BOMB: Isn't Golf Digest talking about Bomb and Gouge these days? Chunk and Slash is your game, isn't it? Regardless, my fellow chopper, did you know that a few weeks ago, the field at the Nationwide Tour’s BMW Classic had a total of 149 hybrids in play and that week in and week out, the total number of hybrids on the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour totals around 100? Four words: It’s. About. Freaking. Time.
I’ve been shouting to anyone that would listen for years that hybrids are the way to go. That if the best players on earth use these bats, what possible reason could there be for chopper resistance? I shake my head when I see a 20-handicapper wielding a 3-iron. They’re like those idiots on "Deal or No Deal" who say “No Deal” to boatloads of money: They really don't want to do it, but they do it anyway. And although hybrids now account for almost 30 percent of all woods sold (up from 2.6 percent in 2001), the fact is that seven out of 10 players still aren’t using these clubs. Guess they just like watching their hearts race and palms sweat because if you don’t have one (or more) of these clubs in your bag right now you’re stupider than dirt.
GOUGE: Don't get me wrong, my high-swing-speed compadre, I dig hybrids. Carry a couple whenever I get the chance, even to the grocery store and Jiffy Lube. But here's the thing. Before you get all jacked up about hybrids as the nectar of the gods, make sure you're not causing yourself other problems.
No. 1: Watch out that you're not messing around with the distance gaps in your set makeup. Just because a hybrid has the same degrees of loft as the iron it might replace, it doesn't mean it's going to hit the club the same distance (Bomb, you of all people should know this—you wrote the story on it). Odds are, truthfully, you'll hit it farther. Certainly, hybrids work better than traditional long irons because the potential exists for the center of gravity to be lower and deeper. That helps the ball launch higher. Most hybrids also are gooder in the moment-of-inertia department so off-center impacts fly a little farther than mishits in a traditional long iron. But if adding a hybrid and subtracting a long iron suddenly means you have a 30-yard gap between your "4-iron" distance and your 5-iron distance, well let me know how that works out for you on the par-3 surrounded by water.
2. Watch out for shaft lengths. A hybrid with a longer shaft may generate more clubhead speed, and then guess where we are again: Ungainly distance gaps.
3. Are hybrids really any better than high lofted fairway woods? Sure, for some tour players they are. But a properly fit 7-wood or 9-wood might be easier to hit a better distance than a hybrid because the bigger head will provide even more stability on off-center hits, improving energy transfer.
4. And, oh by the way, have you looked at a super-game improvement 4-iron lately? Dang soles are nearly an inch wide or more. That's plenty easy to hit, no matter how much of a chopper you are. What's more, you won't have the shaft length issues that might be a problem with hybrids.
5. That all said, get a hybrid for at least the 3-iron slot in your bag and do some comparative testing on that long par-3 or the longish par-four approach shot at the home course. See not only which has the tightest dispersion left to right, but front to back. There's your winner.
For today, anyway.
Rating
Comments
Archived Comments (2) Click to expand
Post A Comment