Generally, the tour players adopt new golf club technology before us amateurs. They have golf clubs engineers at their disposal, and they have access to the technology before it even hits the shelves at the pro shop.
That principal has not held true for hybrids. The use of hybrids has gone up a lot on tour over the last several years, but amateurs have been much quicker to adopt hybrid golf clubs. In 2002, 2% of PGA players were using hybrids. Today, 30% are using hybrids, while 66% of golf club sets sold to retail purchasers contain at least one hybrid.
I could see how some players see no advantage in a hybrid, and will continue using long irons. I could also see how some players would change the configuration of their bag from course to course, but I think it’s pretty funny how 93% of the players who now use a hybrid saw no use for it in 2002.
I remember when hybrid type clubs first started coming out, and how some sets of ladies or seniors sets were made up almost entirely of hybrids. I guess that’s where hybrids sort of got a stigma attached to them. My friends and I soft of made fun of hybrids, because we assumed they were good only for people with really low swing speeds. All the while, I was struggling to hit a decent shot with my 3-iron.
I guess PGA players must have thought much the same thing that my friends and I thought. Come to think of it, some of the guys that have won on tour this year are younger than me. Any of them who are about my age, must have committed to never playing a hybrid as well. I think if or when Tiger Woods starts using a hybrid, any stigma attached to hybrids will evaporate.
<!--Session data-->
