GOLF ANALYSTS ARE ACTING LIKE HYBRID IRONS ARE A NEW THING. TRUST ME THEY AREN’T!
Adams golf was one of the first major brands to jump into the Super Game Improvement Iron space. The Idea Tech A12 OS were released in 2012! Taylormade released the the M CGB hybrid Iron set in 2017. I’ve seen a number of guys on YouTube acting like the Cleveland Launcher HB, Cobra T Rail, and Wilson Launch Pad are revolutionary designs. Well they aren’t. They are just a return to the Super Game Improvement category.
As someone who has played Hybrid Irons before. I played the Adams Idea Tech V4 set. In fact I still play the 3, 4, and 5 Hybrids from that set. I occasionally still play the 6 Hybrid as well. I can offer a word of caution that I haven’t heard from any other analyst. Thick soled Hybrid Irons can be very difficult to hit off of hard surfaces. Most Beginners make ground first contact quite often. The thick soles won’t bite into the turf if the ground is very hard. The Iron ends up bouncing upward and causing Thin shots. In Canada that generally means that Hybrid Irons aren’t suitable in the fall, or during dry spells in the summer.
All you ever hear is that chunky Hybrid Irons are CONFIDENCE INSPIRING, EASY TO HIT, EASY TO LAUNCH, and GREAT FROM ANY LIE. They are easy to hit off medium to soft ground. They do inspire confidence. They do launch well. You don’t want to hit a Hybrid Iron out of a Deep bunker. A lot of these sets will go down to Sand Wedge. Do yourself a favour and invest in a traditional Wedge if you invest in a Hybrid Iron set. The soles of a Hybrid Iron Gap Wedge, or Sand Wedge are so thick it’s almost impossible to open the face to add loft. Even if the Sand is soft it can be difficult to get enough of the club down behind the ball because the club will bounce, or slide across it, and cause you to catch the ball thin. Definitely not the result you are looking for in a bunker. Now if you are a very skilled player you can play almost any club out of a bunker so the majority of golf analysts won’t be aware of these shortcomings.
The target market for these clubs are generally Beginners. For the most part Beginners aren’t great ball strikers. Beginners generally need all the help they can get out of a bunker. Beginners need to have a decent amount of control from shorter distances. For these reasons it is my belief that most Beginners won’t require Super Game Improvement Hybrid Irons unless they are very slow swingers that need a lot of help getting the ball in the air. In that case a set of Super Game Improvement Hybrid Irons fitted with Graphite Shafts would be ideal. Provided they invest in a more traditional Sand Wedge as well.