BEST FAIRWAY WOODS of 2024 | HIGH-MOI FAIRWAY WOODS COMPARISON

This edition of the BEST OF 2024 series features the best fairway woods of 2024 in the high-moi fairway woods category. These fairway woods are designed to provide golfers with high launch and forgiveness off the turf in addition to fast ball speeds. This best fairway woods of 2024 video features the Callaway Paradym AI Smoke Max, TaylorMade Qi10, Mizuno ST Max, and Cobra DARKSPEED X.

0:00 Intro
2:05 Testing (Mizuno ST Max 230)
7:09 Testing (TaylorMade Qi10)
10:56 Testing (Callaway Paradym AI Smoke Max)
13:43 Testing (Cobra DARKSPEED X)
17:19 Kevin’s Picks

In this video, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by master fitter Kevin Kraft to test and review the best fairway woods of 2024 in the high-MOI fairway woods category.

SUBSCRIBE to the 2nd Swing Golf YouTube channel for more in-depth golf equipment reviews and club fitting insights.

Shop Fitter’s Choice fairway woods at 2nd Swing: https://www.2ndswing.com/golf-club-fitters-choice-awards-2024

Schedule a Tour Van club fitting today for one of these three iron sets: https://fitting.2ndswing.com/schedule-now/

FOLLOW 2ND SWING GOLF ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2ndSwingGolf

X: https://X.com/2ndSwingGolf

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2ndswinggolf/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@2ndswinggolf

Hey golfers and welcome back to the second swing tour van I’m drw mold here joined by Mr Kevin Craft and today is another episode of the best of series for 2024 part one here early in the year today we got fairy woods these are the I guess standard higher Moi versions of

Them so the models that will appeal to the most players yes and we’ve got four of them here so uh very exciting times lots of technological advancements made here Kevin so uh let’s go through each of the four models here we’ve got Cobra dark speed X we’ve got Callaway AI or

Paradigm AI smoke Max the tailor made qi1 and the mauno uh St Max 230 so um Kevin you’ve been fitting these already a little bit um First Impressions on these before we dive into some testing um all very good yeah numbers across the board have been really solid

Um lots of good looks lots of good feels lots of good sounds we should also talk a little bit about the shafts for each of them because we have one bonded hle here yep um we also have another shaft where um a stock shaft that is not in

Tune with the rest of them if you will so yeah uh what do we got for each model here so for both the Cobra and the Callaway we have Kylie white uh 70s that’s low launch low spin typically what I’ve been playing though based on what we’ve been seeing over the last

Couple days maybe I need to go something launches a little higher I don’t know we’ll see what happens once we get out on a golf course um the tailor made is the bonded one y and it is the Ventus TR 6s so a little lighter weight shaft also

Designed to kick it up a little bit higher okay might be what I need we’ll see yeah uh and then Munos we have uh the Hazardous green again low launch low spin okay so sweet all right so yeah we’ll hit probably I know six or seven

Shots with each and um kind of picked the best five or so from that set and and we’ll look at all the numbers and come back and finalize our takes from the test sounds like a plan all right let’s get to it okay all right St Max Mr craft we’ve

Actually done some testing with this one already this morning yeah um in a different video so already familiar with it a little bit y um looks like a pretty forgiving golf club yeah does it’s uh it looks like a scaled down version of the driver one thing you that that our

Viewers may have noticed is I am always moving right I’m like constantly twirling things and moving it actually stems from Reading uh in I think it was in Rotella that one of the things that he wants his students to do is when they pull a club to constantly be in motion

They don’t he doesn’t want static where you’re just standing there so interesting for whatever reason I’ve been I’ve been like this forever I’m not really technically Twitchy but no it’s just you’ve been taught that over time and it it tends to lead into a more

Fluid motion I guess so that’s I have a feeling Keegan Bradley is the same I think you’re probably right as a Rotella student you’re probably right yeah so Rotella is great Dr Joseph parent’s great there’s a lot of good ones out there eventually I’m going to write a

Book on it too love that some uh just uh you know mental mental help from the tales from a professional nobody um so something like that as a as a kind of a working I think you get you got to give yourself some more credit in the TT no I like the I

