@gabbygolfgirl’s @TAYLORMADEGOLF 5, 7, and 9-wood are some of her favorite clubs in the bag – for good reason.
In this video, Gabby @PGATOURSuperstore’s Summer Fenstermaker discuss how high-lofted fairway woods can unlock more height, stopping power, and forgiveness off the tee and from the fairway than a traditional long iron.
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Welcome back. I’m Gabby Golf Girl here with Summer from PJ Tour Superstore and we are going to be talking about irons today. The road show clinic series. Here we go. Um I would say let’s get right into it. Like number one thing I’m going to say with irons, height. That’s that’s the main thing we we want to get height. We want to be able to capitalize on an iron. I know how hard it is to hit them. Um, I personally have moved to a lot of woods for my long irons. Okay. Because I just love height. That’s the number one thing. Right. You want to be able to stop it and have a chance for a putt on the green. Right. Yes. Exactly. So, how did you with all of the choices, how did you decide on the the 770s. Yeah. So, I was playing the P790s for a while and I got fit honestly here and they told me P770s was for me. I needed a little bit more of a shot shape iron. And so because I I liked I tend to hit, you know, shot shapes with my irons, but again, I wanted to get height and this head for me and my speed was the best to get the most height. P790s, I was hitting them a little bit low just based off my club speed. So I think the number one thing to start with is getting height with your irons. get fit here at PJ Tour Superstore to figure out what the club head for you is going to be that’s gonna get the most height. I love it. I love it. We’re gonna hit some shots and show you guys what I was talking about about the height. Let’s see. Seven iron here. This is definitely more height than I have with my older P790s. These are the C uh P770s. And all we’re focused on without hitting up on the ball, we want to get height. And so we’re going to try and try and hit this a little bit higher. I think you said a good point before, right? You said the club head speed should be pretty much Yeah. what the height is. Yeah, I know. I know that wasn’t your best. So, normally I want it at least the height of your club head speed. That’s going to give you that stopping power on the green. Like that one was really high. So, yeah, if we look, that one was great. Awesome. And always find when it’s high, it’s the straightest. And I I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m hitting it with the best strike, but now some the three things we can be looking at too when you come in and get fit. I’m looking at ball speed. So if we look at your ball speed here, we’d be able to say five miles an hour in between each of your clubs, right? So once we get to that five iron, but I know you have a ninewood in the bag, too. So we can test out a couple of things there because now we’re increasing the size of the club head. It should launch higher than the five iron. So, so we could test that out as well. Well, I think a good point is like the KA set has a bunch of woods and and hybrids. And I think that tells you everything you need to know like I do. I have a bunch of woods and it tells you that it’s going to make it easier for you if instead of having a five iron or a sixiron or four iron, just get some height and hit like a ninewood. I have a ninewood. Um it’s my favorite. I think it’s my favorite club in the bag. Now, as far as ball placement here with your fairway woods, too. Where do you like my ball placement? Yes. Um, I go a little bit I don’t go front all the way because it’s not a driver. Because we’re still hitting down on it, right? We’re still hitting down on it. Exactly. It’s a great point. Um, I’m like right inside. I would say like the club face is kind of like how much inside I am. Okay. So, that’s another thing folks can do out there. Put alignment sticks in your bag. This is really important because it’s it’s really easy to kind of get out of whack when you’re setting up. So, I like this. You like about right there? Yeah. I think that looks good. Just to remind yourself uh where you want to stand. Yeah, that’s another thing big thing like a lot of people put in the back of their stance and that’s why they don’t get any height. And so, you don’t want to be all the way out here because then you start hitting it left and you are you’re not hitting a driver, but you definitely want it to be towards the front so you can get some lift on it. I’m thinking too from from hitting your iron, your setup does look a little bit different. So, if I come and stand by you. Yeah. It looks like you have just a touch more lean in the spine. Yeah. So, does that What does that do for you? Oh, yeah. No, it does a big It’s It’s really important. I think with irons, you’re more stable and straight over the ball, but like most people when they hit a driver, they tend to tilt back to get more height. Same thing with my woods. I do the same thing. So, if we’re looking at this too, right, you kind of feel that. Yeah. Right. Based on your speed, what works? Now, let’s look at the Kalia. Now, same thing. 40ome grams, right? Right. So, if you were just walk and and hit these, right? How does that feel? Just your first super light. Again, everything’s pointed towards up, which is exactly what we want. And they have a fivewood, not a 3-wood, so that you can get that extra height. And I don’t see a major difference in my bag with a 3-wood versus a fivewood distance. The only difference I see is that the fivewood just goes higher. So, I don’t know why. That’s why I don’t even have a 3-wood. And you might have that tendency too to creep that ball forward just a touch, which which is fine. Yes. Just keep an eye on it. It’s a little bit lighter, so it promotes me to just get up there. I think also like, you know, it’s kind of no fun when you’re playing golf and you’re just hitting it low or you get it up off the ground. It’s it’s way more fun if you can even putting the ball in the tea, getting it up there, you know? Oh, I love that you mentioned the tea. Um, so my background is in teaching. So, same thing like if people are struggling like just have have them hit it off a tee at first, right? Just to get confidence. This game is all about confidence. So, use a tee. If you’re out there and you’re a beginner, please use TE’s. Yes, it’s it’s great. Awesome. Now, do you have any kind of swing thought as far as um concerning tempo? I know we talked a little bit about, you know, I’ve heard the saying um steering is fearing. Yes. When you’re holding back. So, what is it you think about tempo-wise when you’re hitting any of these shots? Yeah, great question. I’ve always been a believer of like the slower I swing, the more it’s going to give right and left and it’s actually going to have a negative impact on me. So, I don’t like to be like, oh, slow and kind of like tempoish. I like to, you know, tempo on the back swing. We don’t want to be super fast back here because now everything’s going this way and you’re going to go back this way. It’s everything gets thrown off balance when you’re super super fast on your back swing. But