Wood loft vs. hybrid loft

[angleiron]

Why is my 5 wood a 19 degree, and the 4 hybrid a 22? Tried doing a search but could not find an answer as to why the 5 wood has a lesser loft yet is a higher club number. Isn't the rule the higher the club number the higher the loft?

[WUTiger]

Woods have longer shafts, and tend to hit the ball farther. Also, there's the old "parallel" club guidelines from the 1970s.

1 iron ~  4 Wood

2 iron  ~ 5 Wood

3 iron  ~ 7 Wood

Bring in the hybrids, and things get more complicated. The traditional hybrids - I guess we can say that - were designed to fall between long irons and fairway woods in comparable shaft length.

We've discussed this in previous threads:

Here's another item from the holidays, on traditional vs. iron-replacement hybrids:

Lofts is just part of the consideration. The original "traditional" hybrids had shaft lengths between FWs and numbered irons.

Now, some of the hybrids are considered "iron replacement" clubs such as the Muzuno JPX FLI-HI hybrid irons.

These FLI-HI come in 3H through 6H. 3H = 19º / 38.75" and 4H = 22º /38.25". The 4H has the same loft and shaft length as the JPX-850 4-iron.

In comparison, my Adams V4 "traditional" hybrids have longer shafts, but the same lofts: 3H = 19º and 40.5" and the 4H = 22º and 39.75".

These V4 are at least 1.5" longer than the same-lofted FLI-HI hybrid irons. Thus, the V4 3H would likely fly a club farther than the FLI-HI 3H.

(Unless, of course, someone got more benefit from shorter shaft than longer shaft - that's why you need a side-by-side test).

[mvmac]

Why is my 5 wood a 19 degree, and the 4 hybrid a 22? Tried doing a search but could not find an answer as to why the 5 wood has a lesser loft yet is a higher club number. Isn't the rule the higher the club number the higher the loft?

A 5 wood has less loft because it comes after a 3 wood, which is typically 15 degrees, the next longest club after a driver. Hybrids, like the name suggests, are designed to be somewhere between a long iron and fairway wood. Hybrid lofts/numbers tend to be more comparable with iron lofts/numbers.

[dbuck]

To just summarize what WUTiger and Mvmac said,  woods are numbered relative to each other, and so are irons and hybrids. Having the type of seeming anomaly you have is neither new nor uncommon. Both your 5 wood and 4H are moderately strong; in the old days a wood with 19* might be called a 4 wood. Back in the days of wooden woods, it was roughly something like:

Driver 8-11*

2 wood 12-14

3 wood 15-16

4 wood 17-19

5 wood 20-23

Nowadays, you don't see many clubs called 2 woods or 4 woods.  A 13 degree club might be called a "strong 3" or a "3+". and anything over 16* is called a 5 wood. Part of this is marketing; manufacturers say that their clubs are longer and they build a 3 or 4 iron in loft and length, then stamp a 5 on the bottom. Hybrids are easier for most folks to get in the air than long irons. The hybrid numbers are I think supposed to roughly correlate to the irons they replace, but for me, I get a little more out of the hybrid than the corresponding iron. I get about the same performance from a 3 hybrid as a 1 or 2 iron.

The takeaway from this is to know how far you hit the clubs in your bag and the types of trajectory you can achieve with them, regardless of the number on the bottom.