Hybrids, the new chipper?

[bluenose10]

I'm not Very good with long irons so love my Hybrid it inspires confidence when I set up. I can't be bothered with going to the range and using 3 irons etc. For hours to try and get the consistency I get with my hybrid (I do use it down the range too tho but just not formlo g asbits easy to hit) but I have to say I also use it for chipping around temp greens too as it just makes the game slot easier. On our 18th hole u had to hit a tee shot straight as everything slopes down to the water one side and oob the other an this is where my hybrid comes into play .... Basically it's my favourite club.

 

[Whereditgo]

Not sure what the longest iron in your bag is but im guessing its maybe a 3 iron or 2 iron....
And i dont know your handicap but......Can you honestly say that from 2 or 3 iron distance ?????? your more accurate with a long iron than a wood?

Good point this me thinks, I would say I am both more confident stood over my 5 wood and certainly more consistently accurate than I am with my 3 iron, however, I carry the 3 iron for when I need a lower flighted shot, playing out from under the trees again or in strong winds for e.g.

Wouldn't even try to hit a longer iron out of the semi-rough, longest club I would ever try to hit from there would be a 6 iron.

Never having hit either, can someone explain what's the difference between a hybrid and a rescue?

 

[Alex1975]

Hey brendy,

I did want to have a little rant to be honest but thought better of it. I guess I have enjoyed the post so its better that I did not. I love my hybrids and they in many ways changed golf for me and my best mate to the point where we now cover the ground of our long course pretty well.

I now have new irons and I must say I am interested to know how the long irons would be but not interested enough to find our right now as I have a tool for the job that has really looked after me last year.

The reason I wanted to rant though was because you seemed to be coming at this from a very old school point of view (you have now cleared this up to some extent). For me, if its legal and it works for me I want it. I need all the help I can get be it with tech or feel good factor.

I like big drivers and woods but I dont like space station putters, they dont work for me. What I do like though is that I have the choice.

I will say this, its posable that if I had your skill that I would use long irons over hybrids as I like the flight of a 3 iron but when I stand over my 19* hybrid I know that 7/10 times it will go a long way and put me where I need to be for the next shot. Hard to turn your back on that.

 

[brendy]

Restrained, I like that Please don't use that line "if I had your skill", there are probably more people on here that are better than me than worse. This isnt about "look at me, I can hit a 3 iron" I honestly dont believe people should see the long game as being any harder to get the hang of (I will never use the word master, well, not unless I miraculously become world number 1 via the Happy Gilmore method! haha).
No two people are the same, one can be strong with the wedges to the point of being professional level but cannot hit a long iron to save themselves, another could be great from long range but could miss a green from 15 feet.
I like certain parts of my game more than others but I know you cant neglect any area or it will be the bit that crumbles first under pressure.
Best of all, long irons are perfect for low punches out from under trees also

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have never subscribed into any one club being any easier to use than another all the way from junior golf until now. They all require the same swing (irons anyway and the weakness in this argument) but the 8 iron and 3 iron should be treated the same. Make the same swing and get the same results.

HOWEVER, the introduction of hybrids has made the need to replicate an 8 iron swing with a 3 iron everytime redundant and means you can put a less than average swing on the shot and still get results. I do miss that feeling of a thinned 3 iron on an icy morning (not) and to be honest as I've got older (and worse) I just want whatever makes the game less of an exercise in frustration.

If you can regularly make good solid contact with your 3 iron and get it going where you want it to then are you a better golfer than me (which we know). I would rather hit 10 hybrid shots and get maybe 5 perfect, 3 acceptably off centre and have 2 duffs than try to hit a 3 iron and maybe puring 2, getting another 2 going forward but off centre and then totally mishitting the other 6. It's all about making the golfing percentages work in yoru favour

 

[bigslice]

Restrained, I like that Please don't use that line "if I had your skill", there are probably more people on here that are better than me than worse. This isnt about "look at me, I can hit a 3 iron" I honestly dont believe people should see the long game as being any harder to get the hang of (I will never use the word master, well, not unless I miraculously become world number 1 via the Happy Gilmore method! haha).
No two people are the same, one can be strong with the wedges to the point of being professional level but cannot hit a long iron to save themselves, another could be great from long range but could miss a green from 15 feet.
I like certain parts of my game more than others but I know you cant neglect any area or it will be the bit that crumbles first under pressure.
Best of all, long irons are perfect for low punches out from under trees also

toatally agree brendy, you should be pretty strong with at least one of your 4 wedges

i feel another thread starting

 

[richart]

Only time i miss my 2 iron is the punch under the tree.

