Everyone Should Have This Club In Their Bag

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 threes

better scoring out of the rough, and they might even get up and down a few more times

in tricky situations around the greens. But what is this mystery club

Well, it's time to find out. 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 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 have 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 iron

I'm going to talk on exactly why I think that's the case in this video. I've got two equivalents here in terms of that slot in the bag

I've got the new Titleist GT2 4 Hybrid, which comes in at 21 degrees as standard

I've got the Mizuno Pro 243 4-iron, which is a pretty standard 4-iron, comes in at 22 degrees as standard

You'll see they're 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 to have a little bit more length on the shaft versus an iron

This comes in around as stock, sort of one and a quarter inch longer 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 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 four iron equivalent

And what's great about the Titleist GT2 Hybrid in particular is that you can adjust the settings on this

to fine tune your ball flight. So you've got adjustable hosel here. You can adjust the loft by up one degree or two degree

and down one degree. You can also change the lie angle settings to more upright or more flat

So what I'm able to do with this one is loft it up by one degree to 22 degrees

and get that to exactly match the loft of this four iron at 22 degrees

to see exactly how they compare. What's great about the GT2 hybrid in particular as well

is that you've got adjustable sole weights here. Not many hybrids offer that on the market

and that gives you the ability to really fine tune the ball flight. And there are some custom weights available as well

through a fitting. There are like six different settings you can choose from so you can really dial in the ball flight to the nth degree

if you're looking for a particular trajectory on your hybrid shots or you hit them from certain situations 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 GT2 4 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 alignment is

But clearly a lot more real estate behind the ball versus a 4-iron. Obviously it looks a lot more compact

Pretty thin top line this one. This is a pretty standard better player 4-iron. 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 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 four-iron

I'm 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 or a couple of shots with each or maybe one shot with each to see exactly how they compare Maybe we start with the four 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 got a flag down here on the beautiful second hole on

the links course at La Hathienda Golf Links in Spain. It's about 200 yards away, which is typically

where I would sort of have a four iron finishing, maybe slightly short of that. But let's just see

where this goes. See, I hit that a little bit toe-y 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 four-iron, 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, there's a pretty flat trajectory there with

with a four iron. Let's see how the four hybrid compares with a similar or the same loft setting

A little bit longer shaft. Well, hopefully you can pick that up. 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 par threes, the greens are firm. If you

don't quite strike it properly, that little bit of height, it's gonna mean you lose less calorie distance

But let's 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 Hathienda Golf Links

We were using range balls and we were using a FlightScope MiVo 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 loft

versus a four iron is a lot higher. It was a 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 feet higher with the hybrid versus the four iron

And the other thing I would definitely note from the numbers was that there was a lot less volatility

from the hybrid versus the four iron. When I didn't strike the four 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 gonna help a lot of golfers out. You think when you're hitting an iron shot into a green

or an approach shot into a green, the thing you really wanna get right is the carry distance

And if you're not deviating too much from where you think you're gonna carry your shots

that's gonna really serve you well and help you to score better out on the course. And clearly, a four hybrid is delivering that consistency

whereas the four iron, if your ball striking's off, there's gonna be a lot of volatility

in your carry distances. Just gonna take a short break from this video

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so you don't miss any of our other video content. And if you'd like to look at this particular hybrid

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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 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 of 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 demonstrate one for you now I got two golf balls here on the ground pretty similar lies I gonna hit with the iron first I 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. It's been interesting to see where it's finished. It's just gone on that mound on the left-hand side

So that's the iron shot. Not overly clean. similar lie, let's try the

4 Hybrid now and hopefully we can see there's a slight difference in

the quality of contact you can get from the rough but also just the technology in the head

and the design of the head just getting able to pop the ball out so much more easily

we see majors like US Opens USPJs where the rough is long and thick

a lot of tour players switch out their long irons for 7 woods and 9 woods

it's a similar sort of concept, that's a 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 of the lie there

I can see it's carried a good five yards further than finished, five or six yards

further than where the four iron 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

from these tricky situations if the ball slightly sat down versus a four iron equivalent

All right, so let's hit a few more shots here from just a pretty standard lie here to this flag

200 yards away. I think there's a few areas to cover. The first being the feel of the face

but also the turf interaction you get when you're striking off a tightline like this

Thirdly, I think arguably the most important thing that people would be worried about if you switch

from a 4-iron into a 4-hybrid, is that ball flight getting too high when you're hitting into the wind

You don't want to see that ball ballooning up and losing significant carry distance

My hunch would be the added ball speed output you get from a hybrid would offset the drop in

distance from hitting into the wind. This is a perfect example. We've got a shot here, it's 200 yards away, we are hitting into a slight wind. Be interested to see exactly how these

shots compare. I've got two balls with the hybrid, two balls with the 4-iron equivalent, let's hit

a couple of shots and see where they finish down on this hole. So I'm going to start with the hybrid

And hopefully you can pick up the difference in the sound and feel of this club

So I've 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 margin for error. If you do sort of catch the ball a little bit low on the face

you're not going to be penalised as much with a hybrid versus a four

And let's see if we can hit this one. properly. Oh, I've struck that really nicely

A lot higher that one. I'm pretty happy that that felt really solid

So that's the shots with the hybrid. So let's just move back into the four iron

I do think with a long iron like this, you do have to be a bit more precise

with your ball striking. If you do catch the ground a little bit heavy, you're not gonna get away with it as much

as you do with a four hybrid with that wider sole. You know, definitely places a bit more of a premium

Good ball striking. I've hit that pretty nicely. Just turning over a little bit

It'd be really interesting to see exactly where that finish is versus the hybrid

But obviously, with a hybrid, you're getting that extra carry distance. So if you've got a long iron shot

and you've got a bunker to carry, you could argue the hybrid is just gonna give you

a few more options and you not gonna be worrying about whether you gonna cover that bunker or not because you just getting so much more speed and forgiveness out of it Hit that pretty nicely as well

So yeah, clearly lower trajectory with the four iron. Slightly more steeper turf interaction with the iron shot versus the hybrid

More divots. 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 up by the green here, seeing where those four shots finished, two with each club

You can see here, short of the green, this was the shot with the four iron that I 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 with the hybrid that I hit

and then over here we have the other two shots. Now, this shot here was the one I hit a lot better with the four iron, but you can see

even that one is still slightly shorter than where the two hybrid shots finished

both of these finishing pretty much just short of pin high. So clearly the fact that we're hitting into the wind

has been offset by the extra ball speed and forgiveness and robustness we're getting from the strike of the hybrid

If you know you're playing in windy conditions, you have the ability to loft it down or two

to really flatten that trajectory out a little bit more if you're concerned about that. So clearly the conditions not having too much effect

on the performance of the hybrid versus the four iron. Okay, so I know you're probably already really bored of me selling the benefits of a four

hybrid, 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 sole 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 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 out pretty well to about four feet

So I'm pretty happy with that one. so it's 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

iron if you're chipping from this particular situation the margin for error is so sky high

with this particular club it's definitely well worth considering if you find yourself

in situations 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 replacing their bag and ditching one of these, the four iron

Because as we've shown 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 iron and your five iron 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

a four-iron is pretty difficult to hit, whereas a four-hybrid is going to give you that stability

and consistency of carry distance that every golfer is really going to need when hitting

into greens and different situations. We've seen how well it performs out of the rough. We've seen

how well it performs out of the green. It could become a go-to club for you, so definitely some

food for thought there. Well, that's all from me here from Lahat In, the Golf Links in the south

of Spain. I'll see you next time