Everyone Should Have This Club In Their Bag (But No-One Does)

Deputy Editor Joel Tadman explains why there’s a particular type of club that everyone, himself included, should probably have in their bag, yet only a very small percentage of golfers actually do…

► Want to try the Titleist GT2 hybrid for yourself? Get it for the best price in your area: https://hawk.ly/m/titleist-gt2-hybrid/i/golfmonthly-youtube-4-hybrid

► Read our full review of the Titleist GT2 hybrid: https://www.golfmonthly.com/reviews/hybrids/this-has-to-be-the-most-versatile-hybrid-club-ever-made

► Chapters:
Introduction 0:00-0:26
Club reveal 0:26
Data comparison 5:10
Out of the rough 6:50
Into the wind 8:50
Around the green 12:25
Verdict 13:50

► Video filmed on location at La Hacienda Golf Links in Cadiz, Spain. Visit https://lahaciendagolf.com/en/ for more information.

► Will you be trying a 4-hybrid this year or sticking to your 4-iron? Let us know in the comments below! 💬

► Watch more on Golf Monthly…
📹 Best Golf Hybrids 2025! 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDONtl3jQmQ&t=543s
📹 Surprising Best New Ball Of 2025? 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCSBrcwNwuI
📹 Entering A Pro Event With Bryson Dechambeau’s Clubs 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZcoIM0uMt8

#golf #golfclubs #hybrid #reviews

🎵 Music – licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵

► Become a FREE SUBSCRIBER to Golf Monthly’s YouTube page now – https://www.youtube.com/c/GolfmonthlyCoUkmagazine/videos

► Find us on social media:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/golfmonthly/
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@golfmonthly.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GolfMonthlyMagazine/
Twitter (X) – https://twitter.com/GolfMonthly

