Do LPGA Players Use Hybrids? They Have Many in Hand (2024)

Golfing Focus deep dive study of the most popular clubs on the LPGA Tour has uncovered loads of great nuggets which can help all golfers when it comes to putting together their own bag of clubs.

And one of the key areas of focus relates to the use of hybrids among the pros at the top of the women’s game.

70% of the top 100 LPGA Tour players use hybrids with 28 players opting to put more than one hybrid in their bag. 4-time Solheim Cup player Celine Boutier uses three hybrids as does Lauren Coughlin while two-time LPGA Tour winner Leona Maguire includes a 30 degree 6-hyrbid club among the three she carries.

Such is the willingness of the best LPGA Tour pros to embrace the benefits of hybrid golf clubs that it is clearly far more common for the top women pros to carry one than not.

And as we will see this puts this aspect of the make up of their sets at odds with the players at the top of the men’s game but more in line with their male colleagues on the Champions Tour!

LPGA Players Use Hybrids More than Any Other Group of Pros

Hybrid golf clubs have become a standout achievement for club designers in recent years.

Historically, golfers of all skill levels have found long irons challenging to master, prompting the development of hybrids to specifically address this issue.

And their introduction has greatly aided golfers of all standards including the best women players on the planet.

Hybrids are now available to replace virtually every iron in the bag and the top 100 of the LPGA Tour provide clear evidence of how effectively not just one hybrid but multiple hybrids can be used within a golf club set.

Golfing Focus’ look at the topic of how many hybrids regular golfers should carry higlights Golf.com’s Top 100 Teacher Gary Weir recommendation that most golfers out there should be carrying at least two hybrids and maybe 3.

And it seems that LPGA Tour pros are more than comfortable to adopt this strategy.

As we have already noted more than two thirds of the top 100 LPGA Tour pros carry one hybrid including world no.1 Nelly Korda, Brooke Henderson and Olympic Golf Medallist and 2024 Women’s British Open Champion Lydia Ko.

The list of pros within this elite group carrying two hybrids is also extensive with the 28 players carrying two.

This number includes three time LPGA Tour winner Ruoning ‘Ronni’ Yin, Megan Khang and former major champion Jennifer Kupcho while Leona Maguire, Celine Boutier and Lauren Coughlin all carry three hybrids each.

That two of the top 15 women’s golfers in the world – Boutier and Coughlin – put three hybrids in their bag illustrates how effective a strategy carrying multiple hybrids can be with great players carrying hybrids up to lofts of 25, 26 and even 30 degrees in Maguire’s case.

A comparative Golfing Focus analysis of the hybrids the pros on the PGA Tour use showed much less of a willingness to use hybrids among these top players.

Saying that our detailed research still found close to 1/3 of the top PGA Tour pros opting to put a hybrid in their bag although we did not find any using more than one.

But while their consistent choosing of hybrids put them at odds with the club choices of their younger male colleagues our look into the most used hybrids by Champions Tour pros demonstrated the LPGA players’ approach to be much more closely aligned with their senior male colleagues.

On the senior Tour Golfing Focus uncovered 74% of fifty of the top Champions Tour pros carrying at least one hybrid with 8% using two including the great Bernhard Langer.

Two Champions Tour pros meanwhile, John Daly and the ‘Hybrid King’ Y.E.Yang carry three.

Champions Tour pros therefore clearly are much more aligned with LPGA Tour pros when it comes to hybrids however when it comes to total numbers it is clear that the best women players in the world are the most willing among the pro ranks to put a hybrid, and often multiple hybrids, in their golf bags.

What Hybrids Do LPGA Players Use – Top 100 Breakdown

In Golfing Focus’ in-depth study of the hybrids being used by the best LPGA Tour pros we discovered a total of 101 individual hybrid clubs being used by the seventy pros in the top 100 putting one in their bag.

Of these 101 hybrid golf clubs we then uncovered 26 different models made by 9 different manufacturers being played.

And when it came to preference it seems clear this select group on the LPGA Tour consider PING hybrids to be the best with our analysis showing 41% of all the hybrids used by the top 100 on the LPGA Tour to be produced by PING.

Callaway hybrids are the second most used hybrids by the top 100 with 28% of all the hybrids being either an Apex, Apex Pro, Apex UW, Mavrik, Paradym Ai Smoke, Rogue ST Max or Rogue ST Pro Callaway model.

PING’s G430 hybrids however are by far the most used hybrid among the top 100 with this club making up 24% of all the hybrids being played by the top 100.

BRAND OF HYBRID	% OF HYBRIDS USED BY TOP 100 ON LPGA TOUR (SELECTED GOLFERS)	MOST USED HYBRID MODEL
PING	41% (Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko, Amy Yang, Ally Ewing, Maja Stark, Jennifer Kupcho, Lauren Coughlin, Allisen Corpuz)	G430 Check PGA Superstore
Callaway	28% (‘Ronni’ Yin, Minjee Lee, Angel Yin, Yuka Saso, Georgia Hall, Rose Zhang, Jenny Shin)	Apex UW Check eBay
Titleist	9% (Jin Young Ko, Gaby Lopez, Alex Pano, Emily Pedersen)	TSi2
TaylorMade	7% (Charley Hull, Megan Khang, Brooke Henderson, Sei Young Kim)	SIM Max
PXG	6% (Celine Boutier, Anna Nordqvist)	0311 Gen6
Srixon	5% (Nasa Hataoka, Ashleigh Buhai)	ZX Mk II
Bridgestone	1% (Ayaka Furue)	Tour B JGR
Mizuno	1% (Olivia Cowan)	CLK
Yonex	1% (Hyo Joo Kim)	Ezone GT
No data	2%

Saying all that it would be remise of us not to acknowledge the role sponsorship plays in the choices of clubs the best women golfers make.

