If you’re looking to improve your skills, having one of the best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers is a surefire way to hit your goals. With any of the clubs in our guide, you can be sure you’ll improve. You know what we’re talking about, the transition from a high handicapper to a mid-handicapper. For a club that will help you grow as a golfer, there is no better option than the Callaway Big Bertha B21.
The B21 model is new to the markets, but the Big Bertha line has been around almost as long as Callaway itself. By the time Spring, 2021 rolls around, these clubs will be everywhere. We’re going to run through a handful of options, but you can’t really go wrong with any of them. Hybrids are used all over the course, take your time reading this guide—it will pay off big time.
Top Pick: Callaway Big Bertha B21
Every year or two there is a club that you cannot play a round of golf without seeing. For the next few years, that’s going to be the Callaway Big Bertha B21. It also comes as a driver and wood, but as a hybrid transforms the game of someone with a higher handicap.
Due to its versatility and forgiveness, choosing the Callaway Big Bertha B21 as the top pick in our best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers was an easy decision. A high handicapper is usually looking for a few things, accuracy, consistency, and distance. When you carry Big Bertha B21 hybrids in your bag, you get all three.
Hitting the ball off the heel or toe is still not great with the B21. Callaway is pushing this club towards high handicappers, no doubt about it. One reason for this, they knew inaccurate contact was still likely. To make the ideal contact area bigger, they enlarged the head. This club won’t approach the size of a fairway wood, but you’ll be more confident looking over the ball with an oversized head.
Another major issue for high handicappers Callaway takes care of is the slice via design feature. To encourage a squared clubface, the Big Bertha B21 is more offset than other Callaway hybrids. We knew we wanted a Callaway club in our best hybrid clubs for high handicappers guide. There were plenty of good options. This was just by far the best choice.
Pros
- Can be used by high handicappers or low handicappers (and everyone in-between). If you improve, there’s no reason to replace this club
- Offset head helps to improve trajectory, correct ball flight, and add more distance to each shot
Cons
- Great for players that slice the ball, not so great for someone with a natural draw or hook. Difficult to shape or keep straight if you don’t have a slice
Runner-Up: Tour Edge Exotics EXS 220
For most golfers, Tour Edge is not one of the most well-known brands. For those that know Tour Edge, they commonly associate the brand with more affordable, but of a lesser quality than the top brands.
Tour Edge knew its reputation and wanted to change it. To do so, they’ve introduced some clubs that are on par with any brand out there. Make no mistake about it, Tour Edge Exotics EXS 220 hybrids compare to any brand you watch Tour players use.
Besides the name on the club, one thing that stands out is the bottom design. Tour Edge calls it their slipstream sole. For a traditionalist, it looks weird and might be enough to deter them. For a high handicapper looking to embrace something new in their pursuit of improving their skills, it’s a practical feature.
The wave-like design makes it easy to increase club speed and helps with turf interaction. Adding speed to your swing will help with distance. Better turf interaction means less chunked shots and improving your overall consistency. When you’re picking out the best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers, these are two non-negotiable features.
If you’re a golfer that can slice or hook the ball with any given shot (not on purpose), you need a hybrid that reduces spin. Tour Edge accomplishes this with indents on the toe and heel of the clubface that raises the center of gravity. With CG raised, hitting the ball anywhere near the middle of the clubface will help the ball go straight.
If you don’t know what shape the ball is going to travel in once it leaves your club, the spin reduction is even more important. To stay on target, you need to be prepared for everything. This club helps you.
Pros
- Adjustable weight helps customize this club for your swing—and customize it again after it inevitably changes
- Lesser known brand will have people asking what this club is when you knock it onto the green from 200 yards out
Cons
- Tour Edge is newer to high-quality clubs and might have a hard time convincing people to jump onboard
Budget Option: Wilson Staff D7
Golf is an expensive game. As a high handicapper, you’ll spend a lot of your money on replacing things like balls and buying training aids. You don’t want to spend a fortune on golf clubs. Wilson Staff D7 hybrids are a perfect in-between point. These clubs are high quality, will help you improve as a golfer, and won’t break the bank.
Swing the club faster, hit the ball harder, watch it go farther. Easy to say, not as easy to do. For a high handicapper to improve their speed, they might need a little help. Wilson does this in a couple of ways.
