BEST 7-WOODS IN GOLF | 7-Wood Comparison

This video highlights the best 7-woods in golf with a 7-wood comparison using Trackman technology. High-lofted fairway woods such as 7-woods are increasing in popularity because they launch the ball much higher and are more forgiving than hybrids. 7-woods are especially effective for golfers with moderate swing speeds.

0:00 Intro
4:00 Testing (Mizuno ST-X 220)
8:19 Testing (Titleist TSR2)
12:39 Testing (Cobra DARKSPEED Max)
15:45 Testing (PING G430 Max)
20:03 Testing (Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke)
23:27 Testing (TaylorMade Qi10 Max)

In this video, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by master club fitter Kevin Kraft to test and review the best 7-woods in golf with a 7-wood comparison on Trackman. The 7-woods in the test include the Mizuno ST-X 220, Titleist TSR2, Cobra DARKSPEED Max, PING G430 Max, Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max, and TaylorMade Qi10 Max.

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the seven wood is the fastest growing
segment of fairwoods in golf because
they deliver such great performance as
Kevin has seen in the fitting Base today
we’re going to show you exactly what
that is we’ve got six seven Woods here
from various different brands we’re
going to test them and show you why
seven Woods are becoming so
popular hey golfers I’m Drew molder
second swing golf today joined by Kevin
Craft here in the tour van at second
swing Minit tanka and we’ve got a fun
one today um Kevin this is actually your
idea so I’ll kind of let you run with
sort of why this even came up in the
first place but it has something to do I
believe with seven Woods being just
really good for golfers yeah so seven
Woods have become super super popular
even nine woods now are becoming more
popular uh there’s a lot to be said for
what a wood can do that maybe even a
hybrid can’t yeah so we just finished up
you know shooting a the four hybrid
category funny thing is the lofs on this
are basically the same as what we have
with for hybrid but the expectation for
what we get should be a little bit
different shafts are a little bit longer
speeds going to be a little faster ball
should go a little higher which should
give us that really good Landing angle
we’re looking for could potentially be a
little bit longer as well so it really
is going to be you know working with the
individual in the in the fitting Bay to
find what’s the what’s the best thing to
be the next Club up from your longest
iron you know is that a is it a driving
iron is it a hybrid is it a fairway wood
uh the popularity of seven Woods I don’t
think is going to go away always used to
be one of those popular things during US
Open time the guys on tour would grab a
seven wood because they needed something
that they could hit you know to the moon
and have it come in and stop on those
rock hard US Open greens right so it’s
it’s now become very very popular yeah
and this one needs to be done yes the
masses are seeing how beneficial they
can be absolutely so um today we’ve got
six models that we’re going to test here
and sort of just kind of you know it’s a
it’s it’s a Fairwood comparison but the
seven wood I think is is almost it’s so
much different from the 3-wood in that
in the task or the tool the use of it on
the course um so the models we have
today I’ll just kind of go in order from
what we’ve got them laid on on the table
here we’ve got the Muno
STX we’ve got a titlist
tsr2 we’ve got a cobra uh is that a dark
Speed Max yep ping
g430 uh we’ve got the Callaway AI smoke
Max and the tailor made qi1 so we’re
covering kind of all the most popular
brands in golf here as well so um I’m
excited to see what happens here and I
know a lot of golfers are going to be
tuned into this one because it’s like
you mentioned I mean if you’re if you’re
someone struggling with a four iron or a
four hybrid maybe even five iron and
you’re wondering how do you fix that
issue one of these clubs might be the
perfect fix perfect solution Yeah you
mentioned that difference between you
know three-wood and what and what a SE
three Wood’s going to do versus what a
seven Wood’s going to do three-wood is
really truly built for distance yeah
right we’re we’re trying to cover it’s
still still a certain number we’re
trying to cover but I feel like that
certain number is a little bit wider
range than what what this is this club
is going to directly replace an iron
yeah right so when I see this ball
coming down I want it coming down with a
landing angle that’s going to make that
ball stop so that it performs very much
like what the longest iron should do
yeah whereas three Wood’s really much
more of a you know bang it as far as you
can hit it or you know let’s let’s try
to yeah maybe it’s a par five you just
can’t get two and two and you just I’m
going to take the three one get close as
I can you know um but with a seven wood
it’s you’re trying to get to this this
this distance right here with an iron or
a hybrid you might come in like this
with a seven wood probably going to come
in more Yep like that so that’s the idea
with all of these um we’re going to do
some testing Kevin um what are we