I do like to be tempo on the back swing and then rip it because I find that the faster I swing at the ball in between my feet. Max speed should be in between my feet. When I get that, the accuracy becomes way tighter. The dispersion comes way tighter. And I just I I I have no fear. So like that’s the best thing. Like if I if I slow if I tempo back and then rip it on this one, you’re going to see it go straight. So just let it go. Rip it. Yeah. Awesome. So, is there any kind of swing thought you tell yourself if you feel yourself starting to tense up as well, like all of us do as golfers? Oh, I do it all the time, right? How do you get back into your grip it and rip it? When I practice swing, I I think again, I think in between my feet is the speed, right? So, in between my feet, max speed. When you see that club head speed number right there, that is right at impact. So you don’t want max speed up here. You don’t need to get speed from up here. It’s only going to do the negative for you. So I just try and think fastest here, fastest down, not fastest up. Like you want to be slower. Do you find compared to your shaft here that this lighter one is a little bit like if we were to look at dispersion on here, do you feel like the heavier shaft is a little bit easier for you to control? Um I I like the lighter shaft. I actually think it’s it’s easier for me to have control over it. The only reason I have a little bit of a heavier shaft is because I’m hitting a little bit more crazier shots. But there’s nothing wrong with going with something lighter so you can feel more confident. So probably fair to say people should just get in and test it to see what’s right for them. Exactly. Okay, that’s fair. I think it’s golf is mainly about confidence, right? So whatever you feel the best in, that’s that’s what you’re going to do better with. It’s going to be hard for you to change and adapt. Like there, I ripped it and that was a better swing and I did. was not fearful. So now if we look at some of these um we can look at long irons now and compare them. So if you were to just go in and and say pick up a set that had a five iron or a four iron in it, right? Yeah. Let’s see what’s going on with your six and just see if it even holds the candle to the height that we want. Right. Yeah. I mean I even actually thought of putting another wood in for my sixiron. Um I had decided not to because I thought it was a little bit much. But I definitely need something to, you know, carve out shots with, but it’s just always going to go a little bit lower uh than what my regular regular would would be. See, and and now that you know that, too, because we were looking at this last time, right? So, a little bit lower land angle. Height’s still all right, but not quite as much as maybe we would like, right? But it’s just one shot, right? Also, you know, you don’t really want to hit up on the ball. You want to just kind of be set up to hit it uh higher. So, that’s where I feel like the woods are just easier to do that with. Like, that was a really good swing, but I don’t think you’re going to be able to control it as much. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. But again, is it one out of five? Is it one out of right like that height that you’re looking for? Yeah. Um, so what are some of the drills you do to to teach yourself to hit down on the ball as you say, right? To to get that more height. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I always say like I think a main problem that I see with everybody, beginners, you know, even like pro golfers is like they always have a tendency to hit before the ball, right? And so even if you’re at the range or you’ve got an alignment stick and you’re out there and you see a divot pattern. Sure. For me, a divot pattern, you don’t want the divot starting before the line. So if this is my alignment stick, the divot should not start back here. That’s right. You should start in front of it. That’s where you’re going to get the max height. A lot of people think it’s the opposite. And you’re going to want to lift it up there. So this is a great drill as well if you’re working on attempting to hit down on it. Um, and then you get immediate feedback, right? So, we can kind of put it, you know, and then you’re not So, it forces you to come at it a little bit steeper, which should create uh more spin and then that height you’re looking for. Yeah. But if you get somebody who’s a sweeper, you’re right. They’re going to nail this every time. Right. Right. I think the misconception is that height comes from this motion. Sure. And only on a TE, only with a driver. Everything else comes from actually the opposite. You want to hit down on it. hit the divot after the ball. If you could do that, you’re going to get the max height. It’s the opposite. A lot of I like to say golf is like a game of opposites because you swing out to in and you actually end up going right. Right. You swing right, you get a little left. You hit down to hit up. Right. Exactly. Because you’re looking right here. Right. That divot’s going to be somewhere back here. We don’t want to be lifting on irons especially. We want to be hitting down because that’s going to cause the most spin and the most height. Now, is that uncomfortably too close or is that okay? Okay. This is a great drill. So any of you folks out there that are sweepers, just put that behind. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, you’re just going to get more height that way. Uh it’s compression is a is a great thing and it is the key to getting height because this is the misconception. All that’s going to do is make it go all over the place. So, what were you thinking about potentially scrapping this with since I’m looking at some of your data and you’re right, sometimes the height’s there and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes you’re not getting stopping power with the six, right? I was. So, what were you thinking? I was thinking either two options going with a ninewood and getting more loft or see if you know there was a different maybe maybe a hybrid for me. I’m not sure, but I decided to settle on this because I need this. But now for any of the newer golfers out there too, we’ll take a look at this. So 73 feet still good. But yeah, we could compare and test them. So So go ahead and hold up that sixiron next to this just that head. Look at that. So basically a five iron, right? Your nine would. But if we look at the size of this head, look at the size of the chassis. By increasing the size for folks, they’re going to launch it higher, right? So yeah, we can look at some options to get you to scrap that that sixiron. Yeah, you bet. I think it’s the key. Honestly, I think there’s a bunch of variables. I think you can have the P770s, you either have the 790s, you have the Clea line, you have the Qi35 woods. There’s so many different options to get height and to make sure that you feel confident. Um, and that’s why I come here to PGA Tour Supertore, get fit and see maybe I do need to get rid of this iron. Maybe I need another wood or a hybrid. Maybe. Make sure that you check out PGA Tour Supersto YouTube channel for the rest of the road show clinic series.
