-wood is back to front. The center of gravity is so much lower. It’s just a more-forgiving golf club.”
Oates also said pros are starting to fall in love with 7-woods because when they mis-hit a hybrid, they tend to go left and lose distance. If they mis-hit a 7-wood, the ball typically goes nearly as far and it tends to travel straighter.
“Even when they pull it, they are still going to see that 240 number or whatever the guy wants over and over and over again,” he said.
Here is Adam Scott talking about his new 7-wood before the 2021 Masters.
