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3 Wood vs Driver - See What The Stats Reveals On The Clubs
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Apr 1, 2025
When the driver is misbehaving, golfers often turn to the three wood in attempt to gain more control over accuracy and find more fairways. But does the data prove that this strategy is correct and does the trade off in distance make it worthwhile? That's what Dan Parker attempts to unpack in this video, with the help of shot data from real golfers provided by Arccos Golf.
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0:00
Now, for many golfers, when the driver is misbehaving or you need to hit a tight fairway
0:04
opting for the three-wood seems like the most sensible option. A little bit more loft and that smaller head should give you more control to hit that fairway
0:12
That's the theory anyway, but does it play out in reality? Well, I've got the data that might prove it all wrong
0:22
So all of the data I'm going to be referencing in this video comes from Arcos Golf
0:27
and their vast bank of real shots from real golfers on real golf courses
0:32
So far, they've logged over 750 million shots. So this is some really interesting data that we can dive into
0:40
to look at whether that driver is more accurate or less accurate than the three-wood
0:44
Now, if you've been using Arcos Golf over the last couple of years, then your driver shots and your three-wood shots will be included in the data we're using today
0:52
And if you want to use Arcos Golf for yourself, I've put some handy links down in the description
0:56
where you can find the best price in your location for a set of smart sensors
1:01
So let's start with the headline news in this data then and asking ourselves the question
1:06
are you more likely to hit the fairway with a three-wood than with a driver
1:10
Now in short, the answer is yes, but the results are nowhere near as resounding as you might think
1:17
So in fact, from handicaps ranging from zero all the way up to 20
1:21
you are less than 1% more likely to hit the fairway with your three-wood than with your driver
1:27
Less than 1%. Now, I think that's quite shocking. If I'd asked you that question before we had a
1:31
look at this data, I think you might have said something like 15, 20, 25%. I don't know, but I
1:36
think it'd be a lot more than 1%. Now, when we're thinking about this as well, so you're going to be
1:40
1% more accurate, but according to the data, your average loss of distance with three-wood to driver
1:45
is 12 yards. Now, that doesn't really seem like a worthy trade-off to me. So let's delve down a
1:51
little bit deeper into this data and go handicap by handicap to see how they perform with Driver
1:56
and Freewood. So let's start this deeper dive by looking at scratch golfers to five index
2:04
handicappers. Now we're going to take a look at the percentage of fairways hit with each club
2:09
with Driver and Freewood, how far each club averages for distance, give us an idea of what
2:13
that trade-off is, as well as looking at a really interesting stat that Arcos have given us
2:18
looking at the percentage of shots that finish under 30 yards from the centre of the fairway So this is like you know not a fairway hit but we less than 30 yards from the centre So it might be first cut It might be rough depending on how wide the hole is But I think it a really interesting stat to bear in mind a bit more nuance to it
2:34
So starting with a scratch golfer then, they find the fairway just 2.4% more of the time
2:41
with the three-wood than they do with the driver. And they average 15 yards less with the high-lofted
2:47
three-wood, as you might expect. There is quite a big percentage change with scratch golfers when
2:52
we're looking at that category of less than 30 yards from the centre of the fairway. Indeed
2:56
scratch golfers are missing that, so that 30-yard distance, just less than 4% of the time with the
3:01
three-wood. So there's a little bit of a gain there. Again, it's only marginal at 4%, and that
3:06
15 yards of distance you're giving up, I don't think quite warrants it. It's an interesting thing
3:10
to think anyway. If we look at a five-handicapper, that dispersion is even smaller. A five-handicapper
3:16
hit the fairway 1.3% more of the time with their three-wood and this rises to 3.3% of the time for
3:23
those shots under 30 yards in the center of the fairway. So again really not a big difference here
3:28
and much like that scratch golfer a five indexer is sacrificing 14 yards when hitting their three-wood
3:34
instead of their driver. So let's move on to 10 to 15 index handicap golfers now and while it might
3:44
be expected that the performance and the percentage of fairways hit with three woods might go up a
3:49
little bit with these higher index golfers. The opposite is actually true. So if we look at a 10
3:53
index golfer, they are only 0.7% more likely to hit the fairway with their three wood, which is
4:00
you know, that's barely anything. Even more amazingly, I think here, a 15 handicapper
4:05
is more likely to miss the fairway with their three wood than with their driver. So we're now
4:11
flipping it on its head entirely here. Now admittedly that's only by 0.3% so it's not a lot
4:16
but it's still interesting to note I think that the idea that the three wood is a safety club
4:22
is not the case especially for 15 handicap golfers. Now as was the case with our scratch and five
4:27
index handicapper we're losing a fair chunk of yardage as well so for that 10 handicapper the
4:32
loss of distance averages at 13 yards and for the 15 handicapper we're losing 11 yards. So I'm going
4:37
just stop with the 15 indexer there and just say, to hit the fairway less often
4:43
you're also sacrificing 11 yards. So that myth, I guess we're proving now
4:47
that the freeway is a safe club, for 15 handicaps in particular definitely isn true So finally then let look at the 20 index golfer Perhaps a more common index perhaps watching at home now
