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All of a sudden, I no longer can hit my fairway woods! I either top the ball and hit a 100-150 yard worm burner, or I hit it fat and it flies 80 yards. A month ago I could hit my woods fine!

Okay, so what should I do here? Take me back to the basics of hitting a fairway wood; describe the process of swinging and hitting the ball with a fairway wood. I really think I need to go back to the beginning and start from scratch, just concentrating on making successful, clean contact with my fairway woods. Any exercises or drills that would be helpful for me?

generaly if your topping the ball, your coming out of your posture to early or moving too far foward.. keep a firm but bent right knee. keep your spine angle and head steady through out the swing, and let your right shoulder swing down and thru the ball.

Thanks for the tips. I went out for a little practice today, and was hitting my fairway woods much better. It still wasn't what is used to be, but it was much improved.

You probably arent making a "bad" swing but contrary to the driver swing you dont want to get behind the ball and hit it on the upswing, more like stay on top of the ball and strike more downward on it but still with the sweep motion you have to take with the longer clubs. Just experiment and try to put the ball at the very bottom apex of your swing, say just take some practice swings just barely hitting the turf, note where the club swept the grass and place the ball at that position in your stance. I assume you can swing consistently all you have to do is experiment with your setup. Makes all the difference.

Hope that helps. Good Luck!

Here try this tee a ball up so the tee is just showing and then aim to hit the ball with out disturbing the tee try to do this 10 times.

Good one. This works for me - I imagine another ball is 1 inch in front of my object ball. I try to hit both of them. You can't do it if you too steep (fat) and you can't do it if your too shallow (thin or topped shot). It allows you to hit the back of the real ball while still FOLLOWING thru - to the top.

private lessons, but if you can not afford that then a lofted* wood (or hybrid) with length and flex pro fitted to your swing. get both lessons and a lofted wood.

*lofted meaning around 17* to 24* wood (or hybrid), around 40" to 42" in length. 50 years ago about a 23* wood would have been referred to as a 4-wood, now it's called a 7-wood...hense, the modern day want for hybrids.

Thanks for all the help. I played a couple of holes tonight and was hitting my fairway woods a bit better.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I now have no problem hitting my fairway woods again. I had developed just a bit of a reverse pivot when I tried to hit my woods, and so was topping the ball most of the time. At the range today I worked on making sure my weight went left on the downswing, and so I got my old distance and trajectory back.

Good Job and Good Luck!

1. Swing fairway woods with the same tempo you would use for a seven-iron.
2. Don't try to lift the ball with the club by either collapsing the left arm or straightening up.Let the clubs built in loft take care of any loft you need on the shot.
3. Position the ball at the bottom of your swing arc. You can find this by making a swing with no ball in front of you and noting the bottom there.
4. Keep your head steady throughout the swing.
5. ( and possiably the most important) Keep the club low on takeaway and low through impact, creating the feeling of hitting the ball forward -- not up.
7. The ball should be hit with a slightly descending blow. Make an aggressive swing and follow-through without trying to steer the shot.
8. Brush the grass rather than taking a divot.
Hope this helps...Let us know how it works out!

lately i wasn't hitting my 5-wood well either, for a while.
I also have a deepface 27.5* 7-wood 41" that's easier than any hybrid i've tried.

these here tips are all good.

I esp. like "...Swing fairway woods with the same tempo you would use for a seven-iron"
This also works for my long irons
I had noticed that i was swinging harder on my 3-irons, but if i let the length and loft do the work with a "7-iron swing" i can sweep my 3-iron decently.

My 3-wood's working on grass, but my trajectory, as expected, is much lower, but the distance isn't much longer than my 5-wood: ...i must be swinging my 3-wood too carefully.

Are the shafts the same on your 5 and 3 wood. I was hitting a Warbird 3 wood with an extra stiff shaft for a while and not getting the distance from it I wanted. Went to a regular flex and added about 20 yards. I was afraid it would be too whippy for my swing speed but after I hit it a few hundred times I was forced to realize that advancing age may have slowed my swing down some. Went to the club-fitter and found out that I had indeed lost some speed. "I can still get around the golf course in 76...it just takes me longer to do it."

Yes, both woods have the same shaft.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Without seeing your swing the first thing I would suspect is TEMPO. Most of us have a tendency to swing harder with the three wood because we are expecting to hit it further. This generally ***** up our tempo. Next time you're hitting the three make a conscious effort to slow down your tempo and not to try crushing the ball. Just a smooth swing with solid contact. See if this doesn't push the distance on that three wood for you.