Best Fairway Woods 2022
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What were the Best Fairway Woods of 2022?
You’ve just bought one of the year’s best drivers and know you want a shiny new fairway wood in the bag, too. You could go for one of this year’s best fairway woods, or you could select a slightly older model and still see plenty of performance benefits while saving a bit of cash.
We’d recommend that you use our guides to help narrow your shortlist down before heading to your pro or nearest golf facility and getting fully fitted for your clubs as that’s the only way to optimize new models for your game.
Now let’s dive into best fairway woods to find out which models deserve a place in your golf bag in 2022. Click your favorite clubs name to read our full review and, if you need any more help, use our guide to choosing the right fairway wood for your game.
And if you want to know why you can trust our tests, then read how we test golf equipment.
Best Fairway Woods 2022
Callaway Rogue ST Max fairway wood
Lofts: 15° – 3W / 16.5° – 3HL / 18° – 5W / 20° – Heavenwood / 21° – 7W / 24° – 9W / 27° – 11W | Stock shafts: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue or Project X Cypher
RRP £299 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: Testing pretty much every club on the market in any particular category gives great insight to which models are longest, fastest and lowest spinning, but when it comes to selecting our top performers we often ask ourselves where would we be happy spending our money this year? And in 2022 we’d definitely be considering two models, the Callaway Rogue ST Max and TaylorMade Stealth.
Compared to most the Rogue ST Max is a very low-profile fairway wood (so the face is not very deep), there’s also a wide but naturally appealing shape, so the model builds confidence nicely whilst also being super easy to launch from the turf. And that’s really important as fairway woods can be a real struggle for club golfers in the modern game as the latest golf balls are much lower spin.
Whilst on paper, for our test pro, the Rogue ST LS might appear a more powerful option, for the majority of club players the Rogue ST Max will definitely be the better choice. And we know that because our pro’s data shows the model launching 1.3deg higher, spinning shots 343 RPM more and peaking shots out 4 yards above the LS, all stats that aid keeping shots in the air for longer at more reasonable speeds.
Thanks to the matt black crown and really appealing head shape we’d happily spend our money on Rogue ST Max fairways this year.
We’re looking forward to seeing how the new Callaway Paradym fairway woods compare to the best fairway woods in our selection here.
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TaylorMade Stealth fairway wood
Lofts: 15° – 3W / 16.5° 3W HL / 18° – 5W / 21° – 7W / 24° – 9W | Stock shaft: Fujikura Ventus Red 5/6
RRP £279 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: Fairway woods have a longer life expectancy than drivers and irons in most players bags. They’re nowhere near as sexy as a new driver purchase and for most golfers they get used less frequently too, so updating them is often our last priority. But if 2022 happens to be the year you’re looking at buying new fairway woods you simply cannot leave Stealth off your shortlist to try.
TaylorMade have had a knack for making fast and long fairways ever since they introduced the Rocketballz back in 2012, and thanks to a new wraparound carbon crown, Stealth just ekes out a fraction more performance over all its predecessors.
Aside from the Stealth sitting beautifully square at address, and us loving its completely non-offensive matt black crown the model was also our pro’s 3rd longest fairway, whilst giving the smallest amount of carry distance drop-off and hitting shots into our 3rd smallest dispersion area. Which of course means it will deliver on both distance and accuracy on the golf course.
If you’re not the most confident fairway wood player, we love the High Launch 16.5º 3-wood option, at more moderate speeds it’s highly likely to carry shots further and be more accurate than the 15deg 3 wood used within our test.
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2022 Fairway Woods Test: Best of the Rest
TaylorMade Stealth Plus fairway wood
RRP £349 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: Very few amateur golfers will spend £349 on a new fairway wood, but it’s important to understand, thanks to a titanium and carbon fibre chassis the Stealth Plus+ is essentially a mini sized driver, so it comes with extra production costs.
The Plus was our joint longest fairway wood (tied with the Callaway Rogue ST LS) at 251 yds carry distance (6 yards longer than the Stealth), but more importantly our data shows exactly why TaylorMade elite staff players love putting this model in play.
The titanium and carbon fibre construction launches and flights shots higher (whilst lowering spin) which gives a steeper descent angle, and profesionnals love that because they can loft up whilst losing no speed or distance and gain a slight advantage on getting shots to drop out of the air and stop on very long approaches.
This is a brilliant but costly fairway wood.
Callaway Rogue ST LS fairway wood
RRP £299 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: Low spin fairway woods rarely appear amongst our recommendations as their smaller heads tend to be less forgiving and harder to launch from the turf, which is the opposite of what the majority of club golfers need.
But the Rogue ST LS pulled off an impressive feat, and that’s being our longest fairway wood of 2022 (tied with the TaylorMade Stealth Plus at 251 yds), but also ranking 3rd best at protecting ball speed whilst hitting shots into our 2nd smallest dispersion area.
Our accuracy data is likely to change on subsequent test days, so don’t think this is a super forgiving model, it’s not, but it is powerful and the LS sports a cracking compact head shape.
