How many hybrid golf clubs should I have in my bag?
January 24, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
This is a common question among golfers looking to add some hybrid golf clubs to their arsenal. When you first look and try to make sense of it all it can be a bit much. When it comes to going about selecting the perfect addition to your bag there are some key things you should consider as well as some important questions you need to answer about your specific golf game. In order to best answer “how many hybrid golf clubs should I have in my bag” you will need to be honest with yourself as well as go about it in a logical manner to get the best bang for your buck.
What club do you hit worst?
In terms of having the largest impact on your game you should always start with the club that you hit the worst in your bag. You should be asking yourself “what club do I loathe taking from my bag?” Invariably there is a specific club that you want no part of. In general this is the 2 iron (if you have one), 3 iron (almost all sets have one of these) and perhaps the 4 iron. Usually people can hit their 7 iron and up, but if you have problems here they even have hybrids that are made to go down this far. Don’t forget to take into account your fairway woods also. A 5 wood some people hit great, but others can’t hit for their life.
So once we have decided on the clubs that are the clubs that we hate the most, let’s target these clubs to add to our bag. It may be that you can’t seem to hit your 5 wood, 3 iron, 4 iron and 5 iron. In this case you would want to target a 2 hybrid golf club, a 3 hybrid golf club, a 4 hybrid golf club, and a 5 hybrid golf club. These hybrid numbers are meant to take the place of the clubs listed above. In theory (and almost always in practice!) these clubs will go the prescribed distances of a 5 wood, 3 iron, 4 iron and 5 iron.
Now that we have decided how many and of what variety to purchase to add to our golf bag, we need to decide which brands. That is for another article entirely, but keep in mind there is a way array of clubs from many different manufacturers. With that of course it entails a wide array of pricing options! The key thing being find a club that you have confidence in and are happy to take out of the bag on the course. This is the entire reason for buying hybrid golf clubs, so make sure to buy a set of hybrids that match your game. If you buy a club that you don’t have confidence in, it won’t matter if you answered the question “how many hybrid golf clubs should I have in my bag” perfectly, because you will now have to answer which hybrid should I buy the next time to replace the hybrids that I hate hitting!
4 Hybrid Golf Club
January 21, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
In the world of hybrid golf clubs you have many varieties to choose from. A common choice among golfers is the 4 hybrid. When you start looking at the make up of this club, it is easy to see why. As stated in other posts on this site, the numbers associated with hybrids go in the same order as you see in the woods and irons, in other words the lower the number the lower the loft and the higher the number the higher the loft. In plain terms a 4 hybrid has a lower loft and longer length off the tee than a 5 hybrid, but as we would expect a shorter length and higher loft than the 2 and 3 utility clubs. This article is focused only on the 4 hybrid golf club which is one middle type hybrids that people tend to buy for their sets.
So why is the 4 hybrid such a popular club? As with all the hybrid clubs, it is meant to allow for higher ball flight and softer landings on the greens. Also, due to its lack of bounce (the variable that allows a club to bounce off the ground and strike the ball as opposed to slicing through the ground) it is very good at hitting out of tight lies. But that is the same out of all the hybrids and isn't special to the four utility. In specifics, a 4 hybrid comes with a 24 degree loft angle as the standard. Again, this is pretty standard among manufacturers, so don't expect a Cobra Baffler 4 hybrid to be any different than a Callaway Diablo 4 hybrid, both will have a 24 degree loft angle. As for lie angle, the 4 hybrid wood measures in at 60.5 degrees. As stated on other pages on this site and on the internet common, the lie angle is usuaully a component of your height and some other minor body specific attributes.
To cut to the chase, a 4 hybrid is meant to take the place of your 4 iron. Again as noted before this isn't a hard and fast rule, but in general holds true for most golfers. And this is a good thing and many golfers have an especially hard time hitting longer irons like a 4 iron. In addition, it seems that this is a fairly common club that is needed off the tee for those long par 3's that golf courses seem to always have. Again, in general a 4 hybrid will fly higher and land softer than a 4 iron, and unless it is windy this is almost always a better option. If you find yourself avoiding hitting your 4 iron due to lack of confidence, a 4 hybrid golf club would be a wise choice to add to your arsenal.
3 Hybrid Golf Club
January 21, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Today's hybrid golf clubs come in a wide array of types and sizes to choose from. Similar to irons and fairway woods, they go from lowest loft to highest loft when we looked at from the lowest hybrid number to highest number. In other words a 3 hybrid has a lower loft and longer length off the tee than a 4 and 5 hybrid. This post is solely meant to look at the 3 hybrid golf club which is one of the stronger utility clubs available (the 2 hybrid golf club is the only one stronger on the market).
So what can we expect out of a 3 hybrid? To begin with, the 3 hybrid comes with a 21 degree loft angle standard. If you want to have a different loft you will generally need to have one custom made or bent accordingly. It doesn't matter the brand, the loft characteristic of a 3 hybrid is to have twenty one degrees of loft. In addition to the loft, the 3 utility wood comes with a standard 60 degree lie angle. Remember that the lie angle is talking about the difference between straight up and down and directly flat. As discussed in previous posts, the lie angle is the thing that most often changes when custom clubs are made due mostly to height, but factors come into play to a lesser extent. Similar to all the other hybrid clubs, the 3 hybrid does not come with any bounce, which means that it does not have the geometry to allow for the club to bounce off the ground and still hit the ball (this is a common thing of note for sand wedges where we don't want to dig to China while we are trying to get out of the beach!). As noted before, this feature of hybrids makes them particularly useful in situations where you have a tight lie. Common places where this exists is on the fringe as well as waste bunkers and spots in the fairway with especially short grass.
