Should Regular Golfers Use Long Irons Or Hybrids? The Answer Is More Complicated That You Might Think... Here Are The Arguments For Both Sides

Should Regular Golfers Use Long Irons Or Hybrids?

When it comes to the question of long irons versus hybrids, generic advice can be far from helpful. What's right for one golfer isn't necessarily the answer for another - even if their handicaps are the same. All too often the advice, particularly for higher handicappers is to go for the latter but there's much more to think about.

Of course it helps to know certain technical elements like what is the right ball position for hybrids? - and so on. But what about the clubs themselves? We've sought to lay out the arguments and to help, we've asked two amateur golfers with over 60 years combined experience to explain their thinking.

● Long-iron Says Fergus Bisset

I recently wrote an article for the Golf Monthly website in which I picked the three best clubs I’ve ever owned. One of the clubs I chose was the 3-iron from my old set of Mizuno MP32s. I loved those sticks and particularly the long irons. I found the 3-iron to be a hugely satisfying and versatile club.

I think it must be just about the most pleasing feeling in golf when you really strike a long-iron properly. It might not happen too often but when you get it perfectly out of the middle, the sensation is like no other in the game. The ball zips off the face and travels like a bullet with a penetrating trajectory. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that feeling, even if it is a rare one. The hybrid just can’t deliver those levels of satisfaction.

The long-iron is useful in various situations. From the tee, it can be a reliable go-to. I often tee off with my Titleist 2-iron when the fairway looks a little narrow. If I catch it correctly, it still goes a decent distance and it’s far straighter than any of my ‘woods’.

Of course, the long-iron is good from the grass, especially when the turf is tight. I’d far rather attempt to nip a long-iron off firm, links-like turf than face such a lie with a hybrid.

I also find the long-iron a useful tool for escaping tricky predicaments on-course. It’s great for the low punch under trees and I will generally turn to it if I need to try and bend a shot with a draw or fade. A hybrid is not nearly as workable as a long-iron.

For a combination of pleasure and practicality, the long-iron wins over the hybrid in my opinion.

● Hybrid Says Jeremy Ellwood

Of course, we would all, deep down, love to stand there flushing long-irons into greens consistently from 200+ yards, and there are few better feelings in golf than when one comes right out of the middle of the bat and soars powerfully and unerringly away towards its distant target.

We would all love to, but sadly, we can’t because the physics of the long-iron simply conspires against us, courtesy of its limited loft and a sole width that requires considerably more precision through the strike than most of us can muster too often.

Thankfully, a more playable alternative began to emerge just after the turn of the century around the time I started out as this magazine’s equipment editor - the best hybrids are now a regular fixture in many golfers bags.

The beauty of these clubs is that they are easier to hit, full stop, on account of their hollow-headed design and wide forgiving sole, which allows more weight to be placed where it’s of most assistance in flighting the ball with ease from long range.

Not only that, but when you also add a lower-profile face to that wide sole, these clubs really can go where long-irons fear to tread, providing far greater scope for effective recovery from certain grades of rough.

With a little practice, you can chip with them too from lies where a wedge shot might be tricky, adding a degree of versatility that the long-iron just can’t live with. Your heart may be telling you to keep those long-irons in the bag, but better to listen to your head as it firmly but politely tells you to stop being so silly and to load up with hybrids.