Wilson Launch Pad fairway wood
RRP £200 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: Some wise fellow once told us “stats and data are facts, until they’re interpreted which then becomes opinion”, and that’s our sentiment around Wilson’s new Launch Pad fairway.
Golfers who don’t know how to read our data charts will just see the model as being 26 yards behind our longest and immediately write it off. For those in the know though, they’ll spot the Launch Pad was also our joint highest launching, by far our highest spinning and flying fairway wood, and those sorts of numbers at average club golfer speeds help golfers to max out carry distance.
A brilliant, super easy launch and anti-slice fairway for average speed players in 2022.
Benross Delta X fairway wood
RRP £109 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: Benross equipment hasn’t ripped up any trees here at TG since the brand was taken over by American Golf, the UK’s biggest golf retailer. And whilst the Delta X was nowhere close to being fastest or longest (in fact it was 25 yards back from our longest two models) this cute little fairway wood did produce some very impressive consistency and accuracy numbers.
For a £109 fairway wood to be our 2nd best at protecting ball speed, 2nd best at protecting carry distance drop off and hit shots into our smallest dispersion area (179.1 yds2) is seriously impressive, so much so if you’re considering a value for money fairway this year, we reckon this is your go to model.
Titleist TSi2 fairway wood
RRP £279 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: The TSi2 may be two years old but it didn’t stop our test pro from producing his fastest average ball speed with it, and those sorts of numbers along with the extra spin associated with the slightly wider head translate to the model being just 7 yards back from our very longest.
As nice as the TSi2 is there’s no escaping how it’s likely to be replaced later this year. This, especially as it’s amongst the more expensive available, makes it difficult for us to recommend heartily, even though it’s a very strong contender amongst any forgiving fairway wood test.
Ping G425 Max fairway wood
RRP £299 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: We talk a lot about the forgiveness of Ping drivers and irons but the fairways are just as friendly. We’ve been big Ping fairway fans for years and the G425 Max is every bit as good as any of its predecessors.
Compared to the competition there’s a flatter sole, lower profile head and less face height, which overall gives a really friendly confidence-inspiring appearance at set up.
For our test pro the model wasn’t close to being the longest or fastest but our experience says the G425 is a very solid and forgiving option now and for years to come.
Srixon ZX fairway wood
RRP £249 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: In the hands of our faster speed test pro Srixon’s ZX family has utterly performed across the board over the last two years. So much so if you’re lucky enough to fall into the above-average speed category your game is definitely in safe hands with the brand.
We like the ZX’s cute, almost triangular head shape and our test pro really liked the sound and feel. Whilst the ZX isn’t the most forgiving fairway (our pro’s data shows that) it did put in a really solid distance performance against its peers (242 yds – 6th longest, from 21 models).
We can see why decent players who want to manipulate ball flight would really like this model in their bag.
Cobra King LTDx Max fairway wood
RRP £249 | VIEW OFFER
Today’s Golfer test verdict: The beauty of hitting every major fairway wood on the market within the same test is seeing how all the leading competition compares in data, it also means players can come to their own conclusions between which models might best suit them.
Whilst the Cobra King LTDx Max wasn’t our fastest or longest we felt at reasonable speeds it will be super easy to launch from the turf.
We also love the head shape, and how the model sits at address. Add to that how the LTDx Max produced our 3rd best carry distance drop-off (10yds / 4.2%), and we reckon it’s a very good fairway wood for club golfers this year.
Which other fairway woods did we test?
We tested 21 fairway woods to find the best models of 2022 and the data showing how every model performed overall and in terms of forgiveness can be found below.
As well as the 10 we’ve highlighted as the top performers, we also tested the Honma T//World GS, Ping G425 LST, Titleist TSi3, Cobra King LTDx, Honma TR21, Cleveland Launcher XL Halo, PXG 0211, PXG 0341 X Gen4, Ben Hogan GS53, Wilson D9 and MacGregor V-Foil Speed.
Best Fairway Woods: Launch Monitor Data
Best Fairway Woods 2022: Forgiveness Data
How we carried out our 2022 fairway woods test
– We created an indoor test lab at Keele Golf Centre to ensure a controlled environment
– The leading brands supplied their 2022 fairway woods in our Test Pro Neil Wain’s spec.
– We used premium TaylorMade TP5x golf balls and a Foresight GC Quad launch monitor to create the most reliable data possible.
– We rejected major misses but recorded how shots launched, span, peaked and dropped out of the air, before crunching the numbers to come up with our conclusions.
RELATED: Best Golf Launch Monitors
How we analyzed our best fairway woods 2022 data
Before we came to any conclusions, we analyzed the data for each club tested; on distance, spin rates, forgiveness. The latter we refer to as drop offs; the differences in ball speed, spin and carry between our test pro’s on- and off-center hits.
This insight gives a reliable indication of how forgiving each model will be on the course, as we’ve argued for years that dispersion can be very misleading as it’s based on how you swing on a particular day. We analyzed all that data before choosing winners.
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Best Fairway Woods 2022
