When you practice as often as PGA Tour pros do, you've got to break up the monotony and have a little fun. In this video, provided by Adams Golf, newly-signed Robert Garrigus has a few laughs with Kenny Perry, and the two share strategies for specific shots on specific PGA Tour holes. Oh yeah, Garrigus also nails a few 260-yard hybrid shots.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Adams clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Cobra Golf asked golf-loving actor John O’Hurley -- famous for his role as J. Peterman on Seinfeld -- to explain how the new Baffler Hybrid Iron set fits into the pantheon of great achievements in history. Enjoy this video produced by Cobra that introduces you to the concept of "Golf Made Easy."

RELATED: Read more about the Baffler Hybrid Iron set

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cobra gear and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Cobra Golf used a 40-year-old concept to create a new set of irons for golfers who have trouble getting the ball airborne, don’t hit it very far and rarely make solid contact.

Because long irons are challenging to hit -- even for the game’s best players -- the Baffler Hybrid Iron Combo set doesn’t have any. Instead, the stock set comes with hybrids in place of the 4-, 5- and 6-irons. These Baffler hybrids have shallow faces to make it easier to get the ball up and two rails in the sole that are reminiscent of those found in the first Baffler utility woods built in the 1970s. If you hit the ground behind the ball, the rails help the clubs skim across the turf instead of digging, which should result in a better shot.

Cobra’s new Baffler irons compliment the hybrids have a unique face that’s slightly angular, but Cobra's vice president of research and design Tom Preece said the company eliminated unnecessary material in the toe. That meant the company could lower the center of gravity in the Baffler irons and move it farther back to help golfers get the ball in the air more easily.

As the set transitions from the mid-irons to the short-irons and wedges, the faces transition into a more-traditional shape.

In addition, all the irons have a wide-sole and rails like the hybrids to help offset the effect of hitting the ground before you hit the ball. Cobra has also positioned a thermoplastic vibration dampening system behind the face, that enhances feel and improves the sound at impact, Preece said.

Below is a video produced Cobra Golf that explains more about the clubs.

The Baffler Hybrid Iron Combo set (4-6h, 7-PW, GW) will cost about $599 with graphite hybrids and steel-shafted irons and $699 for an all graphite-shafted set.

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Mike Ferris, TaylorMade's vice president of product marketing, was counting each stride as he marched across the front of the conference room. "Twelve, thirteen, fourteen," he said before touching the wall, turning around and pacing back again. "Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen."
 
P.T. Barnum would have loved the way Ferris had just shown how much longer TaylorMade claims the new RocketBallz 3-wood is than last season's Burner SuperFast 2.0.

David Dusek

TaylorMade RocketBallz fairway woods

 
This is the club that gave the RocketBallz family its name. According to TaylorMade, the engineers who developed the club—and a small number of Tour pros who were given a chance to hit the earliest prototypes—all said that the 3-wood "hit the ball like a rocket."
 
Having a little fun, the engineers etched "RocketBallz" into subsequent refinements of the prototype, more as a code name than anything else. They never expected the name to stick, but it did, although it was shortened to RBZ on the sole.

(Click here to see an exclusive video on the RocketBallz fairway woods.)
 
Once you get past the name, the first thing you'll notice about the RocketBallz fairway woods is a cavity carved in the sole. Positioned just behind the face, it is designed to increase the flexibility of both the face and the sole of the club to help increase ball speed.
 
Golfers will notice a weight plug positioned directly behind the cavity. In drivers, weights like this one are often positioned in the back to move the center of gravity lower and farther from the face to encourage a higher ball flight. In the RBZ fairways, TaylorMade has moved the center of gravity in these clubs forward.
 
"Historically, we've always said, let's move the center of gravity back to make the club easier to play" says Tom Olsavsky, TaylorMade's senior direct of product creation. However, Olsavsky notes, most golfers hit their fairway woods and hybrids high in the face. He says the physics that helps you hit longer shots with your 460-cc driver doesn't help you as much with fairway woods because they feature a smaller head and shallower face. In order to get a higher launch angle, more ball speed and more carry distance, TaylorMade says that it moved the center of gravity in to keep it more aligned with where golfers actually hit the ball.
 