Like the lack of credit honestly in the title to be honest okay um so yeah so that’s why I’m always I’m always moving that that’s just what I was taught to do and and and I did see here’s what’s going to happen if people weren’t noticing it now they’re going to notice

It course they not absolutely yeah so yeah so I’m not really Twitchy but there’s a purpose all this movement okay okay here we go gol now you better hit a really good first shot yeah I really should it validates it oh and you did okay he does it score all

Right another solid golf shot there from the sounds of it yep that one turned over to the left this time same basically the same number distance-wise but it was one’s a high fade one’s a high draw drop nice nope that’s not it left the face

Open I was trying to swing at zero I got point two yeah you get pretty close just the face it’s hard though man I’ll tell you what so you get guy in a fitting Bay that that swings a z z and then maybe does it again and then I’m always going

To make the comment that you know that’s really hard to do I think if you gave me a 100 swings even though I got a pretty decent control of my golf my golf swing most of the time I could do zero Z maybe four times out of a 100 yeah like it’s

Hard to get nobody actually I mean most people don’t even try to do that no I mean this the whole idea that the folks that want to hit it like dead straight z z in a vacuum with no wind and and anything else and a perfectly round golf ball and

All those things kind of kind of factor in there so yeah maybe a smidge to the toe H that works though yeah it’s all right that one was hit well too yep off to a good start with this one yes I’m I’m slightly better at the uh the hand

Release at this point of the day all right okay got some good cool numbers up there that was fun I like seeing those good shots yeah I’ll take this one out here and then uh that’s spers gets really nice and and attractive there um St Max behaved itself it did it did I

Behaved myself yeah uh average Club speed of 1016 146 ball speed results in a 144 smash 3626 on the spin on average 2 35.5 carry um pretty good pretty consistent stuff too here yeah really good height and Landing angle spins a little on the higher side yeah a little

Bit and this is a very I I I think compared to these even probably a little higher M Moi model than the rest of them so might see a little bit more launch and spin the one thing that seems to be recurring yeah exactly is thator just

Not seeming to going back to our test earlier on the swing report testing for that it was also a little bit low so we’ll see how that compares with the rest of them but um how about impact location on this one how is this okay yeah so prettyy typical for me

Off the mats right a little tiny bit but it’s uh I mean you’re probably going to be pretty similar with all of them in that so a test anyway so um all right next here we got what the QI 10 how’s that one look put it looks good so it’s

It does look a little bit bigger than the tour version but shapewise it’s it’s very very similar mhm uh I like it I think I think it looks good flips me out a little bit to not have adjustment cuz I want to be able to to tweak

Bit of a disadvantage in that sense where yeah there’s people out there that don’t want adjustability and and that’s cool right but then you basically have to rely on shaft to yeah that’s the hard part right is if if we didn’t have the adjustability if we didn’t have the

Adjustable hles and the ability to take heads off and everything can you imagine how big the facility would have to be to hold all the bonded heads with all the different combinations my goodness you’d have to have this whole store just for just exclusively for fitting yeah cuz I

Mean you think I mean the actual number of combinations that we can build in the fitting Bay is I mean we’re at thousands and thousands of them yeah so 880,000 probably somewhere in that neighborhood so yeah that’s a lot to live up to right

There I think you can do it I think the qi1 can do it okay okay that’s that’s a decent start boy that didn’t feel as low a ball speed as it actually ended up being that shot there yeah yeah huh yeah smash factor a little low felt really good actually pretty good

Yeah the babiest of draws I like the babiest of draws oh that was smoked y that was better that was smoked that one was good big high draw nice another one same golf shot pretty much you found you found the groove okay cool nice okay so I have to

First comment on a couple of things here and that is the carry distance on those last three swings um if I were to expand this here you got 242 2.9 2 43.6 2 43.7 pretty good pretty good I like that like that really well done um this is your kind of

Low smash but that’s when you thought felt better yeah I thought it felt good I didn’t it didn’t feel like it was you got it right I mean you’re pretty good it felt pretty good so it was yeah I wonder what I suppose maybe could be a

Track C CAU slightly might have caught just the tiniest bit behind it we did see the spin drop on that one so that would kind of indicate maybe we got a little bit of math contact in there yeah actually if I look here maybe see your

