Lee Trevino was an outstanding golfer who was known for more than his game. Trevino is among the most quotable professional golfers to ever play the game. One of the more famous of those quotes involved the 1-iron.
If you find yourself on the course during a thunderstorm, Trevino advised, it’s a good idea to hold up a 1-iron. “Not even God can hit a 1-iron,” he said. Like most good jokes, this one has a lot of truth to it.
The 1-iron is so difficult to hit, it has almost become extinct. It is rare to see even a 2-iron in the bag of the world’s best players today, to say nothing of amateurs.
While fairway woods have been around for a century or more, a different replacement for those long irons has arisen in the last three decades or so.
Hybrid golf clubs combine the best of both fairway woods and irons to produce shots that are longer and easier to pull off. As time goes on, these hybrid golf clubs are taking over for more and more irons. Many amateurs will find that they can replace all but the shortest irons with hybrids.
At A Glance: Our Top 3 Hybrids
- Callaway RogueBest Overall Hybrid Club
- TaylorMade M6Best For Easy Hits
- Cobra King F7Best For Seniors
Here are some of the best hybrid golf clubs you can find on the market.
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Best Hybrid Golf Clubs
Callaway Rogue
Available in numbers 2 through 6, the Callaway Rogue is probably the best hybrid you can buy. Callaway has poured all its technological might into these clubs. And they are long, straight, and forgiving.
First, is the Jailbreak Technology that Callaway initially used in its drivers. Callaway put titanium bars within the head of the club that connects the sole and the crown of the club. The result is less flexing upon impact, making the club more forgiving and produces greater club head swing speed.
An ultra-thin and cupped club face makes the club even faster and adds that speed to off-center hits. And they have added a Hyper Speed Face Cup for the highly sought after increased ball speed. And something the company calls the Internal Standing Wave allows for a lower and more forward center of gravity. Always great for hitting that sweet spot!
No club can overcome a bad swing, but this is a hybrid golf club that is awfully easy to hit. That is why we have rated it one of the best hybrids overall.
Pros
- Gets airborne easily
- Forgiving on off-center hits
- Long and straight
Cons
- The price is steep for some folks
TaylorMade M6
If there is a hybrid that rivals the Rogue in performance, this could be the one. TaylorMade has been a big player in the driver market in recent years, and the M6 carries that over into hybrids.
These hybrid golf clubs are available for replacements for the 3-7 irons.
The Twist Face technology is great for reducing the severity of wayward shots, while the speed pocket design yields better results on shots low on the club face.
Like other hybrids, the M6 has a low center of gravity.
This is one easy club to hit.
Pros
- Forgiving on errant shots
- Low center of gravity
- Easy to get shots airborne
- Speed pocket design
Cons
- Expensive
Adams Tight Lies
Adams made its name with its Tight Lies brand of hybrid golf clubs. These golf clubs have always been easy to get airborne and the latest iteration lives up to that.
The clubs have a tri-level sole that gives good results out of almost any lie.
Adams has what it calls Ghost Slot Technology, which is designed for higher speeds off the face and a high level of forgiveness.
Tight Lies have always had a low profile that may take some getting used to, but that low profile is great at allowing for a large hitting area.
Pros
- Low profile
- Forgiving on off-center shots
- Tri-level sole
Cons
- Fewer options than some others
Cobra King Speedzone Hybrid
The Cobra King Speedzone Hybrid is definitely a hybrid golf club you should consider. It features Cobra King’s Speedzone technology which refers to the four zones of the hybrid golf club.
These are called: flex, power, stability, and low CG. They have included hollow baffler split rails, a forged steel face and an oversized head shape design to make a number of things possible.
Forget about all the fancy names and tech though. What it means, in essence, is that this hybrid club can deliver a high ball speed, higher launch and more forgiveness in the final product.
Whether these are the particular aspects you are looking for in a golf club is up to you
Pros
- Cobra King Speedzone technology
- Higher balls speed
- Higher launch height
- More forgiveness
Cons
- Relatively expensive
Cobra King F7
While you only have two options here in golf clubs with the Cobra King F7 – the ¾ and 4/5 hybrid — each comes with adjustable lofts, effectively giving you more choices. This could mean replacing more than one long iron with each club.
Adjustable lofts sometimes make the lie of the club feel off-kilter, but Cobra King has alleviated that to maintain a square face at contact.
The Baffler Dual Rail system on the Cobra King makes this club get through to the ball from almost any kind of lie. Its center of gravity is placed low and to the back of the club, giving you a high launch angle.
So, when it comes to seniors, this is one of the best hybrids on the market.
Pros
- Dual rail system on sole
- Forged steel face
- Adjustable lofts
Cons
- No tool added to adjust lofts
Pinemeadow Excel EGI
We could not resist including the Pinemeadow Excel EGI as it is an entire set of hybrid golf clubs, 3-PW. You don’t often see hybrids for anything lower than a 7-iron, and for good reason. The design of these clubs just don’t allow for the kind of control golfers want with their shorter clubs.
Still, there is a very particular type of golfer for whom this would be a good fit. Seniors, or other golfers who have very low swing speeds, could be helped by these hybrids, which will definitely help you get the ball airborne. If you struggle to launch the ball properly, stopping it on the green is a small sacrifice.
