I had a chance to swing a Callaway Big Bertha Heavenwood the other day and really liked it. It’s billed as a hybrid but looks to me more like a small fairway wood.  Its graceful, with none of the stumpiness of some of the other hybrids.

Callaway says that the elongated low profile face gives it a high moment of inertia (resistance to twisting) and that the modified warbird sole makes it easy to hit off of any surface. I only had the chance to hit it off tees at a range, but liked the ball flight and the feel at impact.

Snake Eyes Compressor Fairway Wood Head

Grade: A

Fairway woods are an amateur golfer's best friend. I put together a set of 3, 5, and 7 woods with this head, using Graffaloy Attacklite Fairway Wood shafts. I used Lamkin Crossline grips.

The Compressor Fairway woods are built with the same technology as their big brother, the Compressor Driver. Based on a Zevo design, the woods are held under 12,500 psi of pressure using an internal cabling system. This is supposed to keep the head from deforming at impact.

I think the system works. I hit these fairwoods farther and more accurately than any I have tried before.   As a point of comparison, I also own a set of Adams Tight Lies GT, and have played with an number of others, including offerings from Titleist, MacGregor, Cleveland, Cobra and Golfworks.

Like their big brother, I hit the fairway woods twenty yards longer than others I have used. Unlike the driver, however, I have managed to maintain my accuracy with these throughout the season. My ideal shot -- a high fade -- has stayed with me through good times and bad. I've never been able to hit a draw with these, but that's just my swing. I'd guess that there is no draw bias at all on these clubs.

All three fairway woods hit the ball high off of nearly any lie. The 3-wood is my go-to club off the tee. I hit it as far as any driver I own (with the exception of the Compressor, which I can no longer keep in the fairway).

The three wood was the instrument of my best shot of the summer: I had 230 yards to the green on a par 5.  (I had flubbed the second shot out of the rough with a 4 iron).  The hole has bunkers guarding the left and right front, and an elevated green. I hit it solidly and in a perfect fade. It sailed left, curved back over the left bunkers, and dropped almost straight down into the hole. My third career Eagle. The greenkeeper mowing the lawn nearby applauded.

If I have any complaint about the clubs, it's that Golfsmith does not make a 9 wood in the same line. Given current trends in clubset makeup, every manufacturer -- component or OEM -- should include 9 woods as a choice.

One other complaint: the tension device screw on the bottom of the club gets gunked up with turf and dirt. I wonder why they couldn't fill the holes with some sort of plastic plug.

The lack of a matching fairway wood and the screw hole are the only things keeping these from an A+.