What is the advantage of hitting Woods over Hybrids?

Got this Qn from SamT in another thread which i found very intruiging.

Unfortunately in that thread, no one really answered.

So back to the qn...What is the advantage of hitting a Wood over a Hybrid? Distance?

For me, i honestly dont know.

Any anyone can to share???

advantage will be distance and ball shaping. wood are hard to launch when it's sit deep in the rough in that case i use hybrid ... is why i got a 13.5 3 wood and 19 degree hybrid ...
hybrid are more forgiving less variation....

i think question is asking hitting woods over hybrids......

for the sake of argument.. we must compare similar loft clubs..

e.g. a 18 Deg wood and 18 Deg Hybrid.

Some people hit a hybrid better and can get more distance. others prefer wood.
but for an academic discussion, we have to assume iron byron is hitting both.

the difference will then be the CG and sole and length..
CG in a wood is deeper and should give less spin
CG in hybrid may be lower and give higher launch and higher spin.
mostly GD articles says hybrid can land your ball on the green and it will hold, but a wood may not.. again depending of the loft.. a higher loft may be able to give enough spin to hold the green.

Woods, with less spin, may be able to give a bit more roll and have longer overall distance..
with a bigger sole and wider face, it may be more forgiving on mishits and not dig as much.

There should be some articles on GD to browse on comparing hybrids and woods..

good luck!

Hi, how does one compare the wood and hybrid? Is 3H a replacement for 3W? Do you think one should get wood and hybrid of same brand?

Fengy wrote:

Hi, how does one compare the wood and hybrid? Is 3H a replacement for 3W? Do you think one should get wood and hybrid of same brand?

Hybrid numbers are more inline with iron numbers but you should still look at the loft of the clubs to decide what you need.

In general, 3H is for 3i.
3H is typically 19 degrees loft.
3W is about 15 degrees loft.

however this not true all the time in terms of distance achieved.
really depends on how you are hitting it..
so if your 3H gives you the same distance as your 3i, but easier to hit. you have a winner.

Thanks! So if loft on iron and hybrid are same it should go same distance? I wish I could try on range first but if cannot try I was just wondering which to go for.

Fengy wrote:

Thanks! So if loft on iron and hybrid are same it should go same distance? I wish I could try on range first but if cannot try I was just wondering which to go for.

As I understand it, for the same loft and length, you should still hit the hybrid longer. To put it simply, it's easier to make contact and more forgiving for all the reasons mentioned by Mizzy earlier.

Perhaps another example will help you understand better.

If you were to hit two 3 irons, one game improvement cavity back, the other a pure muscleback, both are same loft, same length, you would still hit the GI club easier and longer than the muscleback blade.

And it's best to check the loft of the hybrids as they tend to vary from brand to brand. My Cleveland 3H Halo is old as the hills and it's loft is 22 degrees. 3Hs now are in the 19 to 20 degree range. By today's standards, I'm hitting a 4H. It's no matter to me what the number is since it cover's the gap to my 4 iron nicely.

Don't be tricked by the numbers, check the lofts of the hybrids versus your irons. For those not sure how to check your iron lofts, just google your irons sets specs (don't have, then get it measured). Also check your hybrid's sole or hosel for the loft, and you have the two numbers to compare.

Oops, to answer the thread's question:

The main advantage for woods is for distance off the fairway and a lower trajectory than hybrids. They don't hold the greens as well, running through even. Woods take practice since you have to sweep them off the turf or have a slight descending blow.

Hybrids are shorter clubs and easier to handle for those who have trouble with woods. We all know the reasons for hybrids. Where it loses out is that they don't hit as far and the ball balloons in the wind.

When you see a pro pull out a 3 wood on the fairway of a par 5, you know he's going for the green in two.

Birdman wrote:

When you see a pro pull out a 3 wood on the fairway of a par 5, you know he's going for the green in two.

"When you see an amateur pull out a 3 wood after he teed off for a par 4, you know he just pass the red tee"

Sorry...can't resist..

Anyways..my choice of hybrids over woods is just for pure control.
3W in particular is still too unpredictable for my amateur standard.

Wil, I can't agree more to your first statement. Had to do the same many-a-time.

First game I played with KLT at Tanjong Puteri A course even worse, I had to pull out my driver again when I saw how much farther I still had to go. Lucky ball was sitting up.

Hi bros, after readin tis post ,it clears a lot ???? in my head now, after thinkin of which 2 buy 4 d past week abt 3 wood or a 2 hybrid. i hv a 5 wood n a 4 hybrid in my bag, 5 wood give me a distance of 200+ yards n my hybrids gives me a 190 yards. after readin wat u guys wrote ,i think a 3 wood should b good 4 me! thank you all 4 d info

n mr wilkang ...........'he just pass d red tee' Tats a good 1 bro

for us mortals, we may hit the 4-wood longer than the 3-wood ...

nientsu wrote:

So back to the qn...What is the advantage of hitting a Wood over a Hybrid? Distance?

Some good answers in the posts above.

