How to Hit a Hybrid Golf Club

Hybrid clubs have been in the golf equation for quite some time now. In most cases, professional or experienced players try to avoid hitting a hybrid because they think it’s too easy. It’s somewhat true if you consider the higher forgiveness.

However, the situation is not the same with amateur players. They often struggle with longer irons duel the smaller sweet spot and the requirement for higher club head speeds. This is the ultimate driving factor for players opting for hybrid clubs.

But getting a hybrid is just the beginning of a new chapter of your career as a golf player. Whether you play professionally or just for entertainment, it’s important that you understand how to hit a hybrid club.

In this post, we’re going to look at different aspects of hybrids as well as discuss the most important points of interaction to improve your game.

What are Hybrid Clubs?

If you still haven’t made the purchase, you may be wondering what hybrid golf clubs are. Because the most spoken of clubs are usually the drivers, the irons, the wedges, and the putters.

So, what are the hybrids?

Well, hybrids are designed to somewhat replace a long iron or a 3-wood. It really depends on the player and how they want to play. Both styles require a slightly different approach.

Hybrid clubs generally have a larger club head which actually means a larger sweet spot. The sweet spot is the reason why it’s easier to hit with the hybrid than irons or fairway woods.

Another characteristic of hybrid clubs would be the pushed back center of gravity. If you have a basic understanding of physics, you would know that the center of gravity has a huge impact on how your ball will fly out after impact.

In hybrid clubs, the center of gravity is pushed back farther thanks to the larger club head and more material in it. It helps to launch the ball with a higher flight and helps to achieve more distance as well.

In the naked eye, a hybrid may very well look like a driver or a fairway wood. Amateur players will have a problem distinguishing between them if they’re not sure what to look for.

However, the difference comes down to the loft angle. Drivers usually have the least loft while irons and woods have more loft than hybrids. The club heads are usually larger as well.

A great feature many hybrids offer these days is adjustability. You get to tweak the loft of the club up to 5 degrees on higher end clubs. You can also get a feature called perimeter weighting which lets you tweak the center of gravity on your own.

Using the perimeter weighting, you can adjust the distance you can cover with the club. If you bring the weights to the front, you’ll get less distance. And when you push it back all the way, your club is ready to roar across the fairway!

When to Hit a Hybrid Golf Club?

So, you know what a hybrid golf club is and players are so eager to get them into their bags. But when do you actually need them? Is there any specific purpose for the clubs?

Let’s find out.

When You Struggle with 3, 4-irons

Irons is something many players struggle to get a grasp of. The club heads generally have far less material when compared to a driver or a fairway wood. They’re slim and have a very small sweet spot. It requires the player to swing the clubs at immense speeds to gain moderate ball speed and distance.

So, if you’re an amateur player having trouble to speed up your swings or you generally struggle to make good contact with golf iron club faces, a hybrid could be a life-changing experience for you.

The larger face area will help you to hit more accurately as well as the center of gravity compensates for the lack of swing speed.

When You Have Difficulty Making Contact

It’s true for almost all clubs except the drivers. Drivers have the largest sweet spot they are quite forgiving. If you have problems making proper contact with the ball with any club in your bag, you may want to look at a hybrid.

Some hybrids also offer offset if maintaining club face angle at impact is a challenge for you. It compensates for any mishits to a certain extent.

What’s the Specialty of Hybrids

There might be a reason why hybrids are so popular among new players, right? Well, there is.

A hybrid is practically a blend between a fairway wood and a long iron. It has the best of both worlds.

You can shoot as far with these clubs as a fairway while you can achieve the same level of accuracy as an iron. It’s truly a wonderful piece of equipment to carry in your golf bag.

Moreover, hybrids are often adjustable which extends the horizon even further. You can dial the exact loft you want depending on where you’re hitting from. The rule of thumb, in this case, is that the farther you want to go, the less the loft should be.

Now that you have a pretty solid idea of when a hybrid golf club is necessary for you, let’s move forward to learn how you can hit one.

How to Hit a Hybrid Golf Club?

So, it’s time to get ready. You’re going to learn how you can hit hybrid clubs like a pro within a few minutes. We’ll break the entire process down step by step so that it becomes easier for you to follow.

The Stance

Or, the setup. Whatever you might want to call it, it’s the first step to hit any golf shot. You’re going to approach the tee or the fairway and take your stance with your newly purchased hybrid golf club.

When compared to irons, your stance should be a little wider. Shoulder width works fine. You can also go a little wider than that as well. It helps you to stabilize your core even further. However, keep the width in check because you don’t want to go too wide.

A very common problem among players that we’ve noticed is either too wide or too narrow of a stance. Both of these stance types are very bad for your flexibility. You cannot expect to rotate your hips and shoulders all the way if you’re standing too narrow.

Ball Position

After you’re standing the right way, it’s time to set up the ball. Now, you can take two different routes from here. You can either play the hybrid as a fairway wood or a long iron. It depends on your playing style more than anything else.