Olsavsky says the combination of the cavity and the forward adjustment of the center of gravity increased the RocketBallz ball speed by 3-4 mph over the Burner SuperFast 2.0. He also notes that the same features make the RocketBallz Rescue clubs 15 yards longer than their Burner counterparts.

David Dusek

TaylorMade RocketBallz Rescue Clubs

"We have never seen a fairway wood that has gone right up to the USGA speed limit," Olsavsky says. "We had some things made from titanium that got close, but no one wanted to pay for them, so we're excited to be able to produce a product in a steel construction that goes right up to the USGA limits for coefficient of restitution [COR] and CT [the face's trampoline effect]."
 
Like the rest of TaylorMade's 2012 wood and rescue offerings, the RocketBallz line features a white matte finish on the crown and a black face to aid in alignment. But unlike the R11 clubs, the RBZ models are not adjustable—TaylorMade hasn't been able to incorporate moveable weights into a head that features a channel on the sole. (At least not yet.)
 
The fairway woods will be available in both standard and Tour models. The Tour version has a slightly smaller head, a more open face angle and a fade bias. Similarly, TaylorMade will offer a standard RBZ Rescue club and a Tour Rescue.
 
When they arrive in pro shops on Feb. 3, the RocketBallz fairway woods will come standard with a Matrix Ozik XCon 5 50-gram shaft; the Tour version will come with a Matrix Ozik RUL 70 75-gram graphite shaft. Each will cost $229 and lofts will range from 13°-24°. RocketBallz TP fairway woods with upgraded shafts will cost $329.

Arriving in pro shops on the same day, the RocketBallz and RocketBallz Tour rescue clubs will each cost $179 and come with a proprietary TaylorMade graphite shaft. A RocketBallz Rescue TP with an upgraded shaft will be $229. Available lofts will range from 16.5°-27°.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about TaylorMade clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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EDISON, N.J. – Adams Golf tour reps made a new, 17° Idea a12 hybrid for James Driscoll on Monday at Plainfield Country Club. Like the Adams Idea Pro a12 and Idea Pro Black hybrids, there is a place in the sole for a weighted screw to be added to lower the club's center of gravity, but gearheads will notice in the photos below that unlike other hybrids, this one features a channel in both the sole and the crown. Adams has only featured channels like these in the Speedline F11 and Speedline LP fairway woods.

Adams calls these channels duel velocity slots, and according to Christen Cervantes, an Adams tour rep, they allow a larger area of the face to flex back as the club hits the ball. "That expands the hot spot farther across the face," Cervantes says.

Does the technology actually work? During GOLF Magazine's most recent ClubTest, golfers who tried the Speedline F11 fairway woods said the clubs, "sacrificed little in terms of direction or distance on off-center hits."

Plenty of golfers would like to say that about their hybrids, too. As we learn more about the club, we'll be sure to let you know.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Adams clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Three players at last week's PGA Tour event, the Heritage, had the new Adams Idea Pro a12 hybrids in their bags, including Brandt Snedeker, the eventual winner. Tom Watson and Ryan Moore also currently play the Idea Pro a12.

On May 5, when the clubs begin arriving in pro shops, you can play them too.

With the Idea Pro a12, the Plano, Texas, company continues its trend of producing hybrids with a high toe area, compact head, square face and dark color for reduced glare.

The a12 also features a steel sole plate and a weight screw that rests flush along the bottom of the club. The sole plate helps the a12 work through the turf more effectively, and the added weight helps launch the ball on a higher trajectory.

The Idea Pro a12, which will have a suggested retail price of $299, will be available in lofts between 16 and 26. Players can chose between regular, stiff or x-stiff versions of two stock shafts, an Aldila RIP VS Proto or a Matrix OZIK Altus.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Adams clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Adams Golf is releasing a new hybrid-iron set, the Redline series, max-game improvement clubs designed specifically for golfers who want to hit the ball farther.

