So if you are stuck between deciding whether you need to put a long iron back in your bag or a hybrid back in your bag, or maybe you’ve got both in your bag and you are not quite sure when to use them. Let's have a look at a few different options when we can use the hybrid club and when we can use the long iron out on the golf course. The first thing, let's consider a forced carry. So forced carry, by that I mean an obstacle in the way that makes you play over it. It might be bushes, long grass or even just a pond that you've got to clear.
So generally speaking if you've got to get something up in the air and clearing something, you're probably going to be looking more towards your hybrid club. The nature of a hybrid club is a bit more loft, softer flex shaft, weight low and deep. It's going to fly the ball up in the air with a bit more backspin. That's going to help you clear the obstacle you've got to get over. So if there’s a certain hole or holes on the golf course where you need to carry it nice and straight over an obstacle, your hybrid club might have better suited for that. The next option we might have is when we’re playing into the wind. Now generally speaking when you are playing into a headwind or even a crosswind you are going to want to keep the ball down and keep it low. Potentially trying to keep it under the line of the tree so it doesn't balloon up in the air and it penetrates through the wind. So that's going to be better played with a long iron. So the loft is a bit less, the weight is a little bit higher up in the club head. It's not low and deep. It’s not going to spin the ball too much up in the air. Potentially you could put a heavier or slightly stiffer flex shaft in the long iron. That should encourage the lower, more-penetrating ball flight. So the long iron works better when you're playing into the wind. Then the last option might be playing into a par 3. Now generally speaking when you are playing into par 3s, you are going to probably find them sort of covered around the front with hazards, maybe a pond, or a bunker or a slope at the front. So we got to try and carry over that slope or over that hazard and land it on the green. But then we want the ball to stop on the green. So to get the ball to stop on the green, we're going to want to use a mixture of good trajectory coming down and a bit more backspin. So that would point back to a hybrid club that’s going to give us that higher flight, high trajectory, soft landing on the green, whereas maybe you would feel that the long iron when that comes down on the green, it’s going to shoot off the back a little bit too much. So consider how you could use a mixture of your hybrids and your long irons to play in those three different situations on the golf course. 2016-07-08
So if you are stuck between deciding whether you need to put a long iron back in your bag or a hybrid back in your bag, or maybe you’ve got both in your bag and you are not quite sure when to use them. Let's have a look at a few different options when we can use the hybrid club and when we can use the long iron out on the golf course. The first thing, let's consider a forced carry. So forced carry, by that I mean an obstacle in the way that makes you play over it. It might be bushes, long grass or even just a pond that you've got to clear.
So generally speaking if you've got to get something up in the air and clearing something, you're probably going to be looking more towards your hybrid club. The nature of a hybrid club is a bit more loft, softer flex shaft, weight low and deep. It's going to fly the ball up in the air with a bit more backspin. That's going to help you clear the obstacle you've got to get over. So if there’s a certain hole or holes on the golf course where you need to carry it nice and straight over an obstacle, your hybrid club might have better suited for that.
The next option we might have is when we’re playing into the wind. Now generally speaking when you are playing into a headwind or even a crosswind you are going to want to keep the ball down and keep it low. Potentially trying to keep it under the line of the tree so it doesn't balloon up in the air and it penetrates through the wind. So that's going to be better played with a long iron. So the loft is a bit less, the weight is a little bit higher up in the club head. It's not low and deep. It’s not going to spin the ball too much up in the air.
Potentially you could put a heavier or slightly stiffer flex shaft in the long iron. That should encourage the lower, more-penetrating ball flight. So the long iron works better when you're playing into the wind. Then the last option might be playing into a par 3. Now generally speaking when you are playing into par 3s, you are going to probably find them sort of covered around the front with hazards, maybe a pond, or a bunker or a slope at the front. So we got to try and carry over that slope or over that hazard and land it on the green.
But then we want the ball to stop on the green. So to get the ball to stop on the green, we're going to want to use a mixture of good trajectory coming down and a bit more backspin. So that would point back to a hybrid club that’s going to give us that higher flight, high trajectory, soft landing on the green, whereas maybe you would feel that the long iron when that comes down on the green, it’s going to shoot off the back a little bit too much. So consider how you could use a mixture of your hybrids and your long irons to play in those three different situations on the golf course.
