of a 7-wood (compared to an iron with a flatter face) produces a gear effect that brings toe and heel hits back towards the centre. VanWezenbeeck cites Lanto Griffin as an example of a player who immediately saw the advantages. Griffin put a Titleist TSi2 7-wood in play at the 2021 US Open at Torrey Pines expecting it to be a one-week fix to com- bat the juicy rough. What Griffin found was far more than that. “He talked about how the 7-wood allowed him to make a normal golf swing and create so much eleva- tion that he could attack par 5s differently than he did be- fore,” VanWezenbeeck says. “Before, he carried a 2-iron, and though he be- lieved that was a great club off the tee, he found him- self having to overthink shots and alter his swing on approaches into par 5s. With the 7-wood he believes he can make a normal, iron-like swing, launch it high, and if he hits a high cut, it comes in really soft.” Although the increase in tour usage seems recent, Oates says it dates back nearly three decades, when Christian Peña, Ping’s tour operations manager, championed the club. Peña played profes- sionally in the early 1990s and early 2000s, mostly in Asia. He won three events and often used a 7-wood. He knew its value to profes- sional golfers. As a Ping tour rep at the 2013 US Open at Merion, Peña walked the course and decided to build every one of the company’s staff players a 7-wood. “Only a couple of guys put it in play that week,” Oates says. “But he continued to push the 7-wood hard to our staff. It’s to his credit we have so many in play today.” Marchini says he noticed an increase in the 7-wood’s popularity among average golfers in 2021. “We have
a large group of relatively new golfers ready to get fit and build a bag specifi- cally for them,” he says. “A lot of fitters are suggesting a 5-wood/7-wood combi- nation instead of 3-wood/ 5-wood. We had a hard time keeping them in stock in our stores.” As much as the indus- try wants to tell golfers to hit hybrids, a lot of players can’t hit them successfully. Those with a sweeping swing struggle. Also, golfers have got more educated. They are paying attention to where the gaps exist in the bag, and loft fitting now is criti- cal to get those yardage gaps correct. In short, the 7-wood is not a fad; it’s a trend. For middle- to high-handicaps, a 7-wood is almost a necessity. Loft is your friend. That wasn’t the case 35 years ago when before the 1987 Skins Game at PGA West in La Quinta, California, Lee Trevino visited the TaylorMade plant and saw an odd-looking prototype metalwood in a barrel with the number 7 stamped on it. “That little club turned out to be the best stick I ever had,” Trevino told Golf Digest in 2009. “I could hit it high or low, draw or fade it, hit it 165 yards or 210, all with barely changing my swing. I hit a 190-yard fairway-bunker shot over water to five feet on the ninth hole at that Skins Game – a shot I couldn’t possibly have played with an iron. There’s no sense trying to squeeze something out of your swing if you can let your clubs do the shotmaking for you.” Numerous tour pros and a host of everyday golfers are starting to find out ex- actly what Trevino is talking about.
PLAY IT MIDDLE FROM THE ROUGH
“The 7-wood can help you escape bad lies, like punching out of deep grass while keeping it under tree branches,” Nafus says. “To hit this shot, play the ball centred in your stance and choke up an inch ( above ). Make a three-quarter backswing, but don’t chop down. The ball position takes care of the steeper attack angle. It will fly low with plenty of runout.”
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 47
MAY 2024
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