this is a club that hardly anyone uses but I think there’s a strong case for every ability of golfer from single figures all the way up to high handicappers should put this in their bag in place of something that’s in there already because I’m confident if they did they would hit more greens in regulation on par 3s better scoring out of the rough and they might even get up and down a few more times from tricky situations around the greens but what is this mystery Club what time to find out [Music] so what is this mystery Club I hear you shouting at the screens well it’s actually a four hybrid I think this is a club that a lot of golfers maybe with let their ego get the better of them and often transition from a three hybrid into a four iron but actually I think there’s a strong case for more golfers golfers of nearly every ability to make that switch point a little bit higher through the set and go from a three hybrid into a four hybrid and then maybe into a five I’m going to talk on exactly why I think that’s the case in this video so I’ve got two equivalents here in terms of that that slot in the bag I’ve got the new titless GT2 4 hybrid which comes in at 21° of standard and I’ve got the mauno pro 243 4 IR which is a pretty standard 4on comes in at 22 degrees as standard but you’ll see they are two very different looking clubs and they are set up very differently as well the first thing you’ll notice when you put them side by side is the difference in the length so with a hybrid generally speaking you’re going have a little bit more length on the shaft versus an iron this comes in around as stock sort of one and a/4 inch longer um than the iron so in terms of comparing the two what’s that going to give you possibly a little bit more Club head speed maybe a little bit more volatility in terms of the quality of the strike because the the club head is further away from your hands but generally speaking you should get a little bit more speed out of swinging a hybrid versus a shorter 4 iron equivalent and what’s great about the titless GT2 hybrid in particular um is that you can adjust the settings on this to fine-tune your ball flight so you’ve got adjustable huzzle here you can adjust the Loft by up one degree or two degree and down one degree you can also change this the L angle settings to more upright or more flat so what I’m able to do with this one is Loft It Up by 1° to 22° and get that to exactly match the loft of this forine at 22° to see exactly how they compare what’s great about the GT2 hybrid in particular as well is that you’ve got adjustable uh so weights here not many hybrids offer that on the market and that that gives you the ability to really fine-tune the ball flight and there are some custom weight available as well through a fitting there are like six different settings you can choose from so you can really dial in the bull flight to the nth degree um if you’re looking for a particular trajectory on your hybrid shots or you hit them from certain situation on the course you can really dial that in so clearly a lot more versatility in terms of how you can set the hybrid up in terms of how they look down behind the ball clearly two very different looking profiles the gt24 hybrid much bigger behind the ball loads of Loft on show I love the full face grooves on here give you a steer on where your your alignment is but clearly a lot more real estate behind the ball versus a for rine you know obviously it looks a lot more compact pretty thin Top Line this one this is a pretty standard better player four iron so a little bit more intimidating than the hybrid but there are some golfers who just like the look of an iron behind the ball versus a hybrid I was that golfer and possibly still am but you know as my ball striking skills are dwindling I’m definitely sort of coming around to the idea of putting a hybrid in play versus a for IR we’re going to touch on sort of some of the other areas of performance that golfers really look for in this video but before we sort of get into the data and how they actually compare let’s just hit a few uh or a couple of shots with each or maybe one shot with each to see exactly how they compare maybe we’ll start with the fourr first so remember these are exactly the same Loft slightly different shaft settings but hopefully we can sort of see the difference in the trajectory we’ve got a flag down here on the beautiful second hole on the links course at laender golf links in Spain um it’s about 200 yards away which is typically where I would sort of have a 4 iron finishing may be slightly short of that but let’s just see where this goes see I hit that a little bit toey and the ball flight was pretty straight just turned over a little bit looks like it’s just come up short on the front of the green so that’s something I think you’re probably going to see with a for IR is a little bit more sort of volatility on the carry distance when you don’t quite strike it you might see a bigger drop off in distance but also that’s a pretty flat trajectory there with a foure let’s see how the the four hybrid Compares with a similar or the same Loft setting a little bit longer shaft well hopefully you can pick that up there the trajectory is chalk and cheese that is about six to eight yards higher in trajectory and I think there are a lot of situations where that’s going to be beneficial for you if you’re hitting into long path threes the greens are firm if you don’t quite strike it properly that little bit of height it’s going to mean lose less Curry distance but let’s um dive into some of the data just give these a proper test on a launch monitor to see exactly how they compare and what the key differences are right before we get into the nitty-gritty of how these clubs perform on the course I just want to present to you the data that I got when testing these two clubs on a launch monitor here at La Ander Golf Links we were using range balls and we were using a flight scope mea launch monitor so maybe take some of the numbers with a pinch of salt but there are some clear trends that stand out from the data that we got the first one is the ball speed output with the hybrid of the equivalent LOF versus a four IR is a lot higher it was significantly higher ball speed I was getting from that four hybrid and then the other one was the height I was getting from the trajectory was clearly significantly higher around about 15 ft higher with the hybrid versus the 4ward and the other thing I would definitely note from the numbers was that there was a lot less volatility from the hybrid versus the 4 when I didn’t strike the for iron the carry really dropped off a lot when I didn’t quite catch the hybrid as I’d like I didn’t see those big drop off in ball speeds or carry distances which is going to help a lot of golfers out you think when you’re hitting an iron shot into a green or an approach into a green the thing you really want to get right is the carry distance and if you’re not deviating too much from where you think you’ll be carrying your shots that’s going to really serve you well and help you to score better out in the course and clearly a four hybrid is delivering that consistency whereas the four iron if your ball striking off there going to be a lot of volatility in your carry distances just going to take a short break from this video to remind that if you’re enjoying it do click the like button and subscribe to the golf mon YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our other video content and if you like the look at this particular hybrid and want to get your hands on one put some handy links in the description below where you can get one for the best price in your [Music] area so I think this is the situation where a four hybrid is really going to come into its own out of the rough we see we’ve got a ball sort of semi sitting down in the rough you can with a short iron often get Flyers that fly too far you get into the mid irons you sort of average your itself out but when you get into the long irons it’s really easy to hit that shot from the rough that just comes out dead no spin just drops out the sky and it can be really difficult to get that precise strike out of the rough whereas with a four hybrid it’s