Hybrid club with a metal shaft?

[Miguel Romero]

Golf is a different experience for all. Some hook, some slice, etc... My driver has a graphite shaft like all new drivers have, but my hybrid has a steel shaft. I have a graphite hybrid, but I couldn't control it and the shots would pepper everywhere. So, joking around a buddy suggested that I should switch to a metal shaft. I did. I found a Hogan hybrid #2 with a steel regular shaft and I bought it. I don't see any difference in distance between the two clubs. Both the graphite Taylor Made #3 and the Hogan #2 are both 19*.The only difference I see is a low trajectory shot, but it puts me in play. Is that low trajectory just a product of the shaft, the club design, my swing, all the above or something else? What's going on?

[k-troop]

The steel shaft is much heavier than the graphite shaft, and if it's a TTDG (which it likely is), it's a low-launch shaft by design.  Heavier = lower.

I played a TM hybrid (Rescue09) for a while with an S400 shaft and I hit it pretty well, but it still had the occasional hook and a definite draw bias.  The only hybrid I've ever played that didn't a major draw bias (at least for my swing) is the Adams Idea Pro A12 with the RIP'D.  You can get a heavyish (90-110 grams), low-torque, low spin, low launch shaft that will replicate all of the good things about a steel shaft without weighing 140 grams and should go farther.

One thing I notice with my hybrids relative to the old one with a steel shaft is that the overall distance on a stock shot is only a few yards longer, but with the modern lighter shaft I can get a lot more distance when I have to take an abbreviated swing from a really dorked up lie (i.e. tree branches, or ball 12" above my feet on a sidehill).  Those shots are one of the real benefits of a hybrid, I think, and I can still fly mine 200-yards when I'm taking a 3/4 swing while gripping it down on the shaft.  Couldn't do that with a super-heavy steel shaft.

[WUTiger]

In the early days of hybrids, most small independent club manufacturers offered a choice of graphite or metal shaft.