Pros
- Great for seniors
- Low price point
- Easy to get ball airborne
Cons
- Not right for most golfers
Ping G410
A hybrid club is likely not what you think of when the name Ping comes to mind. But just about every golf club manufacturer is onboard with this trend.
Ping’s entry the G410 is notable for its Turbolators that reduce drag and help produce greater distance. A low center of gravity and high moment of inertia makes this golf club both easy to hit and forgiving.
Like many other hybrid clubs, the G410 has a low leading edge, making it easy to hit from a variety of lies.
Pros
- Forgiving
- Aerodynamic design
- Thin face promotes ball speed
Cons
- Not many choices in lofts
Mizuno CLK
Mizuno makes some of the greatest wedges in the game. You might not consider Mizuno then for a hybrid club, but this is a beautiful and high-performing golf club.
While the CLK is forgiving like most hybrid clubs, it is designed for greater feel. That means it might be a better fit for better golfers. Mizuno advertises this club as a great way to fill yardage gaps between irons and fairway woods, instead of merely a replacement for long irons.
And while it comes in only three different lofts, it comes with an adjustable hosel.
Pros
- Thin face for greater speed and distance
- Superior feel than other hybrids
- Adjustable hosel
Cons
- May not be right for high handicappers
Titleist 818
Titleist’s 818 hybrid clubs feature a SureFit hosel that is adjustable, allowing for a precise fitting to your swing. This is a high-end golf club that is easy to hit with a low center of gravity.
With a 10 percent increase in moment of inertia from its last version of this club, Titleist has made its hybrid club more forgiving than ever.
It also has an Active Recoil Channel intended to produce greater swing speeds.
Pros
- Adjustable to fit any swing
- High MOI for forgiveness
- Great distance
- Greater swing speed
Cons
- For serious golfers only
Tour Edge EXS
A fine highly engineered choice from a name you may not be familiar with. The EXS comes in seven different lofts, allowing you to replace several of your irons.
The EXS has adjustable weights to fit your swing, making it easier to hit that sweet spot. A thin steel cup face means long-distance and forgiveness on off-center hits, which is great for ball flight.
These golf clubs launch the ball effortlessly but do have one difference from some other hybrids. The center of gravity is moved forward to promote less spin.
Pros
- Nicely engineered
- Adjustable weights
- Very forgiving
Cons
- Low spin best for longer shots only
As you can see, hybrids share many characteristics. They are truly a merging of fairway woods and irons. Here are some of the key aspects of hybrid clubs.
Thin face
A thin face on any club will promote a spring effect, giving you greater distance. This has long been a factor in irons and drivers. Hybrids adopt that technology. Many golfers will find that they can create greater distance with a hybrid than with the iron it replaces.
Lower center of gravity
When you look down at a hybrid, the club head looks more like a fairway wood than an iron. This larger club head makes it easier to move the weight lower and to the back of the club.
That, along with other design elements (like head shape), makes hybrids easy to hit. Especially when you get that sweet spot just right!
Most golfers, especially high handicappers, will find it easier to launch the ball into the air with a hybrid rather than an iron.
Wide sole
Another area in which hybrids closer resemble fairway woods than irons is in the sole. The sole of a hybrid is wider than that of an iron. The thin sole of an iron makes it more likely that the club will dig into the ground.
While you still hit with a downward strike onto the back of the ball, a hybrid promotes more of a sweeping motion than do irons. Again, this makes hybrids easier to hit than irons, and often more forgiving too.
Shaft material, length and lie
Shaft material is often a choice between steel and graphite. Steel is generally stiffer, and produces a slower swing speed. Counter to that, a graphite shaft produces more flexibility which results in a higher ball speed.
The compromise is in the accuracy though, as clubs with a graphite shaft are less accurate in general.
Then there is the length and lie of the hybrid. This is an area where the hybrids are like irons and not fairway woods. These clubs are meant to replace irons and thus have the same, or similar, lies and shaft lengths.
You might find with the ease of launching the ball and greater distance that you need to adjust your yardages.
Rails
Many hybrids have rails along the bottom of the club, or some other similar technology. This allows the club to easily make it through any kind of lie and get to the ball effortlessly.
Hybrids are well-known for getting you out of some tough spots, especially from a greater distance where a fairway wood just won’t do the job.
All of this adds up to a great advantage for golfers of varying abilities. Many golfers will find that hybrids add up to five percent more distance than their iron counterparts. They are also easier to hit and often more forgiving than irons.
The main disadvantage is that irons offer more feel than hybrids. But rarely will that be a concern for amateurs. Little wonder then that hybrids are becoming more and more popular.
Recommendations
Which of the hybrids listed above are right for you depends on exactly what you are looking for. If you are a senior or beginner who has very slow swing speeds, the full set from Pinemeadow could be right. These clubs are less expensive, meaning you can switch later on without too much pain once your game has improved.
If you want to sacrifice less of the feel you are bound to lose with hybrids, either the Titleist 818 or Mizuno CLK would be right for you. These are high-end clubs and manufactured with great quality.
For versatility, Callaway Rogue or TaylorMade M6 fit the bill. If you want something approaching that versatility at a lower price tag, maybe the Adams Tight Lies are the choice.