a completely different story so let’s demonstrate one for you now I’ve got two golf balls here on the ground pretty similar lies I’m going to hit with a four first I’m going to try and hit these pretty hard and see if I can strike them as cleanly as I can this is the sort of thick Bermuda rough here so it’s going to be tricky to get them out but let’s see how well they come out so you see how that sort of came out quite flat it’s gone a little bit left I struck it okay to see where it’s finished it’s just got on that mound on the left hand side so that’s the iron shot not overly clean similar lie let’s try the uh the four hybrid now and hopefully we can see if well there’s a slight difference in the quality of contact you can get from the rough but also just the technology The Head and the design of the head is just getting able to Pop the ball out so much more easily we see Majors like us opens us PJs where the rough is long and thick a lot of tour players switch out their long irons for seven woods and nine Woods it’s a similar sort of concept that’s wide sole added Loft on a metal wood really helps just pop the ball out without losing too much distance That’s a classic example there so much more cleanly out out of the LIE there and I can see it’s carried a good five yards further and finished five or six yards further than where the 4arm finished so clearly you know if you’re missing a lot of Fairways and you find yourself in the rough a lot a four hybrid is really going to help you out on these tricky situations if the ball slightly sat down versus a four iron equivalent right so let’s hit a few more shots here from just a pretty standard lie here to this flag 200 yards away because I think there’s a few areas to cover the first being the feel off the face but also the turf interaction you get when you’re striking off a tight light like this and thirdly I think the arguably the most important thing that people would be worried about are if you switch to from a four run into a four hybrid is that ball flight getting too high when you’re hitting into the wind you don’t want to see that ball boning up and losing significant carry distance but my hunch would be the added ball speed output you get from a hybrid would offset the dropping distance from hitting into the wind and this is a perfect example we’ve got a shot here it’s 200 yards away we are hitting into a slight wind so it’ be interested to see exactly how these shots compare I’ve got two balls with the hybrid two balls with with the for iron equivalent let’s hit a couple of shots and see where they finish down on this hole so going to start with the hybrid and we can hopefully we can pick up sort of the difference in the in the sound and feel of this club so I hit that really nicely and I think there’s a little bit low on the face and that’s probably something you’re going to get with a hybrid a little bit more in for error if you do sort of catch the ball a little bit low on the face you’re not going to be penalized as much with a hybrid versus a four let’s see if we can hit this one properly well I’ve struck that really nicely a lot higher that one I’m pretty happy that that felt really solid so that’s the the shots with the um the hybrid so let’s just move back into the four ir and I do think with a long IR like this you do have to be a bit more precise with your ball striking if you do catch the ground a little bit heav you’re not going to get away with it as much as you do with a full hybrid with that wider so you know definitely places a bit more of a premium on good ball striking I’ve hit that pretty nicely just turning over a little bit be R to to see exactly where that finishes uh versus the uh the hybrid but obviously you know with a hybrid you’re getting that extra carry distance so if you’ve got you know a long iron shot and you’ve got a bunker to carry you could argue the hybrid it’s just going to give you a few more options and you’re not going to be worrying about whether you’re going to cover that bunk or not because you’re just getting so much more speed and forgiveness out of it hit that pretty nicely as well so yeah clearly lower trajectory with the for IR slightly more steeper Turf interaction with the with the iron shot versus the hybrid more divot got to be a little bit more precise let’s go down there and see where those balls finish and whether you’re actually sacrificing total distance when hitting into a breeze right so we’re up by the green here seeing where those four shots finished two with each club and you can see here short of the green this was the shot with the forarm that didn’t quite hit as well as the other one and that’s come up notably short than the hybrid shots I hit the first one being this one this got pretty much pin High uh with the hybrid that I hit and over here we have the other two shots now this shot here was the one I hit a lot better with the forarm but you can see even that one it’s still slightly shorter than where the two hybrid shots finish both of these finishing pretty much um just short of pin high so clearly the fact that we’re hitting into the wind um has been offset by the extra ball speed and forgiveness and um robustness we’re getting from the strike of the hybrid if you you know you’re playing in windy conditions you have the ability to Loft it down or two um to really flatten that trajectory out a little bit more if you’re concerned about that so clearly um the conditions not having too much effect on the performance of the hybrid versus the forine okay so I know you’re probably already really bored of me selling the benefits of a four High hbd um but I’ve got one more for you and it’s in this particular situation around the green where I think a lot of golfers struggle especially when they’re chipping with a wedge to get the precise contact from this sort of tight line and get the ball close to the pin whereas a four hybrid like this is a really good option for golfers who struggle with this particular shot because that wide so that you’ve got is really going to bounce against the grass there’s absolutely no digging whatsoever when you’re striking this particular Club from this lie the other thing I like about using a a four hybrid like this is that because there’s a lot of spring like effect and power off the face you haven’t got to make a very long swing at all you can make a very short controlled swing and with a bit of practice get the ball nestling up to the hole from this particular shot I’ve just not well that’s actually rolled up pretty well to about 4 ft so I’m pretty happy with that one so just a really good option even if you don’t quite strike it it doesn’t really matter because you’ve got so much forgiveness and stability from the face just pop it up there like that let it release down it’s such a good useful option to have versus a wedge or a long on if you’re chipping from this particular situation the margin for error is so skyh high with this particular Club it’s definitely well worth considering if you find yourself in a situation like this around the greens might help you get up and down a couple more times around so there you have it the four hybrid I think this is the club that a lot of golfers should absolutely be considering replac in their bag and ditching one of these the forarm because as we’ve showed in this test this is just going to give you so much more user friendly performance in so many different situations out on the golf course you’re not going to see that bunching that you often get at the top end of your bag where your four ir and your five on go similar distances but more importantly you’re not going to see those big drop offs in carry distance when you’re not striking the ball properly let’s face it the for iron is pretty difficult to hit whereas a full hybrid it’s going to give you that stability and consistency of carry distance that every go is really going to need when hitting into Greens in different situations and we’ve seen how well it performs out the rough we’ve seen how well it performs out the green it could become a go-to club for you so definitely some food for thought there but that’s all for me here from LA and the golf leagues in the south of spade I’ll see you next time