Therefore when we consider the question of what is the most ‘popular’ or ‘best’ LPGA hybrid it must be considered in this context.

PING have been the most long term and consistent supporter of the women’s professional game and cynics would therefore immediately cite their endorsement of many top LPGA Tour pros as the reason their hybrids are the most used.

Not all of the users of PING hybrids on the LPGA Tour will be sponsored by the company however.

And while a degree of healthy scepticism is no bad thing when it comes to looking at the most used hybrids the top 100 LPGA Tour pros are using, that over 40% of the hybrids chosen are made by PING shows their must be something about them that is working for a large number of top women professionals.

The Hybrid Shafts & Lofts Used by LPGA Tour Pros

The best women golfers in the world are very particular when it comes to the set up of their clubs and this attention to detail is clearly evident in the shafts and lofts they set up their hybrids with.

Overall among the top 100 LPGA Tour pros Golfing Focus found well over 30 different models of shafts produced by 10 different shaft manufacturers being chosen. And that’s before you add in variants based on shaft weight and flex.

As a result no one individual shaft specification was found to be in more than four of the 101 hybrids we discovered being used by the top 100 players. And the most used individual shaft shaft spec is KBS’ Tour Graphite Hybrid Prototype 65 S which is the choice of Brooke Henderson.

Strip out shaft weight and flex considerations however and the KBS Tour Graphite Hybrid Prototype shaft shows itself to be more clearly the most preferred shaft model with 14 of the 101 hybrids being fitted with a version of it.

Together with Henderson, top 10 world ranking players Celine Boutier, Amy Yang and Rose Zhang all opt for a model of this KBS’ shaft in their hybrids.

Overall however Graphite Design shafts are the most common in the hybrids chosen by the top 100 LPGA Tour players with 16% of all the hybrids we analysed fitted with one of their shafts.

Their Tour AD Hybrid shaft is Graphite Design’s most used individual shaft and counts Lydia Ko amongst its users alongside Minjee Lee.

Mitsubishi and PING shafts come next with making up 13% each of the 101 hybrids used by the top 100 with Fujikura being fitted in 11% and 5% of that hybrid total respectively.

BRAND OF HYBRID SHAFT	% OF HYBRIDS USED BY TOP 100 ON LPGA TOUR	MOST USED HYBRID SHAFT MODEL
Basileus	1%	UT Rev.2
Fujikura	11%	Ventus Blue HB 7
Graphite Design	16%	Tour AD HY 65
KBS	15%	KBS Tour Graphite Hybrid Prototype 75
Mitsubishi	13%	Tensei CK Blue 80HY
Miyazaki	2%
PING	13%	Alta CB Black 70
True Temper	5%	Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black
UST Mamiya	2%	Recoil 75 DART F3
Yonex	1%	Rexis Kaiza
No data	22%

Although it is intended that hybrids replace their comparable iron – in other words a 3 hybrid replaces a 3-iron, a 4-hybrid a 4-iron and so on – it is important to bear in mind that there is a range of hybrid lofts that compare to individual irons.

And this is reflected in the hybrid lofts played by the LPGA Tour pros.

Our study for example unearthed five different lofts of 3-hybrid and 4-hybrid clubs being used by the top 100 LPGA Tour pros, four different lofts of 5-hybrid and two variant lofts each of two and six hybrids.

The table below summarises the hybrid loft variants we found in each hybrid club type but the most important thing for LPGA Tour pros, or any golfer for that matter when it comes to settling on a hybrid loft, is not the degrees of loft or hybrid number stamped on it.

HYBRID CLUB	NO. OF LOFTS OF HYBRIDS USED BY TOP 100 LPGA TOUR PROS
2 Hybrid	16.5 degrees (x1) 17 degrees (x1)
3 Hybrid	19 degrees (x23) 19.5 degrees (x1) 19.6 degrees (x2) 20 degrees (x2) 20.5 degrees (x1) No Data (x3)
4 Hybrid	21 degrees (x7) 22 degrees (x20) 22.5 degrees (x1) 23 degrees (x6) 24 degrees (x2) No Data (x4)
5 Hybrid	24 degrees (x1) 25 degrees (x2) 26 degrees (x7) 26.5 degrees (x1) No Data (x1)
6 Hybrid	29 degrees (x1) 30 degrees (x2) No Data (x1)

One pro’s 24 degree 4-hybrid can be another player’s 5-hybrid with an identical loft.

Each of the top LPGA Tour pros using hybrids will take their time choosing the loft that will enable them to carry the ball the exact yardage they want and with the correct gap to the club immediately above and below it in the bag.

The will also be painstaking with their search for that loft and overall set up of hybrid that will deliver the ball flight they prefer.

So if you are playing hybrids yourself it is worth learning this lesson from the top women players on the LPGA Tour and paying close attention to the yardage gaps you hit between them rather than simply swapping out your 3 and 4-iron for example for a H3 and H4.

Before You Go …

Wanting to know what shafts the top LPGA Tour pros use in their hybrids and other clubs? Check out our similarly in-depth look at that topic below.

Do LPGA Players Use Stiff Or Regular Shafts? Don’t Just Flex Focus

Do LPGA Players Use Graphite shafts? Break It Down By Club Type

Or if you are simply wondering how many hybrids you should have in your golf bag read our next article to discover some practical guidelines – including the ’24/38 rule’ – that can help!

What Hybrids Should You Carry? It’s All About Ego

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