Should an Amateur Golfer Get Custom Fitted Clubs?

hey guys,

i am currently using my dad's spare set of clubs because he is about the same size as me.

however, i am thinking about getting new clubs for the summer and im on a budget.

do you think i should just get them off the rack or get custom fitted clubs?

if so, should i get only the driver fit or even the irons? any brands you recommend?

although, i have recently started playing golf, i plan on playing consistently.

hey man,   i agree with the above statement.  if you realize you really love playing the game,  go out and buy a set of dick's basic clubs.  i got a set of Walter Hagens for like 150 and started upgrading them.  i got a set of Burner Irons i LOVE!!  I'v been playing with them for a while and im getting them tuned before my next round!   Make sure you find the right clubs for you!  let us know what your thinking    ohh and right now Dick's has great deals right now...get on it!

I would say no, no, and no. Look, no offense but as a 20 handicapper, your swing is not grooved enough to benefit from custom shafts and your set up is probably not consistent enough for custom lie angles. I am a 2 and play stock clubs. Work fine for me. I would spend whatever money you were going to use to buy new clubs and buy some lessons. You will get more enjoyment out of a better golf game than shiny new clubs.

I can understand the points made above but...

If you have clubs that are completely wrong for you (swing weight, lie angle, flex etc etc) then you will have a much harder time enjoying the game. I'm not saying go spend $1000 or even $500 but maybe go and do a few things like a swing speed check and lie angle check. These you can do for free most places and then do some simple self research on swing speed and flex to see if you are even close. If these things are all close then by all means go with what you have and see if it sticks.

If they are way off though then either get those clubs adjusted (lie angle about the only thing you can do cheaply) or invest in a starter set with correct flex etc.

All depends on you and your disposable income. You are on a Golf Forum though so I sense you have caught the bug...

Had to add one more thing: Correctly fitted clubs can make a WORLD of difference. I played for years and struggled and one day some random guy was talking about his lie angle and getting it adjusted. I went and had mine checked, found out I was 2 degrees upright, had them fixed and literally overnight my slice was gone. Not saying I was instantly a better golfer but I found it much easier to work on my swing since I wasn't fighting my clubs.

Depends on you. I'm 6'6", and my standard clubs are just not long enough. I am someone who needs, and would benefit from custom shaft-length, lie fitting, etc.

If you are average height, with average length arms, then you may just need to get a lie fitting, with will cost you like $100 max at a Golf Galaxy/Golf shop.

Sorry, I would like to add the correction that if you are too tall or short for standard clubs, you do need clubs that you can comfortably swing. I am 6'2" and swing standard length clubs. Also, if your hand me downs are graphite irons or senior flex wood shafts, then you will struggle finding consistency of any kind if your swing speed is to fast for them. Like I said, look up a pga pro. If you keep your eyes peeled, some manufacturers will provide a free fitting during demo days. Good luck!

Read this. Of course it is just one opinion...the club makers will certainly tell you to get fitted.

http://golftips.golfsmith.com/need-custom-fitted-golf-clubs-1212.html

I have no experience with fitted clubs and have wondered about getting custom fitted clubs for myself.  But one other option I'd recommend is to find a shop that has a decent supply of used clubs and a net or range, go at an off-peak hour, and see if the sales guy can recommend a reasonably priced used set for you.  My first set was some crappy junk purchased for about $150 at Sam's Club by some company called Strategy.  A year later, I stopped at a shop on a course that had both some used clubs and a range, talked for a while with the assistant there who steared me toward a set of Hogans, he gave me half a small bucket of balls and pointed me toward the range, and I discovered I hit the Hogans about 20 yards farther than my junky Strategy clubs and a bit straighter too, so I picked up the name-brand club set, for the princely sum of $130.  I sold them over a decade later for $135.  You should be able to find a good name-brand set from a few years agot for about half to one-third of the cost of a current model year set brand new.

Learning to play with clubs that don't fit you is like learning to drive roofing nails with a two pound hammer in the hopes that once you get good at it you will get a more suitable hammer. In the meantime you will develop every bad habit in the book trying to use the wrong tool for the job.

Height has nothing to do with club length. My son and I are the same height and his wrist to floor measurement is 3 inches less than mine. No decent club fitter would go by overall height to determine club length.

Shafts, even from the same company, marked the same way will not be identical. Even more so with shafts from different companies marked the same way.

Any so-called "fitting" where they have you hit a club and then go grab a supposedly identical club off of the rack for you to take home without checking the overall shaft dynamics for the flex and kick point for your swing, and finding and marking the optimum spine (or spines) position and inserting the correct shaft correctly in the club head is not much of a fitting at all.

Most people do as I did and either buy a set of clubs off of the rack or (in my case) have a set given to them. Sure, I could hit them. Actually played fairly well with them.

Would it have been easier to learn with better fitting clubs with the right MOI so I didn't have to use about 3 different swings through the bag? Absolutely.

I didn't have a clue why a few of those clubs were so easy to hit and others were like one giant correction all the way to the ball.