Hybrids - Keep them in the bag until you can hit em?

[Jeff Schley]

I have heard that many teaching pros say for every hybrid in your bag take a shot off your handicap.   They have helped a tremendous amount of amateurs. I don't use any hybrids, prefer my Callaway Steelhead III believe it or not.  However, my dad 73 y.o. still uses his 3 iron/4 iron and hits it OK.  He claims he tried to hit the hybrids (I bought him a total set of clubs Ping G25 4 years ago) that the teaching pro who fitted him recommended.  He gave up after 2 weeks and still uses the 3 iron, but of course he can't hit it out of the rough. Thus if he is in any kind of rough off the tee he can't get close to the green basically. 

He is stubborn, but curious these are supposed to be game improvement for the amateur to get the ball elevated quickly and use out of rough potentially.  Especially in the lush rough grasses in the Midwest in the late Spring. Should you just keep it in your bag for a year and eventually you see it's merits?  What's your views of hybrids?

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Jeff, what's his swing like? Pretty rare the guy who can hit a 3-iron (even if out of only the fairway), but can't hit a hybrid. Is he trying to hit them too much like a fairway wood? Is his 3-wood or 5-wood good? He may just have the wrong "mental model" for how you swing them.

[Kalen Braley]

Erik I'm one of those guys.


I got a hybrid a few years back and used it for half a season.  For whatever reason I just can't seem to get the ball up in the air with it.  While my 3 iron does produce some awful results from time to time, i'm far more potent with that, then my 4 hybrid which is now permanently out of the bag.  I even took it to the range a few times and hit 40-50 shots in a row with it.  Maybe 4 or 5 of them looked "normal"


P.S.  I tend to hit my fairway woods pretty decent too, (excluding the driver)....I guess I need to go take a lesson! 

[jeffwarne]

Can't find the right hybrid.
Still use a Callaway steelhead 5 wood from the 90's and a 3 iron (alternated with a 2 iron when playing overseas links)


I keep trying but hit some of the squirreliest shots when I try.
That misshit 3 iron is a lot more in play than that hooked hybrid

[Jeff Evagues]

I think they're the best thing ever invented. I carry 3 of them.

[Jeremy Blumberg]

I've had a love-hate with hybrids through the years--as in I've had a few that I loved and many that I hate. I've finally settled on carrying a 5 wood and then down to a 4 iron (a souped-up 4 iron that goes far and is easy for me to elevate off the turf).


That said I firmly believe that for the vast majority of amateur golfers, they should be bagging hybrids.

[Jim Tang]

I've carried two hybrids for probably 10 years now and find them much easier to hit than a 3 and 4 iron.  I tend to take no divot to very little divot (sweeper swing) and find the hybrids to go further, higher and are more consistent than I could ever hit my 3 and 4 irons.  They are much easier to hit out of thick rough and wet grass than an iron because the grass doesn't seem to grab them as much as an iron.

I don't think there was much of an adjustment period for me and I feel like my game is better for having them in the bag.

I'd recommend a club fitting with a professional.  I did this for the first time ever this past winter and now have a set of clubs that I feel match my swing and will maximize my performance.  I wish I had done the fitting years ago.  Expensive?  Yup.  Worth it?  Absolutely.

[Jeff Schley]

Jeff, what's his swing like? Pretty rare the guy who can hit a 3-iron (even if out of only the fairway), but can't hit a hybrid. Is he trying to hit them too much like a fairway wood? Is his 3-wood or 5-wood good? He may just have the wrong "mental model" for how you swing them.

Pretty steep and he lifts the ball in the air.  He is about a 10 handicap so it technically works for him, but I had 2 hybrids in his set and took out the 3/4 irons.  He actually pulled out his old Ping G2 3/4 iron and took the hybrids out.  I am no pro like you Erik, but I try and tell him play it further up in his stance as he is pretty steep.  For fairway woods he hits them pretty well so not sure. 

[Dave McCollum]

I have no advice and, given my game, shouldn't be giving any.  My first thought about your question:  since fairway woods are universally acknowledged as the hardest clubs to find and fit, why should hybrids be much different?  To me it doesn't matter that hybrids typically replace long irons.  They seem to play much more like fairway woods than the irons they replace.  Yes, I carry one and hit it better than a 3 iron, but think I hit a 5 wood better than the hybrid.       

[Colin Macqueen]

Gentlemen,


Hybrids? I love 'em!


If it had not been for hybrids I believe I would have forsaken the game ...and this from a golf tragic of no mean proportions!


I have five in my bag and the wee one (equivalent to a 6 -iron I guess) is pressed into service to feather and cajole all sorts of golf shots from 140 metres to 40 metres out!


I have to suffer the indignity of being described as being less than a purist by many an iron-weilding opponent, a sleight which hurts to the quick, but I soldier on and am still tramping around the golf course.


For some reason or other the hybrids suit my swing path admirably (maybe that path is less than pure!) and golf has continued to be a joy due to solely to this wonderful club.  Their head profile brings to my mind the shape and design of simpler baffies from days of yore so maybe I am sill a purist!


Cheers Colin

[Tommy Williamsen]

Not sure it has to be an either or. I have some Mizuno blades. In order to get the 3 iron i would haven had to special order it. I still hit the 4 iron. At age 71 I hit it about 165 yards. I have two hybrids: 21 degrees, which I hit about 175 yards, and an 18 degree one, which I hit about 185 yards.

[Joel Pear]

I've always been a pretty good long iron player.  Really, is there anything that feels as good as a flushed 2-iron?  But, I've got to say, hybrids feel like cheating.  I just think they are so easy to hit, and the ability to hit them high, make a huge difference.

[John McCarthy]

I have a twenty year old Taylormade 4 hybrid I hit constantly.  So much easier to get high and settle.  The thought of hitting a 2 iron off the tight lies you get on the fairways nowadays gives me hives.

[MCirba]

Count me as one of those who can't hit them with any consistency and I still carry a 3-iron.   Just dropped the 2-iron sadly this past year and added a gap wedge when I bought Titleist AP-3s.   Turning 60 this year so I may be one of the last Mohicans.


I think it is just the look of those teeny flattish heads I can't get past.

[Garland Bayley]

When I got my first 3&4 hybrids I had trouble with them. Replaced them with 7&9 woods and loved them.

[Thomas Dai]

Good for chipping and wee “nudge” shots around the green as well.
Atb