Attack angle of that yeah that’s up the a one so maybe that’s part of it yeah oh the last one was a one too though but you know I suppose but okay um anyway here’s our uh dispersion and and numbers here um we did see the ball speed and

The smash Factor come up slower speed uh kind of comfortably actually and still had faster ball speed um the spin is much lower and I think for you you probably that’s you like that a little bit better um so more distance better spin um pretty good stuff here from the

QI 10 actually I was very pleased with that yeah and actually the shaft felt pretty solid too yeah all right some good stuff there that was the ventis blue TR yep 6s might be it might be telling me something could be which is how much you want to re into something

Need a little higher launching shaft okay so now we’re with Callaway right yes so this is the Paradigm Paradigm AI smoke Max and that is the Kylie white shaft as well correct first impression on that look again shapewise it’s good yep it’s good it looks flatter it look like it’s flatten

Compared the other you look at the face and definitely see a very shallow face so you know this the build of that is designed to get the ball up in the air which is yeah right something I need keep the center of gravity below the golf ball yes

Oo roasty four feet of curve oh nice straightness yep we’ve got drip and we’ve got big ball first that Kevin didn’t know but you New Journey so that’s a that’s to me that’s a bonus y shout out to the commenter that complimented Kevin’s drip that’s good and I agree with

It didn’t feel like saying the commenter’s name it’s a good one it is very good one oo blistered oh oh trackman that was a crunchy one like Matrix like You’ hit this club really solid one big ball first one yeah that’s pretty good okay let see here if we go

Like this we oh my goodness that I didn’t realize it would be way up there but I suppose the spin did come down quite a bit from the last couple yep so that’ll have ‘ll increase that carry distance also hit it with some more ball speed um smash Factor was pretty much

The same as qi1 there um what else did you I guess take away from hitting the AI smoke Max felt fast yeah it really it really did feel fast like the shots jumped off the face I’ve always been a big fan of of Callaway Fairway woods

I’ve been a big fan of tailor made Fairway Woods for that matter but um yeah well how about our height numbers you got 95 that a little bit probably spin related think yes yes I would think so probably going to want to go up a degree to try and get that height up

There a little bit and that Landing angle too I think you were saying kind of 40° is where you would like to be minimum yeah yeah so um these the QI 10 and St Max were comfortably up there but um the distance and the ball speed is

For sure there with the max that felt really really good really stable Club number four final Club okay Cobra dark speed VX how do that one look when you put that one down in a dress love the finish I like the shape of the titanium a little bit better

Okay again maybe being probably aesthetically oriented ridiculously silly about shapes and it is the is that the only I think it is it is the only matte finish of the of the four that we’re testing it is you can have that in ping too if you want it but

Yeah not a not a new 2024 not not for 2024 yeah hit the screen lower lower launch there yeah I may have just kind of got that off the bottom of the club face there was that some good or was hit with some good ball speed though yeah no it did

Produce good ball speed launch angle at 73 is a little low I think I’m going to like this one no yeah gu not it’s pretty good that was a hanger no turn I thought it was going to turn tiny bit of mat yeah should take some spinoff should go far did sure did

Okay H not making the best swings on this one so it seems there it is that’s okay there’s the one give me two more shots of this I’d made some poor poor attempts and maybe I’m going to continue to make poor attempts okay one more here

There’s a good one W that’s straight all right dark speed X yep um we got our numbers we got our dispersion up there I know you didn’t put your best swings on the dark speed X so yeah part of the numbers and the results will be due to

That um so you got a 144 smash you had to spin at around 28 2900 carry was 239 on average um your thoughts on the dark speed X yeah I I think the shape bothered me a little bit yeah um especially because you’re used to the the titanium is the one that

You’re thinking of playing I really like the titanium so I don’t know it’s one of those things where if I’m looking at it and I’m like you know it’s not my maybe not my favorite but you know feels okay I didn’t hit it very good so that’s

That’s on me it’s not certainly not on the golf club it’s not the golf club’s fault um trajectory was the lowest of the group uh carry was the shortest second shortest of the group uh total was second longest mainly because of of spin yeah right launch was okay you know uh I