The eight-club Redline sets will be available with either one, two or three hybrid clubs that can replace the 3-, 4- or 5-irons. The heads of the hybrids are slightly oversized and come with longer shafts. Combined with a thin steel face and a sole designed to reduce turf interaction, they should help golfers swing faster and create more ball speed.

The irons in the Redline set have wide soles that allowed Adams engineers to move more weight down and away from the face, making them more forgiving. A polyurethane insert is designed to soften impact and improve feel.

Look for new Adams Redline iron sets to start arriving in pro shops April 20 for $899 with UST Mamiya ATTAS-T2 graphite shafts and $799 with Redline Performance 85 steel shafts. Those prices will be the same whether you decide to go with one, two or three hybrids.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Adams clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC and Golfsmith.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – The most famous hybrid club in golf history is Todd Hamilton's Sonartec MD, which he used all over Royal Troon en route to winning the 2004 British Open. A close second would be Y.E. Yang's TaylorMade Rescue TP, the club he used to stiff his approach shot on the 72nd hole at Hazeltine and win the 2009 PGA Championship.

This week at Augusta National, there are plenty of hybrids in K.J. Choi's bag that could become just as famous if he can win the Masters. Choi, who finished third in the 2004 Masters, used four in the opening round on Thursday.

"Three weeks ago, I felt that to contend at major championships, I had to be able to get the ball up in the air, higher, and to stop the ball on the greens better," Choi said through his interpreter Friday afternoon. "That's why I put the hybrids in the bag. When I tried it, it made playing the par 3s much easier. I still don't feel that I'm 100-percent comfortable with those hybrids, but I still plan to continue using them."

The longest iron in Choi's bag Thursday was a 7-iron, but on Friday he put his 6-iron back in the bag and went with only three hybrids.

Yang, who shot an even-par 72 Friday to finish at five under par, carries four hybrid clubs all the time. The longest iron in his bag is a 6-iron.

Yang's coach, Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brian Mogg, said Yang had a lot of confidence in the clubs after his PGA Championship win, adding a 4-hybrid to the 2- and 3-hybrids he already carried. Then, at last season's Byron Nelson Championship, a 5-hybrid was added.

"We started calling him grandpa," Mogg said Friday, "because his bag looked like something an old man would carry."

But Mogg quickly pointed out that Yang grew up on Jeju-do Island, South Korea, which is a really windy place. His inclination is to keep the ball low. The hybrids, along with the hard work Yang and Mogg have put in on the range over the last few seasons, have helped him develop a higher ball flight that is helpful on the PGA Tour.

When I asked Yang if he thought about using an iron instead of a hybrid this week because the course is playing firm and fast, he said no.

"I've tried it a few times, especially when it's dry," Yang told me through his interpreter. "But even if it's a logical decision, sometimes it's a confidence issue. I'm just more confident with a hybrid than an iron right now. I've thought about it, but in the end I think I hit my shots very well with my 5-hybrid rather than my 5-iron, which would have been the logical choice if I was going to take one out. So, I'm going to stick with the hybrids for now."

Mogg said that while he can't think of any other pros that carry more than four hybrids, no one is snickering or laughing about Yang's set make-up behind his back.

And if Yang or Choi makes another hybrid famous en route to winning a green jacket, they never will.

Learn about the newest hybrids in ClubTest 2011: Hybrids

More Masters coverage: Leaderboard | Photos | Video | Download Front9 app

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(Photos: Choi, John Mabanglo/Getty Images; Yang, Harry How/Getty Images)

Answering a reader's golf equipment question on Twitter is tough because a good, thoughtful explanation usually requires more than 140 characters. So here is a video I created to answer a question I was sent by a 16-handicap player who can't decided whether to add a hybrid or a gap wedge to his bag ...

If you have a question that you'd like me to answer, send it to me on Twitter.

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Callaway
Phil Mickelson cracked the crown of his Callaway FT-9 Tour Authentic driver at the Shell Houston Open. (A nearly identical driver, the FT Tour, is now available to the public.) Like a patient in critical need of an organ transplant, the club was flown to San Diego on Easter Sunday, where it was met at the airport by the head of Callaway's R&D team, Dr. Alan Hocknell.