First off, they use lightweight, yet durable materials that help improve contact anywhere on the clubface. The other main area is through clubhead shape. With thin cast pockets around the clubhead, it helps improve aerodynamics adding even more speed to your swing.
Another crucial aspect of forgiveness and distance is the materials from which the face is made of. For Wilson Staff D7 hybrids, it’s a carpenter custom 455 face. A thin face helps to add feel, but the overall strength of this material makes it even better. Thanks to this design, you’ll hit it far—and feel it.
Pros
- Progressively shorter shafts as you go from 2-hybrid to 7-hybrid, giving a realistic feel of iron replacements
- Easier to shape than many of the other best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers, which helps as your skills and swing improves
Cons
- A lot of options if you’re right-handed (2-7-hybrids), not as many for lefties (3, 4, and 5-hybrid only)
Best Option for Women: TaylorMade M6 Women’s Rescue
Graduating from high handicapper to mid-handicapper is about limiting the severity of your mistakes. You’re never going to eliminate them completely, so you just need to find a way to make them not as bad. With the TaylorMade M6 Women’s Rescue, your mistakes are hardly noticeable.
For a high handicapper, getting the ball off the ground can be challenging. To help you out, the TaylorMade M6 Women’s Rescue hybrid has a stepped crown that lowers the center of gravity. With the center of gravity towards the bottom of the clubface, lower contact means still launching the ball high. Rather than hitting the ball thin and along the ground, you’re still hitting high shots.
TaylorMade is well known for twist face technology in its drivers, woods, and hybrids. Knowing this, it makes sense that the M6 Women’s Rescue also has a twist face as it is extremely helpful for high handicap golfers. This technology is a corrective angling concept that reduces spin and helps your mis-hits travel longer and straighter.
Women’s clubs are a bit shorter and more flexible than regular men’s clubs. If you’re a male golfer that prefers a shorter club or one that you don’t need to swing as hard, this is a great option. The M6 might be our top women’s choice when it comes to the best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers, but it fits far more golfers than just ladies.
Pros
- High launch shaft helps further the cause of hitting arcing shots over hazards with control
- Latest in a long line of high-quality hybrids with improvements in each generation
Cons
- Available in right-handed only—a double punch in the gut for lefties since it’s already difficult to find clubs as a female golfer
Best Hybrid for Hitting from the Rough: Cleveland Launcher Halo
For me, hitting it out of the rough is being able to cleanly get at the ball and hit it high enough to travel maximum distance. If you’re a highly-skilled player, you can do this with any club. For a high handicapper, it’s not as easy. There’s a difficult choice to make. Take something with enough loft to safely get it back to the fairway, or go for broke and try a longer club. With a Cleveland Launch Halo hybrid, you can do both.
You’re a high handicapper, you hit in the rough. No use in denying it, it happens. What you do next will separate you from other similarly skilled golfers. If you can get the ball back into the fairway and advance it, you’re still in the hole. If not, you’re in trouble.
If you want to hit the green after missing the fairway, you need to be able to maintain clubhead speed and ease your turf interaction. Cleveland’s solution: glide rails. These are rails built into the sole of the club that allows it to “glide” across the grass and not dig in too deep. By keeping your club above the ground, you will be able to make solid contact and get back on track.
When you’re in the rough, it’s not always easy to make contact at the center of the club. With the high strength face of the Launch Halo hybrid, making contact anywhere on the face leads to about the same results—all good.
Pros
- Hibore crown lowers the center of gravity making it easier to hit the ball higher and reduce spin
- If you’re a right-handed golfer, this comes in a 2-hybrid, a perfect option for punch outs and stingers
Cons
- A lack of adjustable features makes this a difficult club to use as you lower your scores, with some golfers having to replace it entirely
Best Hybrid Golf Clubs for High Handicappers Takeaways
The goal of a high handicapper is to not be a high handicapper. Sounds a little funny, but everyone wants to improve. It’s the one great shot on the back 9 that keeps us coming back for the next round. If you want more of those beautiful shots that keep you hooked on the game, you need the best hybrid golf clubs for high handicappers.
We’ve profiled a few great choices, but you know your game better than anyone. If you want to reduce a slice, look for an offset club. If you need help getting the ball in the air, look for a club with a low center of gravity. No matter your skillset, any one of these clubs will help you improve your skills on the course.