Hybrid (golf)

A hybrid is a type of club used in the sport of golf with a design borrowing from both irons and woods while differing from both. The name "hybrid" comes from genetics to denote a mixture of two different species with desirable characteristics of both, and the term here has been generalized, combining the familiar swing mechanics of an iron with the more forgiving nature and better distance of a wood.

For many players, long irons (numbers 1-4) are difficult to hit well even with modern clubfaces, due to the low trajectory and very small face of the low-loft clubhead. Players tend to avoid these clubs in favor of fairway woods which have a larger "sweet spot" to hit with, but such woods, having longer shafts, have a different swing mechanic that is sometimes difficult to master. The long shaft of a fairway wood also requires lots of room to swing, making it unsuitable for tighter lies such as "punching" out from underneath trees. In addition, the fairway wood clubface is designed to skim over instead of cutting into turf, which makes it undesirable for shots from the rough. The answer to this dilemma for many players is to replace the 1-4 irons with hybrids.

A hybrid generally features a head very similar to a fairway wood; hollow steel or titanium with a shallow, slightly convex face. A hybrid head is usually marginally shallower and does not extend backwards from the face as far as a comparable fairway wood. The head must have an iron-like lie angle, and therefore also has a flatter sole than a fairway wood. The face incorporates the "trampoline" effect common to most modern woods, in which the clubface deforms slightly, then returns to its previous shape, increasing the impulse applied to the ball at launch. The hybrid's lie, length and weight is comparable to an iron.

Being a new class of club, there is no generally accepted principle governing design. So while a "true" hybrid is as described above, many manufacturers cut production costs by marketing irons as hybrids by adding one or more features to make it look like a hybrid. Some have a club face that looks very similar to an iron, but instead of the cavity-back or muscle-back design these clubs have a slightly bulging back to appear more wood-like in shape. These "iron replacements" swing and perform almost exactly like irons, except the difference in the added weight which slows clubhead speed but increases force applied at a given club speed, allowing a swing to cut through turf or sand with more momentum remaining at contact. These clubs are preferred by players with slower swing speeds. Other club manufacturers produce "true" hybrids as previously described. The first equipment manufacturer to produce a full set of these true hybrids, in both left and right hand, was Thomas Golf. Hybrids are now also available in traditional (teardrop) and square head shapes.

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Wikipedia