No drumrolls, no fanfare, no confetti.  In the grand scheme of things, my (hopefully permanent) relationship with a hybrid may not matter to many yet I respectfully submit that it is currently a beautiful thing.

Over the past months, I’ve tested a fair number of these clubs, hoping to find the one(s) that would carry me to a new (and lower level) of golf.  I was across the border (NY-PA) yesterday at Penn Hills Club (18) and Pine Acres CC (9–rain out as we started off 10) and became aware, amid the growing storms, that the Nike SQ SUMO hybrids were my soulmates and would stay in my bag for a long time.

These Nikes look like traditional fairway woods/metals, albeit with a thinner club face.  I’m big on looks, as I suspect many are, although I did give some of the more contemporary clubheads (Nickent, Nike SUMO2, et al.) a chance. When my eye is distracted by a back-end bulge (on the club head!), I find it difficult to execute the swing.  I imagine that, if I were mired in the high 80s to low 100s (shots, not years), or if I were 20 years younger, I’d be much less influenced by appearance and much more open to a more radical club head.

Next comes a tie between sound and feel, all of which lead to confidence and performance.  I was always equally distracted and amused by the quacking sound the first square-headed Nike driver made a few years back.  Didn’t matter to me how straight and far it went; if it sounds like a duck, then it is a duck.  Thankfully, the company has improved that aspect of the club, making life easier for wolfhounds everywhere who went to therapy due to these invisible geese.

Some dandy Cobra clubs were eliminated in the semi-finals.  I liked their look, sound and feel.  Their performance was excellent (blew two second shots to par fives at Charlotte Golf Links over the green with them in April!) but I could not punch them under trees!  Darned things flew too high.  I’d never had trouble with the punch recovery with my long irons.  I actually relied on it from trees and into the wind, and it was one shot I wanted to keep in my bag.

The final match pitted the winners against a fine entry from Titleist, the 909F2.  If this doesn’t confirm my fringe lunacy (or perhaps seat me as your hero), I don’t know what will.  The Titleist club is the ultimate player’s hybrid.  It has the traditional look (as all Titleist clubs do) and swings, sounds and feels like someone on tour should hit it.  In other words, it is slightly less forgiving than the Nikes (which have the slightest of slight offsets in the hosel.)

My 74 from the tips at Penn Hills (and 38 on the front from the tips at Pine Acres) convinced me that I can be really good, but not great.  I’m not going to venture into the high 60s anytime soon.  If I did, then the Titleist series would be the clubs for  me.  Where I am, around a 5 handicap, is a deceitful temptress.  I hit enough good shots to envision myself playing the game at the highest level; at 43, I’m realistic enough to know that I won’t be doing so.  I need the security of the Nike, although I’m darned attracted to those Titleists!  For what it’s worth, no matter how many other balls I try, I can’t get enough of the spin I get from those ProV1s!!