5 Things To Consider When Buying A Hybrid Online

5 Things To Consider When Buying A Hybrid Online

Shopping online gives golfers a huge range of choice compared to visiting your local pro shop or waiting for a custom fit order to arrive from a manufacturer. If you’re looking to buy a hybrid quickly and want to take delivery within a week, then shopping online is convenient and can save you time and money if you know what you’re looking for.

In this piece, we list five pieces of buying advice to help you buy the best hybrid golf clubs online.

Loft Gapping

Hybrids are the most versatile clubs in golf and were originally designed to combine the best qualities of long irons and fairway woods in a single club. More forgiving, easier to launch high and stop quickly into greens, hybrids were an ideal solution for golfers who’d started to struggle with longer irons.

They are designed to replace their equivalent irons, so a 3H replaced a 3-iron and a 5H hybrid could swap easily for a 5-iron. However, the most important thing to consider is the optimal loft hybrid you need to fit with your current set.

If you carry a strong three wood and are looking for a hybrid to replace the 2-3 iron slot in your bag, then you need to choose a suitable loft to fill the distance gap between three wood and 4-iron.

Think about your home course and the shots you face regularly and try to work out which hybrid loft will work best for you. It sounds simple but pay close attention to the loft and numbering format of each manufacturer, as they can differ slightly between brands. 

Generally, hybrid lofts range from 17° to 32° and it will come down to your personal preference as to whether you need a lower lofted hybrid or a high loft hybrid to use instead of a mid-iron.

Head Shape

Hybrids typically fall into two camps. The compact iron-like heads are usually aimed at lower handicap golfers who value workability versus larger headed hybrids that resemble mini fairway woods and offer greater forgiveness, higher launch and more stopping power.

You may have an instinctive preference, based on your ability and previous models you’ve used in the past but, as a general rule, if you want to be able to hit a variety of trajectories and shot shapes, from low to high and fade to draw, then you will want to choose an iron-like hybrid with a higher toe and deeper face design, like the Titleist TSi3 or the TaylorMade Stealth Plus rescue.

The rounder, deeper headed hybrid clubs are designed for golfers seeking greater forgiveness and the ability to hit longer, higher shots off the tee, from the rough or off the fairway.

A third head shape to consider is that of the ‘super hybrid,’ a relatively new product category that is designed for golfers who find it hard to hit fairway woods and need a playable alternative that doesn’t sacrifice too much distance.

Versatility

If you’re buying a hybrid club online, you need to clear about the performance benefits you want from these utility clubs. Hybrids are super versatile, they can be used from the tee, out of the rough, from cupped lies and even around the green to replace the traditional bump and run shot or putts from the apron.

Depending on your individual needs, you’ll need to choose the right combination of loft, head design and shaft flex to best deliver the kind of shots that will best improve your scores.

In the hands of a better player, the iron-like hybrids offer greater shot-making potential, while the larger headed hybrids are often more powerful and stop quicker on approaches into greens.

A good idea is to attend a demo day at a local golf club or pay for a fitting session to identify the best shaft flex and loft combination you need before then buying your hybrid online.

Shaft Flex

Hybrid shafts are most commonly graphite and typically measure .75 of an inch longer than the iron club they’re replacing. A 3H is usually 40 inches long compared to a 3-iron measuring 39 to 39.25 inches.

As hybrid shafts are shorter than fairway wood shafts, they can often feel light in the hand but stout and firm during the swing. When buying a hybrid online, you won’t have the luxury of feeling the weight of the club and the balance between the head and the shaft when you swing it.

For this reason, our advice is to choose a hybrid fitted with a shaft that you’ve played before or currently have in your fairway woods. You will know your natural preference when it comes to shaft weights, but you will need to select the most suitable weight and flex for your swing speed. This is a lower risk strategy than buying a hybrid online with a shaft you may never have hit before.

Price

The final thing to consider is your budget and whether you want to purchase a brand-new hybrid online or are happy to go with a second hand or pre-owned hybrid. Many online retailers specialise in pre-owned clubs, including actual equipment manufacturers who operate their own websites for refurbished and second-hand clubs. 

If you’re looking for a bargain, or your budget is tight, then we’d recommend applying all of the buying advice here and only using trusted retailers with a robust returns policy, appropriate payment protections and good quality imagery of the actual club you are buying. 

Buying a brand-new hybrid online will give you a greater choice of custom fit options, such as shaft flex, brand and thickness of grip and a range of structured payment options or interest free credit.

No matter what ability level you are, applying this five-step formula should help you to buy your next hybrid club online and, if you need more detailed buying advice, then check out our guides to the most forgiving hybrid clubs, the best hybrids for seniors and high handicappers.