Hybrid golf clubs are an important advancement in golf club head technology and are currently taking the sport by a storm. By providing more accuracy even in a tight fairway and a small landing area, this club provides ease of use out of the rough and long approach shots making this club-type a trump card for golfers, including high-handicappers.
I have evaluated a large number of available options to lay down our best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers. I found TaylorMade SIM MAX Hybrid golf clubs to be better than others owing to some cool technology and interesting tweaks that I’ll discuss in detail below. These features guarantee high ball flight, more forgiveness on mishit, increased ball speed, and distance.
Our runner-up, Callaway Golf Mavrik Max Hybrid, uses AI to create specialized clubface designs. Yeah, AI isn’t just for your Tesla! These clubs offer superb ball speed, forgiveness, and longer distances. We also included three other products that stood out for their price, feel, trajectory, and more.
Here’s a list of all our picks at glance,
- TaylorMade SIM MAX Rescue Hybrids
- Callaway Golf Mavrik Max Hybrids
- Pinemeadow Excel EGI Hybrids
- TaylorMade Men’s RBZ Rescue
- Cleveland Golf Men’s Launcher HB Hybrid
Before you jump on to the products; I’d suggest you check the buyer’s guide below for well-rounded information to guide your purchase decision.
Enough said, let’s get started!
What to Look Out For Before Buying a Hybrid Golf Club
When you hit the market for a hybrid golf club, you need to keep the following factors in mind:
Loft
The loft is a measurement of the angle (in degrees) between the clubface and the vertical shaft. It determines the trajectory of the ball and its maximum distance. Higher lofts give higher launch angles while a low loft corresponds to a low flight angle. When deciding on your hybrid club, you should select the loft that matches the irons you want to replace. There are three loft options available for hybrid clubs:
Low Loft: A loft between 14 to 17 degrees, it makes for a suitable replacement for 1 and 2 irons.
Moderate Loft: Clubs with a flight angle between 18 to 22 degrees fall into this category and match 3 and 4 iron clubs.
High Loft: Clubs with high lofts are suitable for 4 and 5 irons, and they measure from 23 degrees and above.
Shaft
When picking a shaft, there are two things you should consider- the material and the flex.
Shaft Material
The two primary materials used for hybrid club shafts are graphite and steel. Steel shafts are heavier and leave less room for error than the graphite shafts. On the other hand, the graphite shaft is light, more comfortable to swing around, and gets the ball farther.
Handicappers who have a bit of experience handling the club will find steel shafts quite exciting and more accurate. Whereas, the flexible graphite shafts might fit players who haven’t gotten the right distance and speed. Mind you though, with more flexibility comes a greater room for error.
Does this mean you should only opt for steel shafts if you’re quite good at handling? No. As soon as you get your handling right, you can use both shaft types. The question will be whether you want the extra weight and can handle the graphite type’s flexibility or not.
Shaft Flex
There are five shaft flex options- Regular, Stiff, Extra-Stiff, Senior, and Ladies.
The Regular flex (or R) is the most popular flex-type. It drives the ball for 210 to 240 yards and is suitable for players with a swing speed between 75 to 84 mph.
Stiff (S) works for a swing speed of 84 to 93 mph and would drive the ball for 240 – 260 yards.
Extra-stiff (X) isn’t suitable for high handicappers. It gets the ball 260 yards and is apt for swing speeds of 93 mph and higher.
Senior flex (A) is best for high handicappers. It drives the ball from 120 to 210 yards at a swing speed of 60 to 75 mph.
Ladies (L) flex drives the ball less than 180 yards and fit those with swing speeds less than 60 mph.
Length And Weight
There isn’t a standard club length for a specific player’s height. So, choosing how long you want your club is essential and entirely player-dependent. Typically, many high handicappers go for short shafts because these are easier to control and help improve shot accuracy. In contrast, longer shafts increase the length of the swing and distance, thereby leaving more room for error.
Like length, the shaft’s weight is equally important and equally player-dependent. Heavier shafts may decrease your shot trajectory if you can’t handle them correctly and the extremely light ones are hard to control.
Forgiveness
As a high handicapper, you will need hybrid clubs that offer excellent forgiveness for your mishits. Such clubs usually blend a large sweet spot with an overall low center of gravity on the clubface. Hence, if you find a “large clubface” on a club’s product description, you can be sure that its forgiveness is quite superb.
Distance
One key advantage of hybrid clubs over their iron and wood cousins is the extra distance that the former offer. Technological advances in hybrid golf club designs are continuously happening and most clubs come with improved multi-material construction and other patented functions to increase the club’s moment of inertia; thus, more flight distance. A quick little tip to find such clubs is to find terms like “moment of inertia” or “ball speed” in product descriptions.