According to Callaway, the company, "performed an 'unprecedented repair,' removing the body from the clubface while never taking off the shaft in order to ensure that the loft and lie remained secure."

Hocknell said, “We decided to remove the carbon composite body from the face, and we’ve never done that before, so everyone was a bit nervous. But through a lot of teamwork, we had a new body and weights installed by 1:30 p.m. on Monday."

Meanwhile, back in Augusta, Mickelson texted Hocknell: "How bad is it, Doc? Is she gonna make it?"

Needless to say, the patient made a full recovery, was flown back cross-country, and helped Mickelson win his third green jacket. For the week, Phil hit 60% of the fairways and averaged 297 yards per drive.

TaylorMade
Y.E. Yang, winner of the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, pulled his Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball putter out of his bag before the start of the Masters and used a TaylorMade Monza Spider Vicino (right) during the championship. Yang took 115 putts at Augusta and averaged an impressive 1.6 putts per green in regulation.

Mike Weir, Henrik Stenson and John Rollins all put new TaylorMade Burner SuperFast drivers in the bag for the first time at the Masters. Sergio Garcia became the first player to put TaylorMade's yet-to-be-released R9 SuperDeep driver into play. He hit 68% of the fairways for the week and averaged 285 yards per drive.

Titleist
Adam Scott, whose tie for 18th marks his best performance at Augusta since 2002, had been playing a Titleist 909 D2 driver this season. But in order to get more roll on the firm fairways at Augusta National, the Australian decided to play a lower-flying 909 D3 driver instead.

Matteo Manassero, who at age 16 was the youngest player to ever compete in a Masters, also finished as the tournament's low amateur with a final score of four over par. Manassero, who has a bag filled with Titleist clubs, swapped out his AP2 3-iron in favor of a higher-flying hybrid club, a Titleist 909H (21°), so he could stop the ball more quickly on Augusta's firm greens. The young Italian star plans on turning professional in less than three weeks, so look for him to become a Titleist staff player soon.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway/Odyssey, TaylorMade, and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photos by Mickelson: ; Yang:John Biever/SI, insert Harry How/Getty Images)

MARANA, Ariz. — Last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, TaylorMade tour reps showed a new prototype rescue club to a few PGA Tour players in hopes of getting some feedback. Jim Furyk, Charles Howell, Rory Sabbatini and Dustin Johnson all tried it.

The new club has not officially been named, but will likely be called the Rescue TP '10. Cosmetically it is very similar to the current Rescue TP and features TaylorMade's adjustable face angle technology, but it has a smaller head and deeper face in the toe area. The club also features an area in the rear of the sole that houses a weight plug.

Here are three photos of the club:

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about TaylorMade clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photos by David Dusek)

As GOLF.com reported in the days leading up to the U.S. Open, both Kenny Perry and Fred Funk added then-prototype TaylorMade Raylor rescue clubs to their bags to battle Bethpage's deep, wet rough.

TaylorMade is set to make the Raylor, available in lofts of 19° and 21°, available to the public this week.

"The new Raylor hits the ball higher, longer and straighter from tall grass," said Tom Olsavsky, TaylorMade's senior director of metalwood creation, in a release. "It's the ultimate weapon for getting out of the rough."

The Raylor is designed with a slightly sharp, slightly pointed leading edge that TaylorMade says allows golfers to slide the face through the grass and onto the back of the ball more effectively

In addition, the sole of the clubs is shaped like a ship's hull, sloping upward at the sides. Again, this should help the club glide more easily through rough.

According to TaylorMade, these two features reduce the area that would normally hinder the club in the rough by 23%.

The Raylor, which will retail for about $230, will come standard with a Fujikura RE*AX 65-gram shaft that's one inch longer than standard to create added clubhead speed.

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During the PGA Championship, I wrote about the new Nike Method family of putters and the new Scotty Cameron California line of putters. Several readers wrote that $250 or $300 is too much money for a putter. Others pointed out that during a typical round, an amateur player might use his or her putter 28-35 times per round.

