Going with an iron or fairway wood off the tee? Here's how to use them

Congratulations. Attempting to tee off with a club other than a driver means you’re actually thinking about course management instead of mindlessly banging something down the fairway. The question you now have to ask is, what club makes the most sense?

I can see where a fairway wood might be tempting as it blends the distance you get with the driver and the accuracy you get with a slightly shorter club with more loft. However, an iron might make more sense if the goal is trajectory control or hitting the ball a very specific distance like short of a water hazard or bunker. Let me walk you through some of the things to consider when choosing a wood or iron and the swing mechanics needed to be successful.

FAIRWAY WOODS

There are a few reasons why you might opt for a fairway wood off the tee. The first two might be that they are more reliable from an accuracy standpoint than a driver or because the shorter shaft makes it easier to shape the ball. Maybe you need a draw more than you need max distance. If so, then a fairway wood is the club. They tend to instill more confidence that your next shot will be from the short grass.

With strategy out of the way, the first adjustments you have to make with a 3-wood or 5-wood (or even a 7-wood) are ball position and tee height. Most fairway woods have shallower faces, a lot shallower than a driver, because they are designed to also hit the ball far and high when it’s on the ground. Knowing this, you can’t tee the ball very high with a fairway wood or you risk swinging right under it and popping it up. When you set up to the ball, make sure a good portion of the clubface is even with it. For ball position, play it farther back in your stance. If you normally set up with the ball in line with the heel of your lead foot with your driver, move the ball back a couple inches (below). You’ll want a slightly downward attack angle to get the most solid strike, so if you play it too far forward, you risk thin contact or a topped shot.

Once you have the setup correct, you're ready to let it rip. A good swing thought for fairway woods is hit slightly down on them and scrape the grass in front of the ball. This makes you shift your weight forward, no hanging back, and helps override the common instinct to try to scoop the ball and lift it off the ground. Let that shallow-face wood do its job, and you'll be playing more shots from the fairway. Here's what it should look like.

IRONS

Why would you ever want to take an iron off the tee? First, it’s really hard to miss a target as wide as a fairway with an iron. Knowing that, it tends to free you up to make a full, fluid swing. There’s no steering like there might be with a wood. Second, and perhaps this is the most important reason, distance control. On a short par 4 or a typical par 5, you might want to hit your second or third shot from a very specific yardage. An iron is going to put you in better position to hit, say, a 185-yard tee shot versus a range of 175 to 200 yards. Woods tend to roll out more, so you have less control over the outcome.

Now let’s talk about adjustments. Anytime you have the opportunity to put the ball on a tee, you should take it. You’re basically setting up the perfect lie. It's OK if you tee it very low, so low that you playing partners might not even be able to see it under the ball. The reason? While it’s optimal to make a swing with a driver where it catches the ball as the clubhead is moving level with the ground or ascending, that’s a mistake with an iron. You still want ball-then-turf contact, just as if it was resting in the fairway. Knowing that, make sure you tee it fairly low.

Also, play the ball even farther back than you would a fairway wood. I’d say just forward of center unless you’re hitting a 3-iron or some kind of driving iron. With one of those clubs, you can cheat the ball up a little more because of the longer shaft. Strike down on the ball and see if you can take a nice sliver of divot on the target side of the ball. That’s how you hit iron shots a consistent distance, as you would from the fairway. Here's the iron swing.

Remember, driver might be the logical choice on most tees, but let the circumstances make you think twice. Distance is great, but good position in the fairway usually will lead to better scores.

Jason Baile, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America, is director of instruction at Jupiter Hills Club in Tequesta, Fla.