Hybrid club takes off in US market

Lee Janzen has put one in his bag. So has David Gilford. But there is nothing new about the driving iron, which has been around for almost as long as the game has been played. What is new is the approach being adopted by more serious players.

When someone who earns his living from the game puts his trust in one, it immediately ups the ante. Is it because he has lost faith in his driver? Or is it because his game will benefit? Perhaps a bit of both? Whatever, the driving iron craze is sweeping the United States (golf equipment's biggest market) like a bush fire. Over here, things haven't quite reached the same fever pitch.

"No, they're not exactly setting the place on fire," admits Trevor Vaughan of the Red Corner Golf Shop, in Dublin's Dorset Street, who has been stocking the Controller driving iron for the past 18 months. They're cheap enough, too, about £30, but Vaughan elaborates: "Basically, the driving iron is for somebody not getting on with their woods. But technology has come on so much in recent years, especially with the overhead sized driver, that better golfers can usually find one that they are happy with."

The driving iron is a hybrid club: an iron that looks like a wood, a wood that looks like an iron. Take your pick. American manufacturers, looking for a niche, have extolled the club's virtue. "They make sense," says David Glod of Tour Edge Golf. "Instead of a long iron, which is a scary club for many golfers, you get a club that inspires confidence. It looks easier to hit, and it is easier to hit."

Tour Edge, Alien and Taylor Made are among the main club manufacturers to delve into the driving iron market, but others, like Controller and the Thunderbolt from Scottish Glen Golf, are also edging into the market.

Yet, the reality is that the driving iron has a long history in golf. Indeed, it is possible to buy an antique driving iron, dating back to the evolution of the game in Scotland, for around £100. They aren't in short supply. In those days, the driving iron was typically used off the tee for a controlled shot, similar to using a one or two iron today. With the heavy winds in Scotland, and, indeed, in the north of Ireland where other driving irons were manufactured, it was considered a useful club to drive tee shots low into the wind. The classic driving iron was designed mainly for use off the tee, but rapidly improving golfers began using it off the fairway as well. But, as if to show that old clubs can inspire new ideas, Pat Simmons of Alien, an American-based club manufacturer who invented the so-called "foolproof" sand wedge for those scared of greenside bunkers, is unapologetic about his new driving iron. "You can hit this club further than your three-wood," he insists.

He was referring to Alien's 14-degree loft driving iron. Considering most one-irons have a 16 or 17 degree loft, this would be an impossible club for most handicap players to hit, never mind contemplate. But Simmons has made several weight compensations, including a honeycomb reinforcement on the back of the club. In Simmons's to-the-point terminology, "it doesn't spin much, and it goes like hell." In the States, these clubs are retailing for between $149 to $169 dollars.

Marketing is important to the sale of any club, and Glod talks a good game. "We think many people will play better with these clubs. Furthermore, we think the clubs are so good that a lot of golfers will want to buy all of them. Getting the ball up in the air is no problem with the Iron-Wood," he says.

Taylor Made are the most high-profile club manufacturer to delve into the area. The company's Rescue series is designed to be hit from the fairway, or from the tightest or heaviest of lies. The Rescue got its name in Japan and, because of its success, Taylor Made decided to bring it firstly to the United States and, now, to Europe. It also has the manufacturer's famous bubble graphite shaft.

At the start of the year, a United States golf magazine asked the question: "Will these clubs catch on? If golfers are ready for something that looks, feels and perhaps performs in a different fashion from anything else in their bags, then the answer is yes."

The words have been prophetic. The club has been one of the high sellers on the American market so far this year, and players like Janzen have added to the hype by actually using them in play.

Gilford's decision to use one on this side of the Atlantic may not have the same powers of persuasion. . . and, while driving irons are available in golf stores around Ireland, it is not something that has golfers rushing out to purchase.

"If I sold one a month, that would be about it," concedes Vaughan. "As I said, the development of drivers and fairway woods has been such that most players can usually find satisfaction without feeling the need to revert to a driving iron."

The words of the American manufacturers of the Thunderbolt Power driving irons claim that "for those wood players with control problems, driving irons have come of age." It remains to be seen if it is just a fad, or if driving irons - similar to those used by the game's pioneers - will remain in use for a longer period in this second coming.