Game improvement club

[9wood]

Until this year I had a 3 and a 4 iron in my bag which I relied on for many of my long second shots. But this year a new adjustable Cobra Bio cell hybrid has replaced both of those irons. My 3 and 4 irons were not giving me the distance on those second shots that I had hoped and wished for, especially for putting me in position to get on the green in three on those long par fives. My new hybrid really out distances my old 3 and 4 irons on those long second shots. I am totally amazed that my hybrid is allowing me better chances to score lower. I have been making pars on holes which I normally would get bogey or worse. I find that this new hybrid club is also giving me more and better chances for birdies. If I don't get more pars I know I can't blame it on my hybrid. This club has brought a new level of excitement to my game and I expect to get a couple of rounds in this year that will be lower than my best score from last year which was an 86

[The Slapper]

Good for you, sir. 

 

For a Slapper like myself, when a fairway shot gets to be over 190 yards I find it difficult.  This year I'm hoping to improve this sort of Golf shot with a Ping I25 fairway wood.

  

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, 9wood said:

Until this year I had a 3 and a 4 iron in my bag which I relied on for many of my long second shots. But this year a new adjustable Cobra Bio cell hybrid has replaced both of those irons. My 3 and 4 irons were not giving me the distance on those second shots that I had hoped and wished for, especially for putting me in position to get on the green in three on those long par fives. My new hybrid really out distances my old 3 and 4 irons on those long second shots. I am totally amazed that my hybrid is allowing me better chances to score lower. I have been making pars on holes which I normally would get bogey or worse. I find that this new hybrid club is also giving me more and better chances for birdies. If I don't get more pars I know I can't blame it on my hybrid. This club has brought a new level of excitement to my game and I expect to get a couple of rounds in this year that will be lower than my best score from last year which was an 86

I moved this thread to the clubs section.

I've been carrying the 3 and 4H for a few years now. The extra height really makes a difference on approach shots.

[9wood]

6 hours ago, The Slapper said:

Good for you, sir. 

 

For a Slapper like myself, when a fairway shot gets to be over 190 yards I find it difficult.  This year I'm hoping to improve this sort of Golf shot with a Ping I25 fairway wood.

  

I have a 3 FW and find that my 3 Hybrid is easier to hit off the deck than my 3 FW and strangely enough I noticed that the hybrid also out distances my 3 FW when hitting off the deck. So far I have been getting 180+ yards from my hybrid which is set at 20.5 degrees loft on shots off the fairways. Just can't speak highly enough of this club.

[WUTiger]

Late last summer, I added a Cobra FlyZ 3-4H and set it at 22*. (See details in spoiler).

Spoiler

FlyZ adjustable hybrids came as 2-3H, 3-4H, 4-5H heads. For example, the 2-3H could be set from 16-19* and had a 41.25" shaft. If you wanted a shorter shaft, you could get a 3-4H and set it at 19* for a 3H. That way, you could "adjust" shaft length without trimming shafts. 

My old 4H hybrid had a draw face and a 60-gram R.flex shaft. The FlyZ has a straight-face head on a 75-gram A.flex shaft. I never would have thought of heavier + more flex as a combo, but it works fine. (Good fitters are valuable.) I may look at getting a second FlyZ to set at 19*.

That said, an iron battle is going on in my bag. Right now I carry the X20 Tours, but I also have a set of TM SLDRs which I reviewed for TST. The SLDRs, like most of the TM irons, have a polymer-filled speed slot in the sole of irons 7 and longer. The SLDR 4i is superb off the tee on tight holes, and actually carried longer than my old 4H. Only problem: it's a little iffy off the fairway.

The speed slot is just one way of tweaking the longer irons for better carry. The Callaway XR.OS have wide soles and very low, rearward COG to help with launch. Likewise, Nike, Mizuno and others have built hollow areas in their iron heads - accentuated in the longer irons - to improve launch.

Some of our TST crew carry a 4i and a 4H, as the two provide different distance and trajectory.

Hybrids are truly valuable as bridge clubs. But, the OEMs are also putting hybrid-like features in their longer irons. So, we can go to the upcoming demo days and see which mix works best. 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

I've been carrying the 3 and 4H for a few years now. The extra height really makes a difference on approach shots.

I carry a 2H and a 4H. I don't need the extra height, but they are more forgiving than irons and I miss too often with my 4I. They're really good off the tee, too.

[Lihu]

11 hours ago, 9wood said:

Until this year I had a 3 and a 4 iron in my bag which I relied on for many of my long second shots. But this year a new adjustable Cobra Bio cell hybrid has replaced both of those irons. My 3 and 4 irons were not giving me the distance on those second shots that I had hoped and wished for, especially for putting me in position to get on the green in three on those long par fives. My new hybrid really out distances my old 3 and 4 irons on those long second shots. I am totally amazed that my hybrid is allowing me better chances to score lower. I have been making pars on holes which I normally would get bogey or worse. I find that this new hybrid club is also giving me more and better chances for birdies. If I don't get more pars I know I can't blame it on my hybrid. This club has brought a new level of excitement to my game and I expect to get a couple of rounds in this year that will be lower than my best score from last year which was an 86

Most people use a fairway wood for long par 5 second shots as @The Slapper indicates. Actually, any par 5 second shot is better. It's better to try to hit better with your fairway wood than to try to out distance a 3W with a hybrid. In general, when you get a better swing the ability to hit a 3W improves. So, once you get down in the 13-15 handicap range your 3W should work much better.

