A hybrid club has one function: to replace the unhittable irons in your bag with something relatively life-altering. Because an afternoon of knee-high fizzers by your long irons would make anyone reconsider whether fishing might be a better use of time, while gentle, high-floating, target-seeking shots from what used to be your 4-iron makes you feel like you can do anything.
Now, for some players, the hybrid switch-out might be for a 2-iron, for others it might be a 5- or even 6-iron. But in every case, one of the main advantages for a hybrid is higher launch than the iron it’s replacing. And not just a higher initial launch, but ideally that higher launch will lead to more distance, a steeper landing angle and more successful approaches from long range.
How a hybrid transforms your long-distance shots is through wider soles, lower internal weighting, and its overall larger shape. Today’s top hybrids incorporate more flexible faces from high-strength steel alloys, and they also often add tungsten weighting and or carbon composite crowns to provide a lower center of gravity, more forgiveness and a higher, green-holding trajectory.
During our annual Hot List Summit of player testing, we used Rapsodo’s MLM2 Pro launch monitors at every hitting station to track which hybrids were producing consistently higher and more efficient launch angles and trajectories. By weighting launch angle, peak height and landing angle and normalizing the data for each player’s hitting set, we were able to find the hybrids that consistently produced the best results. Essentially, we were looking for the hybrids with the best combination of launch angle, peak height and landing angle for the entire collection of players that hit those clubs, compared to each individual’s average launch conditions for the hybrid category.
(Note: Our data from the Rapsodo MLM2 Pro reflects the top performers across these combined metrics among hybrid models that were hit by a significant number of our testers, with a minimum of 30 hits during our testing. Some hybrid models targeting slower to moderate swing speeds, however, did not receive a full test from the vast majority of our players. Nevertheless, their lightweight and high-launching designs also are worth considering, particularly for moderate to slower swinging players. Specifically in that group are the Callaway Quantum Max Fast, TaylorMade Qi4D Max Lite and Titleist GT1.)
Here are the highest launching hybrid models on this year’s Hot List (alphabetical order):
“I felt like the entire face was really responsive, but forgiving too. A lot of speed and power from my swing going directly into the ball. High launching, hit some high windows easily.”
—Scott Dickinson, 16-handicap
“Soaring ball height. This club launches the ball quickly up into the air, and it continued to climb, almost ballooning, but still providing great distance.”
—Matt Singer, 11-handicap
“It was very repeatable because it was so forgiving. I’m not a super low handicapper, so I’m going to hit it all over the face, and this club didn’t know that or didn’t care because it hit a high, little, tight draw, which I do not hit. It did that over and over.”
—Tom Allen, 7-handicap
“Sets up perfectly behind the ball, immediately started sending shots down range with a ton of speed. Great flight that held its line. Larger sweet spot that allowed for mis-hits to feel great. Maintained energy the whole way through and didn’t over spin.”
—Ryan Woyski, 10-handicap
“High launch with this means it’s fairly forgiving. Good club for par 3s and par 5s. Dump the 4-iron for this.”
—B.K. Suhr, 2-handicap
“It came off the face beautifully. Center strikes were the perfect combination of effortless distance and trajectory. I found it to be extremely forgiving, and even on mis-hits. the dispersion was pretty tight. Full of energy off the face. It had quite a bit of effortless power, and you knew what you were getting as soon as you hit the ball. No surprises.”
—Aaron Borgmann, 16-handicap