Avatar Evoluton Driver

Avatar Evolution Three Wood

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Great Bang for the Buck

You get a lot of bang for the buck from the Avatar Evolution Driver and Three Wood. Coming in at a third of the price of big name clubs, they nonetheless offer quality design, construction and materials. They both performed quite well during several rounds of testing

The Avatar Evolution driver has perhaps the largest base I’ve seen. The designers at Hireko say that based on the footprint alone, the club normally would come in at 512cc, but the design keeps it at the 460cc limit. That shape, along with redistributing weight from the crown, is supposed to generate an impressive amount of forgiveness. The body is 100% titanium.

In practice, the driver works well. I hit it as far as most, with good ball flight. My notes from the fall say I was getting more roll but less carry with a slighly lower ball flight than my Nike driver. That was good news for me. I like a lower ball flight. I also liked the “feel” of the club. I was told that it’s loud, but being deaf, I have no idea if that’s true or not.

My primary criticism of the club is not so much a pan as a matter of taste. I don’t think that the silvery white color is going to be for everyone. I personally prefer a darker color: makes the club seem more substantial.

The three wood incorporates the same design philosophy as the driver. It’s got a wide sole and a super thin crown that lets Hireko move the weight down and back. I like its relatively shallow face. As I’ve noted elsewhere in the blog, my preference is for shallow faced, wide bottomed fairway clubs. With taller faces, I lack the confidence that the hot spot will hit the equator of the ball. The clubhead is 431 stainless steel.

In terms of performance, the Avatar fairway performed well. I noted that I swept it easily off the fairway and put myself in good position to score with short irons on the par 5s. (That’s the sad state of my distance game: a good drive, a mighty wack with a three wood, and I’m still a short iron away from the green. No reaching the green in two for me.)

However, as with the driver, my main concern is the color. Some will like it; others, not so much. Purely a matter of taste.

Here’s the bottom line: I think these are great clubs for the money. The driver will set you back a hundred dollars; the wood, just fifty in the basic configurations. For a little more, you also can customize the clubs with a variety of shafts, grips, length and even ferrule colors.

Cobra Baffler T-Rail Fairway Wood

New from Cobra golf is the Baffler T Rail. As the name suggest, its got a T-shaped rail on the bottom that’s supposed to improve the play from all sorts of lies, while filling the typical design principle of moving the weight down and to the rear.

But that’s not what attracts me. I like a low profile on a fairway wood, and this one fits the bill. For whatever reason, it makes me feel more positive about being able to hit the sweet spot and send the ball soaring. With the taller faced fairway clubs, I always have this thought in the back of my mind that the sweet spot is above the equator of the ball.

TAYLORMADE R11 Fairway Wood

Like its big brother, the R11 Driver, the R11 Fairway Wood has a white crown and an adjustable sole that can adjust the face and launch angles of the club. That adds up to 50 yards of side t sode trajectory changes and 1,000 RPM backspin change. The club also sports a deep face and center of gravity for a more penetrating flight.

I wonder when we’ll see an adjustable iron.

ADAMS Speedline Fast 11 Fairway Wood

I’ve been a fan of Adams fairway woods for a long time, going back to their original Tight Lies line. Now, Adams is setting out to revolutionize fairway design once again with the Speedline F11. This club has a channel both on the crown and on the sole that’s supposed to increase the Coefficient of Restitution (trampoline effect) on the club’s face. This is a pretty big deal because previously, COR effects were limited due to the smaller size of the head. Adams claims that you can add up to 12 yards with this over previous designs.

I’d love to give this a try. Think I’ll start looking for an Adams demo day.

Pinemeadow Golf Yukon High Lofted Fairway Woods

Hybrids are a great development for the iron deficient, but try as they might, some people just can’t get the hang of them. For those, the option is a broader set of fairway woods. But it’s hard to find woods other than the standard fare of three, five and seven. Frankly, it’s hard sometimes to even acquire a seven. I’ve got an Adams nine wood, and I think I’ve seen nines from other manufacturers, but not often.

Pinemeadow golf has a nice looking solution for players who’d like to substitute irons for woods. Their Yukon fairway metals come in 3, 5, 7, 9 11, 13 and 15 woods. A five wood is the rough equivalent of a two iron, and a seven wood, a four; these are thus the equivalent of a full set of irons. Check out the specs on these.

The Yukons have a slightly longer than usual toe to heel length and a dual rail sole to help ease the club through difficult lies. I like designs with the rails—something I think I first saw in the LaJolla knife—although that was far more pronounced. I’ve built a couple of clubs with rail bottoms and found they work as advertised.

The only missing thing in this set, I think, is a four wood. That’s a club I’ve seen around—I have an old Yonex four wood with a graphite head that I picked up at a garage sale—and that I’ve read is a nice alternative for most golfers to carrying both a three and a five, which I do.

CLEVELAND Launcher FL Fairway Wood

Cleveland’s Launcher FL Fairway Wood won a silver medal in the 2011 Golf Digest Hot List.

Operating under the theory that lighter clubs = faster headspeed = more ball speed = more carry , Cleveland Golf engineers have removed wright from both the shaft and grip to reduce the total club weight by 30 grams.  Yet, since the club has a Tour leval flex-profile and a standard swing weight, the FL series has the same outstanding feel and stability as traditional, heavier fairway woods. Cleveland claims that some players have seen double-digit yardage gains due to this ultralite technology.

PING Men’s G15 Fairway TFC

This is a low profile wood with a sole weight and low center of gravity ... yada yada yada

But what caught my eye is that it comes in a 4-wood. You don’t see those much. It’s a nice club to have. Get rid of the three and five woods and pick up an extra wedge in the bag.