PXG Black Ops Fairway Wood Review

PXG Black Ops Fairway Wood: Key Features

• High-strength stainless steel face: 12.5% thinner and more flexible than the 0311 Gen 6
• Carbon fibre crown: saves mass, allowing it to be redistributed low and to the club's perimeter for optimal CG positioning
• Precision weighting technology: allows spin and bias settings to be adjusted
• Squared face design: shifts perimeter skirt more vertical to boost forgiveness and deliver faster ball speeds

PXG is a brand that has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2014, and now, with a greater presence on Tour and a more established pedigree within the industry, it has rightfully earned its seat at the top table of golf club manufacturers. 

In order to keep that seat, though, the product lines need to consistently improve and evolve. With the launch of the new Black Ops Fairway Wood, PXG has demonstrated its ability to adapt and advance and has utilised some innovative new tech to ensure that it cements itself in the pantheon of golf brands. 

The fleet of new technology includes a new, thinner stainless steel face, which, when paired with a new squared face design that shifts the perimeter skirt more vertically, increasing the surface area, boosts the forgiveness of the clubhead to deliver faster ball speeds, higher launch, and lower spin. 

I think we can all agree those are traits that we can get on board with. 

So, to see if the club could deliver on the claims, we took it out to the La Hacienda Links Course in Spain for some warm weather testing before putting its performance under the microscope courtesy of the GC Quad launch monitor at Custom Golf Works in Woking. 

Let's get into it.

Player Level

PXG Black Ops Fairway Wood: Looks and Feel

Sat behind the ball, the Black Ops fairway wood has a very pleasing appearance. The black panel that runs behind the face works beautifully with the carbon underlay that dominates the majority of the real estate, with the premier detailing rounding out the design. 

While the gloss finish and perimeter graphics aren't quite to our taste, the overall design of the crown is suitably sophisticated and measures up nicely against the competition in 2024. 

Move your attention to the sole of the club, and you are greeted with a very simple but effective composition that features one prominent thin line running through the heart of the panel and three adjustable weights positioned at the rear, toe and heel.  

This same design can be seen across the driver and hybrid in the Black Ops family, and it's a big improvement to the PXG 0311 Gen 6 range from last year. 

PXG has utilised a stainless steel face on the Black Ops, and it produces a distinctly metallic feel and sound at impact while also delivering a healthy amount of feedback from off-centre strikes, allowing for precise recognition of each shot's point of contact on the face. 

Throughout testing, the noise actually grew on us very quickly. The slightly higher frequency crack evolved into a valuable indicator of the quality of our strikes, adding an extra layer of feedback to enhance the overall experience.

PXG Black Ops Fairway Wood: Performance and Forgiveness

While looks are an important part of any golf club, the performance is what really matters. 

Thankfully, PXG has not only good designers but good engineers, too.  

Moving on to the data, the statistics reveal that the Black Ops stands shoulder to shoulder with the best fairway woods of 2024, sharing the spotlight with the likes of the TaylorMade Qi10 and Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke

Those of you who have watched our video reviews will know our in-house tester, Alex Lodge, hits a long ball, which is reflected in our data, and while distance is only a part of performance, it is quite an important one, and Black Ops delivered a lot of it. 

While the distance alone was impressive from this club, it was how that distance was achieved that really caught our attention. 

The Black Ops was one of the highest-spinning models we have tested this year, but it also managed to retain a neutral ball flight, which made it very workable through the air. Sometimes, three woods can either stay too low or balloon up in the air, making them hard to control, but the Black Ops is very manageable both off the tee and from the fairway, which resulted in us achieving impressive distance on a consistent basis.

Much like looks, distance isn't everything, and for most amateur golfers, there is one parameter of performance that holds the highest value, and that is, of course, forgiveness. 

When struck from the middle, the Black Ops produces a very straight ball flight; however, during our extensive testing both inside and outdoors, we did notice that our poor shots were slightly more exaggerated than they were with other models on the market. 

A poor shot is a poor shot, and we fully understand that no amount of weight distribution is going to prevent that. But when stacked up against the most forgiving fairway woods we have tested this year, the Black Ops didn't impress us quite as much as we hoped it might. 

With that being said, the Black Ops is still a very impressive golf club, and at the top level, the margins are incredibly thin, so while there are more forgiving fairway woods on the market, the Black Ops is right up there amongst the best in terms of overall performance. 

Should you buy a PXG Black Ops Fairway Wood?

The fairway wood category is incredibly competitive this year, with some outstanding models being launched from almost every big brand in golf. 

Right up there with the best of the best is the Black Ops, and if you are considering purchasing a new wood this year, then we would highly recommend heading down to your nearest PXG fitting centre to try them out. 

PXG has really stepped it up in recent years, which has thankfully coincided with the price point also becoming much more appropriate, making the whole package a much more enticing offer. 

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