Are You Considering a Nike Hybrid Golf Club?

If you're interested in a Nike hybrid golf club, the company has released several models over the past few years. Some companies, like Nike, call their blend of fairway wood and iron a "hybrid club." Others call it a "rescue club," and still other companies refer to these clubs as "utility clubs." But no matter what their manufacturers call them, there's no question that hybrids are popular with golfers of all skill levels - even the pros.

Nike, like other golf club makers, knows that hybrid clubs are gaining popularity at an extremely rapid pace. The result is an ever-increasing number of hybrids to choose from. So, you have some options if you're interested in getting a Nike hybrid golf club. But before I discuss any specific golf club, let's talk for just a minute about why hybrids have become so popular.

As a general rule, hybrids are much easier to hit than the long- and mid- irons they typically replace. It's said that no club is harder to hit than a 2-iron - except for a 1-iron! Even a 4-iron is beyond many golfers' capabilities. That's why so many iron sets today are coming with one or two hybrid clubs instead of a 3-, 4- or even 5-iron. Compared to a long iron, it's easier to launch the ball higher, easier to hit the ball out of the rough, and easier to hit the ball farther with a hybrid. Enough said.

Now, why would you consider getting a Nike hybrid golf club in particular?

Nike is making a bid to become one of the top golf club manufacturers. But, in my mind at least, it hasn't (not yet, anyway) attained the same sort of status as golf's "Big Three" - Callaway, TaylorMade and PING. I suspect that many of the golfers who use Nike golf clubs play with a Nike driver. For example, the Nike Sumo and its progeny have been fairly popular since they came out. I also suspect that a fair number of golfers play with Nike irons of one type or another. Nike Slingshot irons, for example, have been pretty popular with amateur golfers. But, for one reason or another, I've never had the impression that any Nike hybrid golf club has "taken off" and become wildly popular the way some other companies' hybrids have.

There are several Nike hybrid golf clubs to choose from. The Nike Slingshot hybrid may be one of the company's most popular hybrids. For their time (2005 or 2006, if I recall correctly), they were very forgiving, with a low center of gravity to make them easy to hit. In fact, Nike positioned more than two-thirds of the club head's weight beneath the equator of the ball. No wonder people said their Slingshot hybrids made it easy for them to get the ball in the air! And all this weight is positioned deep in the club head, by means of a "Slingshot bar" placed at the back of the club head. The result is a club with a very high Moment of Inertia that resists twisting on off-center hits - a good recipe for accuracy.

On a personal level, I never cared for Nike Slingshot hybrid clubs, because in addition to this admittedly helpful weighting technology, they have a significant offset. Unfortunately, this particular design feature can be near-fatal for golfers who have a natural draw (like me). All they ever gave me was low, hard hooks. Slicers might love these clubs, though, because the offset helps them have a square clubface at impact.

A year or two later, the Nike SQ Sumo Squared hybrids (SQ SUMO²) came out. The appearance of this particular Nike hybrid golf club really turned some heads. Like the Slingshot hybrids, the Sumo Squared hybrids offered an extremely high Moment of Inertia and deep weighting to produce high shots. But its square-shaped head and amount of offset put me off. You might like it, though.

There have been several other Nike hybrid golf club lines released between now and then. For example, the company's hybrid clubs for 2011 are the Nike VR Pro hybrid and the Nike SQ MachSpeed hybrid. I might have to try them out, because I might really like them if Nike has eliminated that pesky offset. Of course, if you're a slicer or fader, you might like one of these Nike hybrid golf clubs even if the offset is still there.

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