Tips for Hybrids (Rescue, Utility) – When Should You Use Them?

Hybrids – rescues or utility clubs – are exactly that. They can be said to be hybrids of fairway woods and long irons combined into one category of clubs. But when should you use them? And should you put them in your golf bag if you don’t already?

First of all, hybrids are very popular because they are versatile and can be easier to hit than what used to be very difficult clubs to hit, i.e., long irons such as a 2-iron, 3-iron and 4-iron. Nowadays, you are more likely to find hybrids than long irons at that low of a loft profile.

From the teeing ground, you can use a hybrid instead of a fairway wood or a driver when accuracy is more important than total distance. For example, a tight fairway or one which features a water hazard close by would be great scenarios in which to use a hybrid.

When you find yourself in the fairway but still a long way to the green, you can also use a hybrid as it can be easier to hit than a fairway wood. Indeed, many golfers struggle to hit woods from the fairways, without a tee.

Furthermore, because of the way they are built with more weight at the bottom of the club, hybrids can send the ball on a higher trajectory than similar irons would. Because of that, they are good candidates to use on long par-3s since you can expect the ball to hold the green better.

Finally, another good situation where you could use a hybrid is just off the green. Indeed, Tiger Woods is known to have used such a club from off the green for a bump and run. For amateur golfers, the leading edge of the club won’t tend to dig into the ground as much as a wedge would, which can reduce the difficulty of a delicate chip shot.

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a Hybrid golf club is often described as a utility club or even a rescue club now the concept of that hybrid utility rescue is that it will do a bit of a job of a long iron and a bit of a job of a wood and might be easier to use them both so classically people struggle in their long irons they’re four iron they three iron historically we’d have two and one irons in our bags and golfers would struggle there they might also struggle with the long Fairway shots as well using a fairway wood so a Hybrid Club kind of wedges into the middle part of your bags you’ve got your Woods you’ve got your irons and you’ve got a couple of hybrids in the middle and some golfers do carry two three four hybrids because they find them quite useful quite versatile myself personally I have a two hybrid here which I would use for some t- shots if accuracy is a premium over distance and some Fairway shots if distance is a priority as well rather than hitting a a shorter mid iron now you can obviously use that club from a very variety of different locations I’ve got one ball teed up here and I’ve got one ball on the ground here so we can hit these hybrid clubs off a tea like I say I would use this on narrow or short holes where I want to focus on accuracy rather than hitting a three-wood or a driver for distance for a lot of Club golfers they might also find that the hybrid or utility Club is particularly useful playing into par 3s the nature of the Hybrid Club is it has a lot of weight low and deep under the club face certainly compared to a long iron the benefit of that is it produces a higher ball flight the benefit of that is when it lands on that green on the par three it should stop a little bit so if you’re considering hitting a a 180 yard par three with a 4 IR you might think if this lands on the green it’s not going to stop but if you could hit a four hybrid at the same shot you might feel that the higher flight puts a bit of grip and stop onto it because it’s coming down and it’ll hold the par three so consider how that Hybrid Club might be more useful than the long irons to hold the par three you might also find that hitting a fairway wood off the deck is a bit tricky but using a Hybrid Club because it’s slightly shorter slightly more lofted gives you a better contact gives you better lie gives you an opportunity to get under the ball and get it flying the last place some people will use a hybrid as well he might even chip with a hybrid you know that classic little sort of bump and run shot from around the side of the greens particularly in that area where you want to just shift the ball forward from some longer grass then get it running you’ll actually see people just nudging the ball forwards and just getting it rolling shot that’s worth practicing if you’re currently bumping and running with like a six or a five iron just take a hybrid and just hit it the sole plate of the club doesn’t want to dig in as much and it might just feel like it can nudge the ball forwards if I’m going to hit a couple of shots here I’m going to take one from a small teg I play it about three balls width away from my left InStep I set up nicely good distance away from the ball in a nice smooth swing ball flight’s nice and high little bit of right to left flight it’s not going to go as far as a driver or a 3w it’s not going to go a million miles but it would be quite a useful shot to play from a nice little small TEEG and it’s going to get me in play and I could probably hit that with a decent success rate that more often than not it’s going to find itself on The Fairway now if I take a a Hybrid Club off the deck the first thing I’m looking for is a good lie cuz I’m cheating slightly but having said that if the ball was in a bad lie I probably wouldn’t hit this Hybrid Club anyway I’d probably use something with a bit more Loft so if I’ve got myself on a decent line I’m going to play the ball a little bit more back towards a center of my stance cuz I’m going to be hitting down on this slightly more this ball flight will be different to the previous one this should be lower so it comes out a little bit low and Rises up a little bit but the ballf flight initially came out lower and you can see how I’ve scraped the surface of the grass there I’ve not dug too deep into it not taken a divot like I did with some irons previously I’ve just removed the grass from the surface that was a well struck hybrid shot a little bit of turf and the ball flew off quite nicely so consider with these hybrids how they can do the job of a long iron they can also do the job of a fairway wood they can chip the ball around the side of the green you can play them from the te they can play the ball from the deck they really are very versatile uh hybrid and utility golf clubs