Are Hybrid Golf Clubs really the Answer?

I'm sure by now you've heard all the hype about these new hybrid clubs. Everyone seems to be talking about them. Will they really improve your golf game? The fact is, hybrid type clubs have been around for a long time. They used to be called utility woods or rescue clubs. Some had catchy trade names. So are the new hybrids different? Are they really something new? Well, yes and no.

A Hybrid is a Cross Between a Fairway Wood and an Iron

These clubs are called "hybrids" because they are a combination of a wood and an iron. In essence, club designers took an iron shaft and and put a new kind of head on it that had features similar to a fairway wood. Some of the desirable features of a fairway wood that make it easier to hit are a wide sole, a low-back center of gravity and more mass. So why not just get a 5 or 7 wood?

The Secret to the Hybrid Golf Club is in the Shaft

The big difference between a fairway wood and a hybrid is in the shaft. The loft of a 2 iron and a 5 wood may be about the same, but the shafts are completely different. The average shaft length on a 2 iron is about 39 inches. The average shaft length on a 5 wood is about 42 inches. Hybrid clubs are somewhere in between. A club with a longer shaft will always go farther (with the same swing) because a longer club produces more clubhead speed. That extra clubhead speed also tends to give the ball a higher flight trajectory. The problem is that the extra speed can also make the golf club harder to control. By giving the hybrid club a shorter shaft, it improves the control over a fairway wood, but doesn't quite go as far.

There is one more notable difference in the shafts of irons and woods. Iron shafts are thicker than wood shafts. The difference is not huge - a mere 3/100ths of an inch, but it is still enough to make the shaft more stable which translates to a more accurate shots. By putting an iron shaft on the hybrid, you gain a bit more control.

A Simple List of the Features of a Hybrid Golf Club

Do all the technical details confuse you? Well here's the bottom line.

Compared to a fairway wood (of similar loft), a hybrid club is:

• more accurate
• won't go quite as far
• easier to hit because it's shorter

Compared to the same long iron, a hybrid is:

• easier to hit because the head has more mass and a lower center of gravity
• will make the ball go higher, carry further and land softer
• better out of sand and bad lies

In short, the idea of the hybrid golf club is to give you the accuracy benefits of an iron, along with the distance and easier to hit benefits of a fairway wood.

Which Hybrid Golf Clubs Should I Buy?

There are a lot of choices out there in the hybrid golf club market. In whatever brand you choose, you will have a choice of lofts, sole widths and face heights. You can get lengths that are longer than standard irons and shorter or just as long as woods. In other words, some hybrid golf clubs on the market are more like fairway woods and some are more like irons. Just remember the basic rules of club design: the lower and farther back the center of gravity, the higher the ball will tend to fly. The longer the shaft the farther the ball will go but with that extra length you may lose accuracy. Always make your selection based on what your game needs, not the manufacturer's hype.

Price ranges for brand-name hybrid clubss are in the $150 to $250 range. But you should never pay that much. You can find really nice custom clone hybrid clubs for under $50. Give those hybrids a try. They're bound to help your game. For a great selection of discount custom hybrid clubs check out GigaGolf Hybrids.

Joel Thomas is an avid golfer, gardener and fisherman who lives in S. Arizona with his lovely wife and children.