Alpha V5 Hi Cor Fairway Wood
Alpha V5 Hi-Cor Fairway Wood

A Fairway Wood Worthy of the Tour

The Alpha V5 Hi-COR was the first all-titanium fairway
wood to be played on the Champions Tour.  Today it
is still the most popular titanium fairway wood in the
bags of Tour players.  The number of professional and
amateur golfers that choose a titanium fairway wood
is still very small.  But more discerning golfers are
realizing the benefits of titanium woods, and Alpha
will continue to lead the way with it's high end clubs.

Why a Titanium Fairway Wood?

Fairway woods traditionally have steel heads.  All
drivers used to be steel as well.  But when golf
designers realized the superior characteristics of
Titanium, they switched to create longer and more
accurate clubs off the tee.  A similar trend is starting
to happen with fairway woods.

Titanium is lightweight yet very strong.  It has the
highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal.  It is as
strong as steel, but 40% lighter.  This allows golf
drivers to reach the enormous volumes of 460cc - a
size that cannot be attained with the much heavier
steel.  But fairway woods do not need to be
"oversized" which is why the cheaper steel still makes
sense for the average golfer.  Yet titanium's weight
advantage allows designers to build optimizations into
fairway woods that are physically impossible with a
heavy metal like steel.

The lighter titanium lets designers add in extraneous
weight, and place it in strategic areas of the head.  
Most of the extra mass pads the back and the sole of
the club head to strategically place the center of
gravity.

The strength-to-weight ratio of titanium lets designers
make the face extremely thin - a design feat that is
physically impossible to reproduce with steel.  High
performance club designers try to create as thin of a
face as possible since it induces a "trampoline effect"
that is not attainable with a thicker face.

Optimal Center of Gravity

The Center of Gravity (COG) of a golf club head is the
specific point at which the club behaves as if all its
mass were concentrated. The COG has 3 dimensions
to it - X, Y, and Z.  The X-axis is the horizontal COG
location (how far, left or right, it is from the center of
the club face).  The Y-axis is the vertical COG (how
high it is from the sole of the head).  And the Z-axis is
the COG depth (how far back it is from the face).

Golf clubs obviously aim to keep the horizontal COG
axis right at the center of the club face.  Aligning the
horizontal COG with the sweet spot of the club face
maximizes the Moment of Inertia, or the amount of
resistance to club twisting.  The vertical COG is kept
low to induce backspin and promote a higher
trajectory ball flight.  Too much backspin is dangerous,
however.  It can cause shots to balloon up and fall
straight down.  So an optimal placement of the
vertical center of gravity is closer to the sole than the
crown, but not at the very bottom of the sole!  The Z-
axis COG is kept towards the back of the club head.  
The further it is from the face, the more forgiving the
club is since vertical and horizontal twisting on off-
center shots gets dampened.

Positioning the center of gravity vertically low,
horizontally center, and back away from the face is
done by careful positioning of the weight.  Titanium is
less than half the weight of steel.  Yet the titanium
fairway wood head weighs the same as its steel
counterpart.  Thus a significant portion of the weight
of a titanium fairway wood head is dedicated to
optimally position the center of gravity.  Steel fairway
wood heads lack this luxury - and the center of gravity
location is non-intentional and non-optimal.

The Coefficient of Restitution (COR) is the
measurement of how "bouncy" an object is during
impact.  It is measured as the ratio of velocities before
and after an impact.  When thinking in these terms,
it's easy to see that a higher COR club sends the ball a
greater distance.  The USGA limits COR to 0.83.  Some
drivers have reached this limit.  But steel fairway
woods do not come close to a COR of 0.83.

The Alpha V5 Hi-COR has a COR 0f .830!

Hi-COR comes from super-thin faces.  A super-thin
face induces a "spring-like effect" or a "trampoline
effect" where the face momentarily depresses at initial
contact and then "springs" back into shape at launch.  
A thick face lacks this effect.  And only the high
strength-to-weight ratio of titanium lets designers
make the face of a fairway wood extremely thin.

Big and Tall Face

Fairway woods possess "variable face thickness" -
meaning the face is thinner at the center and thickest
towards the heel and toe.  The manufacturing process
requires this - the welding that sticks the face to the
crown, sole, and shell necessitates thicker material at
the connection points.  This is especially true for steel
since its lower strength-to-weight ratio requires more
steel to form the same strong connection to the rest of
the club head.

But golf club designers want the center of the face to
be thin to maximize the COR.

The V5 Hi-COR already achieves a 0.83 COR at the
center of the club.  But it also has a 0.83 COR within a
large radius around the center of gravity point,
effectively enlarging the sweet spot of the fairway
wood's face.  This is made possible due to a big and
tall face. Increasing the overall height and width of
the face allows a larger portion of the face to be as
thin as the center.

As Long as Your Driver

With an optimal center of gravity, a maximum
coefficient of restitution, and a large thin face, the
Alpha V5 Hi-COR fairway wood is the longest fairway
wood.  The 3 fairway wood even rivals most name
brand drivers in distance.  More golfers are hitting the
V5 Hi-COR off the tee, and achieving the same (if not
more) yardage as their driver.

Technology Points

• Revolutionary all titanium Hi-COR fairway wood

• Deep COG for maximum forgiveness and MOI

• Super thin yet strong face for “trampoline effect”

• Deep face features a large sweet spot for straighter
shots.
No.                   3                 5                7
Lofts*                 15°              18°            21°
Volume             210cc          200cc         190cc
Face Angle           0°                0°              0°
Lie                      57°              58°            59°
Weight              212g            222g          232g
Face Height      40mm         40mm         40mm

*LH lofts not available