The Road to Golf Club Fitting Nirvana: Part VIII

In Part VII, I finished assembling the rest of the irons with success. I have found that I am hitting the new 575MMC irons about ½ club further in general and about 1-club further into the wind. The heft of the irons feel excellent and the Dynalite Gold SL shaft in the 4-iron is working out very well. Plus, Wishon has really made a gem with the 575MMC’s as he has been able to replicate that ‘Mizuno feel’ when you make contact with them.

Here is what is left for me to do with the irons:

- Adjust the lie angles for certain clubs

- Add a Gap Wedge

- Fix the 3-iron issue For this part of the series, I will go into what I did with my hybrid, the 775HS by Wishon Golf.



I view the hybrid for me a bit differently than Mr. Wishon. We know from the Trackman averages that the 3-iron spins about 200 rpm’s more than a hybrid. This is why I believe the better Danger Zone players on Tour typically carry this type of bag setup:

Driver
3-wood
Hybrid
3-PW
SW
LW

Because they can hit a 3-iron and 4-iron well enough, they can hit those shots and get them to hold the green better than if they were carrying an extra hybrid.

Where I believe Tom is correct is for the higher handicap golfers who simply cannot hit a 3-iron or 4-iron or 5-iron with any consistency. They are not likely to hit the green even with hybrids as a replacement. But, the hybrids allow them to consistently advance the ball towards the cup, which generally results in better scores.

For me, the hybrid is really a ‘rescue’ club. I believe that it should be the best club in the bag. Meaning, it’s the club that I have to typically use to hit the ball the furthest from the more difficult lies. I simply cannot count on hitting a 3-wood from difficult lies. The same with a 5-wood or a 2-iron. And the same could be said for a 3-iron, but also remember that I hit my 18° lofted hybrid further than my 3-iron.

Again…it’s the club that I want to be able to hit the furthest from the most difficult of lies.

I have been making really good contact with the hybrid, but I have had some issues with controlling the club. My misses tend to be pulls or cuts. My guess was that the MOI Balance Index is too high, requiring me to add weight to the shaft in order to make the clubhead feel lighter.

Here’s a comparison of the Hybrid after I disassembled it and then when I re-assembled it:

The Balance Index was well within the range of the target Balance Index (38.0 to 42.0). When I switched grips to a slightly lighter PURE Grips Pro model and used less grip tape; that altered the MOI to 2,790. However, the fix was simple. I just removed the 2-grams of lead tape that I put onto the hosel.

This would explain why I made good contact with the hybrid as the MOI and Balance Index match. I think the next step to determine the issue with the control is the lie angle which I’m guessing may be a little too flat for my swing.





3JACK