Which 2024 Fairway Wood will suit your game?

Once again our World leading equipment Guru, Simon Cooper, independently reviews and compares the Ping G430 SFT, Cobra DarkSpeed Max, Titleist TSR1 and TaylorMade Qi10 Max FWs.

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Wow that really that really has launched High um that’s I think the one the felt like one of the highest launches of anything so most fairw tests that you’re going to see done are going to focus on distance and what gives the most powerful flight today we’re going to

Look at which head gives the most launch and the most spin because actually a lot of golfers struggle to get the ball Airborne with a fairway wood so which ones give the most launch the most spin the most trajectory so we’ve got uh the Ping the fs SF Tech uh the Cobra the

Dark Speed Max tsr1 and the qi1 max we’re going to compare all of them look at the launch and Spins and see which one’s going to give you maximum height and trajectory off the ground so initially starting with the Ping and one of the things they’ve all done is gone

Shallower on the face to get that Center gravity down get flight up uh a little bit of a bigger footprint on some of these as well the qi1 max the sft tsl1 are all a slightly bigger frame shape of head a lot of that’s to get the weight

Down and back to get as much forward movement of the shaft to get as much Dynamic Loft on the ball and also get that spin up there as well so going to hit a few shots with each and see what happens initially a little bit of a pull

Certainly very very easy to pick it off the turf that was a massive pull um but even that still got a reasonable bit of Spin and launch on really kind of sits very flat sole sits down to the ball now this is a bit of a draw Bast

Head so it’s going to tend a little bit left for me but plenty of elevation on this let’s give that one more yeah lots of Lawns there okay so that’s a that’s a very good start you so you know for me I’ve always hit the ball fairly high but

That’s given me very similar launch and spin numbers uh to my six AR um so now from ahead I’ve got these all all these heads are going to be measuring the same Loft so they’re all measuring actual Loft measured loft of 20° so it’s sort

Of like a five and a half would Loft really but that way we can get consistency across all of them but you know that’s really launching up very very high so that’s a that’s a very good start going to move on to the ti list the tsr1

So this slightly less large head than the Ping um but you white grooves on the face shows you all the Loft so you can see plenty of face there okay lots of launch it’s a it’s a little bit of a it’s a little bit of a deeper face than

The Ping head um you could argue a slightly more solid feeler as a result yeah and so one of the things here we’re seeing you plenty of launch but a little bit of a lower spin so whilst you know plenty of elevation not quite as much

Spin as the Ping head so we’ll move on to the next one so this one’s the um the Cobra the dark Speed Max um really nice sort of matted down uh really clean simple looking head you can’t see the face as much with the grooves like you

Can on the ti list um so but a very very simple look doesn’t as a result doesn’t look quite as large as the Ping head and as we’ll come onto the tailor made um but sits down to the ball nicely and one things I’m trying to do with all these

Shots is to swing them for me around the 95 96 mile hour mark so not going full Bard at it but but just to kind of pair the swing back a little bit so make it a bit more realistic as a test it’s still not slow but uh it’s not t speed

Again ve very impressed with where the launch is on all of These let’s do one more there So again lots of launch just turn that one over a little bit but again it’s it’s good to get a combination or a variety of launches and Spins with these so there are going to be sometimes you’re looking for higher launch and lower Spin and sometimes maximum launch and maximum spin um so

Far in terms of height and Back Spin numbers the pings that’s the the highest so far so I’m just going to switch over to to the qi1 now this one is a fixed tozzle but I’ve got exactly the same shaft model Flex as we do in the others

Um so so we can do that direct comparison now certainly you tailor made in the past have always their fids have always been very very low spin very strong from a distance point of view and the the standard model is no is really no different um you know this one not to

Be sits a little bit little bit shallower it’s not the shallowest head out though the ping ping gets that one um but for Taylor Made quite a shallow face and a bit of a bigger footprint again so interested to see what this one does yeah wow that that really has

Launched High um that’s I think the one the felt like one of the highest launches of anything yeah if you want High launch this is ridiculous it’s uh let’s do one more there yeah so some really really quite impressive numbers from all of those heads here so I’ll go go going to go

Into the uh into theed actually what I’m going to do first I’m going to hit a standard five I’m going to go to the you know the ping the 430 Max as a more kind of one of a standard model fi to get a comparison point on that launch and spin

Just to just to give a almost a kind of a normalized test I think it’s important to do this just to see how much difference those you know the the max or the SST those higher launching or heads that are designed to launch it higher and spin it

More see how much difference there really is the 430 is one of the higher launching heads for the standard models so Yeah you can certainly feel you from a contact point of view there is a very different note you can feel there’s a bit more weight behind the ball and what I mean from that point of view is it feels like it’s propelling the ball forwards a little bit more whereas with

The other heads you can you for me I can really feel the weight getting into the bottom of the ball and kicking it up little bit of a pull again there let’s give that one more so there’s still plenty of launch on it um relative to what we’d want off the