5:00
you're a 20 indexer. Let's see how you're getting on with this three-wood versus driver. And again, the differences are minuscule
5:07
For a 20 index golfer, they're going to hit the fairway 0.8% of the time
5:12
more with that three-wood. So listen, really not a lot. Interestingly, the difference in distance is a little bit less
5:19
So you're only sacrificing 10 yards as a 20 handicapper, whereas we were at about 15 yards with the scratch golfer
5:25
So you can see the difference in the quality of striking, I guess, there. But again, for 0.8% more fairways, that sacrifice of 10 yards
5:32
I think, especially with a 20 handicapper, is quite a lot. So what happens when we put all of this together
5:37
then let's bring all the handicaps back together again and give ourselves an average of all golfers out there from this ARCOS set of data
5:44
Well, as you can see, if we put everybody together, you're more likely to hit the fairway with a free wood 0.9% of the time, so less than 1% with your
5:54
driver. And that average distance drop-off with all handicaps was around 12 or 13 yards. Now that
6:00
is probably a different iron in the bag approach-wise, isn't it? A seven over an eight iron
6:05
which you'll have more control over. So we're thinking about is that distance trade-off worth
6:10
it, but not a lot more accuracy. If we contextualise this and say that there are 14 chances per round
6:18
to hit a fairway, that's assuming that most golf courses have four par threes. That equates to
6:23
finding one extra fairway every eight rounds. And that's that 12 yards you're giving up on every
6:31
shot. While we're here then, let's take a look at my data for this, because I've been using Arcos now
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for a couple of years. I've got three and a half thousand shots logged on here now. So I thought
6:40
be interested to compare my data with that of the larger group that we're doing here. And I fall
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very much into type about what we've been talking about here. So with my drive, I hit the fairway
6:49
a whopping, an eye-watering 40% of the time. Not great, I know. I'll work on it. But I average 256
6:55
yards off the tee. So there's my accuracy and my distance. And with my three-wood, I average 241
7:02
yards. So there's that drop-off of 15 yards we were seeing for some of the lower index golfers
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but only at the fairway, 34% of the time. So the quote unquote safer club
7:12
when I wanna try and find a fairway, isn't my three-word, cause not only I'm missing it more than my driver
7:18
but I 15 yards worse off Now it really something interesting to think about here I was really interested to see mine versus the group data on here and it would actually make a lot more sense for me I was thinking about doing the safer option is to pull the hybrid out my bag now
7:32
I average 212 yards with this club so it's obviously losing a lot but I hit the fairway
7:38
45% of the time still still not a lot really is I need to work on my fairways and regulation but
7:44
If I'm on a tee and I'm like, Dan, I need to hit a fairway here
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The three wood isn't the club, as though I might have thought before. It would be the hybrid, or even a five iron if a fairway is that important
7:56
The drop-off in distance is huge, but that real safe club is much lower down the bag than the three wood
8:03
So, some final thoughts then on what I think has been a really interesting dive into this part of the bag
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And I think we can really walk away from this video with some interesting course management skills next time you're on the course
8:14
Now, there's no denying that across the board, the three-wood technically is more accurate
8:19
and you are going to find more fairways, but the results are so marginal, as we saw
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And if you're a 15-index golfer and me, you're missing more often with your three-wood than the driver
8:29
and you're sacrificing all that yardage. Now, there's a few reasons why this might be the case
8:35
You know, there's a bit of a bias toward getting fitted for your driver, so maybe you feel more comfortable over it than your fairway would
8:40
and that bigger head might inspire a bit more confidence. but regardless of the reason as to why the driver isn't as wayward as the three-wood as we thought
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I think it's worth just sitting back and thinking if I you know my fairway finder my safe club
8:53
let's drop that a little bit further down the bag next time whether it's a five-wood
8:57
seven-wood I'd move down to my four hybrid now that's the next thing I'm going to do when I'm
9:01
going to find a fairway drop down to that four hybrid even a five iron a seven iron I don't care
9:06
whatever you need to find the fairway I think we've busted the myth that three-wood is safer
9:11
than driver. That's for sure. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this video and this deep dive
9:16
into the specific part of the game. As I said at the top, we've got access to Arcos
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vast bank of data. 750 million shots from real golfers on real golf courses
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So if there's anything you want to see me dive into like this for specific handicap indexes
9:30
or for shots on specific parts of the golf course, let me know down in the comments
9:34
I'd love to hear from you and put a video together looking at that. But for now
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thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you next time
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