So why do people carry a 3 hybrid? Well this may be the most common hybrid in the bag of golfers around the globe as it is intended to replace the 3 iron in your golf bag. This of course is a general rule, but this is most often the club it is replacing. And this is a good thing and many golfers have an especially hard time hitting longer irons like the 3 iron. In addition, it seems that this is a fairly common club that is needed off the tee for those longer par 3's that golf courses love to throw at you. Again, in general a 3 hybrid will fly higher and land softer than a 3 iron, and unless it is windy this is almost always a better option. If you find yourself dreading hitting that 3 iron every round then the 3 hybrid golf club is a great club for you to purchase.
2 Hybrid Golf Club
January 13, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
When it comes to hybrid golf clubs there are a variety of sizes to choose from. In general they follow from lowest loft to highest loft when we go from lowest hybrid club number to highest hybrid club number. So a 2 hybrid has a lower loft and will hit the ball farther than a 3 hybrid, which will in turn his the ball farther with a lower loft than a 4 hybrid. This page is dedicated to the 2 hybrid golf club which is the lowest loft and longest hitting of all the hybrid clubs.
First it is important to know what the loft means. In general it is how much of a difference between perpendicular to the ground and horizontal to the ground. The 2 hybrid comes with an 18 degree loft angle as the standard. Every 2 hybrid will use this as the standard loft of the club. Along with that it comes with a 58.5 degree lie angle as the standard. The lie angle refers to the difference between straight up and down and directly flat. The lie angle is one thing that changes based mostly on your height, but other things as well when it comes to finding the best fit for your club. You obviously can get a club changed in terms of loft as well, but this in essence is changing the type of hybrid it is. If you bend it weaker you are getting ever closer to a 3 hybrid. Like all hybrid clubs, the standard is that they come without any bounce, which means that it does not have the feature on the club to allow for the club to literally bounce off the ground and still hit the ball. This makes hybrid especially adept at hitting out of tight lies like you would find in the middle of the fairway and similar.
The 2 hybrid is meant to take the place of a 5 wood or 2 iron in your bag. At least in terms of distance this is generally the case. The 2 hybrid will usually have the ball higher in the air allowing for a softer landing on the green than the same distance iron will. This is due to the club design of a hybrid club vs. that of an iron. If you have a hard time hitting that 5 wood or 2 iron I would suggest that you take a serious look at a 2 hybrid golf club and the forgiveness it affords.
What are hybrid golf clubs?
January 3, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
It seems that you can't watch a golf tournament these days and not hear numerous comments in regards to hybrid golf clubs. So what are these clubs meant to do, why do we hear so many rave reviews about them and who are the major players in the arena? It is a good question to be sure, and one that is asked umpteen times by people all over the world. Given the advances in golf technology, it would be remiss in not lauding the improvements for the average player to pro alike in regards to the hybrid club revolution. Oh, and in case you have heard a bunch of banter about "utility clubs" it should be noted that this is synonymous with hybrid clubs. The "utility" comes from the fact that these clubs are able to be used in so many different parts of your game, they are like the sport utility vehicle of the golf world.
What exactly is a hybrid golf club?
When it comes to the true definition of a hybrid club, it is initially not clear what they mean. How did this name come to be? Well it is born from the idea that the best aspects of an iron and a wood were woven together to give the hybrid. The idea is that generally speaking a long iron (2 iron through 5 iron are generally considered to be long irons due to the distance they are typically used at) is difficult to hit consistently and a wood is difficult to hit off the turf in many cases. When you combined the flat face and sole of an iron with the elongated sole associated with a fairway wood. This results in a club with a low center of gravity allowing for an easier job in getting the ball up in the air with the length of an iron which makes it easier to swing. Hybrid clubs help golfers of all skill levels make good shots, but especially help those golfers getting long in the tooth who have lost some swing speed.
Who are the major manufacturers in the hybrid golf space?
It seems that just about every company is jumping into the fray these days when it comes to hybrid clubs. Perhaps the first prominent brand on the scene who still make solid hybrid club is Adams golf, the maker of the Tight Lies series of hybrid woods. While they still make the Tight Lies series, the current hot ticket is the Adams Golf Idea A2 OS Hybrid. However, when it comes to these clubs, currently the Callaway hybrid golf clubs are king. The Callaway FT Fusion hybrid is especially well thought of and continues to get high reviews across the board by players of all skill levels. Other players in the space include Titleist, Cobra, and Ping.
So there is a high level overview of the hybrids you can expect to see out on the market today and how they will help your golf game. I am sure if you ask your closest golfing buddies you will likely hear that many of them would not give up their hybrid clubs for their choice of the best cavity backed irons on the market. Indeed the hybrid golf clubs of today have taken the golf world by storm, and for good reason.
Hello world!
January 1, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!