Hybrid Category Taking Over Long Irons on PGA Tour
Nickent Golf’s hybrids were in the bags of a Top 10 finisher and a Top 25 finisher at the Masters Sunday.
The player finishing 8th earned his third Top 10 in six years at the Masters, while earning $210,000 in the process. The # 8 ranked player in the world finished 22nd, netting him $67,200.
In a field of 103 players, 50 total hybrids were in play at the Masters. Because of length additions, hole No. 11 was turned into a 505-yard par-4. It ranked as the hardest hole on Augusta National Golf Course for the four-day tournament and made the golf course demand players to hit a long ball that would stop easily on Augusta’s slick, undulating greens.
One of the players using a Nickent 3DX hybrid told Bloomberg.com that the best way to handle a hole like this was to hit the ball high into the air to limit roll once it lands. The only answer was to replace longer-hitting clubs like 3- and 4-irons with a hybrid, a mix between an iron and a fairway wood.
"You can take it high in the air and have it land really soft,” said the Nickent 3DX user to Bloomberg. “The ball will stop easier on the green, instead of having it hit and roll off the back of the green, which is what happens with long irons.”
It’s not just the course changes that are getting hybrids into play. Even players who consider themselves top be "iron players" are seeing that a hybrid goes straighter, lands softer and goes farther than their long irons.
One hundred sixty eight PGA Tour players used a hybrid through the first 10 events the 2006 season, 35 more than in 2005 and 72 more than in 2004, according to Darrel Survey.
The use of hybrids at the Masters is likely to increase sales of the clubs, said Nickent Golf Equipment Chief Executive Michael Lee, whose City of Industry, California-based company’s hybrids are among the most-used on the PGA Tour.
Contact:
Jon Claffey
Director of Marketing
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jclaffey@nickentgolf.com