Wood can reach distances that hybrid can't. Wood is almost like a driver, long, with a big head, designed to launch the ball quite low with low spin, which will hit the ground running. Wood can reach distances hybrids can't. But it needs a really clean lie with the ball sitting up nicely to work well. If I see the ball sitting down in the grass slightly, I rule out using wood immediately, especially if the grass is damp. But on a dry hot day, with the ball sitting up, I can attempt to reach par 5 in 2. Can't do that with hybrid.

With a smaller head, hybrid will launch the ball higher with more spin, and can get the ball out of difficult lies. It will also land with a higher angle, which means it will bite on fast greens. Wood will have trouble with this.

What wood will do well, hybrid will not, and vice versa.

YE Yang likes hybrid. Here's why.

Sunday, Aug 16, 2009, Hazeltine National, PGA Championship, hole 18. YE Yang was 197 yards from the hole, and he was blocked by a tree. He took a hybrid, and hit it OVER THE TREE to within 10 feet from the pin, made that putt, and did what no one else has ever done before, defeat Tiger when Tiger was leading into the final round.




That's hybrid.



In contrast, the man Yang defeated, Tiger Woods uses wood only, as his name might suggest, and he does not use any hybrids. He relies on long irons instead.

Remember Tiger on Sunday, Augusta 2011, Hole 8? A par 5, 570 yards, Tiger's 2nd shot with a wood drew right to left 40 yards, landed on the fringe, and rolled to within 8-10 feet of the flag for an eagle putt.





That's wood.

if i'm not mistaken, the years hot list in golf digest had a small column comparing the distance difference between a wood and hybrid of the same loft...

and if i remember correctly, for a swing speed of over 105 mph (for driver), the difference between the 2 clubs was a mere 5 yards...

however, for the average swing speed (95mph) the difference was almost 20 yards...

If you're hitting the fairways often, and there are some long par 4s and 5s, wood will come in handy.

If you find yourself in the rough often, or there are many trees to hit over and drawing/fading around them is not an option, hybrid.

Excellently illustrated Lee.
Good point about the ball sitting up, esp true for the 3 wood. I've seem many a time someone trying to muscle a three wood out of the rough. My rule of thumb is that the top of the ball should be visible above the crown of the 3 wood when soled, with a clean to perfect lie, even light rough is asking for trouble. For that, max I'll go is the 5 wood, or risk leaving the ball in the rough.

Sham, very telling what you mentioned, many times we neglect to take into account swing speed and wonder why we can't achieve the same results with the same club as the guy next door. In this case, the guy next door being you.

thanks sham.. that's good to know.

i reckon the difference in shaft length is an inch or 2.. which translates to the mere 5 yards

well, i actually hit longer with a shorter club as i find it easier to strike the sweet spot... although i'm sure if i managed to connect with the longer club, the distance would be somewhat longer...

shamusan wrote:

well, i actually hit longer with a shorter club as i find it easier to strike the sweet spot... although i'm sure if i managed to connect with the longer club, the distance would be somewhat longer...

Longer is relative, I remember you mentioning a 48 inch driver before. To say that's difficult is an understatement.

hrmmm...
for me i have both in the bag. diff lofts of course...
But this question is better suited to a fitter to answer; for a number of reasons...
1. is a hybrid and wood of similar length, constructed with a similar length shaft?
2. Are hybrids desgined as iron replacements?
3. are woods designed as iron replacements?
4. what are te fundamental diffs btw the two when it comes to playing off diff terrains? ie: rought, fairways and the like....

Personally, i feel the hybrids are better off the rought. espeically when grass will impead club to ball contact... but for attacking distance. the woods have always done me no wrong.
I think the swings are diff as well. A wood would require more of a sweeping swin, similar to drivers, whereas a hybrid may need a more desending strike... smilar to irons....

But what do I know... DGman... response pls

Same loft, hybrid higher flight, woods lower and more penetrating flight.

On hard and dry ground, the woods shot will roll even more given its lower flight.

Hybrid to clear obstacles or to attempt to land soft on green without rolling past the greens.

Birdman wrote:

Excellently illustrated Lee.
Good point about the ball sitting up, esp true for the 3 wood. I've seem many a time someone trying to muscle a three wood out of the rough. My rule of thumb is that the top of the ball should be visible above the crown of the 3 wood when soled, with a clean to perfect lie, even light rough is asking for trouble. For that, max I'll go is the 5 wood, or risk leaving the ball in the rough.

Thanks.

From the two shots described above, here's comparing YE Yang's hybrid from the rough to Tiger's wood from the fairway. Look at how differently these two shots landed and rolled.

asahi wrote:

Same loft, hybrid higher flight, woods lower and more penetrating flight.

On hard and dry ground, the woods shot will roll even more given its lower flight.

Hybrid to clear obstacles or to attempt to land soft on green without rolling past the greens.

i think that if everything is the same, two different outcomes are just an unrealistic expectation....
but based of sole design and swing styles required... I think the hyrids wont work well out of the rought where grass and club face contact are an issue... for this circumstance..... I would use a wood... simply to be able to brush thru the grass..
a more sweeping stroke will not aggitate the grass as much... n

OT a bit... anyone here Inline skates???? new hobby la....