One thing that has confused me about hybrid golf clubs are the names they put on the clubs. You have to have a table to tell which club corresponds with which iron or wood. Usually they only specify the degrees of loft. It can get confusing, but Wilson Staff has come up with a way to alleviate the confusion. They have a hybrid that replaces each of the 3, 4 and 5 irons, and to replace the 3 and 5 woods. In between the 5 wood, and the 3 iron, they have what they call a FY hybrid. They FY replaces the 7 wood, 2 iron and 2 hybrid. The line of clubs is called “Fybrid.”
Padraig Harrington, who appeared in the video, just signed a deal with Wilson Staff to extend his endorsement of their products for several years. He has won the British Open, and the PGA championship, and you would expect that Wilson will be paying him handsomely. They are currently paying him $2 million, and while they haven’t released the numbers, many think that the new deal is for $4 million per year.
Clearly, Harrington could have endorsed any company he wanted, but chose to stick with Wilson. There is always some doubt as to whether PGA players stick with a company because the like the clubs, or because they’re getting paid a lot of money. In this case, it seems that he genuinely likes Wilson Staff golf clubs. There are probably other companies that would have paid more, or nearly as much.
I think it was important for Wilson to retain Harrington. Their golf clubs aren’t overly popular, and to lose their big name player might have meant a big loss in credibility. Both Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead endorsed Wilson clubs, but that was a long time ago.
