Fairway Woods

Our data has the Ping G410 among the higher-launching fairways, which ties in perfectly with how our test pro felt shots launched high and fast, making them an excellent choice for flying hazards and getting the ball to stop.

Like others, Ping’s G410 fairway wood line is extensive, there are plenty of lofts to choose from, plus there’s a lower-spinning LST model as well as a lighter, more draw biased SFT design, which means there’s a solution for everyone.

It took lots of number-crunching to find out if Callaway’s Mavrik driver actually controlled side and backspin differences better as Callaway promise (which makes the driver more accurate even though MOI drops), so we naturally wanted to see if the Mavrik fairway performed in the same way. And, to our amazement, it did. By a single yard Mavrik was second best at protecting carry, and it was just 172rpm (which is nothing) from being among our top-three fairways for side and backspin drop-off, too. What does it mean to you? Let’s just say Mavrik is very forgiving.

There was only one fairway wood among our longest five models of 2020 that wasn’t either a low spin or lightweight model – TaylorMade’s SIM Max. And thanks to seeing just 15 yards of carry drop-off between on and off-centre hits, the Max also turned in a top-three performance for forgiveness, too. That means this cracking looking fairway gets a “Best of 2020” stamp of approval from us.

If you struggle launching a fairway wood from the deck, or predominantly hit shots down the right side of the course, have a look at the higher-lofted, draw-biased SIM Max D instead.