The TaylorMade Rescue Dual was the Editor’s Choice among hybrid clubs on the 2006 Golf Digest Hot List.

The club features two of TaylorMade’s famous TLC (TaylorMade Launch Control) weight ports that allow users to change the club’s weighting for a draw or neutral bias. The ports in this model are more widely spaced, creating a higher moment of intertia (resistance to twisting). The hybrid also has a new v shaped sole design for better aiming and less drag at impact.

If you aren’t already using a hybrid club in place of your long irons, you should be. I have one of these in my bag, and will surely add another this spring.

TaylorMade Rescue Dual - Graphite Shaft

Callaway’s latest application of its “Fusion” technology is the Fusion FT-Hybrid.  Like the others in the series, it uses a carbon composite crown to lighten the club, allowing Callaway to move more weight down and back, and to the perimeters. The helps gofers get their balls in the air, and reduces twisting with a high moment of inertia.

It’ll be available March 15 in five models: 1H (14 degrees), 2H (17 degrees), 3H (20 degrees), 4H (23 degrees) and 5H (26 degrees); all but the 1H will be available in left-handed versions as well. The Draw bias will be available in the 2H-5H in both left- and right-handed versions, while the Neutral configuration will be available in the 1H-4H right-handed and the 3H left-handed. The standard shaft is the Callaway Golf Fusion NVS 85 Hybrid from Aldila®, available in Light, Regular and Firm flexes. The stock steel shaft is the True Temper® Uniflex.

The hybrid mania continues as Nike introduces its CPR 3.  The original CPR club was Golf Digest’s Hybrid of the Year, and Nike continues to upgrade the brand.

The new CPR 3 has a “scoop back design”, which is supposed to move the center of gravity down and back, helping players get the ball airborne. This is the second club I’ve seen recently with this design.

If you’re not on the PGA Tour, you really should think seriously about replacing your long irons with hybrids. I replaced mine last year with the TaylorMade Rescue Dual last summer and saw an immediate improvement in my scores. 

ESPN dot Com has an article on the pending death of the 1 iron. Apparently, it was used only 50 times on tour in 2005, and Joey Sindelar accounted for half of those. Worse, you apparently can’t find one from any of the major manufacturers.

The culprit: hybrids.

Still, there is a sort of romanticism associated with the “cleek.” Hogan at the 1950 Open at Merion; Nicklaus at the 1975 Masters; and countless other similar miracles.

I actually have a 1-iron, though I built it from components. I have it mainly for the novelty factor. But when I want to play mind games with an opponent, I put it in my bag in place of the three iron. Then, on I take it out on the first tee and swing it around warming up. Inevitably, my partner asks what I’ve got. The 1-iron never fails to impress.

I can hit it off the tee, too. Not nearly as far as my driver, but it goes straight.

It seems like everyone is getting into the hybrid business. Ping has released a new set of G5 Hybrids that they say uses the same variable thickness technology that graces the G5 drivers, and ave a sloped crown to move the center of gravity away from the face.

I like the look of that crown. Its quite different from the other hybrids.