The only reason to use a hybrid from these distances is when there is some obstacle in the way or if you end up in deeper rough.

The closer you can get to the hole on a second shot the better.

[PhxHacker]

I encounter quite a few long second shots into greens. I'm somewhat challenged because I primarily tee off with a 15* 3 wood much more often than a driver. Positioning off the tee is my main focus on each long hole. I don't ever pull the 3 wood for a second shot off the deck, in these instances I hit my 18* ping g15 5 wood. It is an incredible club for my swing mechanics but I haven't hit many greens with it. I have a g20 23* hybrid that I carry mostly for 180 yd par 3's. This club is terrific teed up but not so stable in the fairway.

my new set of irons - Taylormade Rocketbladez Hl's have a 24* 5 iron which I have a feeling is going to compete head to head with the 23* hybrid, which could make the hybrid obsolete, therefore I might be searching for a new lower lofted hybrid this season. I see a few people here talk about cobra bio cel amongst other clubs as well.

a question comes to mind is how do you choose a club? My only experience with picking a club is to find a club that is appealing to the eye and a name I'm comfortable with, and then see how it plays after purchasing and try to grow into the clubs characteristics. Am I going about club selection in the wrong manner?

[9wood]

5 hours ago, PhxHacker said:

I encounter quite a few long second shots into greens. I'm somewhat challenged because I primarily tee off with a 15* 3 wood much more often than a driver. Positioning off the tee is my main focus on each long hole. I don't ever pull the 3 wood for a second shot off the deck, in these instances I hit my 18* ping g15 5 wood. It is an incredible club for my swing mechanics but I haven't hit many greens with it. I have a g20 23* hybrid that I carry mostly for 180 yd par 3's. This club is terrific teed up but not so stable in the fairway.

my new set of irons - Taylormade Rocketbladez Hl's have a 24* 5 iron which I have a feeling is going to compete head to head with the 23* hybrid, which could make the hybrid obsolete, therefore I might be searching for a new lower lofted hybrid this season. I see a few people here talk about cobra bio cel amongst other clubs as well.

a question comes to mind is how do you choose a club? My only experience with picking a club is to find a club that is appealing to the eye and a name I'm comfortable with, and then see how it plays after purchasing and try to grow into the clubs characteristics. Am I going about club selection in the wrong manner?

The way I chose my Cobra Bio Cell adjustable hybrid was by doing a search on Google looking for the best rated hybrid clubs and saw that this club was rated right up in the tops with a Ping hybrid. So I started pricing the two on ebay and found that I couls get a brand new Cobra for $59 dollars. Now that I purchased this club, I can honestly say it's worth much more.

[PhxHacker]

3 hours ago, 9wood said:

The way I chose my Cobra Bio Cell adjustable hybrid was by doing a search on Google looking for the best rated hybrid clubs and saw that this club was rated right up in the tops with a Ping hybrid. So I started pricing the two on ebay and found that I couls get a brand new Cobra for $59 dollars. Now that I purchased this club, I can honestly say it's worth much more.

Yea, I hoped so, that's how I do it too. I read alot of reviews and then hit ebay. EBay is a golfers paradise.  They literally have everything and pricing is fantastic. 

Ah, I just re- read your post - adjustable hybrid. That's what I need

[WUTiger]

On 4/16/2016 at 8:27 AM, Lihu said:

... In general, when you get a better swing the ability to hit a 3W improves. So, once you get down in the 13-15 handicap range your 3W should work much better. ...

I would suggest this depends in part on how you come into the ball. At a demo day, the Tour Edge rep had people hitting both the 3W and 4W from that year's new Exotics model. Some of the big hitters (270 yard driver carry) could hit the 4W longer than the 3W. You just have to test out FWs and see what works better.

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, WUTiger said:

I would suggest this depends in part on how you come into the ball. At a demo day, the Tour Edge rep had people hitting both the 3W and 4W from that year's new Exotics model. Some of the big hitters (270 yard driver carry) could hit the 4W longer than the 3W. You just have to test out FWs and see what works better.

Yeah, that was a little bit over generalized.

[9wood]

Got out to the driving range this morning and had the opportunity to test out my most recent club which I purchased. My new club is a Adams Idea Super DHY 27 degree loft iron, R shaft, made of something other than metal. I think I found a keeper in this club, and I got it at a bargain price. At the driving range I was hitting at a green 160 yds away. I hit 10 balls at this target with my new club and I was on the green an incredible 8 out of 10 shots with this new club which left me very amazed as well as satisfied. Now I'm wondering about how much spin I was getting on the ball with this club seeing how my ball stuck on the green each time rather than roll off.  This club seems very forgiving and easy to hit, and it produced perfectly straight shots every time. Another golfer at the range was watching me and was commenting on my shots with this iron, so I asked him if he would like to give it a try and he was amazed at it as well. He wanted to know where I got it so he could see if he could get a bargain on one for himself. 

WoooHoooo!!!

Edited April 29, 2016 by 9wood
pic added