Wilson

What it does: At first glance it may seem like Wilson has taken a straightforward approach to hybrid design – high-strength steel-alloy face, ultra-thin lightweight crown and four non-adjustable lofts – but a peek behind the face reveals a good bit of sophisticated thinking. Wilson uses artificial intelligence to help with its design. Computers analyse the face thickness across 17 control points with thousands of permutations to find the perfect thickness for each section of the face. Nearly 100 CPU cores were running simultaneously to get the perfect solution, and the result is a continuously variable-thickness face that maximises ball speed and minimises the difference between on-center and off-centre strikes.

Why we like it: Although Wilson’s engineers got their face thickness from high-speed computers, this hybrid’s shape came from high-speed tour players. The good news is that though the design is relatively compact, the internal weighting is deep in the perimeter and low in the sole. This creates a more stable design so that the compact head rates high on the forgiveness scale. You don’t have to be a supercomputer to realise every golfer wants that.

Lofts 19, 22, 25, 28