dsmil

Just a thought if you're going to order a custom 3 iron. It could be a good idea to order it a bit longer in length, to help with gapping between the clubs. My ZX5 4 iron is an inch longer than my 5 iron and I've really liked that for some extra distance as a driving iron sort of club.

I'm now going with a driver and thriver setup. The existing driver that is staying is a G425 Max 10.5*, with a Hzrdus Blue 70 6.5, playing at 44 inches. The thriver is a G425 Max 12*, with a Hzrdus Blue 80 TX, playing at 41.25 inches. I have two of the 26g weight back there, and it's a beast so far.

With that strong 5 iron and your swing speed slowing down a bit, I think it might be difficult to find an iron or driving iron that goes much further than that. If you want to go the driving iron direction, I think you'll need a shaft that is longer and lighter than your irons so you can gain some swing speed. I don't think going below 20 degrees will work as you'll need to preserve some height. A 7 wood might bridge some gapping between your 5 wood and 5 iron, but it's not like you'll be way more accurate with a 7 wood than your 5 wood. The other option that I like is a shortened driver. I don't think you need a mini-driver because you already have 3 and 5 woods for fairway shots. If you're looking for a tee-only club, a 12 degree driver head with a shortened shaft could be a great option. I use one that is basically 9 wood length, but throwing a 3 wood or 5 wood shaft in there is more common.

I'm not aware of low-spin 12 degree drivers out there. Anything 12 degrees is usually the more forgiving max model which is usually on the higher spinning end. The Ping Max models are higher spinning than the LS models, but if he has excessive spin, it's probably a swing issue or he's hitting it low on the face. If you're looking for something that launches higher AND spins lower, the only way I see a shaft being able to do that is if he starts hitting it higher on the face because of that. The only way to see if that's possible is to test some shafts.

I’d look for a used PRGR at that price point. Great for swing and ball speed. The distances are estimates based solely on ball speed and club selection so your results will vary there. My iron distances are close enough on good strikes but it overestimates my driver distance.

Do you struggle on 2nd shots into par 5's where the 16.5* or 20* isn't landing softly enough? That's the largest area for improvement with fairway woods and hybrids (less so). If not, I don't know how much you'll gain with a fairway wood or hybrid because your tee shot setup looks covered with the two drivers and two strong irons. I like this approach and do something similar because the short driver and long irons are straighter clubs than hybrid and fairway woods for me, and that's what I'm going for off the tee.

I think taking this approach really makes the game more enjoyable. Shotscope is great for this aspect because it shows you strokes gained for each shot that you took that day. I benchmark myself against 5 handicaps and here are some recent shots where I gained strokes that wouldn't be obvious. -Gained .03 strokes on a 120 yard shot from the fairway to 30 feet on green -Gained .01 strokes on a 150 yard shot from the fairway to 63 feet on green -Gained .06 strokes on a 223 tee shot into the rough