Hybrid Power: The Most Used Hybrids on the PGA Tour (2024)

When we covered what are the most used clubs the best pros on the PGA Tour we decided not to stop there.

We wanted to go deeper into the individual club types they are using so in this article we look at hybrids – the club that has proved to be the saviour for all standards of golfers (including the pros!) struggling to hit their long irons consistently well.

Titleist are the most used hybrids on the PGA Tour with Callaway’s Apex UW the most used individual model with 12 of the top 100 PGA Tour pros using it. 32% of this select group use a hybrid, including Sam Burns and Jordan Speith with 40 players in total, including Xander Schauffele carrying one as part of a wider set of clubs that changes depending on course conditions.

Matt Kuchar is the only one of the top 100 to use two hybrids.

With close to 1/3 of the very best players in the world using hybrids – and almost another 10% of them choosing to play a hybrid when the course conditions suit – it is comforting to know that the top pros are also taking advantage of the help hybrids offer over traditional long irons when it comes to hitting their long shots consistently better.

As is the case with everything though when it comes to the pros the story doesn’t stop there.

A more in-depth look at what specific hybrids they use highlights the attention to detail that the best players put into selecting their clubs and why more pros don’t use them.

Most Used Hybrids on The PGA Tour – Top 100 Players Breakdown

When it comes to alternatives to long irons the pros have a few options whether that be a hybrid, a driving or utility iron or a higher-lofted fairway wood such as a 5-wood, 7-wood or even 9-wood.

Golfing Focus took a similar in-depth look at both the fairway woods (click here) and driving irons (click here) being used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros and although 5-woods are a slightly more popular choice, hybrids are a definite mainstay amongst the best pros on Tour.

Although well over half of the top 100 use a 5-wood or 7-wood, seven of that group still choose to also add a hybrid to their bag.

Nick Taylor for example carries a 21º Titleist TSR2 hybrid in addition to his TaylorMade SIM2 Max 18º 5-wood.

2022 US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick and 2024 Wyndham Championship winner Aaron Rai also have a 4 and 5-hybrid respectively in their golf bags as well as a 5-wood.

In their cases however, the hybrid is part of a wider set of 15 clubs with their hybrid and 5-wood interchanging depending on the tournament and course they are playing in any individual week.

That being said, while more often than not it is the case that the top pros will be choosing between adding a higher numbered fairway wood or driving iron to add to their bag in preference to a hybrid, it is not always a binary decision.

Further, the fact that the near 1/3 of the top 100 that always use hybrids includes some of the very best players in the world – such as Sam Burns and 2025 USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley – shows they are a potential option for anyone.

And while Callaway’s Apex UW hybrid is the most used among this elite group Golfing Focus’ in-depth analysis also found 18 different models of hybrid being played by the pros choosing to use them.

It also highlighted that of the five equipment ‘free agents’ – in other words the non-sponsored pros who are free to play whatever clubs they want – we uncovered to be using hybrids 4 out of 5 chose Titleist hybrids.

Matt Fitzpatrick and Aaron Rai both have Titleist’s TSR2 hybrid in their bag while Patrick Rodgers and Ben Kohles opt for their TSi3 and TSR3 models respectively.

Brendon Todd is the outlier of the five ‘free agents’ with his choice of a PING G425 hybrid.

So while Callaway’s Apex UW wins the individual usage award among the top 100 PGA Tour pros it appears Titleist is the preferred hybrid brand of choice among both the sponsored and non-sponsored players.

BRAND OF HYBRID	NO. OF TOP 100 PGA TOUR PROS USING BRAND (Equipment free agents in italics)	MOST USED HYBRID MODEL
Titleist	18 (inc. Matt Fitzpatrick, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Jordan Speith, Aaron Rai, J.T.Poston, Russell Henley, Patrick Rodgers, Nick Taylor, Ben Kohles)	TSR2 View at PGA Superstore
Callaway	14 (inc. Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley, Adam Svensson, Adam Hadwin, Lee Hodges, Beau Hossler)	Apex UW Check eBay
TaylorMade	4 (inc. Robert MacIntyre, Matt Kuchar)	Stealth 2 View at PGA Superstore
PING	3 (inc. Brendon Todd, Matt Kuchar)	Anser Check eBay
Adams	1 (Andrew Putnam)	Idea Pro Gold Tour

[Note – Just so you know, and we are upfront as an affiliate program participant, Golfing Focus, at no cost to you, earns from qualifying purchases made through links on this page.]

Hybrid Lofts are Not All the Same Among the PGA Pros

One of the intriguing things when looking at the hybrids used by the best PGA pros is that there is no set loft attached to an individual number of hybrids.

While most tour players with hybrids in the bag will use them in place of a traditional 3-iron or 4-iron it is not simply a case of them automatically choosing an H3 or H4 hybrid.

In our look at why hybrids are easier to hit we give a guide of the degree ranges individual hybrids typically range from and to and the equivalent iron and wood they are intended to replace.

But there are no absolutely exact set of hybrid lofts that compare directly to irons and this is born out when you look at the hybrids used by the top 100 on the PGA Tour.