Pricing
Price is another crucial factor that’ll guide your choice of hybrid golf clubs. These golf clubs may cost anywhere between $100 – $350 per club, and top-quality options have a lifespan of seven to ten years, depending on the frequency/manner of use and maintenance. You may need up to three hybrid clubs so you should focus on finding a product within your budget.
Our Top 5 Hybrid Golf Clubs for High Handicappers
There are plenty of hybrids on the market that can help high handicappers to improve their game that also won’t break the bank. Here are a few good ones.
TaylorMade SIM MAX Rescue Hybrids
TaylorMade is a top manufacturer of golf products and has a reputation for innovation and advanced designs. The Taylor SIM Max Rescue Hybrids maintains the brand’s prestige and easily takes our #1 spot for best golf clubs for high handicappers.
This golf club features the TaylorMade V SteelTM Sole design to reduce friction between the club and turf on impact. Thus, offering additional versatility when playing from tight or difficult lies. The integrated Twist FaceR Technology uses corrective face angles to promote straighter shots, even when you fail to hit the ball with the center of the club’s face! Last on its advanced functions is the Thru-Slot Speed PocketTMTechnology for enhanced sole flexibility, which creates additional ball speeds and forgiveness on low-face mishits.
I found the make of this club quite impressive. The face is made of high-strength C300 steel for stronger and more powerful performance without compromising the touch and feel. Its multi-material construction, with its precise weight position on the head, accounts for a low Centre of Gravity (CG), high Moment of inertia (MOI– the club head’s resistance to twisting on impact with the ball), improved distance and better forgiveness.
SIM MAX Rescue Hybrid is available in 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 configurations/loft with the Ventus Blue shaft and the Lamkincrossline 360 soft-grip.
Overall, the product belongs to a family of easy-to-launch, distance clubs equipped with advanced features that offer an improved ease of hit for high handicappers struggling to get the ball in the air.
PROS
- Excellent touch and feel
- Easy to hit and launch
- Fujikura Ventus Blue shaft and Lamkin crossline soft-grip
- Advanced design
CONS
- Not the best forgiveness on this list
Callaway Golf Mavrik Max Hybrids
The TaylorMade SIM Max rescue Hybrid may have bested this club for our top spot, but it comes in more configurations and quite an advanced design. Callaway Golf Mavrik Max Hybrids uses AI to create specialized face designs on its Hybrid clubs. Each configuration comes with a unique face created and optimized by Artificial Intelligence for maximum ball speed and optimum efficiency on every configuration.
The Jail Break technology features two vertical bars, connecting the crown of the sole, for increased ball speed efficiency. However, this technology isn’t standalone. It functions along with the ‘Flash Face SS20’ face construction, made from a high-tensile steel face cup (Callaway patented Face Cup Technology), to improve the ball’s overall speed.
This hybrid club has a larger body, square-off toe area, and deeper CG– all this offers higher MOI for an ease of launching long distances and forgiveness on mishits. Its custom tungsten-infused energy core and urethane microsphere let you have an optimum launch with an unprecedented feature of absorbing unwanted vibrations and maximizing the COR.
This product is available in 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 offerings with different loft, Project X catalyst shaft, and the Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 soft-grip.
With all the right features, Callaway Golf 2020 Mavrik Max Hybrid is a perfect blend of speed, stability, ease of launch, and exceptional forgiveness on a mishit. Hence, an excellent option for high handicappers.
PROS
- Easy to launch
- Impressive forgiveness
- Lots of loft options for more versatility
CONS
- A bit on the costlier side.
Pinemeadow Excel EGI Hybrids
Pinemeadow Excel EGI hybrids are the latest from the EGI family. Launched in eight different lofts, they allow golfers to replace more irons with hybrids for easier, straighter, and farther hits. These can be an excellent choice if you’re looking for a budget-friendly hybrid club that offers outstanding value.
This product however, doesn’t come with the high-end features and advanced construction of the pricier models but we found its ability to get the ball in the air quite exceptional.
Like the other top-quality hybrid clubs on our list, this club features a perfect weight balance on its head thereby, offering low CG and the high MOI needed for a good launch. It also comes with a wide shaped club-head with good friction & resistance that lets you easily and efficiently use the club from different lies.
Its available loft angle ranges from 19 to 45 degrees – this is where this hybrid one-ups the pricier models and even outperforms our top 2 models. All configurations come with the Pinemeadow Graphite shaft, stainless steel clubhead, and the Pinemeadow Classic grip.
All in all, this hybrid offers simplicity and functionality at a fair price, and its design adequately meets the needs of high handicappers with adaptability to different play styles.
