Hybrid Clubs - Should You Bring Them on Your Next Golf Trip?

Golf is a very simple game -- there really isn’t much room for innovation and improvement in the game itself, only the players within it. There has been one major innovation in recent times, though -- hybrid golf clubs. They are often used in place of the long irons in your set -- the flatter that iron is, the more it is likely to defeat you! Hybrid clubs are used to replace the three and four irons most usually, and some players are even using them in place of the five and six irons. Should you bring them on your next golfing vacation? We explore the ups and downs of hybrid clubs.

What are hybrid clubs?

They combine the features of both wood and iron clubs, hence the name! Basically their design helps ensure that recreational golfers can get the ball in the air more easily, make mishits fewer and farther between, and not quite so dramatic as they might have otherwise been.

Hybrid have a squarer face at the point of impact -- or at least, players are better able to keep them square at impact. One of the downfalls of long irons is that they simply don’t get much practice time, so incorporating the features of a wood (which we are more used to using) in a club used in long iron situations immediately helps improve your game.

However it isn’t only amateurs that can benefit by using hybrid clubs; and using hybrids certainly doesn’t mean that you'll be limiting your game in any way for later on. A significant proportion of golfing professionals touring the world now use hybrid clubs. You can do exactly the same thing by taking hybrids on your next golf vacation!

Improvement on shots hit out of the rough is the biggest benefit of hybrid clubs -- if you're a beginner or intermediate golfer, this will help ensure that several bad games on unfamiliar courses don’t ruin your entire golf holiday. When you use a long iron to hit out of the rough, it takes a lot of skill to overcome the issue of the grass grabbing the face and hosel, meaning that many out-of-the-rough shots are low and short. And generally disappointing! Hybrid clubs are not cheating -- they are simply the way the game is evolving.

I would recommend that you look into bringing hybrid clubs on your next golf trip. Rent a set first and check out the benefits -- you won’t want to go back!