Hit Your Fairway Woods Solid

Sorry, you need to be a member to access this video.
You Are Just Seconds Away - Become a member here!
Already a member? Log in now

If you have struggled with hitting your fairway woods solidly, this video is perfect for you. I'll show you what the 2 causes of your mishits are and I will show you a game plan to start hitting your fairway woods just like the pros.

  • Maintain your spine angle through the entire swing. 
  • Do not try and help the ball in the air. 
  • Keep your setup and swing the same as you would any other club. 
  • Start launching the ball like a pro. 


That was not very good, was it? If you've ever battled with that shot and had a really difficult time hitting your fairway woods, never really had a clear solution on what's the problem and how to fix it, well, today's video is gonna be perfect for you.

      Hi everyone, I'm Rotary Swing Instructor Chris Tyler. Today's video is purposed around teaching you how to start hitting your fairway woods much more solidly, much more consistently and how to get the ball launching in the air, just like a tour player. Let's go ahead and get started.

   Okay everyone, so the purpose of today's video is to give you a really good game plan on how to start hitting your fairway woods much more solid. I know that top shot that I showed you in the intro can be extremely frustrating and a lot of students ask us, "Why does that keep happening?", "Why do I keep topping the golf ball?", "Why do I have such a hard time with my fairway woods, but I can hit my irons great?"

     Well, in today's video I'm going to go through the main causes of this, and more importantly, I'm gonna give you a couple of good ways to correct it so you can start hitting your golf ball much more solidly. So let's go ahead and look at the causes of this problem first. Now that we've identified what the problem is, if it's a top golf shot, or even hitting it solid to begin with, now let's go after the causes of this.

          The first main cause that you'll see is a change of the angle to the spine. Okay, so if I'm set up with my setup position, you can see that there's an angle to my spine and down in the hitting area, the spine is going to be much more vertical. Okay, that's the first. Now the second is too much axis tilt. So both of these actually have to do with the position of your spine, believe it or not. So, the first one again was spine angle starting to change, starting to move more vertical. The second one is gonna be too much axis tilt or secondary axis tilt down in the hitting area.

     Okay, why does that happen though? Why do we have too much secondary axis tilt down in the hitting area? Well, our brain is really good about trying to figure out ways to try to help the ball in the air, and that feels natural to us, is to try and lean back to help give the golf ball lift. What that's doing, is it's actually starting to create more of a ascending blow on the golf ball, so it's starting to club on it's way up, rather than down. Believe it or not, with a three wood or a fairway wood, you still want to hit down on the golf ball.

   Tour players on average usually hit down on it, maybe three to four degrees, that's the angle of attack, three to four degrees. Sometimes as extreme as five degrees, but right in between three and four degrees is kind of that middle point.

    So in order to hit down on the golf ball, what do we need to do? In order to maintain our spine angle, what do we have to do? Well we have to understand what's causing those things to happen. So aside from trying help the ball in the air, you see most of my weight is leaning over here on my right side, that's gonna start the club moving up, it's gonna be really hard to make sure I transfer my weight and at the same time, my spine is moving to a vertical position.

   You can see that what's causing this is a lot of trail side push. Okay, that's bringing the hips forward, it's making the spine go vertical, can also from a face on perspective, make the spine lean. So the best way to correct this, this is actually a great drill, I want you to try this out ... You can stand up in your house or whatever it may be, and put your tush up against a wall. And what I want to do is about maybe a hundred to three hundred reps, and I don't want you putting any holes in the walls okay, so I don't want anybody's loved ones calling me and saying, "My husband or wife has put holes all in my walls," so just go easy with this. I want you to stick your tush lightly up against a wall and I just want you to make some good swings back and forth and I want you to try to keep your right tush or your trail tush against the wall as you're swinging over to three o'clock.

 Okay, what this is gonna do, is gonna give you the sensation of keeping your chest down. Now obviously in a real world situation, in a high speed situation, we would have a slight bump of the hips on the way down, so our tush would go back, it would probably go through the wall. But what I'm trying to do here, is I'm trying to give you a feel of how the chest is gonna need to be over the golf ball and the hips are gonna need to stay back. So this is a great drill for you if you've had a lot of really extension in you golf swing, try it out. Stick you tush right up against the wall, okay, now as you're swinging through, I want you to try and keep your right tush back and touching the wall. Make sure you're shifting your weight at the same time. So when you go back ... I actually break this up into three pieces. I'll shift to my right, I'll swing out and I'll shift left and then I'll release. Okay, keep my right tush back, you can see that I actually hit down through the shot.

 So after you've corrected that, after you've done about a hundred to three hundred reps, now we've got to identify what we want to do to not stop trying to help the golf ball in the air. Okay, so that, the biggest thing I can tell you to help you out with that, is it's kind of like a ... If you've watched Justin Rose on TV lately, he's got a move where he actually holds his back to the target as long as he can while he's shifting his weight. What that's allowing him to do, it's allowing him to be more patient with his upper body. Because the chances are, we try to spin really hard, and that spinning really hard is what's going to create that secondary axis to tilt.

       So what I want you to try to do here, is I want you to try to keep your back to the target as long as possible while you're shifting your weight over to that left side. And once you get your weight over to that left side, keep everything else exactly the same. So if you've been struggling with fairway woods, the big point is that you want to keep it simple stupid. I know we've all heard that expression, is KISS, keep it simple, don't make any drastic changes. Understand that the problem is that your hips are coming forward or you're trying to help the ball in the air. Think of it as like a seven or an eight iron in your hands. Don't over swing, don't get tense in your arms to try to hit the golf ball. All of those things can be the main causes to this really nagging issue.