 

[Imurg]

I know this is a light hearted banter of a thread but I really depresses me when this sort of thing comes up.

For us handicap golfers the game is about enjoyment and having fun as well as getting the ball around the course in as few shots as possible.
If it were legal I couldn't care less if someone used a shovel, a hammer and a garden rake to play shots. They can use Big John's infamous Zero iron with about 9 degrees loft on it if they like (might draw the line at chippers though!)

A 3 iron gives you 2, maybe 3 different shots. A hybrid gives me so many more. I can hit every shot the 3 iron gives me plus loads it doesn't.

All this new technology is there to make the game more enjoyable. If you don't want to use it - fine. But I'd rather be using what we have now than the persimmons and blades of the past. I wouldn't be able to enjoy golf playing with them.

As an experiment, lets all buy a set of pure blades, 2-SW. A persimmon driver and fairway wood and a pure blade putter. Oh and don't forget the balls.

Let's see who's still playing in a year's time.

 

[stevek1969]

I use both a 3 iron and a hybrid but to be perfectly honest i love using my hybrid ,some of the deep lies i've got out of using a hybrid you couldn't use a long iron it would be chap out with 8 or 9 iron.

I played at St Andrews on Hogmany with a 1 handicapper and used his hybrid for bump and runs up to the hole and he was bloody good with it as well.

G Mac uses an Adams as does Ricky Fowler so they cant be that bad ,on the other foot my young brother hates them he still hits 2 and 3 irons and sweet as well ,it your own prefence and it my case it has to suit my eye.

 

[brendy]

toatally agree brendy, you should be pretty strong with at least one of your 4 wedges

i feel another thread starting

Want pics of them?
The pw made way for a trial run with the 3 wood as I am still unsure whether to get rid of the 5 wood. To be honest the pw gets used very very little as the 9i and the 50 deg seem to do fine.

The thing I have found about longer irons is that you cant ease off when swinging them, you have to commit, try to hit it half hearted and the bad shots leak in. Maybe those with slower swing speeds just cant use their regular swing and swing hard enough to get the desired effect from it.
Perhaps this could be an item in the mag, increasing core strength and increasing swing speed in a linear fashion that allows your mind to get everything in time, only a little faster.

 

[richart]

I still have a 3 iron and a 19 hybrid. Find it much easier to shape an iron, but hybrid is perfect for our two long par 3's, and for out of the heather and rough. On another course may ditch the hybrid.

 

[Smiffy]

Only time i miss my 2 iron is the punch under the tree.

You go under trees???


This is going to be easy money

 

[StrangelyBrown]

For us handicap golfers the game is about enjoyment and having fun as well as getting the ball around the course in as few shots as possible.

Well, the thing with that is that we're all different. To construct an allegory, lets say that we all enjoy making love, but some of us need it to be that little bit painful. Brendy and Freddie are the Max Moseley's of the GM forum, in that they require a bit of a spanking to enjoy their game, while the rest of us are a little bit more vanilla.

 

[USER1999]

Brendy, you have partially answered your own question in your post above.

A lot of players do not (cannot?) hit longer irons hard enough to create the back spin necessary to keep the ball airborne. This gives them reduced carry, and hence a lack of distance. The hybrid gets the ball up without the need for fast club head speed.

I carry one hybrid. I like it for its versatility, in that I can hit this out of many lies (and bunkers) that I would struggle to hit a long iron from.

My hybrid has quite a penetrating flight. Not all hybrids are the same.

 

[Robobum]

So what is this post supposed to be getting at?? Is the idea of golf just to look the part?? Do we need a badge on the 1st tee, saying "I use a long iron so I'm a proper golfer"??

