Women's Hybrids

Women's golf is regarded more seriously today than ever before; and the technology with which discerning women golfers can now kit themselves out is equally as serious. Hopefully, this guide will help you to understand women's hybrid clubs a little better, and how you might benefit from having one in your bag. So, before we discuss why hybrid golf clubs can be particularly beneficial for women, let's clarify the purpose of the hybrid club.

Hybrid clubs, rescue clubs or utility clubs alternatively, combine the high, straight trajectory strokes of an iron club with the low centre of gravity which is the wood's primary advantage, making it ideal for chopping your way out of the rough. The hybrid club's head is narrower than a standard fairway wood's and its face is smaller than that of an iron, meaning that your swing can have the characteristics of either, or both of those clubs, resulting in a high and lengthy shot from most lies. You can either skip the sole of the club over the grass to connect with the ball as you would with a wood, or you can divot the grass as you make contact, as you would with an iron.

A good hybrid club can also be used to get you out of larger bunkers, due to its slightly weighted sole and its somewhat shorter shaft.

What's the Difference between a Men's Hybrid and Women's Hybrid Club?

Generally speaking, the size and the weight make the difference between men's and women's hybrid golf clubs. With a deeper centre of gravity, hybrid golf clubs are easier to hit with than a standard iron or wood club, and the shorter shaft allows better accuracy.

Many of the top manufacturers, particularly Callaway, Yonex, Cobra and Lynx, produce ranges designed specifically and exclusively for female golfers, as do Nike and Wilson. They're not simply scaled-down men's clubs either. Women's hybrid clubs normally have softer, thinner grips and carefully designed, bespoke club heads.

Can A Rescue Club Improve My Game?

Short answer: probably. In fact, the last two factors mentioned have led Taylor Made Golf to christen their range of utility/hybrid clubs 'Rescue Clubs', because of their versatility getting golfers out of difficult situations.

We say 'short answer', because really it depends. It depends on what the weakness in your game is. If the only trouble you have is mid-range putting, then you may not need a hybrid at all. However if, like so many other golfers, your issue is with long iron shots, then a hybrid golf club deserves some serious consideration and may be the missing piece from your bag that will complete your game. Most of the touring pros will drag the hybrid out of the bag on any shot with which they are uncomfortable, and nearly 20% of women golfers now carry a hybrid (that's a figure that has more than doubled since the previous year, demonstrating the popularity and momentum which this kind of golf club is gathering, and you can expect this figure to climb exponentially over the next couple of years).

Are Hybrid Golf Clubs Particularly Useful for Women?

We think so. Although a hybrid has the potential to help everyone's game, it may be particularly suited to women golfers' styles, due to the fact that it's somewhere in between a heavy wood and an awkward iron, without the negative traits of either and without compromising on the length or accuracy.

Swing Slow.

Using a slower swing with a hybrid will achieve the same distance as the equivalent shot played with an iron or fairway wood. As well as this factor being valuable for beginners, amateurs, semi-pros, and pro golfers alike, it can be exploited to great effect by women golfers. And if you haven't been playing for long, then the hybrid's slower swing rate can be used to practice making a better contact with the ball and to familiarize yourself with the behaviour of the golf ball when it's struck, while pros can precisely control the movement of their ball in the air and on landing.

The relatively shallower face of the hybrid provides more lift to the ball and the deeper grooves (deeper than you would find on a standard iron) rifle the ball straighter down the fairway, even from more difficult lies. This means that this club is becoming more common in the arsenals of experienced players and professionals, and a growing amount of women are now carrying a Driver, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-utility/hybrid wood in their golf bags.

Summary

The last couple of years have seen a huge and vested effort in the design and manufacture of hybrid utility clubs. They're expertly crafted, generally from an alloy of titanium and stainless steel, giving an effortless lightweight swing and extremely accurate ball control, boosting the female golfer's game and eliminating those difficult long iron shots.