     So a couple videos to help you out with this. If you've struggled with too much secondary tilt, is gonna be the "Level Shoulders Drill." And these videos, I'm gonna put over to the right hand side of the video player, underneath the recommended videos. So the first one, if you've battled with too much tilt, either hitting the ground before the ball, or you've been topping it a lot, check out "Level Shoulders", it's a great video to help you out. The second video I want you to check out, is "Sitting Into the Left Side", and the third video is "Losing the Tush Line". Those videos are gonna help you correct this problem and you will not battle with topping the golf ball any longer.

Must be Premium Member to Comment

64x64
Marcel
I hit my fairway wood 3 perfectly in the course (220 yards +), but from the tee box I hit the balls worthless and they regularly do not go further than 60 yards. It seems like I'm doing everything right on the course and that I'm wrestling on the tee box with the correct distance to the ball, the correct ball position in relation to the left foot and that my swing changes. Good tip how to solve this?
July 25, 2020
64x64
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Marcel. Your stance tends to get way to wide. If you make sure you don't get too wide it will be easier to get the proper position of the lead instep and not be too far off from the bottom of your swing arc.
July 25, 2020
64x64
Marcel
Thanks Craig, Makes sense! Marcel
July 25, 2020
64x64
James
Had this video marked as a favourite. I have been having issues with my 3 wood and my two hybrids. My irons are fine, mainly because what Craig has been ingraining into me in my reviews. I studied your comments on Monday and when I played in a comp yesterday I got to a par 5 hole and needed to get to a short distance for my approach for my 3rd shot to the green. It was against a headwind of about 20mph and nailed the drive leaving me 230 yards to the green, went with my 3 wood for my approach choking about an inch down the grip and left myself 60 yards to the pin and played a half punch with a nine iron 9" from the pin and tapped in for the birdie 4. Thanks Chris for your instructive advice and especially you Craig for getting me more into the correct swing approach.
January 9, 2019
64x64
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello James. Nice birdie. Thanks for sharing the good news and much appreciative of the compliments. Let's keep that swing moving forward!
January 9, 2019
64x64
Dave
Where do you place the ball front to back?
June 19, 2017
64x64
Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hi Dave, ball position should remain constant. The logo on the left chest is a good reference point. Otherwise, check out the determine correct ball position video for more in depth info.
June 20, 2017
64x64
Marcel
Hello Chris, At the tee box. How high do you recommend to tee up the golf ball when using a three wood? br, Marcel
August 15, 2019
64x64
Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hi Marcel, with a 3 wood, I would suggest that you tee it pretty darn low to the ground however, you may want to play around with various tee heights to see the different ball flights you can produce on the course.
August 17, 2019
64x64
Marcel
Thanks
August 20, 2019
64x64
Chan
Great video Chris. I struggle often with losing my spine angle. Will keep working on it. Also, I haven't completely fixed the problem of ripping my shoulders open on the downswing and yanking the ball dead left off the heel. I do it probably once every 6 or 7 swings. As soon as I do it I know exactly what the cause is. It's usually later in my round of golf where I start getting quicker with my tempo. Is the solution to keeping an ugly habit from popping back up from time to time just repetition and more repetition?
September 19, 2015
64x64
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Chan. Good repetition is definitely a key. However, I understand your pain. I used to perform the same move. Owning the release better will allow you to feel powerful without feeling the need to have to throw the body through.
September 21, 2015
64x64
VICTORIA
Looks great, but I'm never lucky enough to have this shot on level ground...the ball is either below my feet or above my feet. What changes do you recommend to cover these challenges?
September 18, 2015
64x64
Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Victoria, we have a ball above your feet video on the site right now. For a ball below your feet situation, you want to make sure you aim just a bit left, increase the knee flex just a tiny bit for stability, make sure the weight stays under the ankles because inertia will try and pull you over your toes and you may have to increase the spine angle just a fraction. Hope that helps.
September 22, 2015
64x64
Thomas
Chris, how many tries did it take to top it? Doing it on the first try with your swing isn't so easy. LOL
September 17, 2015
64x64
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Tom. The Top Shot is easier than it looks.
September 17, 2015
64x64
Tom
Rather than keeping your tush against a wall, I recommend you use the back of a chair in the middle of the room to protect your walls. You can also bring a folding chair to the driving range to practice this with speed. I love your drill, since it shows me what it feels like to maintain spine angle. The harder I swing, the more likely I am to straighten up at impact. Also, according to Justin Rose, his first move down is to drop his arms straight down before shifting and turning. That's how he appears to keep his back to the target late into his downswing. Thanks for the tip.
September 17, 2015
64x64
Thomas
I have also used my stand-up bag with a club (usually a wood) sticking out that touches my tush. Just need to feel something. If we were smart we would make a little device that would fit in a golf bag that could be used on the range and sell it and make a fortune.
September 17, 2015
64x64
Tom
I'll be the idea guy. You can be the money guy. ;>)
September 17, 2015

We're after one thing: Real Results - Real Fast. And that's exactly what our members achieve. And that's why they say the AXIOM is: Mind-blowing. Game changing. Revolutionary.

Check it out ...

Here at RotarySwing, talk is cheap and the proof is always in the pudding. Come see the massive transformations we can achieve together in your swing.

See for yourself ...

From beginner to pro, we have what you need to get you where you want to go.

See how inside ...

RotarySwing was founded out of frustration with the current state of golf instruction. Quinton knew a better way had to exist to learn this game we all love.

Learn more ...