How to Use a Hybrid Golf Club

Just a quick review to start. What is a hybrid? It is a type of club intended to replace the long irons in your bag. It has the length of the iron but is much easier to use for the starting golfer and pro alike. The trick is that it is more forgiving than the cranky old irons, penalizing you less for slightly off-center hits. Hybrid clubs also tend to give you more loft than the equivalent iron, which makes the shot easier to place with less roll.

Okay, remedial lesson over, on to the new stuff.

So, when do you use these clubs? The first circumstance where you would use this type of club is not hard to figure out. Use a hybrid golf club whenever you would normally use a long iron. This is what it was designed for, right? Just swing away like you would an iron in this situation. You will get about the same distance but your accuracy should be better than with an iron.

Another place where the hybrid club really shines is in the rough. You need distance and accuracy, and the head of a hybrid club is heavier than the standard iron, so it looses less energy cutting through the tall grass before it makes contact with the ball. As a bonus, it will put more backspin on the ball than the equivalent iron. So if it lands on the green (as you hope it will), the ball will roll far less. Combine all this with the increased tolerance for off-center hits and you have significantly improved your accuracy on these shots.

The additional backspin that hybrid golf clubs give the ball in flight make them a good pick for another type of shot. Anytime you need the ball to stick where it lands is a good time to pick the hybrid. For instance, when you are trying to get out of one of the hazards around the green, using a hybrid club will help it will stay put where it lands and not keep rolling, God forbid, off the other side of the green. I really hate that.

Now a word about how to swing the club. Use a hybrid just like you would a long iron. Do not change your grip and use the same stance as you would an iron. Golfers that like to sweep the ball off the ground tend to get better results than those who hit down hard.

In other words play the shot like you would with an iron, with the ball a little forward in your stance. Without much practice, you should be seeing improved accuracy and hopefully you can take a few strokes off your score.