starting with here um I’ll go just grab
this guy and we’ll start this way all
righto STX
all right starting with Mizuno STX okay
um I believe this is the sort of STX
Club heads are more draw bias yes so yes
I imagine that will show up here because
typically and we might have like maybe
the dark Speed Max I suppose is maybe a
little more draw bias but I feel like
most of these that we have are supposed
to be for kind of a neutral ball play
yeah yeah uh you know when we get to the
Titleist I did set that up on on neutral
so that hle adapter we can open it close
it whatever we want it was just set
neutral umuna looks good I like I really
like the shape of this looks really good
it doesn’t look this way doesn’t look so
it’s draw biased yeah but it doesn’t set
up like it wants to go left okay so
that’s nice most people really don’t
love a golf club that looks you know
totally hooked when when you set up to
it so uh as long as we know that it’s
got everything working behind the scenes
we’re we’re pretty good to go sure so um
also of note um we have like the stock
stiff shafts really for for each of
these regular and a couple of these CU
that’s just I mean Bond and head this
yeah the bond hous makes it difficult to
match them all up so we did our best but
U they’re all relatively similar
profiles here
so I would call that a touch
thin but not hateful okay good is there
a number so is a carry number that you’d
expect for a 21 degre seven wood I mean
if I’m looking if I’m going to if I’m
going to throw a seven wood in my bag
it’s going to be a direct replacement
for my four hybrid right so I want to
see about 215k
okay H that’s more than 215
yes and maybe that’s okay right maybe I
should expect because the shaft’s a
little bit longer ball speed should be a
little faster uh maybe maybe we will see
a little bit more I just don’t want it
to go like 230 right right right unless
I suppose if it does go 230 then I could
take my two hybrid out and put seven
wood in so I don’t know there there’s
options right we have
options we got 14 clubs we can do
whatever we want with
them that one came off the
toe H it’s a pretty good effect honestly
yeah did it really come off
yeah yeah prove to the
people yeah it did yeah all
right oh yeah good result there okay
very
nice wow very easy and high to or very
easy High launch here from kind kind of
effortless to be honest
that one’s hit good I think it’s going
to go a little left though y yeah just a
little bit okay all right so the STX 220
here seven wood there’s our
dispersion um I think we do we even have
one to remove maybe maybe this guy here
the 136 was probably the worst of
the the smash factors okay yeah yeah
let’s let’s get that out of there I
guess so here’s our here’s our grp the
STX spin a little over 4,000 is that too
high
or for this club I maybe not bring bring
in the trajectory and the landing angle
and I’ll tell you if the spin’s too high
the trajectory at 112 112 feet Landing
angle 46.3 okay perfect perfect okay
perfect perfect he says it gives us it
gives us exactly what we want we want
that Landing angle over 45 yeah we can
get it and uh this was really pretty
effortless smash Factor was a little on
the low side that’s probably my fault
um 2177 carry wanted about 2115 I could
put this in the bag no problem okay no
problem all right well we have one club
with the Kevin Kraft stamp of approval
on it so let’s go to Club number two
yeah felt really good matter of fact
Titleist tsr2
okay how’s that one look now it’s cute
it’s cute it’s
small okay it is it’s it’s it’s a very
small head so one thing that you’ll
definitely see on a on a seven wood that
you maybe won’t see is much on a on a
hybrid I feel like you see more face
right yeah well with the added loft is
kind of well natural I mean same Loft as
a hybrid right just it always looks like
it shows more shows more of its face
maybe because it’s a little shallower
maybe could be could very well be um
this looks good I like the I like the
size of this honestly h
reminds me back of my first driver My
First Metal driver seriously it was no
bigger than this it was a Muno MST and
uh yeah it was Teensy tiny matter of
fact this might be bigger than my first
my first I can’t imagine he was a a
driver like that I used to walk to and
from school it was uphill both ways in
the snow back in my day so
yeah well that felt really God immediate
increase in ball
speed good height too good spin perfect
number that one didn’t quite turn back
okay all
right that’s gonna be right on top of
the last
one yeah kind of
kinda let’s see if we can s Square this
up
yep oh yeah what was your number you
said 215 215 I got a 2151 and 2152 right
up the
middle that was off the heel but I
didn’t lose that much ball speed did end
up pulling it a little bit yep lost got
spin which should happen off the heel
and we lost some trajectory
okay
there we go that should be good one that
might be right in the perfect spot yep
okay little longer 220
yeah
okay all right there’s our dispersion
I’ll get that up we got um you got a
couple that we can there’s a little bit
of there’s a little bit of wow in there
11 and 12 can go away yeah the rest of
them can
