Hello from Northern Virginia

Hello golfers.  My name is Philip and I'm a very very bad golfer in northern virginia USA.  Currently I'm doing a lot of business travel that takes me to the Gulf Coast.  I'm staying on the North Shore and am near Slidell every other weekend.  I've decided to work on my pathetic golf game while I'm here.  I'm a rank beginner, never broken 120.

I played today with someone good (he had a lot of patience - I suggested he play through without me, but he hung in there with all my bad shots).  Anyway, I think I need clubs if I want to get any better.  I played my local course here with the rental clubs and did better than with my clubs.  Mine are hand-me-downs that are very very old.  My irons are MacGregor from the 70s.  My 3 wood is actually wood, my driver is a cheap titanium driver from about 12 years ago.  Putter is an old style, I don't know the term.

I have taken lessons, and kind of know what I should be doing (The gentlemen I was playing with did say "I can see you've taken lessons" on one of my better shots).  I don't know enough about golf to know whether I really need clubs or not.  My partner today seemed to think that my clubs where severely hampering my game, and I don't think I'd even know better.  I don't really have a budget for any clubs, so I'd be looking in the classifieds here or eBay or elsewhere for something.

Well, anyway, I had a very few really good shots today, enough to keep me coming out for this I think.  I don't know how much I'll be reading this forum, but I figured I'd look for something like this.  Thanks for reading, any advice is appreciated.

Well, I went and did it - bought a set of modern Wilson clubs to replace the museum pieces I was using for myself for Christmas.   Unfortunately it will be a week or so before I can get out with them.  The bag that came with the kit was not as nice as the Calloway bag I already had, so I put the old clubs in the Wilson bag and it's going to my brother who hopefully will now play with me since we both have clubs.