Hybrids

performance ★★★★★

innovation ★★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★★★

demand ★★★★

player comment “The weighting on this head is perfect. I can feel the clubhead throughout the swing, which helps me keep it on plane longer.”

performance ★★★★★

innovation ★★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★★ ½

demand ★★★★

player comment “Light and speedy, the club is through impact before you know it. The attractive green accents pop just like the crisp sound.”

callaway

APEX • APEX PRO RRP AED 1,349

▶ It’s not as if Callaway’s Apex hybrid was one of those secretmenu options at In-N-Out burger reserved for burger-a-holics. But the club did have a limited, enthusiastic audience of mostly elite players who liked the ultra-compact size and iron-like setup. However, this year’s Apex hybrid is more like In-N-Out’s DoubleDouble, fully loaded with forgiveness and ball-speed ingredients in two sizes based on how hungry your game is. The standard Apex (pictured) is for those who want all they can get. It’s larger and features a huge slab of tungsten in the rear and toe to balance the center of gravity for extra forgiveness and a lower-spinning launch. The Apex Pro stays truer to the original compact footprint and doesn’t need the extra tungsten, producing instead a lower launch with a little more spin. Still, both designs get their extra sizzle from new cupfaces designed by Callaway’s artifi cialintelligence platform, unique to each model and loft. Also newly designed with A.I. input are the internal “Jailbreak” bars that join the crown and sole. Both face and bars (now angled and placed farther apart) work in concert to produce better all-around fl exing, including extra juice on impacts high and low on the face.

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cobra

RADSPEED • RADSPEED ONE LENGTH RRP AED 995

▶ Hybrids have been assigned an almost impossible task. Not only are they asked to produce distance and a high launch in an area of the game in which many golfers struggle, they must do so despite diffi cult lies and unruly swings that often make contact with the big ball (Earth) before the little one. Cobra’s solution for years has been the use of rails on the sole that lower the clubhead’s center of gravity for a higher launch and reduce turf interference from all sorts of lies to help direct clubhead speed into the golf ball. The problem with sole rails, however, is they can stiff en the lower part of the face so that you don’t get the benefi t of a fl exible-face design. Cobra’s solution is to hollow out the front part of the rails. This provides the full benefi ts of turf relief while allowing the face to fl ex as freely as if the rails were not there. In addition, thanks to the use of thinner, stronger and lighter steels in the body and face, this year’s design works even better by repositioning internal weighting in extreme areas in the front (heel and toe weight pads) and rear (a central sole weight). That arrangement generates better ball speed with forgiveness and a higher launch with low spin.

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performance ★★★★ ½

innovation ★★★★ ½

look • sound • feel ★★★★ ½

demand ★★ ½

player comment “Perfect compact shape and sweet matte fi nish. Explodes at impact but never out of control. High fl ight like a wood with the feel of an iron. Great turf interaction.”

performance ★★★★★

innovation ★★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★★★

demand ★★★★★

player comment “The matte black and three alignment dots help me fi nd the correct setup. Really frames the ball nicely. Straight and consistent. Ball popped with a high fl ight.”

mizuno

CLK RRP AED 950

▶ Golfers are looking for the kind of hybrid that isn’t confused about its mission, namely to be a better version of the iron it’s replacing. That’s what Mizuno has accomplished here: The CLK isn’t pretending to be some kind of downsized fairway-wood blunderbuss but instead the kind of sharpshooter club that solves the gapping issues in the long end of your bag with the right mix of distance and control. Still, though the shaping might be seen as reasonably compact and perhaps resonating exclusively with better players, this design features a rare maragingsteel alloy that creates the extra ball speed every kind of player is looking for at these lower lofts. The specialty steel improves the fl exing of the face, and the reconfi gured wave structure in the front part of the sole provides an extra kick. The face now compresses more freely so that the lower part of the face fl exes better. That’s helpful because so many hybrid-shot impacts are below the center of the face. The adjustable hosel, which has eight settings to tweak loft and lie, allows the club to more easily fi t a particular players’ iron specs for proper loft gapping and lie angle. It also stretches the loft range from a 6-iron to a 1-iron.