stay okay all right so the TSR two um
there’s our there’s our shape and and
numbers there there’s two right here if
you can’t tell oh it looks like there’s
four but there’s actually told you there
were two that were real close there’s
two that are right on top of each other
that’s the 25.2 and the 25.1 I can’t
even click on the other one okay there
we go uh thoughts on the tsr2 we got a
distance or excuse me the uh uh
efficiency was a lot better interesting
how much different the club speed was
yeah I’m a little surprised at that I
didn’t feel like I was you know slowing
it yeah but you got a good distance
number a little bit more spin yep uming
angle was steeper better Landing angle
and your rule of thumb as you’ve said is
about 45 degrees or higher or higher is
what you want for a club that is um you
know going to be a club that you use to
hit onto the green I mean if we’re
hitting this in at 55 degree landing
angle it’s probably a little bit extreme
right right I don’t mind seeing even 50
degrees with this because it’s all it
does is make the ball stop where it’s
supposed to to go mhm and we get that
good spin number we get the good height
we get the good Landing angle and it’s
going to act just like s there right
exactly exactly um yeah I this was this
was really good I I really enjoyed
hitting this one felt fast felt really
good nice small footprint like nice
small head very good very very good all
right now we’ve got dark Speed
Max this is a
new new one here new one that I don’t
think we’ve ever tested versus at least
compared to our our initial swing report
here it looks like it’s a little bigger
footprint it is a little bit bigger than
the uh than the Titleist it’s not bad
though it’s a good size it looks setting
it down it looks very Sleek looks like
it’s going to okay going to get the ball
nicely up in the air um one thing we can
do here actually is is already done for
us this is the max so we have the
ability to throw a heavier weight in the
heel if we want to get that trying to
turn it over right now it’s set in the
back so should just be very very stable
you some good some good launch
characteristics so yeah I’m very
interested to see what this one
does oh yeah nice it’s pretty good start
yeah
some higher ball speed
now and this is actually remember is
this at standard yeah everything that’s
technically 21 and a half degrees I
think okay nice nice slightly more Loft
yeah come on turn over for me don’t
hang it tried to it tried to
not my best strike but not atrocious
either good numbers yeah this one’s
pretty
forgiving is that going to be left it’s
going to be a heel
pull you know what that’s actually a lot
better than I thought it was going to be
I got to give it to you I I agree with
that statement I didn’t think I didn’t
think that one was going to be very good
I mean you’re still in the Fairway this
this target here so look at how look at
how consistent it was I was going to
mention that too yeah I mean I don’t
there’s not you didn’t really hit like
an outlier so to speak in this maybe
this one here yeah that was the only one
that was kind of kind of off my thing
clicks a little bit yeah okay so I mean
we’ve got very consistent from dark
Speed Max here wow yeah this was
actually really great
um might have to get one yeah I mean
that mean I have my four hybrid is so
good like I know you love your hybrid um
but I mean look at this we got a 213
carry and look at the the the number the
consistency of the numbers here on that
211 213 213 211 214 and then um you can
also look at the height it was the
highest highest of the peak height
average and the steepest Landing angle
of the bunch the most consistent on the
spin as well beautiful really really
good stuff from Speed Max yeah this was
this was excellent I I enjoyed the
strike it felt really good looks good
sitting at it again we’ve got that we
got that nice matte finish that uh that
I like so much and yeah very good
speaking of a matte finish oh sweet ping
g430 yep I would
say
Denver I would say this is the uh this
is the golf club
that really started the the big push for
seven Woods because when the when the
425 was out the seven wood sold through
super quick like they they they didn’t
have it anymore with about eight months
left in their life cycle and they didn’t
bring it back they didn’t make any more
of them so you couldn’t get them and it
was it was tough because this was like
the seven wood that everybody wanted so
um yeah I give I give ping some some
serious credit for sort of almost
launching this popularizing the seven
wood movement yeah yeah yeah so it’s
it’s uh it’s good nice good look looks
very similar honestly to the yeah um
obviously we got some some carbon fiber
back here you can kind of see that in
this one uh you know size-wise is about
the same so yeah looks good looks
good hello ball speed yeah that that’s
launched off the face look at this
wow
okay
and with this one we’re back to 21
de interesting on the spin there a
little bit more spin yep and height
wow it’s definitely got a little bit of
a a higher pitched sound to it do an
impact does it
does but it’s not offensive by any
stretch that’s going to be a little out
to the right