Ground but when we go to the data now we’ll see quite a difference in flight so if I look at the the averages here let’s just make sure there are just make sure there aren’t any irrelevant numbers in there that’s just turned over a little bit Yeah

So so we go through you’ve got the the standard 430 Max at the very top let’s move that so it’s not sitting on the data um and you know what we can see here is you that one swung it very slightly faster the representative ball speeds A Little Bit Stronger which we

Would’ expect from a head that’s that’s not designed just to pop it up expect a little bit more forward momentum but launch Tri angle wise you know 14 and a half on average and spin at 4,000 so yes that is a reasonable bit of Spin and from a fivewood point of view that’s

Kind of around the number that I’d be looking for for someone um but as you can see the next one down this is really you really surprised me quite how how much difference there is the qi1 max the tailor made where again tailor made is a brand you’d associate with powerful

Strong flight that’s 3 de more best part of 3 degrees more launch and 20% more spin so it’s got 800 revolutions more spin 800 you know 60 odd revolutions more spin which is a huge amount um and you on the the right hand side of the

Screen there say it’s almost 20 ft uh it’s 18 ft higher so that’s you six yards higher from a flight height point of view considering there’s only 3 miles hour difference in ball speed so you know the actual you know the number I’m going to put on there is The Descent

Angle so I’ll take that on so we can keep uh keep these numbers on screen so you with the the Ping the 430 Max 46.6 which is plenty of height um the qi1 max for me has gone to almost 52 Dees that’s a really really big change so you know

That’s where when we’re looking at getting as much launch and spin as possible that’s certainly sitting in a great place at the moment so you moving down the Cobra just underneath it that’s more towards the um the the standard ping on spin so it’s more of a verticom

A kind of standard spinning head but with the extra launch angle so that’s picked up launch angle but the spin’s not as high uh and same thing as I scroll down slightly here you’ll see the same thing for the tsr1 so you know the titler said still generating a little

Bit more launch that lighter frame slightly bigger head getting that launch triangle up um but spin not going too high so it’s keeping that in check uh and then down at the bottom there the um the sft the Ping sft head so sft straight flight tech but it is you know

Like the Q is a shallower bigger footprint and those two are the biggest Footprints of uh of either head and by by footprint I mean the overall scale and size of the head if I compare the um the sft uh to the standard max model you can

Actually see the bigger size uh of the head there um you know notes to be larger and deeper in terms of frame shape so you know out of both of the the deeper frame heads you know spin there at 4,600 that’s a couple of hundred revs

Off the qi1 max um but still a degree lower in launch so you know those two heads for me have got up to 50° Plus in terms of land angle 123 ft 130 ft so you know really significant lift in launch angle so you know those two just get

Those both of those on on screen here I just move that slightly you can see there you know 50° angle 502 let’s call it um but you know 46 on spin 48 and with both of those you know the pink very very very consistent in that spin

Rate number um you know the tailor made a little bit more variation there and but actually some of the ones from tailor made if I go into that if we kind of delve a bit deeper into that because that does appear to be the highest the highest launching and spinning one of

The shots I’ve hit there there’s one that went a little bit more left that’s at 43 on spin or a couple there but there are some and a number of them up at 5,000 so you the ones that haven’t turned over quite as much um I’ve got

Even more spin are up you know those really are Back Spin numbers that we’re looking for out of a six onon so yeah obviously practically those sorts of numbers for me would end up being you know not really playable on course because there’d be be a lot of a lot of

Flight and spin almost a bit too much but if we relate that back actually the kind of players that we’re looking at for this test is people who may become more moderate Club speed and don’t tend to get that launch and spin so rather than having to manipulate and go ever

Higher ever higher in Loft actually these heads can keep the The Loft at a you know a more moderate level but generate that extra Spin and lift and flight so and that’s something we’re seeing predominantly this this year more than any other I think that development

In in spin from a you take tailor made simply because we’re looking at that as a number you’ve got the uh the the ls in the driver and the tour in the fairway wood as that lower launch lower spin uh the the ver standard Qi 10 sort

Of a mid launch launch and a mid to low fairly still a fairly strong flight for spin but a bit more launch and then we go into the max which is really designed particularly in the Fairway to send that ball up a little bit more so in the

Driver more forgiveness based on the driver but notably on The Fairway and the hybrid we’ve now got those S of three three pitches of flight the the tour of the LS is that lower launch uh the standard is the mid- launch with a bit of forward momentum and then the max

To kick it right up in the air so you we’re seeing now this is something that the industry has has been you in a I think has been a bit of a problem over the last couple of years is finding Fairway woods and hybrids that generate

Enough launch I think we’re now in a space where we’re seeing some really different numbers coming out of heads now and some real progression in products in that respect so for anyone looking for a high launching Fairway Wood um from the test we just done today

The Ping the sfte and the uh the qi1 max tailor made fairwoods very very impressive and hopefully you find that useful