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ping

G425 RRP AED 1,575

▶ Ping has developed eff ective and user-friendly hybrids for a generation by focusing on off -center-hit stability. The G425 follows in this tradition. The design philosophy starts with the positioning of internal weight deep in the back of the club. This creates a low and deep center of gravity that produces extra stability and helps elevate the trajectory of all shots. Even better, each model’s CG is slightly diff erent: Lower lofts have a slight fade bias, and the remaining lofts are more neutral. Ping takes this extra step to better serve the needs and skill levels of the golfers who tend to buy those lofts. All of these design features in the back of the club continue in Ping’s newest hybrids, but now there’s also an emphasis on what’s happening up-front. The new face design wraps around the crown and sole. This allows the areas at the top and bottom of the face to be thinner and more fl exible to improve distance everywhere. Even the clubface curvature changes low on the face so that shots launch with less distance-killing spin for a more consistent fl ight across the face. Oh, and they’re still friendly: An adjustable hosel and a newly added 7-hybrid stretch the loft range across 20 degrees.

Demo this club at eGolf Megastore, or buy online at egolfmegastore.ae

performance ★★★★★

innovation ★★★★ ½

look • sound • feel ★★★★★

demand ★★ ½

player comment “Instills confi dence—from the look at address to the grip to the alignment lines. I wanted to swing it all day. Love that it’s customizable.”

performance ★★★★ ½

innovation ★★★★ ½

look • sound • feel ★★★★ ½

demand ★★

player comment “Appealing, slim design. Ridge on the crown is friendly to see at address. Vibrant, crisp sound. The ball gets up in a hurry. Fairly workable with good carry.”

pxg

0317 X PROTO RRP AED 2,295

▶ With hybrids, as with all metalwoods these days, the wealth of technological riches can distract us from what really makes these clubs most eff ective. That’s the case here where there’s a checklist of fl ashy innovations: (1) a high-strength maragingsteel alloy in the face for faster fl exing at impact; (2) a lightweight carbon-fi ber central panel in the crown to lower the center of gravity for a penetrating launch with less spin; (3) an eight-way adjustable hosel and three movable sole weights to accommodate an array of performance needs—enhancing one player’s preferred ball fl ight and addressing another’s weaker miss. But quieter elements in this hybrid matter at least as much, maybe more. This hybrid has a utilitarian sole design in which a lower center section helps smooth the club’s path through the turf and pushes down the CG. The squared-off toe expands the hitting area and gives the face the more comfortable look of an iron. PXG has also increased the length heel to toe for better performance on off -center hits. Finally, that pad of elastomer inside the sole helps soften vibration, resulting in something that perhaps resonates with golfers the most: better sound and feel.

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srixon

ZX RRP AED 1,145

▶ Srixon has a memo for those of you who assumed making the center of the face hotter—particularly on compact hybrids—was no longer possible: Try a little harder; there’s more there than you know. In this case, added speed isn’t just the fl exing of the face but how the area immediately around the face can take the face to another level. A high-strength steel alloy makes the face 5 percent thinner than previous models for more rebound at impact, but by encircling the areas outside the face with stiff and fl exible zones, Srixon created a second springy support region that amplifi es the way the face defl ects at impact. That means better energy transfer to the ball for off -center and on-center strikes. That’s especially helpful in a hybrid of this compact size in which less face area makes it more challenging to create higher ball speeds. The faster action of the clubface is a key to distance, but a lower center of gravity reduces spin for an effi cient trajectory. That’s where the step down in the fi rst part of the crown comes in. It lowers the midpoint within the head to yield a higher launch with less spin. As a bonus, that structure helps the face defl ect more for, that’s right, more ball speed.

Demo this club at eGolf Megastore, or buy online at egolfmegastore.ae

performance ★★★★★

innovation ★★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★★★

demand ★★★★★

player comment “Crisp, controlled sound. Shots took off and refused to slow down. I could play the Max and not need a fairway wood.”

performance ★★★★

innovation ★★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★ ½

demand ★★★ ½

player comment “It has a slightly larger shape that delivers a punch. The ball goes high and straight. No trouble getting through the turf—none.”

taylormade

SIM2 RESCUE • MAX RESCUE RRP AED 1,245

▶ There are the golf shirts Adidas makes to fi t the uber-athletic Dustin Johnson. Then there are the ones Adidas makes for the mere mortals. Similarly, hybrids need to be designed diff erently for the two classes of golfers who use them. The standard SIM2 (above) is all about enhancing the skills of better players. It has a smaller head for more versatility and a penetrating iron-like ball fl ight. The shaft is shorter to allow for a heavier head so that extra mass can be repositioned for the right amount of forgiveness. Furthermore, its adjustable hosel can adapt to diff erent ballfl ight needs. Conversely, the Max is larger front to back and heel to toe for optimal forgiveness and a higher launch. Still, every level of golfer wants more ball speed. That’s why both options in this line have sleek soles with a lower center section to promote clean turf interaction. This design feature also increases perimeter weighting for even more forgiveness. Best of all, each of these thin, high-strength steel faces is jet-fueled by an ingenious slot that cuts through the sole so that it fl exes more freely. The slot extends well into the toe for extra speed over much of the face, especially eff ective with SIM2’s adjustable hosel.