not too bad though this is definitely
the highest launching oh yes and highest
spinning I think so
far was off
toe even your toe strike there is over
4,000 spin at 132 fet in the air not bad
something to be said about
forgiveness oh that didn’t feel that
turny let me hit one more one
more more
speed little turn okay yeah all right
nice very workable like this this club
to me feels like I can stand up there
and do whatever I want with it turn it
over let it hang a little bit so this is
the one that was I had the left side
covered and the right side covered I
didn’t really the middle you couldn’t
hit one down the middle
huh let’s see I’m trying to find a this
maybe I guess the 141 we can take out
okay the one the 25 is really the you
know 13 or 136 ball speed oh I suppose
yeah I’d go back and put the last one
back in and take that one take out take
out this one take out that one the yeah
number 24 there yeah okay the rest of it
makes sense okay okay g430 yeah yeah
you’re right kind of covered both uh
sides yeah but um we have to point out
just how much higher
launching in the launch angle yep little
more
spin by far the highest peak height and
steepest Landing angle too so far so
that’s uh so ping has traditionally been
my number one go-to for trajectory if
I’ve got a a customer does this go for
all clubs or all the way across the
across the board uh whether it’s irons
whether it’s hybrids Fairway Woods
Ping’s been Ping’s the one that really
tends to send it up there right so um
not surprised to see those numbers
honestly uh I like the I like the height
I like the the fact that the landing
angle was really good I like how you
know consistent the shaft was and spin
rate was and yeah smash Factor was down
just a little bit but I felt like I hit
it pretty good overall yeah I mean it
was your highest ball speed now you were
swinging it I guess not the fastest not
it was in between the dark speed and
okay the STX 220 so this felt really
another really good performer really
good okay big fan AI
smoke well this one looks the fanciest
okay looks the fanciest with with the
division between the the the Leading
Edge and the carbon fiber is it like is
it more
distracting I mean honestly we’re
supposed to be looking at the golf ball
so yeah good point um you know that said
I’m hyper sensitive to every little
detail yeah I love the
of the carbon fiber this year with with
Callaway I just think it’s I think the
color is really good and and and it
looks nice uh size-wise very similar to
what we’ve seen over the last couple
tius being the real different one that
was that was much smaller okay um but I
think they I think they all look really
good what we got here we got uh okay we
do have seven wood shaft oh yeah it’s
bonded so it would be a seven wood shaft
wouldn’t it okay nice all
righty
some high speed right out of the gate oh
that is a dead we achieved something
that we couldn’t with the Ping which was
we hit it straight right right which is
nice so far A little bit lower spinning
with both okay zero feet of curve there
oh no
curve man these these shots are just not
curving your draw is not showing up yet
this with this
club a little bit of draw little bit
five feet of curve on that one little
bit of draw on that
one not my best strike that
time though not hateful it did not
goodness yeah it was you weren’t
punished for that one no it wasn’t that
is the AI smart
face
wow we reacted the same way to that one
indeed okay there’s some distance
okay that was fun that was funny that
was good both were just like whoa you
know I’ve been spend a lot of time
together yeah that’s For Better or Worse
okay is there is there anything even to
kick out here so I I I’m excited to see
this dispersion pattern because besides
that one I think they were all pretty
yeah they’re kind of all over here you
know this is the one turned over with a
little bit extra speed on it but um so
we lost 1,000 RPM of spin from Over the
ping yeah and we picked up almost eight
yards yeah which is about right The
Landing angle was still I mean really
good still really good yeah yep 125 on
the average Peak height I did want to
point I just want to go back to the
curve on these because you had six feet
these are this is in feet by the way 60
12 5 13 and the last one you kind of did
eventually turn over 30 so hey the ball
very straight with this golf club cool
pretty good smart consumers by smart
golf clubs with the AI smart
face that was good that was a lot of fun
like I’m having a good time these are
all great yeah right they’re all a
little bit different they all feel
little here and little there and the
last one is the qi1 from tailor made
okay and of note here the qi1 is 22
degrees of Loft okay this one here so
so little bit little bit bigger
footprint yeah larger from the naked eye
it looked like it might have been a
little bit larger footprint than um this
one to me sets itself just slightly
closed okay okay um but it’s a beautiful
shape Taylor Made really just knocked it
out of the park with their their Fairway
Wood shape this year for
sure yeah okay was that a reaction to a
closed Club face at a dress could be
maybe that one squared up yep might even
turn over quite a bit might
