We have all heard fellow golfers singing the praises of the hybrid clubs. We have all seen someone hit a great looking shot and then find out they were using a hybrid. Gossip about the latest hybrid golf club permeates through the clubhouse. But just what is a hybrid golf club, and more importantly, are hybrids right for you and your game?

Golf has been around a long time. Since the 12th century the sport has seen fads come and go, and has seen golf clubs, balls, and putters all evolve and go through many different phases. Golf courses and golfers themselves have changed as well, but the biggest changes have come with equipment in the last 20 years.

Golf is also a very individual game. Courses usually require you to have your own clubs, or at the very least rent them. Most golfers would never go to the course with a set of borrowed clubs. Even when it comes to golf balls, most golfers have specific brands and types of balls they are more comfortable with than others.

Hybrid golf clubs are becoming more and more popular, and were introduced to enhance your golf game. Most players who use hybrids will tell you they have seen improvement in various arts of their game due to the switch to hybrid clubs. Most professional golfers now carry at least a hybrid or two in their bag. Some carry several and from that we can know for certain that hybrids can help your game. A professional golfer is not going to carry a club type just because a sponser asks him to. If the club is not going to help his game, it will not be in the bag!

So, what is the conclusion so far? Well, considering all the above it seems like a no-brainer that you should add hybrids to your bag.

But just what is a hybrid? Simply put, it is a cross between an iron and a wood. Hybrid golf clubs are normally used when you want long ball flight and an accurate landing yardage. Sounds like the same as when you hit an iron, right? Well, it is. Except the hybrid is a much easier and more forgiving club to hit. The reason is the hybrid has a lower center of gravity, but does not have the blade that an iron does. With an iron, there is not much room for error. Hit the ground before the ball and you dig a big divot and hit a ground ball that does not go very far. If you hit the ground first, or hit it fat, with a hybrid, the club will not stick into the ground. Instead it will skip into the ball. The result is you will get more yardage out of a bad swing.

Let’s not kid ourselves about something. A poor golf shot will result in a poor result. The difference is the poor shot will go farther and straighter with a hybrid than with an iron. Just switching to hybrid golf clubs will likely lower your score. But if you are a 90’s golfer, you will not suddenly be shooting par. Combine a good swing with the creative use of hybrids from tee to green and you could see a major change in your handicap.

Hybrid golf clubs will improve your golf score and overall golf experience by making your poor shots, well, not as bad. Hybrid clubs are designed for exactly that reason, and they do their job very well. Just look at the number of golfers at your local club who are using hybrid golf clubs. For that matter, check out the next televised tournament and see just how many professional golfers now have hybrids in their bags.

Hybrid golf clubs are perfect for mid to high handicap golfers. The reason is simple. Mid and high handicappers have less than perfect golf swings, so they hit more bad shots. Hybrid golf clubs make those bad shots not nearly as bad.

How do they do it? Well, let’s take a look at the reasons. First of all, we will all agree that the hardest clubs to hit are long irons like 3, 4, or 5 irons. Hybrids are meant to replace those clubs. If you have a poor swing with a long iron, you are likely to either stick the blade in the ground if you hit the ball fat, or scull the ball with a bad slice or hook if you hit it too thin. You need a pretty precise impact on the ball to hit long irons well. Hybrid golf clubs do not have a blade, but rather a wider head with more mass and a lower center of gravity. The result of this is that even with a bad swing, you will not stick the club head in the ground. The head of a hybrid will bounce rather than stick, so you will get more club on the ball and will get more distance and loft out of even bad swings. If you hit the ball thin with a hybrid, you will still get loft, but the ball is much more likely to go straight than to slice or hook. Again, the result is a better result even with a poor swing.

The shafts on hybrid golf clubs are usually graphite. This material has a lot more flex than steel. Graphite is also much lighter than steel, so the head of the club can be heavier and that, along with the lighter weight of the shaft contributes to the much lower center of gravity when comparing hybrids to irons. Put all this together and you are likely to find that you get an extra 10 or 15 yards from a hybrid club with a similar shaft length as a long iron. When you can use a shorter club from longer distances, and that club has a bigger, more forgiving head, you are going to see better scores and less bad golf shots.

Hybrid golf clubs come in many different designs and are made by all major manufacturers of golf clubs. Once you make the decision to go with hybrids, you will have no problem finding the right set of hybrids to improve your game.

