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by David Lake 1 Iron Golf, Inc. |
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1 Iron Golf, Inc. Corporate Offices Perrysburg, Ohio 419-662-9336 Any information collected by this website is confidential. It is neither shared nor sold. |
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1 Iron Golf®
Swing Tips XII |
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Hybrids Fact or fiction
One of the most prominent buzzwords in the golf industry today is "Hybrids" and there is a lot of misconception as to what a hybrid actually is and its designed function. The simple answer is that it is nothing more than a high lofted fairway wood (within the #7 or #9 fairway wood range) that is built 1" to 2" shorter in club length than a conventional wood. This shorter club length coupled with the high loft angle makes it easier to hit than a conventional fairway wood. Also, its inherent low center of gravity coupled with the fact that it is designed to sweep the ball from the turf like a fairway wood makes it easier to hit than a conventional "long iron" for the vast majority of golfers. In fact, hybrids have replaced conventional "long irons" in many golfers' bags which I believe is the entire marketing strategy behind their introduction. The fact that most golfers would be better served by using their conventional "long irons" as tomato stakes in their garden and the resulting sales from replacing them with "hybrids" is not lost on the major golf club manufacturers. These hard to hit conventional "long irons" are forced on the customer when they purchase a set of clubs and then the golf club manufacturer suggests replacing them with "easy to hit" hybrids (makes great business sense if you are trying to maximize golf club sales). Basically there are three categories of golf club design with each having a specific purpose: 1) Driver 2) Fairway woods 3) Irons The function of the driver is distance off the tee, the function of fairway woods is distance plus getting the ball up quickly from any type of lie, and the function of irons is threefold: crisp ball striking from the fairway, precisely controlled distances, and imparting a high level of backspin to the ball for accuracy. In other words with a driver you aim for the width of the fairway; with a fairway wood you aim for the width and depth of the green; and with irons you aim for the pin. Hybrids certainly fall into the fairway woods category and, for the reasons mentioned previously, are easier to hit than conventional fairway woods or conventional "long irons". We have received hundreds of emails asking if we are going to come out with a "Hybrid" in the future. My reply has always been the same - why? Our fairway woods are built to a shorter club length than conventional woods and possess one of the lowest centers of gravity in golf. Since they are built to the same club length within a set (based upon your W-T-F measurement) they produce a consistency between clubs that no set of hybrids can match. In comparative testing involving all of the major brands of hybrids on the market our 1 Iron #7 wood ranked highest in every playability category. A second reason that we will not offer hybrids is the fact that our #3 and #4 iron are as easy to hit as our #9 iron and wedges; consequently, there is no reason to replace them. |