The word hybrid means of mixed origin or composition. In golf, the hybrid club is the combination of both wood and iron designs into a single club. This combo has resulted in some of the most forgiving and easiest clubs to hit to date. Features you will find in a hybrid club are:

1. Flatness of the face on the hybrid wood. Classic woods have a curved face, but the hybrid woods are flat just like an iron.

2. Weighting that is distributed throughout the club like an iron or fairway wood. Most woods have the focus of the weight distributed towards the front.

3. A wide sole like a fairway wood.

4. A club length similar to an iron rather than a wood.

The purpose of the hybrid club is to be interchangeable with and maintain the characteristics of both an iron and a wood. The resultant club is typically easier to hit with less effort than a traditional long and lower lofted iron. The term “long iron” normally describes all the clubs from a two iron through a five iron.

There are multiple reasons why many recreational golfers struggle with long iron shots. The goal of the hybrid club is to make it easier to hit these shots. The most common problems are:

1. not being able to make a complete shoulder turn on the backswing
2. swinging too hard and thus throwing off tempo
3. lower lofted clubs are just plain harder to hit

Elite players who do all the right things with long irons can save strokes during the average round, but the majority of players struggle with them, and now have an alternative in the hybrid club. The long narrow face and a wide sole of hybrid clubs render a low center of gravity that helps players with slower swing speeds launch the ball with little effort. That makes playing a hybrid club similar to the sweeping style swing of a wood, rather than an iron style swing that has to pick the ball off the turf with greater effort. Effectively, all players can benefit from hybrid clubs, but particularly grateful are those players who have lost swing speed due to age, injury or other physically conditions that have prevented them from making a full shoulder turn on the backswing. Hybrids allow for a shorter back swing while launching the same distance you are used to experiencing with a wood.

The face of a hybrid club is manufactured out of harder 17-4 stainless steel, similar to a fairway wood, which helps with ball compression and forgiveness of the club. The hardness of the metal allows a slower swing speed to produce distance that would normally be a result of a faster swing speed. Not only will shots be longer with the hybrid club, but shots will be more accuate, because the hybrid allows for a greater margin for error. All this from a club that is shorter and lighter than its performance-matching counterparts!

Many players using hybrid clubs are not only replacing long irons, but are using them as fairway woods as well. Some of the loft angles on hybrid clubs match those of a 3 and 5 wood, but since they are shorter and lighter, they are more versatile.

Hybrids are extremely forgiving and can be used easily from the fairway, rough, or tee, and they are a great stroke saver. If you suffer from the long iron blues, consider a hybrid club or two to compliment your game.