If you’re going to play it like a fairway, you can put your sternum a little right to the ball. So, the ball will be closer to your front foot than your back foot. The reason you want this ball position is that the loft on the club is pretty minimal.

This ball position will also help you to hit the ball right on the divot which will look somewhat like an upward shot. But we all know that there is no place for upward shots when it comes to golf.

On the other hand, if you want to play the club as a long iron, the ball needs to move back a little. A good way to measure this ball position is with your sternum. It should be right over the ball. If you’re not sure whether the position is correct or not, you may want to record yourself directly from the front.

This position will generate a slight downward stroke on the ball. You may lose a tiny bit of ball flight but it still generates a tremendously good shot.

Gripping the Hybrid

We all know that the grip slightly changes with the type of club you play with. It’s true for hybrids as well. When you’re hitting from the tee or the fairway, you want a grip that mimics a long iron. If you’re familiar with the grip scale, stick to a 7 grip. However, make sure that you steer clear of the death grip because it’s going to add a lot of tension to your arms.

A death grip is when you grip the club so hard that it starts to hurt your muscles. It’s quite common among new players because they’re still not familiar with the sensation golf grips offer.

When you closing in on the par hole, say near the green, you need to push your grip up to an 8 or 9 iron grip.

Secrets for a Straight Shot

It’s quite safe to say that one of the reasons you’re opting for a hybrid is that you have difficulties controlling your shots. You may be hitting too much to the left or the right and missing the target entirely.

The thing with golf clubs is that you can get the most forgiving club on earth, but it’ll still need some learning to master it. Otherwise, the results will carry on.

To hit a hybrid club as straight as you can, the first thing you need to cover is the club face angle at the address. The address position is most probably one of the most important parts of your swing. The club face should be squared up against the target line.

The next thing you should look at is your swing. By swing, we mean the backswing, the downswing, and the follow through. All of these have an equally important role to play. If your swing path is not in line with the target, the club face won’t return to the square position.

To understand it a little better, we recommend reading the golf swing laws article we’ve created for the likes of you.

Basically, the angle between your swing path and your club face angle will result in your flight path. If there is no angle, we mean a 0-degree angle, only then you can expect to hit a dead straight shot.

It won’t come to you overnight. You need to work on your swing over time to master things like shallowing your attack angle, hitting down on the ball, avoiding fat shots, and so on.

Once you can dial in the exact attack of angle you need, you’ll become a master of hitting golf balls straight to the target.

Hitting Hybrids from Different Parts of the Course

Hitting from the fairway is certainly different from hitting from the tee box. Again, hitting from the green is different from hitting on the fairway. It requires a bit of understanding on your end to tweak your hybrid shots.

Let’s find out how you need to hit the club from different parts of the course.

Hitting from the Tee

This is probably the favorite shot for a lot of you. Hitting from the tee comes with a great sensation and satisfaction of hitting because you cover the most distance with this shot.

When you’re playing on a par 3, you need each of your shots to count. That’s where hybrid comes as a great choice because you can achieve the optimum distance before shifting to the short irons or wedges.

As your setting your tee, the only thing to remember is not to set it too high. We’ve seen many players make this mistake. It takes away the advantage of having the larger sweet spot because you may very well hit the bottom of the club face.

Hitting from the Ground

Ground shots are typically easy to hit with hybrids as there are no variables like the tee. Just make sure that you don’t set up the ball too far to the front and you’re good to go. And it’s always better to play the hybrid like a long iron when you’re hitting off the ground.

Hitting Hybrids from the Rough

Did you know that hybrids are also known as rescue clubs? Why do you think that is? Well, it’s to rescue you from tough situations. And there are very few tougher situations at the course than ending up in the rough.

Hybrids are great to get the ball out of the rough and land on the fairway or green again. There are a few things that need changing in this case.

The first one is the grip. You need to put more pressure on your wrists because you’re trying to get out of thicker and longer grass.

The second thing is the club face. As opposed to conventional practice, you need to open the club face rather than keeping it square. The open face will help you sweep across the ball without limiting your ability to give the ball more flight.

The last adjustment you need to make is the attack of angle. You don’t normally need to hit down on the ball so much with a hybrid. But when you’re in a rough, you need to.

Can You Use Hybrids from the Green?

Hybrids are not very commonly used on the greens. But no regulations are stopping you from doing it. If you’re not very confident with your pitching wedge, a hybrid can be a great choice for the green.

Just make sure that you reduce your swing speed and hit down on the ball steeply. Otherwise, you’ll go over the target. Also, make sure that you position your ball as you would with a wedge. A little closer to the body and near the front foot.

Take Away

Hybrids are great. Almost all professionals now carry at least one hybrid in their bags. It’s a trend you may never have seen 10 or 20 years ago. Players are accepting the more forgiving club better than ever now.

In this post, we’ve tried to sum up all the things that matter when you hit with a hybrid golf club. Just make sure that you’re checking these boxes the next time you hit the course with your hybrid.

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