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callaway

BIG BERTHA B21 RRP AED 1,295

▶ Although the origin story of hybrids started with helping average golfers with their ineptitude, many hybrids today don’t always commit to the concept. Rather than flirting with the idea, however, this head exudes super game improvement. It’s not that the B21 swings itself, but it does nearly everything else for those whose only airborne long iron was the one they javelined into the lake on 16. For starters, there’s a carbon-composite crown to save weight in the oversize head, pushing the center of gravity lower. Molded tungsten weights deep in the heel and toe also move mass low, and even the hosel’s smaller size adds to this eff ect. The saved weight is redistributed along the perimeter for extra forgiveness, and the off set hosel helps to square the face and elevate launch. The wraparound cupface gets Callaway’s artifi cial-intelligence treatment, which forms a variable-thickness design unique to each loft. Then there’s the boost from the pair of internal vertical bars that join the crown and sole. Known as Callaway’s “Jailbreak” technology, it concentrates fl exing in the face for better energy transfer. If that’s not enough game-saving help for you, there’s even an 8-hybrid in the line.

Demo this club at eGolf Megastore, or buy online at egolfmegastore.ae

performance ★★★★

innovation ★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★★

demand ★

player comment “The top of the clubhead is simple, black and compact. Feels light in my hands yet solid with a crisp sound at impact. Consistently high ball fl ight.”

performance ★★★★

innovation ★★★★

look • sound • feel ★★★★ ½

demand ★★ ½

player comment “Clean, two-tone modern style with the matte fi nish. Larger head gives me confi dence. Flushed shots take off with a lot of heat, but mis-hits are forgiven, too.”

honma

TR21 RRP AED 1,595

▶ The fear among really good players is that too many hybrids tend to be loaded with things they don’t need, particularly a larger, rounded size, higher-launch features and a general draw bias. It’s why hybrid use on the PGA Tour is down a third from just fi ve years ago. But the TR21’s compact shape and an emphasis on a neutral, green-friendly trajectory is what better players want. The TR21 achieves this with a more squared-off , iron-like look at address, a narrower sole that zips through the turf and internal weighting that makes it easier to work the ball. It’s a design approach the team at Honma calls “distance with control,” and it is fostered by a thin crown that lowers the center of gravity within the head for better spin control so that shots spend more energy fl ying forward than ballooning. The TR21 adds other seemingly minor elements that will appeal to skilled players. The sole weight can be switched out to better fi t a certain swingweight or shaft combination. Also, the adjustable hosel can change loft and lie by a degree, but those changes don’t affect the shaft’s characteristics, particularly important for those whose games are precisely dialed in.

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pxg

0211 RRP AED 1,195

▶ Why talk about forgiveness in a hybrid if you can’t get the clubface to the ball with the full force of your swing? Yes, a welldesigned, fl exible face increases ball speed, and a structure that saves weight for more forgiveness is a grand thing. But all of that isn’t fully realized if the ground gets in the way fi rst. That’s why the rail structure on the sole might be the 0211’s best form of forgiveness. Sure, this clubhead uses plenty of aggressive technologies to maximize off ense. For example, a high-strength steel alloy in the face enhances defl ection for more distance, and a carbon-composite panel in the crown saves weight, too, helping its larger profi le fully embrace forgiveness. But the twin rails on the sole stretching from front to back provide forgiveness where average golfers need it the most. With the club gliding across the ground, more of your swing’s energy is effi ciently delivered to the ball at impact. The low-riding rails also drop the center of gravity to help shots launch higher with more spin. PXG’s engineers say there is yet another valuable benefi t: The rails stiff en the bottom of the clubhead so that there is less unwanted vibration for better sound and feel.

Demo this club at eGolf Megastore, or buy online at egolfmegastore.ae