I I apologize to the dark speed X for not giving it a a you know a better series of swings but um it’s pretty good yeah I mean it’s a good club and we did see that the you know your good swings were certainly up there right you had

Some I mean 1488 147 here so it’s not like it doesn’t pack the punch right um it’s certainly in there um but regardless we got four really good Fairy Woods here yeah um that we’ve tested I think we can kind of give our final verdict here um definitely in the Kevin’s pix

Segment all right Kevin some great performance from all of these fairwoods here so um you know we add a slight modification to some you know some different shafts we them all at 15° in The Loft so um we had a pretty good test here and I mean we had some really good

Ball speed some really good consistency as well so um as we look at performance here um in this test and in the you know the fittings that you’ve um conducted so far in 2024 do you have a favorite in terms of performance of this series so

In the the higher Moi series I’m going to give performance to Callaway yep yeah that’s what I thought I thought this was was the the best of the the group um you know numbers wise I like the carry yardage a lot efficiency is really good um yeah very good and it’s it’s done

Very well in testing as well yeah and then we also mentioned earlier too but you know and to get perhaps a little bit more height on it if we needed to we can also adjust hle we can go with a you know shaft I mean that’s all that’s what

You guys do in the fitting Bas so um it’s like Innovation now so uh I know it’s you know some of the different Technologies unique things that these manufacturers are doing to propel these clubs and drive that performance going back to AI smoke going right back to the AI smoke yeah I mean

These this is a new one for mauno so Props to them for coming out with something that’s that’s brand new to them so that’s great pretty darn good to the these two the the Cobra and the the Taylor Made You Know new versions of what they’ve had yep nice tweaks good

Stuff um I still love the the matte finish on the on the Cobra but from uh from The Innovation just pushing AI pushing AI pushing AI how are they going to make a golf club that’s improved year over year over year and they’re just they they the new smart face is amazing

Yeah yeah the smart face clearly if you haven’t seen any of our testing on other you know AI smoke products swing report stuff we talk a lot about the AI smart face and how what Callaway has done to provide unique face designs for every Club in the series and the result is

Extreme forgiveness all over the face all over the face that’s what they’re going for so performance retention if you hit it off the toe hit it off the heel High whatever it is so over last last seon right it’s very rare for cway to come out and put

Numbers on things we haven’t really seen that yeah and it’s R for any manufacturer to do that because it’s a lot of times it’s easy to maybe not necessarily show that all the time in the city base but for them to come out and claim it that confidently it tells

Me that they’ve yeah and they they show you what they expect you to gain in each location across the face that’s yeah that’s that’s big step bold it’s a big step yeah all right last category look sound feel um kind of the aesthetically oriented category here which of the four

Is your favorite there um overall I’m going to give the tailor made okay my favorite look yep uh and and actually maybe feel as well it close between between the Taylor Made and the Callaway from a look standpoint I just love the shape I think the shape is

Spot-on exactly what I want to see um I like the look of this fine it’s it’s just a little the Infinity the infinity Crown infity Crown is so clean it’s so clean y i I definitely noticed this just like I used to notice the the yeah so you know

It’s I just think that’s a little cleaner um I think Taylor made’s Qi 10 entire series I mean they’ve cleaned everything up and the appearance from stealth it’s good looking it’s really clean that Infinity crown on all these Metals is is really really good so sound

Um these two are neck and neck yeah and and feel these two are are neck and neck okay I thought they were the the two bestor best of the group yeah but Taylor Made takes the tiebreaker with the the shape look absolutely for sure yeah well again though Callaway gets the nod

Overall because it’s got adjustability there you go you give me the adjustability and I’m a happy guy yeah yeah right with the and it also show the performance too it was just a better performing fairywood as well so um but four great models here nonetheless and you know depending on what your

Preferences are on look and and feel and and adjustability you can test these all out for yourself getting the fitting Bay with someone like Kevin and um trade in that old fairywood upgraded something here that’s better suited for your need so no bad decisions just make sure you

Find the one that you like the best I like that I like that so um thank you Kevin for joining hitting the shops and thank you for watching make sure you subscribe to the channel for more coming in the Future