even W this is really deceiving with the
blue trajectory and then goes into the
blue sky and then you can you kind of
lose it
yes little
skinny good ball speed though for skin I
was going to say wow huh that actually
is going to be very comparable with the
other shots that you’ve hit interesting
because I was so I was very curious
about this one because the Ping was very
high launching and high spinning but
this is one degree weaker in Loft so I’m
wondering how this ends up stacking up I
think most of them have been just in the
low 5000s for spin here yeah yeah
yeah oo that was that was cooked little
bit little bit of redemption yeah that
was cooked hits that a little bit better
yeah there’s a lot of lot of spin here
with this one there is a lot of spin
with this one now
this is a 50 gram regular Flex it is
okay so high launch High
spin definitely kind of see that’s one
of those with the bonded house we
couldn’t uh I couldn’t find anything
else that was you know back there
so okay it’s ball Ball’s going very
straight with a very high trajectory
yeah
yeah
it turns over okay
yeah the qi1 max here let’s
see I don’t feel like there is one first
one 33 yeah that’s the only one that’s
really kind of below the rest okay yeah
so this one the the the big detail again
we have as Kevin mentioned the shaft is
probably a higher launch higher spinning
shaft than most in this test so that’s
probably leading to the higher launch
and higher spin but also it is 22 de
whereas the rest were 21 or 21 and a
half so a couple of things leading to
this higher launch and higher spin but
at the end of the day we should also
know the Ping is still a steeper Landing
angle compared to the Q 10 Max at
51 but much higher spin at the Q and
that is the reason that distance is so
much shorter than the rest so that’s you
know
for for somebody that struggles with
trajectory yeah right we didn’t get as
much trajectory off the qi1 as we did
off the bang but with more spin we we
actually saw that really good Landing
angle yeah oh totally yeah yeah so yeah
I mean you’re you were launching the qi1
max it’s funny the qi1 max was launching
actually relatively the lowest is it of
the almost the lowest of the whole test
so check let’s check impact location
then because if it’s it’s launching low
it could be coming low off the face and
if I’m Hing it lower than anything else
so right let’s for example g430 we’ll
check that there’s our map for the g430
okay and there’s Q10 Max so arguably a
touch lower yeah
um potentially could be due to a little
bit larger Club head yeah right I mean
there’s there’s all kinds of things that
can go into into factoring what what
creates spin yeah so um you know from a
psychological
standpoint I personally tend to like a
little more compact Fairway Wood um
there’s a lot of people that like a
little bit bigger Fairway would and so
you know each as we always say around
here individual results May Vary right
so uh this even though this spun a lot
for us in this test there’s a place for
that in the market oh totally absolutely
for for a lot of people so from a from a
look standpoint I thought it was great
uh it felt good and and uh it just it
just spun a lot for me today yeah and I
think like you said there’s players out
there that need spin need height
especially with these clubs where I feel
like so many players are struggling to
get Fairy Woods maybe hybrids off the
turf into the air maybe hitting a lot of
them on the low part of the face and
don’t see enough of that trajectory and
qi1 Max is seemingly a club that can fix
that so um this is this was fun I I
enjoyed I enjoyed this I I think the
golfers are really going to get a lot
out of this because seven Woods are so
popular so so do you remember what kind
of the median Peak height was with the
hybrid with the hybrid of the four
hybrids they were all about 11 15ish 110
to 115 okay what was what was the median
here uh you have nothing under one ohx
was under 120 so seven wood did exactly
what I expected seven wood to do it got
the ball up in the air a little bit more
distance-wise
not other than other than really the
paradigm
uh yeah it was all because spin was a
little bit higher too and and trajectory
was a little higher we got a more
consistent number yeah right totally
more consistent number yeah so really
four hybrid and seven wood are
comparable distance-wise for most
players like you’re going to hit those
clubs pretty similar distances because
they’re similar lofted but they’re going
to get there differently four hybrid is
going to be a little bit more of a
flatter trajectory yep seven wood will
be coming in a little steeper see
depend you need for your game that’s why
seven Woods are BEC so popular soct
Kevin uh thanks for the testing today
thanks for the idea for the video the
vide excuse me the viewers are going to
love this one so golfers subscribe to
the channel and then schedule your
fitting a second swing and throw a
someone in the bag if you feel like it’s
going to help your game because um as we
see today if you need that height need
that trajectory it’s going to help your
game so yep thanks again Kevin
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