Golfing Focus’ analysis of that group finds different pros using hybrids of loft 17.25 degrees – most closely aligned to a 2-iron or 4-wood loft – all the way up to 25 degrees, the loft of a normal 5-iron or 9-wood.

And while some of the top pros will take a 4-hybrid and bend the loft to the equivalent of a 3-hybrid others will do the reverse.

Among the top pros we even find hybrid lofts as precise as 19.7º, the loft of 2024 USPGA and British Open Champion Xander Schauffele’s Callaway Apex UW hybrid, which highlights the importance of not paying too much attention to the number on the hybrid itself.

The most important thing when it comes to hybrids is the distance and ball flight it delivers rather than the oft.

And each of these pros will spend a huge amount of time choosing a hybrid loft, rather than a hybrid number, to let them hit the ball:

1. The yardage they want, with the correct gap to the clubs immediately above and below it in the bag, and
2. With the ball flight they are targeting (i.e. ideal height and shape of shot via a draw or fade)

So if you are playing hybrids yourself – and we would recommend the vast majority of amateur golfers carry at least 2 if not 3 hybrids in their bag – it is worth paying attention to the ball flights and yardage gaps you hit between them rather than automatically swapping out your 2, 3 and 4-iron for example for a H2, H3 and H4.

Why Don’t More Pros Use Hybrids? Shaping Shots and Conditions

We have already noted that 32% of the top 100 pros on the PGA Tour use hybrids and 40% overall use a hybrid at various points throughout a tournament season.

So when it comes to the question of ‘do pros use hybrids’ the answer is clearly yes.

It has to be acknowledged that a higher number among this elite group choose a 5-wood or 7-wood (53%) but the fact that nearly one-third always choose to play a hybrid shows it is a trusted option for even the very best players in the world.

But why don’t more pros use hybrids?

The answer to that of course comes down to personal preference but specifically what it typically comes down to is whether a player is prioritising being able to ‘work the ball’ over higher launch, spin and distance.

Long irons – and often utility/driving irons when it comes to the irons in the bag hybrids will typically replace – are frequently preferred by pros who like to be able to draw the ball right to left or fade it left to right when they choose to (i.e. ‘work the ball’).

With their increased thickness and centre of gravity further back from the clubface hybrids are not as effective in letting even the best players do that so some pros will choose long irons over hybrids on that basis.

For his 2024 USPGA win at the sun baked Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky for example Xander Schauffele stuck with his trusty 19.7º (bent from 21º) Apex UW hybrid.

But in the blustery and wet conditions at the British Open at Royal Troon, he swapped out his hybrid in preference for a Mizuno MP-20 HMB 3-iron to ‘work the ball’ through the strong winds to win the claret jug.

With their lower lofts and forward centres of gravity however long irons are correspondingly not as effective as hybrids or higher-numbered fairway woods in letting players hit the ball high.

And that can be a major problem on firmer courses where the pros need to be able to launch the ball high with high spin rates to hold very fast greens on a long par-3 or two-shot par-5.

To solve this pros will most often either opt for a high lofted fairway wood or hybrid and as the numbers show more among the top 100 prefer the fairway woods options.

The reasons for that are again often related to personal preference.

A hybrid has the distance capabilities of an iron, but the ease of flight and the dynamics of the way a wood plays … so, there’s a combination of a lot of different things which is making them easier to hit.

Former World Club-Maker of the Year Derek Murray of Fore Golf

But more precisely it can be because higher swing speed players, which the top pros are, often find hybrids make the ball turn left due to their slight draw bias as a result of them having more weight in the heel of the club.

Higher lofted fairway woods by comparison will be more neutral at impact due to their larger heads and so will go straighter which pros can prefer, especially off the tee.

But with close to 1/3 of the top 100 using hybrids it is a reasonably close run thing and luckily for the pros they can swap hybrids and high-numbered fairway woods in and out of their bag whenever they want and more importantly at no cost!

And at certain courses that means many of them will choose to add more hybrids rather than less.

At the high rough and firm East Course at Oak Hill for the 2023 USPGA for example former US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick replaced his 4-iron with a hybrid to help him tackle both the rough and the fast fairways and greens.

Other pros of course opted instead for a 7-wood and even tested 9-woods to tackle the same course but this shows in certain conditions more pros than normal can end up playing hybrids.

Interestingly an article published over a decade ago in GolfWRX suggested hybrids were on their way out because the top pros would increasingly prefer the ability to ‘work the ball’ offered by utility/driving irons over the benefits of hybrids.

Given the numbers of the top 100 on the PGA Tour still using hybrids however that day seems a long way off still yet!

[Editor’s note – Are you surprised by how many PGA Tour pros use a hybrid? Does it make you think you should be choosing to play one yourself if you don’t already? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments at the end of this post!]

Before you go …

Golf hybrids have been one of the great success stories of golf club designers over the last number of years as they helped ease the pain of long shots for all standards of players.

And it seems the top players on the Champions Tour and LPGA Tour are much more willing than their PGA Tour colleagues to embrace their benefits. So check out our similarly in-depth looks at the hybrids the best senior and women pros are using.

Champions Hybrid Heroes. Most Used Hybrids By Champions Tour Pros

Do LPGA Players Use Hybrids? They Have Many in Hand

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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