It's a trend that shouldn't really be replicated by ordinary club golfers around the greens of Ireland . . . even if Tiger and Vijay and, indeed, Darren reverted to using the noble 3-wood as a jack-of-all-trades and, at times, nothing more than a putting/chipping implement at Pinehurst. Indeed, when the best technical minds in the golf club development business set about re-designing the king of all fairway woods in recent years, this wasn't exactly the kind of use that they had in mind.
However, the competition in the 3-wood market is every bit as intensive as it is in the driver sector with the likes of Callaway, Orlimar, Mizuno, Taylor Made and Adams all changing the shape and style of the club in recent times.
American club designer Barney Adams is the man responsible for the new breed of shallow faced fairway woods. His highly distinctive Adams Tight Lies clubs were unveiled in the United States at the beginning of 1997 and within months were achieving spectacular sales figures. Over here, they have also proven extremely popular with the combination of a shallow face and a very low centre of gravity getting the ball in the air very efficiently. Adams used steel rather than titanium for his woods - and the rather distinctive and compact club face has become a key player in this sector of the market. Mick O'Kelly of Nevada Bobs in Dublin says that the clubs have "taken off in the past few months as people became more familiar with the name . . . the advertising is obviously working," he added.
The Orlimar Trimetal 3-wood (15 degree loft) was an instant success when introduced in the US last year. The range gets its name from the three distinctive bronze-coloured bars on the sole: they are actually copper tungsten strips (heavier than lead) and contribute towards the club's extremely low centre of gravity. The positioning of the bars maximise the size of the sweet-spot and helps to produce stability through the impact zone to return straighter and more consistent hitting.
With the Orlimar, the head is made from 17-4 stainless steel and a special process is used to provide a face twice as hard as titanium. And, like the Adams, it has a shallow face. Callway's Big Bertha Steelhead metal woods don't have such a shallow face - but claim to have the lowest centre of gravity of any woods ever made without sacrificing the size of the club-face hitting area.
Each Callaway club-head is made up of three different parts: an extremely lightweight top plate, a heavier lower body with a super-strong club-face, and a precision-cast, stainless steel weight chip. It has the traditional appearance of the Callaway but the manufacturers claim that the deep forgiving club-face significantly reduces mis-hits off the crown on shots out of the rough or even from excellent lies on the fairway, while the Mizuno T-Zoid 3-wood has a traditional appearance but consists of a face which is double forged from beta titanium which is aimed to give the consistency and feel that is synonymous with Mizuno irons.
Interestingly, there is quite a range of prices in this competitive sector of the market (prices courtesy of Nevada Bobs): Callaway Steelhead 3-wood (£189 graphite shaft, £139 steel), Orlimar TriMetal 3-wood (£239 graphite), Adams Tight Lies 3-wood (£169 graphite), Mizuno 3-wood (£129 graphite) and Taylor Made Firesole (£259 graphite).
Millennium Travel
This end of the century/start of the century lark that they call the Millennium has a lot to answer for . . . and one of the more novel projects - to which Irish players are invited (provided they have the necessary money) - is an 18-holes competition which will be played at the Pan Pacific Glenmarie Hotel in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia.
The night-time golf tournament, with a traditional shotgun start on the stroke of midnight, will take place on a course designed by Australians Max Wexler and Ross Watson. The Garden Course is 7,034 yards long and it is expected that golfers (fanatics?) from all around the globe will journey to the Far East to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The Millennium Golf Package is priced at US$499 per person for golfers and US$399 for non-golfers for a three night stay between December 30th-January 2nd (getting there is extra) and the package includes daily buffet breakfast, a gala dinner and cultural show on New Year's Eve and golf tournament with prize-giving lunch the following day. Further information on the tournament is available from 0044-1753 549251 or on the internet at www.panpac.com for those who fancy an international golfing flavour to the new century.
