A Mixture of Irons and Woods

Many of us have trouble getting consistent results from our long irons and fairway woods. You might have trouble hitting the 1-4 irons from the fairway because of the low trajectory and small club face. You may have trouble hitting your fairway woods from the rough because of the tall face and large bottom plate. The hybrid club can replace both these types of clubs. They can give you the advantages of irons as far as getting shots out of the rough, but tend to be more forgiving at impact like a fairway wood.

Results of Hybrid Swings

Hybrids tend to give you about the same distance results as fairway woods with the same loft, but give you a higher launch than a comparable iron. In theory, this should give you more backspin and therefore more stall at the end of the ball flight. If you have trouble getting your long irons into the air, or dislike having your ball run after it touches down, you might consider replacing your long irons with hybrids. We like hybrids for that second shot on par fives, where we’re looking for a long carry followed by a soft landing on the green without much run.

Disadvantages of Hybrids

Disadvantages to the hybrids are that they tend to have longer shafts than typical long irons, so if you find yourself underneath trees a lot, you may want to consider staying with conventional irons. The larger bottom plate on a hybrid can make punching through the rough difficult, as well. Some manufacturers have approached this problem by creating “iron replacement” clubs, which look more like traditional irons but have the high impulse face of a hollow club.

How to Hit a Hybrid

If you have enough control in your swing, you can use a hybrid club to replace specialized shots with both long irons and fairway woods. For a low launch angle - if you’re playing into the wind, for example - position yourself so that the ball in in the middle of your stance. You’ll try to hit down on the ball, which will help to decrease the angle of the club face, and perhaps take a small divot. For a typical launch angle - where you want essentially the performance that the club was designed to give - play the ball just inside your left heel. Try to make impact just as the bottom plate begins to sweep the turf, and the face will make impact as just about the angle listed on the club. If you have a nice, high lie and you want a little more loft - for an even softer landing, for example - you can position the ball in front of the toe of your left shoe. You’ll try to make contact with the ball just as the club is lifting off the turn, similar to your tee shot on a driver. This will tip the club face back a degree or two and give you an even higher launch angle. The bottom line is that, if you can learn to swing a hybrid well, it can serve a variety of purposes and help shave a number of strokes off your score. Go on to this page to learn about the benefits and drawbacks of different types of golf balls!