Hybrids!

[kid2]

Just been wondering about peoples views on these with recent threads about CF and the like......
I have one a 19 deg cobra 3R.....I rarely use it and to be honest i dont really see much difference between using this or an 18 deg 5Wood......
I know some people struggle with long Irons but with all the advancements in technology in current times i hardly think that they are harder to hit than long Irons of 10 years ago.....If anything with the new crop of perimeter weighted irons it should be easy to get the ball launching high....

Surely if you can swing a rescue or hybrid then the same can be achieved with a long Iron.......Shafts length's arent much different in size.....

Im seriously thinking of ditching mine for a 3 iron as i love using long irons off the tee's and im not too bothered about hitting them off fairways either for that matter....

Are the club manufacturers brainwashing us with new fandangles to just boost sales and get people spending more money?

Are you using a rescue just because of all the bells and whistles that they supposedly come with...

Can your 5 wood not achieve the same shots if not more?

 

[Iaing]

Are the club manufacturers brainwashing us with new fandangles to just boost sales and get people spending more money?

Of course they are!
Apart from the driver, clubs aren't much different from 30 years ago.
If you believe all the hype then we'd all be playing off single figures.

 

[Tiger]

I won't swap out my 3 iron. I want to be able to flush it all the time and am working hard to achieve that. Where I struggle is with the 2I hybrid v 5 wood debate. I have neither and have heard a lot of comments that the hybrid is more versatile from a variety of lies. What's your take on that kid? Do you hit your 5 from everywhere?

 

[Imurg]

They've done extensive testing with all levels of golfer. A high/mid handicapper will get more distance and consistency from a hybrid than the corresponding long iron. The better you get, the less difference.
Look at the bags of the guys at the PGA. Most will have a hybrid, ok it may be a 2h but there will be a lot of 3h's in there as well. These guys are the best in the world. If they're using them then what does that tell you?

The best shot I ever hit was a flushed 3 iron at the Forest of Arden on the 9th - look it up - over 200 yards uphill to about 10 feet from the pin. I was playing off 10 back then. Allegedly, I'm a better player now. If I tried that shot again with a 3 iron I may get that result 2/10 times. With the hybrid maybe 5/10. I would need to put some serious practice in to be able to reach 5 or 6/10 with a 3 iron and I just don't have the time or the inclination to do it.

I know the lower handicapper likes their long irons because of the trajectory but I want consistency. 2/10 isn't good enough for me.

 

[Smiffy]

Not so long ago a new set of irons used to come 3-SW. The 3 iron (for me at any rate) always came out of the bag and it was the one pristine, never hit club, that was in the set when I sold them on. Couldn't hit a 3 iron for toffee. Not the clubs fault, it was me. Grip tightened up, got tense, big lunge, result was a fat shot that went maybe 120 yards if I was lucky.
I now carry a 3 hybrid. Don't hit it very often but when I do it's usually a much better contact than I ever could have achieved with the equivalent iron. I'm not saying it's perfect every time, not by any stretch. And a lot of the time when faced with the sort of distance I've got to cover with it I feel more confident choking down on my 5 wood and putting a softer swing on that.
But it's reasurring to have the hybrid in the bag. I never felt that way about a 3 iron. It might as well have had the lurgy for all the love it got.

 

[medwayjon]

Kid2, funny you mention the difference between a 3h and 5w.

There was very little in difference when I owned a 3h and 5w. What I found was that the 3h would be a higher ball flight for me and in hard-ground conditions it wouldnt roll out as much as a 5w.

I prefer hitting a 5w but as I say the 3h does have its advantages.

I am going to get a 3h for sure. Probably a baffler or titleist jobby.

 

[CrapHacker]

When I were a lad, Welshmen were 'ard, and their sheep were nervous,

All irons were blades,

And I could 'it a 2I off the deck.

Then when I were 30 odd, me 3I were grand, and I 'ad a 5W which were ok off a decent lie.

When I cum back to t'game last year, sets were sold 5I oop, and thee 'ad to get thy own long irons. They said these modern fangled hybrids were the Johnnies to play in t'modern world.

So I got meself one.

Yup, I could learn to use a long iron again. Yup the 4w does a grand job when asked.

But the 3h is the easiest club I ever 'it in my life. I don't always cream it, coz I'm not that good, but I always expect to.

And when I do it flies straight, long, and true.

Makes the game a tad easier.

Which I need, and enjoy.

I paid loads less for my set that I carry nowadays than I did when I bought my Titleist in the mid 90s.

So I don't see it as a money making tool of the manufacturers, just the way forward.

