Wilson Staff Hybrid Golf Clubs- 2008 Update- The Fybrid Arrives

Wilson Staff has come out with a new line of hybrid golf clubs for 2008. The product line is called Fybrid, and it actually consists of both fairway woods and hybrids with similar design features in each. In other words they have married fairway woods and hybrids together to offer long game solutions. This is a clever approach and goes one step beyond simply offering iron replacement hybrids to go along with a separate set of fairway woods.

The most distinguishing design feature is the sole plate. There are sole reliefs (that is, the back part of the sole is cut out) in the heel, toe, and central parts of the sole of the clubs, and this makes a sort of rail effect. The first two allegedly make side-hill shots easier to hit, and this makes intuitive sense. The combination of all three reliefs makes the possibility of the club bouncing into the ball less likely. In addition to the unique sole design there has been an effort to marry the club head loft and with the proper club length.

There are two wood clubs in the set, a Fybrid 3 and 5 wood. There is also a sort of pivot club between the woods and hybrids called the Fybrid FY club, and this can replace either a 2 iron, 2 hybrid, or 7 wood in a traditional set. The combination of a 19.5 degree loft and a 41 inch club length is unique and is supposedly optimal for this type of club. Filling out the product line are Fybrid 3-5 hybrid clubs.

On the Wilson Staff web site is a simple but interesting little software tool that tells you which clubs in the product line might be right for you. In other words they are not trying to push every club in the set at you, but they are suggesting which clubs would fill in the gaps between your driver and the traditional irons you carry in your bag. For example, if your swing speed is medium, your ball trajectory is low on long shots, and the longest traditional iron you can hit solidly and consistently is a 5 iron, three clubs are suggested to fill in the gap between your driver and your 5 iron. In this case the three clubs suggested are the Fybrid 5 wood, the FY Fybrid, and the Fybrid 4 Hybrid.

This marriage of hybrid golf clubs and fairway woods seems really logical, and I’m surprised that no other company has been offering this until now, although I expect others will follow. It makes perfect sense for the golfer, but I suppose such an approach might cause some fairway wood sales to slip in some cases. In that case a company that relies on fairway wood sales would be reluctant to push this approach. The same might be said for a company that relies mainly on hybrid club sales that would be reluctant to suggest a fairway wood in place of a 1H or 2H club. In any case the Fybrid idea seems excellent, and it is certainly worth a look. Kudos to Wilson Staff for coming up with this innovative idea. It is so simple it is brilliant.

Click here to read about previous Wilson Staff hybrid golf club offerings.