You’ve been using irons your whole golfing life. Now the new craze has everyone around you using hybrid golf clubs. You find yourself wondering if you should jump on the bandwagon or just wait and let the new fad fade away. Well, you will have a long wait if you choose to wait out the hybrid golf club craze. These clubs are here to stay, so you might as well get on board with the idea and in the process be pleasantly surprised by your lower golf scores.

Let’s take a look at why the introduction of hybrid golf clubs has lowered the handicaps of many of those who have made the switch from long irons.

When comparing the two type of clubs the first thing you will notice is the huge difference in head shape. An iron has a blade shape, but a hybrid club almost has the look of a fairway wood. The head is much wider than an iron, and it has more overall mass and a much lower center of gravity while still having loft like an iron. The difference in head shape cannot be overstated. If you are in the rough, the hybrid head will power through the grass, while the blade head of a long iron is easily turned and decelerated by the grass. The result is you can hit much cleaner, straighter shots out of the rough with the hybrid.

There are times with your You have, say, 190 yards to the hole and you decide that it is a perfect distance four your 4 iron. Great lie, perfect distance, poor swing. The result of that could be the ball rolling 30 yards down the fairway while you clean the big chunk of turf off your clubhead from hitting the ball fat. If you had put that same swing on the ball using your hybrid, you still would not have been on the green, but you would likely be way down the fairway and chipping to the hole rather than hitting a longer iron. Same swing, two different results. On the other hand, maybe you are at the same yardage and choose the same 4 iron and rather than hit it fat you hit it thin. Now you either sliced it or hooked it and depending on the course, you could be in big trouble. If you had chosen a hybrid and hit it thin, you once again would not have reached the green, but the ball probably would have gone straight and once again, you would just be chipping into the green. These are very real and accurate scenarios to consider when comparing long irons and hybrid golf clubs.

Average golfers lose a lot of shots around the green, and there are simple things you can do to cut those wasted strokes way down. We have all had a nice little chip to the hole, and find ourselves either sculling it over the green into sand or water, or digging the blade into the turf and chili dipping it 5 feet, only to have to chip again. Consider using a hybrid for your chips. The reasons are the same as those explaining why to use a hybrid out of the rough or fairway. The head of the hybrid makes it very hard to dig the clubhead into the ground, and the loft on the club face makes hitting the ball thin less likely to send it screaming over the green.

Hopefully you can now see the reasons so many golfers have pulled the long irons out of their bags and are using hybrid golf clubs instead. Give them a try and you will probably see this is not a fad, but rather that hybrids are here to stay.

Women golfers are no different than male golfers. They get hooked on the game just like men do, and they are always on the lookout for something that will help them lower their score. Well, if you are a woman golfer, you should really consider replacing the long irons in your bag with hybrid golf clubs.

If you compared the clubhead speed of the average male golfer and the average woman golfer, you would find there is a pretty big difference. The average man will have a much greater clubhead speed than the woman golfer. This is not meant to be a controversial statement. It is one of those things that is what it is. The point is, you can get a lot more out of your golf game by recognizing a weakness, then taking a step to make it better.

Hybrid golf clubs are a great choice for women for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the biggest is the ability to hit a club with a shorter shaft and get a better result than you would with a long iron. Hybrids have a very low center of gravity, and almost always have a graphite shaft. These things combine to create a much bigger impact on the golf ball than the same swing would with a traditional iron. You will likely hit a hybrid 3 iron several yards further than you would hit a traditional 3 iron with the same swing. This means you can perhaps use a hybrid 4 iron for the same shots you used to use the traditional 3 iron on. A shorter club for the same shot will almost always produce a better result.

The head of a hybrid has the loft built into it so that even if you hit a poor shot, the ball will likely still get loft and go a good distance, even if it was not as far as you wanted. With traditional long irons, you can hit some really bad golf shots with the same swing that results in an acceptable shot with a hybrid golf club. The larger face of the hybrid will not bury in the ground like an iron will. The face will not roll over as easily if you hit the ball thin, so you are not likely to hit low hooks or slices. Instead, if you hit the ball thin with a hybrid you are likely to hit a straight shot that the worst thing you could say about is it did not go as far as you wanted.

Ladies, when you see all those people out on the course with hybrids in their bags, take notice. They are not just following the latest craze. They are onto something new and have found a very real way to enjoy the game more while lowering their scores.