When To Use A Golf Hybrid Club From A Fairway Bunker (Video) - by Pete Styles
When To Use A Golf Hybrid Club From A Fairway Bunker (Video) - by Pete Styles

A lot of people might tell me there’s something wrong with this picture. There’s a guy here stood in a bunker with a golf ball in front of him and he’s got a hybrid club in his hand. Surely, he’s mistaken. Surely, to play a bunker shot you can only play a bunker shot with a lofty club, a wedge or a sand wedge. But actually in this situation you might actually decide that a hybrid club is the right choice. I’m in a position now where I’ve got a nice big flat wide open fairway bunker. I’ve got a low lip in front of me here, I’m going to play out this way, I’m going to drive the ball down there as far as I can. I’ve got 200 yards to the green. There’s a decent lie, there’s nothing in front of me. This is the time to play a hybrid golf club. Now a hybrid golf club can be very useful in a bunker. It’s got a nice rounded sole on the bottom that’s designed to not dig in to the bunker. I’ve got plenty of loft on the club face that’s designed to get the ball open high. I’ve got a decent length of shaft graphite shaft nice and light, that’s going to swing nice and quick. That’s going to give me plenty of power to drill it down there try and carry that 200 yards up towards the green.

Different situation if I was facing this way hitting up to that bunk, clearly that’s not going to be a hybrid golf club. So, don’t think about the [Indiscernible] [0:01:16] and just taking a hybrid out of every bunker, every fairway bunker, you have to weigh up the options, we have weigh up the distance to the flag 200 yards; that could be a hybrid. I’ve got to weigh what’s in front of me there’s no lip here that could be a nice hybrid golf club to go that way. Now I’m going to have a look at the lie. If you look at my first ball here it’s a good lie. It’s quite wet sands, it’s quite compact, not too full, I see the ball sitting up, so I could play that nicely. Hybrid golf club in behind there, sweep it off; play very similar to a normal fairway shot. We are not actually trying to hit down, take a great deal of turf here, of take a great deal of sand here. Certainly not advocating hitting two inches behind the ball like we would do for green side bunker shot. So, stay tall grip the golf club nice and firmly and just whip that one off the surface; that would be a nice hybrid bunker shot from that ball. Looking at this next ball, this is a bit more difficult now. Although the ball is actually sitting itself quite well, there’s this little mound of sand behind maybe an old rake marker or a footprint. That’s going to be very difficult for the hybrid golf club to get through. The hybrid golf club face is relatively flat so it’s like hitting to here. That mound of sand is going to be in the way, it’s going to slow the golf club down quite a lot. It’s going to get stuck to the leading edge of the face club as well. I would actually suggest in that situation we use a more lofted golf club, maybe an iron club, maybe a wedge that would come in a little bit more like a knife and guarantee the ball’s going to come out of the bunker batter, so, you could weigh what is behind the ball. If there’s too much sand there or the lie is too bad then maybe avoid the hybrid golf club there. This situation here also the ball’s plugged, so the ball’s flown high on the fall, landed in the bunker given me the old fried eggs sort of like the plugged lie, not a good situation here for a hybrid either. The loft on the golf club is not enough. The club face isn’t going to cut into the sand quite enough, so plugged lie you better offer them all lofty club again a sand wedge, lob wedge, hit down hard , drag the ball out of the plug lie with a more knife like leading edge from an iron club or a wedge. But if the ball is in a nice flat lie, the ball’s sitting up quite nicely there’s not too much sand around the ball, the ball’s not buried, we’ve got a long way to go, we’ve got no lip in front of us that’s going to be a lovely hybrid shot there. I could take all nice and cleanly off the surface. So, you can use your hybrids in the fairway bunkers, just choose the right time and they’ll work great for you. 2014-01-17

A lot of people might tell me there’s something wrong with this picture. There’s a guy here stood in a bunker with a golf ball in front of him and he’s got a hybrid club in his hand. Surely, he’s mistaken. Surely, to play a bunker shot you can only play a bunker shot with a lofty club, a wedge or a sand wedge. But actually in this situation you might actually decide that a hybrid club is the right choice. I’m in a position now where I’ve got a nice big flat wide open fairway bunker. I’ve got a low lip in front of me here, I’m going to play out this way, I’m going to drive the ball down there as far as I can. I’ve got 200 yards to the green. There’s a decent lie, there’s nothing in front of me. This is the time to play a hybrid golf club. Now a hybrid golf club can be very useful in a bunker. It’s got a nice rounded sole on the bottom that’s designed to not dig in to the bunker. I’ve got plenty of loft on the club face that’s designed to get the ball open high. I’ve got a decent length of shaft graphite shaft nice and light, that’s going to swing nice and quick. That’s going to give me plenty of power to drill it down there try and carry that 200 yards up towards the green.

Different situation if I was facing this way hitting up to that bunk, clearly that’s not going to be a hybrid golf club. So, don’t think about the [Indiscernible] [0:01:16] and just taking a hybrid out of every bunker, every fairway bunker, you have to weigh up the options, we have weigh up the distance to the flag 200 yards; that could be a hybrid. I’ve got to weigh what’s in front of me there’s no lip here that could be a nice hybrid golf club to go that way.

Now I’m going to have a look at the lie. If you look at my first ball here it’s a good lie. It’s quite wet sands, it’s quite compact, not too full, I see the ball sitting up, so I could play that nicely. Hybrid golf club in behind there, sweep it off; play very similar to a normal fairway shot. We are not actually trying to hit down, take a great deal of turf here, of take a great deal of sand here. Certainly not advocating hitting two inches behind the ball like we would do for green side bunker shot. So, stay tall grip the golf club nice and firmly and just whip that one off the surface; that would be a nice hybrid bunker shot from that ball.

Looking at this next ball, this is a bit more difficult now. Although the ball is actually sitting itself quite well, there’s this little mound of sand behind maybe an old rake marker or a footprint. That’s going to be very difficult for the hybrid golf club to get through. The hybrid golf club face is relatively flat so it’s like hitting to here. That mound of sand is going to be in the way, it’s going to slow the golf club down quite a lot. It’s going to get stuck to the leading edge of the face club as well. I would actually suggest in that situation we use a more lofted golf club, maybe an iron club, maybe a wedge that would come in a little bit more like a knife and guarantee the ball’s going to come out of the bunker batter, so, you could weigh what is behind the ball. If there’s too much sand there or the lie is too bad then maybe avoid the hybrid golf club there.

This situation here also the ball’s plugged, so the ball’s flown high on the fall, landed in the bunker given me the old fried eggs sort of like the plugged lie, not a good situation here for a hybrid either. The loft on the golf club is not enough. The club face isn’t going to cut into the sand quite enough, so plugged lie you better offer them all lofty club again a sand wedge, lob wedge, hit down hard , drag the ball out of the plug lie with a more knife like leading edge from an iron club or a wedge. But if the ball is in a nice flat lie, the ball’s sitting up quite nicely there’s not too much sand around the ball, the ball’s not buried, we’ve got a long way to go, we’ve got no lip in front of us that’s going to be a lovely hybrid shot there. I could take all nice and cleanly off the surface. So, you can use your hybrids in the fairway bunkers, just choose the right time and they’ll work great for you.