Each to their own.

Perhaps you could invent a new scoring system. Similar to stableford, 2 points for your par and an extra point for hitting a long iron. A little narative next to each hole would be good too!!??

 

[brendy]

Read my posts RB, I said it wasnt about that, it is about the fact that people use these things to get out of trouble, if you are stuck in deep rough, as a handicap golfer, the last thing on your mind should be " I might be able to get this onto the green" time out of number it will end in tears. Hybrids do go better out of rough apparently, I wont dispute that, but they are also not the most accurate club in the bag either.

People bang on about accuracy over distance, then why pull out a hybrid from the bag when stuck in the rough when a id to short iron is by far the most accurate club and best way to resolve a potentially sticky position?

Swing speed and tempo should always be a priority to us, if we let it slow, part of the enjoyment goes with it (losing distance isnt fun, and part of the game is about having fun while playing right?), being competent with a full standard set of clubs should be a pre req to becoming a good golfer, not swapping out clubs, to me that is the easy route out, but again, what is distance without control with these things. I honestly think they are as innacurate as any 5 wood. Any handicap golfer that says they are pinpoint accurate with their woods/hybrid is either telling porkies or a is a very talented golfer who cant putt etc to make a good card stick. All in my opinion of course.

 

[Robobum]

I look at it a different way. Most of us have a wedge with 56* (at least) of loft. But we can close the face down for low runners, open it up for 60*+ of loft to hit flops etc. That gives us extra versatility and, effectively, adds another couple of clubs at least into the bag.

At the other end, you stick your 3iron in the bag and what can you do with it?? Hit it off a tee peg or a from a half decent lie. You have to be pretty special to hit it well from any sort of bad lie or even light rough. A hybrid swallows these lies up for fun and just gives you more options.

It's not about they h'cap golfer getting ideas above their station and going for greens from the rough 200yds away. But that maybe an option for them with a hybrid whereas the 3iron would move the ball 10yds.


Then again you may be like Seve with your 3iron and be able to hit splash bunker shots and all, if so fair play to you. If you are that good with a long iron, you should really see someone about your putting.

 

[Bacardibatman]

Well, the thing with that is that we're all different. To construct an allegory, lets say that we all enjoy making love, but some of us need it to be that little bit painful. Brendy and Freddie are the Max Moseley's of the GM forum, in that they require a bit of a spanking to enjoy their game, while the rest of us are a little bit more vanilla.

or another take on your analorgy and say that

to play the game properly and use something to perform better than they could naturally

cant work out if im saying hybrid user cant perform & hybrids = viagra
(actually just re-reading though first posts and brendy aludes to same thing)

or

they cant score properly and hybrids = rohypnol


just messing ppls,each to their own i guess, but there has to be a point where enough is enough whatever next?

right,im old school( ok metal woods and graphite shafts) but the heads arent the size of a watermelon with a sweetspot the size of a grapefruit ,and I play blades (personaly i think to be a professional golfer u should have to,oooh that would ruffle a few feathers )

but....

theres a thing that makes golf capable of being played & enjoyed off a level playing field by ppl of all standards....

..its called the handicap system

if you cant hit a long iron and want to do something about it PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

just because somethings easier ,its not necessarily better

just my opinionated ,elitist 2 penneth



p.s. yes i use a skycaddie atm...because ive only just recently started plying again & i play different course i dont know layouts of mainly for that reason and not yardage and paying £3.50 -£5 for a course guide/yardage book bugs me

 

[brendy]

I have to admit, never tried it out of the bunker!
You mention the versatility of the 3 iron, ever tried bump and runs up sloping greens? slicing and hooking round trees etc?
If you are in the rough, common sense says hit a club that will put you back in play, not the most optimistic one. I would never hit a 3 iron from the rough, on the same token, I have learned to take my medicine... most of the time.

Quick question, do many links members use hybrids?

 

[USER1999]

I like going for the green from 200 yards out of the crud. It's fun. It's more fun than chipping out sideways. And I'm rubbish at chipping out too.

Why are hybrids innaccurate?

Mine isn't.