 

[kid2]

I won't swap out my 3 iron. I want to be able to flush it all the time and am working hard to achieve that. Where I struggle is with the 2I hybrid v 5 wood debate. I have neither and have heard a lot of comments that the hybrid is more versatile from a variety of lies. What's your take on that kid? Do you hit your 5 from everywhere?

Morning Tiger......
I can hit my 5 Wood from everywhere.....Its as versatile out of the rough as it is off the fairway or tee......

Having said that i think that a lot of people have a missconception of the word Rescue/Hybrid.......
Obviously if your in heavy rough its a more lofted club you'll play 9i,pw,sw, and get the ball back in play not go for that one in 100 shot that you might pull off and hit the green......I use a lofted club.....

But on th edge of the fairway in the first cur or the second cut a 5 Wood in my opinion is every bit as good as a Hybrid.......Each and everyone to there on i suppose....

Im only playing regular 9 months but i began with a 3,5 wood and still have them......I bought a rescue over all the advertising and the opinions of people but i have to say that the 5 wood for me is a better club.....

 

[kid2]

They've done extensive testing with all levels of golfer. A high/mid handicapper will get more distance and consistency from a hybrid than the corresponding long iron. The better you get, the less difference.
Look at the bags of the guys at the PGA. Most will have a hybrid, ok it may be a 2h but there will be a lot of 3h's in there as well. These guys are the best in the world. If they're using them then what does that tell you?

The best shot I ever hit was a flushed 3 iron at the Forest of Arden on the 9th - look it up - over 200 yards uphill to about 10 feet from the pin. I was playing off 10 back then. Allegedly, I'm a better player now. If I tried that shot again with a 3 iron I may get that result 2/10 times. With the hybrid maybe 5/10. I would need to put some serious practice in to be able to reach 5 or 6/10 with a 3 iron and I just don't have the time or the inclination to do it.

I know the lower handicapper likes their long irons because of the trajectory but I want consistency. 2/10 isn't good enough for me.

Fair argument Murg!
But how good would you be with that said 3 Iron now if you'd kept it in the bag and there were no such thing as Hybrids.....And the next best thing was your 5 wood?

 

[fundy]

never been a convert, have doggedly kept the 2 and/or 3 iron in the bag. Finally picked up a titleist 909H last week and have to say im mightily impressed on how easy to hit and work the ball it is with it. not sure which loft is the right one to fill the gap between 3 wood and 4 or maybe even 5 iron yet, got some tinkering to do there but expect ill be carrying that rather than the very long irons for a while now

 

[CrapHacker]

Fair argument Murg!
But how good would you be with that said 3 Iron now if you'd kept it in the bag and there were no such thing as Hybrids.....And the next best thing was your 5 wood?

Ahh, but they do exist, and they are an accepted part of the armoury.

Not all hybrids are equal. The first hybrids I tried were Nike, and I couldn't hit them for toffee. But as soon as I tried the Benross, I found a club that understood me better than my wife.

 

[Split_Fairway]

i think that hybrids can be invaluable replacements to long irons as they launch the ball so much higher. handy for if you're a country mile from the green with a big tree in the way

 

[Tiger]

Used a 3I hybrid today and once I'd got the hang of it I was drilling it here there and everywhere. my 3 wood on the other hand, still a work in progress, but I'm getting there!!! I'm definitely getting a hybrid, but knowing my course I think a 2 Iron Hybrid would be more useful in attacking greens on par 5's and playing drives on tight holes.

I'm sold, 2 Hybrid is coming when funds permit and depending on how my work on my swing over the winter goes will determine if a 3 Hybrid joins it. Before my recent dip I could hit a pretty good 4 Iron so I want to persevere a little bit longer to see if I can get that 3I & 4I going well because when it's windy (as it can be at my club) a long iron is a better club to hit.

 

[Nikki]

I will use my hybird from the rough. Not my 3 iron.

I know my homecourse well enough to not be able to hit a 3 iron from the rough.

If I do, then that means that my golf is crap...

 

[Nikki]

...but from the fairway they are more or less the same.

 

[Oddsocks]

Hybrid convert here too, never hit a 3i and hated my 4i with a passion, far too inconsistent. I recently got a 3h and it's such a versatile club it's scary, hit it from a 4i stance for a higher ballooned carry style flight, hit it like a fairway wood for a lower drilling flight with more roll, it's on the bag for life, I will not go back to a 3/4i anywhere in the near future.

I will add that my hybrid is consistent from the rough, deck or tee I'd even go as far to say it's becoming my saver club. It's range is 180-210 depending on if I hit down on it for all carry or sweep it for more roll, great for tight tee shots where placement is needed