 Is it time to put a 3 wood back in the bag? Is the Mizuno STG fairway wood a fairway finder? And am I about to change my mind that currently suggests 3 woods are just good at collecting cobwebs? I have to admit this new line up of fairway woods has asked that question since I tried and loved the new STG 5 wood. So the focus of this video is really trying to identify whether or not we should be considering putting a 3 wood back in the bag and if so why? I'm going to start off with data on Trackman up here at Holywell Golf Club and there's key parameters that I'm looking for. Obviously one is carry distance but then I want to see what separates them in terms of spin and what separates them in terms of launch. Then I'm going to be out on the golf course. We're going to see if the data is relayed out on the golf course in terms of its performance the same and then I want to come up with a conclusion on whether or not there is justifiable reason to either put 3 wood and 5 wood in the bag or perhaps one and not the other. Right some feedback off the golf course first of all am I seeing what I've seen in terms of dry ball data? The answer is probably yes but there are some variables that would concern me and I'll talk about those in a bit. I've hit quite a few tee shots off this one tee box here and you'll see there's some variables in the ball flights and I'm not necessarily going to point out which club is which right now but I can tell you that it surprised me a little. So at the start of the video the idea was to consider the possibility of putting a 3 wood back in the bag because of how well this 5 wood had performed from Mizuno. What I'm finding is I've still got exactly the same issues and it's not about the product it's more about me I would much prefer to see more lofted address and that's down to a confidence thing and I still think that that greater loft is giving me more variety and confidence and I'm seeing a very much a one-dimensional shot out on the golf course from the 3 wood. It's not a bad shot but it's one-dimensional in my book it's a very penetrating flight it's piercing it's going to work really well in windy conditions I'm still not sure that it's doing as much as the 5 wood for me personally but then there is another thing that I want to consider. The other big deal for me about having sort of matching fairway woods is that they look the same sounds a real obvious statement but first of all they've got a real good look for me they're fairly compact I would say in the way fairway woods have gone in recent years it's more of a classical look gloss finish look superb at address but I think switching from one to the other often if you've got different makes is a tendency to say oh my 3 wood is my favourite club and that then means that when you pick up your 5 wood if it looks a bit different then that becomes not your favourite club and confidence might dip a little. These two apart from that visible loft addition of loft in the 5 wood are virtually identical at address so for me that confidence if you've got confidence in one the likelihood is that that will pass through to both clubs and that can only be a real positive. Now there's one additional thing that I just want to mention and that is the key to having adjustability in your fairway woods and your hybrids and that's a relevant of brand and the reason I say that is because this is a great example of where for me that 3 wood is probably lofted just a little bit strong I'm not getting the ball fight that I would really like and there's an argument to say that the 5 wood is the opposite just flighting it just maybe just a tad too high and by either adding loft to one or lowering the loft in the 5 wood which is what I'm about to try and do then obviously we can make that kind of difference and I think that's key to all kinds of things gaping in your bag but for me it's more of a desired ball flight and something that suits my eye I've got a little bit of a shorter shaft in the 5 wood and that's why I would prefer to deal off this just a tad and we'll see what that does and that is my perfect ball flight so my findings that I said were surprised me a little bit out on the golf course was perhaps the inconsistency of the 3 wood in my hands and my inability to get it to perform inconsistently and in the dry ball data which we're going to have a look at now what we've seen was not a huge difference perhaps ones that you would expect but if you look at the carry distance only five yards of carry difference spin number was lower with the 3 wood than the 5 I did expect a considerable difference in the terms of the peak height and that comes from the difference in a launch angle and again the 5 wood being that much higher and launching that much higher so out on the golf course I've pretty much seen exactly that but maybe the ball flight on a 3 wood was even lower than what I was achieving indoor and like I said there was an inconsistency with it I said at the beginning of the video about you know again keep referencing this should the 3 wood come back into people's bags and I can only talk for mine and for me I'm still leaning towards the flexibility the variety that the 5 wood offers and even just not in that one degree down I said to you about how it becomes a perfect ball flight for me and then I so much so I hit a second shot off that same tee buck it's almost identical in a ball flight and that kind of thing just breeds confidence we haven't tried them out of the rough and I just don't like a 3 without the rough where I think a 5 wood is a club that you can sort of attempt to do that in sort of the semi rough so again I've done a number of videos like I said where I've been pushing people to sort of move away from a 3 wood and just question how many times per round you actually use it and for me they're a club that gathers cobwebs and it's why I've removed it from the bag and whilst this is a great example of a good 3 wood it's certainly not one that would make its way into my bag whereas the 5 wood is exactly that so this line up from Mizuno has been sort of geared towards I wouldn't say better players but faster swing speeds and I found that to be an issue with the driver for me and I didn't get the best performance out of it but I will say with the 5 woods complete opposite very playable I think very forgiving not the low spin model in my hands that is suggested from Mizuno and like I said overall a real good line up of fairy woods but for me the bigger picture it's 5 wood all day long over the 3 wood and I would like to know what are your thoughts do you agree with that or are you now slowly moving over as many golfers are into 5 woods 7 woods and such like the more lofted clubs in the bag right as ever thanks for watching a little bit dull here at Hollywood in superb condition we're playing plenty of golf and I hope you are too and thanks for watching I'll see you soon