I e-mailed several GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teachers and asked them the following question: What is the most important/valuable club in a weekend player’s bag? 

Here's what they wrote:

Brian Mogg, coach of Y.E. Yang and director of the Brian Mogg Performance Center at Golden Bear Golf Club at Keene's Point in Windermere, Fla.
The putter is the most important/valuable club in the bag. However, the actual cost to the manufacturer to build a putter is much less than a large-headed driver with a graphite shaft. Your putter is vital and important and worth every penny if it works, but proportional to what it costs to make it should also be looked at.  This is why $250 seems high-priced for a putter.

Mike Bender, coach of Zach Johnson and master instructor at the Mike Bender Golf Academy at Timacuan Golf Club in Lake Mary, Fla.
Without a doubt, the most important club in the bag is the driver.  Have you ever heard of a golfer incurring a penalty on a putter? If the average amateur golfer hit to his typical distance, but you put him in the middle of every fairway, he'd better his handicap by a mile.

When I was playing the PGA Tour, officials had just started to keep detailed stats, and the No. 1 putter was Morris Hatalsky. For being the best putter, he was nowhere near the top of the money list. But guys like Greg Norman, Tom Kite, Bruce Litsky, Nick Faldo, and Mark O'Meara were, and none of them could be considered great putter like Ben Crenshaw, Lorin Roberts and Brad Faxon.

The saying should be putt for show and drive for dough.

John Elliot, director of golf instruction at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club in Ocala, Fla.
The question can be answered a couple of different ways depending on the word valuable. Valuable can mean most expensive, which would be your driver, or most valuable can mean the club that has the most influence on your score, which is your putter.

Mike Perpich, River Pines Golf Club in Alpharetta, Ga.
"For the weekend golfer, the wedges are the most important clubs. The 52°, 56°, and 60°. Stats show that even the best putters in the world only make about 15% of their putts from 15 feet, so pitching and chipping the ball closer when you miss the green is a big deal. Since most club players are only going to hit four to six greens per round, pitching and chipping the ball well is absolutely critical."

Steve Bosdosh, The Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Md.
A 24° hybrid is the answer for average golfers. They will putt about the same regardless of putter and slice drives with a $500 titanium driver or an old persimmon model. But get them to use a 24° hybrid in place of fairway woods and long irons and most golfers will get down the fairway faster and near the green in fewer strokes. All else being equal, that will help them shoot lower scores.

So as you can see, while no one disputes the importance of good putting, there is plenty of debate over which club is the most important in your bag, even among the experts. So what's your view? What is the single most important golf club to you? Write your answer in the comments area below.

CHASKA, Minn. -- Kenny Perry put a yet-to-be released TaylorMade Raylor hybrid club in his bag in the days leading up to the U.S. Open. At the time, he said he wanted a club that would help him hit high, soft, 220-yard shots out of the Bethpage Black rough.

With a weight screw in the back and a V-shaped leading edge, the unique sole of the Raylor is designed to hit just such shots. To make room for the Raylor, Perry took out his 3-iron.

Since that time, the club has stayed in the bag, and he is continuing to use it here at Hazeltine. Look for the TaylorMade Raylor to be released later in 2009.

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CHASKA, Minn. — Earlier this season, Phil Mickelson used a Callaway FT hybrid. But in the months leading up to the U.S. Open at Bethpage, Mickelson and the club makers at Callaway Golf created a very unique hybrid.

When I asked him about it in June, Mickelson said, "This is a special club I actually made, taking the back part of the hybrid out so that I can open it way up and get through that thick rough."

The photo on the right, taken during the U.S. Open, shows the club in detail.

Although the rough here at Hazeltine is not as deep—and certainly not wet like it was at Bethpage—Mickelson told me today that nothing has changed in his bag.

"This is the same setup I had at the U.S. Open, and that I've had most of the year" he said. "It is the same hybrid. I think that it has performed very well out of this rough, and I expect to able to recover because of that club."

He went on to say that when he misses fairways, he'll depend on the club to help him advance the ball.

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(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)