PROS
- Its higher loft models may improve your game
- Versatile use
- Larger clubhead with good forgiveness
- Affordable
CONS
- Lacks advanced design features
- Quite heavy
TaylorMade Men’s RBZ Rescue
Usually, pricier products are better but nothing beats a good bargain, right? If you’re looking for a cheap hybrid golf club and want the advanced designs that were missing in the Pinemeadow Excel EGI above, opting for this older model from TaylorMade might be a good tweak.
Taylor Made Men’s RBZ Rescue has some of the innovative features on SIM MAX Rescue, but not all. The club delivers outstanding performance, providing an improved launch distance but does not quite match up to the SIM MAX. The Thru-Slot Speed PocketTM technology of this club dramatically improves the ball speed, even on low-face mishits, and changes the head’s impact dynamics for more flexibility. Its Thick-Thin Crown design creates lower CG to promote higher launch for more distance, and the white crown/black face makes the alignment easy.
Like other hybrid club-heads, this unit has a shallow profile with improved sole geometry for better turf interaction so you can easily use it in difficult or tight lies.
This model has limited configurations – only three – with a maximum loft of 25 degrees. If you’re interested in higher launch angles, it wouldn’t be a good fit although its mass pad provides an optimal launch for this fairly low-trajectory with excellent sound and feel.
This hybrid uses the lightweight Rocketfuel shaft to improve its speed and the Lamkincrossline 360 soft-grip for comfy handling.
PROS
- Excellent launch, feel and sound
- Lightweight Rocketfuel shaft
- Excellent value for its price
- Large sweet spot
- Easy to use
CONS
- Limited use– only suitable for low-trajectory shots
Cleveland Golf Men’s Launcher HB Hybrid
Another exciting product we found for high handicappers is the Cleveland Launcher HB Hybrid Club. It comes with quite a few innovative features that aid you in getting more distance on shots.
The most standout feature of this unit is the new HiBore crown. This function lowers the centre of gravity to a deep position to transfer maximum energy to the ball for more distance. This model comes with an updated HiBore design. The advanced design, along with the Flex-Fin Technology (which works like a spring), compresses the core on impact and decompresses it on launch to guarantee more ball speed and straighter flight even when you don’t get the hit correct.
Another technology on this club is the lightweight hosel design (the lightest from the manufacturer). This hosel design blends with the large cup face to give the longest and the most forgiving driver force for any golf club produced by Cleveland.
Sadly, the unit is only available at 19 to 25 degrees. So, it wouldn’t fit if you prefer a higher launch, but it uses the lightweight Miyazaki C. Kua Graphite Shaft for great speeds and distance at lower flights.
PROS
- Excellent sound, feel, and launch
- A large sweet spot for top performance even on mishits
CONS
- Only available in low flight options
Why Should You Get a Hybrid?
Hybrids offer the best of both worlds- the distance of fairway wood clubs and the feel of iron clubs. They come in handy when you’re in bad lies, allowing you to cut through the rough better than any fairway wood club. Hybrids provide longer, straighter, and more consistent shots with higher launch, more spin, and a softer landing than both wood and iron clubs.
The use of hybrid golf clubs has almost doubled over the last fifteen years, with amateurs, high-handicappers, and professionals carrying at least one hybrid club in their bags.
How to Know Which Hybrid Can Replace Your Irons or Woods?
While replacing iron or wood with a hybrid club, one of the most important factors to consider is the loft. Always select a hybrid club whose loft is similar to your existing iron and wood. If the loft is similar, you can replace hybrids regardless of the club # as it varies from brand to brand.
Other factors to consider while selecting a hybrid include the shaft length and average distance. That is because you will handle the hybrid club better if it is the same height as the club you’re replacing and, since the distance differs with different golfers, you will need to replace irons or woods with hybrid clubs that match your distance. Usually, it’s a good practice to begin with your lowest # hybrid club at 10-15 yards shorter than the highest # fairway wood, so as to avoid any coverage gap.
Conclusion
All in all, it is best to opt for hybrids with superb forgiveness on mishits. Next you have to consider your preferred loft and the shaft material that suits you most (either a light graphite shaft or a heavier one made of steel).
If you’re looking for the best hybrid golf club to use for high handicappers, we believe it would be the TaylorMade SIM MAX Rescue Hybrids or the Callaway Golf Mavrik Max Hybrids. That is because they feature quite advanced designs and construction aimed at providing more distances on the ball, even on mishits. And if you’re on a budget, you might want to look at the Pinemeadow excel hybrid clubs.
Regardless of the product you pick, hybrids are a fantastic way to up your game – they even last for quite a long time if properly maintained. Hence, we recommend following the right care and maintenance as per the manual supplied with your hybrid club.