Try these tips if you regularly struggle to hit a wood from the fairway and you find yourself lacking consistenct and distance from long range.

Many golfers are scared of this shot, but you should see the fairway wood shot off the ground as inviting rather than intimidating.

The key to good fairway wood striking is to clip the ball off the turf with a sweeping motion. One of the best ways of working on this is to use an idea first thought of by the great Ben Hogan.

Hogan came up with the image of a pane of glass running from the ball up through the shoulders at address.

The idea was to swing the club underneath that pane of glass. By keeping this image in your head, particularly when hitting this type of shot, it will help you shallow out the plane of the club as it comes through the ball, producing the required sweeping contact.

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You can take this idea a step further when practising by placing an alignment stick in the ground parallel with the shaft of the club at address, as I’ve done here.

This will really help you get the right feel for the ideal swing, and it should produce the desired results from the fairway time after time.

Tops tips

• The key to hitting fairway woods well is to try and clip the ball off the turf.
• Imagine a pain of glass running from the ball up through the shoulders at setup.
• The idea is to swing the club underneath the pane of glass.
• This should help you shallow out the plane of the club as it comes through the ball.
• This should result in the desired sweeping contact.
• To take this a step further, place an alignment stick in the ground parallel with the club shaft at address.