PXG Black Ops fairway woods

Gear: PXG Black Ops fairway woods
Price: $349.99
Specs: Carbon fiber crown with AM335 stainless steel body, proprietary stainless steel face, moveable weights and adjustable hosel. Available as 3-wood (15 degrees), 4-wood (17 degrees), 5-wood (19 degrees) and 7-wood (21 degrees)
Available: Jan. 11

Who They’re For: Golfers looking for more distance and forgiveness along with shot-shaping ability off the tee and from the turf.

The Skinny: PXG uses multiple materials, including new stainless steel alloys and moveable weights, to boost forgiveness and let players tweak the launch angle and spin rate of its latest fairway woods.

The Deep Dive: Golf equipment companies such as PXG don’t control how fast you swing a club or how well you strike the ball, but through research and clever engineering, they can make clubs that will optimize your good shots and reduce the severity of your mis-hits. It’s a tough job, and when it comes to fairway woods, it is even harder because fairway woods need to hit the ball to the same distance and on the same trajectory when you hit shots off the tee or from the turf.

PXG’s latest fairway wood, the Black Ops, uses exotic materials, moveable weights and an adjustable hosel to help golfers hit their fairway wood shots farther and more consistently.

A key to the Black Ops fairway woods is a new high-strength stainless steel alloy used in the face. PXG said it is stronger than other steels commonly used in fairway woods, so the hitting area can be made thinner and lighter. In fact, the face is now just 0.07 inches thick. That allows it to be more flexible at impact, which results in more ball speed, a higher launch angle and less spin.

The Black Ops fairway woods have also been made with a compression-molded carbon fiber crown that reduces weight on the top of the head and lowers the center of gravity. The chassis is made from a light but strong material, AM355 stainless steel, that allowed designers to save even more weight.

That saved mass has been repurposed in the form of three adjustable screws in the sole of the Black Ops, with the three ports located in the heel, toe and the back-middle areas. The club comes standard with a 12-gram weight in the back and 2.5-gram weights in the heel and toe to maximize forgiveness and help create a higher launch angle, but putting the heavier weight in the heel will encourage a draw and adding it to the toe port will create a fade bias.

To help golfers find a club that hits shots to the ideal distance, PXG has made the Black Ops with an adjustable hosel that can increase or decrease the loft by as many as 1.5 degrees and raise or lower the lie angle.

Below are several images of the Black Ops fairway woods: