How much do you think equipment helps your game out?

Now, I know many think it does, shoot, I do as well and still do.

I am like a 20 handicap, I am far from good but I have my days where I shoot very well..

I started with a cheap handme down set and eventually have what I have in my bag below.. I felt mentally so much better, so of course it did improve my game..

I have a friend who is a scratch if not better golfer and we used to argue about how different clubs and drivers and wedges help your game out allot.

He assured me two things, As a newbie golfer newer clubs/balls do nothing for your game at all, and as a scratch golfer they don't do anything either.

That tiger woods could use whatever club out there and still shoot just as well..

So we put his big mouth to the test, We went out and I gave him a set of walmart clubs, driver, putter and all, We used ULTRA balls and we played..

Needless to say I looked like a moron, he shot a 73 that day, he still drove almost as far and all his shots were pro-like.

It makes me think, I want to get a new shaft for my driver because I hit the ball so damn high in the air and my local pro shop swears to me with the V2 shaft it will come down. Then after my friend showed me up with walmart brand clubs, I got to thinking, my pro-shop sells the idea that newer is better, or they can do this or that and my game will improve, well of course they need to do this, this is their business.

Like I said though, when you have a walmart club in your hand, it just feels cheap, it doesn't feel like its going to perform like a name brand club, so you mentally break down and screw up, so I think for the head game new is good, but obviously my friend was damn right!!

Thoughts?

proper fitted equipment helps your game out tremendously. will it make your handicap go from 30 to 3 with new fitted equipment, probably not but i would say its important to have the right equipment.

I do agree with lemay that proper fit IS important but;

I think mentally new equipment puts you at ease know you have the best chance to play way. At least for a higher handicapper. There are probably a few exceptions like hitting a hybrid opposed to a 2 iron, but overall I think most equipment is probably very similar. That doesnt keep me from always wanting new equipment though...

ya i want a new putter. specifically a scotty i doubt the putter design will make me better but the confidence of having one of the best putters might.

I think if the tour players were forced to use 1960 / 1970 equipment that Tiger would whip up on the field a lot more like he did in the 1997 Masters. Equipment has helped the average tour players get closer to Tigers level.

I did something similar to the OP as I went from an old set of Executives and Walmart driver to a set of fitted G5 irons and G5 driver recently. My scoring has dropped significantly by changing clubs. Before I was lucky to break 100 and I am now upper 80s. I can get that score down further if I could quit 3 putting. Like another poster said, I may upgrade to a new putter and my confidence my boost and hit the ball a little better. The key to new technology is that you can mishit a shot and not suffer quite the consequences than with older technology. The scratch golfer is not going to notice a big difference because they are constantly hitting the ball well and consistently. The hacker is going to notice a drop because that drive will be a little straighter and longer and your irons will fly a little better. That will translate to lower scores and more importantly.....MORE FUN!!!!

This is a good topic of discussion. I can see spending a lot of money on woods, hybrids and irons. The marketing of those seems to be geared toward telling you that last year's models are completely obsolete. Maybe they are. It's hard to tell ... for sure. So, I can see why we can get bitten by the new club bug.

What I don't understand is paying hundreds of dollars for a putter. I'm not a great putter. Not bad, but not great. My flat stick probably only cost me $15 - $20, but I like the design. I don't think my putter is ever the reason I leave a 10 ft. putt 3 in. short.

Maybe I'm wrong. (It happens all the time, especially sense getting married.) I just don't understand it.

What happens with mine is that it is an older putter (probably 25 to 30 years old). Call me crazy, I am sentimental. LOL. I ALMOST pulled the trigger on a new but I have been putting in a concerted effort to make it work. Like I said earlier, if you can hit the ball consistently, then older technology works fine. If you are off a little, then it will mess you up but with newer technology, you can be off a little and still hit the sweet spot.

Im not the BEST golfer i'll say that now but i dont think that equipment makes a hell of a lot of difference at my level. I have had my clubs for only 3 and a bit weeks and went for a holiday up to the Northern Territory for a while. Silly me forgot my clubs however i hired a set.
Now, these clubs were at least 15years old and the shafts rusted out and whatnot. The driver had about half of the face-height as my one at home and yet i hit one-stroke under my previous game back at home.
I mean, sure it was a different course and all but yeah, they are my thoughts...

Proper fitting is truly game changing. I used to play irons that were too upright. In order to hit them straight, I had to quit on my swing. Unfortunately, I didn't know this, so I had days I hit the driver and hybrids well, but the irons poorly. Other days, the irons were good and the others horrible. I just knew I never knew where the ball was going and didn't figure out a pattern. Then I got fit. Suddenly, I could make the same swing with everything. Golf became a much different game.

Clubfitting is minimized. People, myself included in the past, just don't realize the importance. If you could just take your irons, get on a lie board, find out the correct lie and get them adjusted to the proper lie, it will change your golf life.

However, in real life we are in delusion thinking newer models of golf clubs packed with latest technologies will help our game. It does to a certain point, but the rest is just marketing. How many times have they said high MOI, forgiving on off-center hits, straighter, longer, COG placed lower on the back for easy launch, etc on every new models that come out? Tons of times and it's like they just don't have anything more to say. So, it's the skill not the clubs that makes the game.

Regarding to fitting, we have the same problem. I hit too high with my driver and was told by my fitter to use V2 to produce more penetrating trajectory and gain more distance. But I'm still thinking about it because I'm going to get r7 SuperQuad soon. What I'm trying to say is that if you're going to stick with your club then go ahead have it reshafted. It really helps your game.

I think newer technology will help out on misshits a lot. Depending on your game it could help out a little or a lot. However if you have a bad swing, all the technology in the world will not help very much in scoring better. You are better off investing in lesson from a pro than new clubs.

In short, it is usually nice to have the new technology but it is not entirely necessary in most cases.

I combined both. I had lessons, developed a mediocre swing, bought new clubs (upgraded from spaldings to mizuno, adams and taylormade) and can feel the reward of hitting nice shots and get nice correction for misshits. With my old clubs if I misshit a ball I would be in real trouble.

I think a lot of people feel like they need the latest, greatest thing to improve their game. I learned the game with a set of Chi Chi Rodriguez clubs from K-Mart. They had the old Wood woods, and the heads on the irons were small compared to today's models. I started out shooting about 115 -118, but was down to 98 by the end of my first year. By the time my sophmore year started I was shooting in the high 70's. I say this because it wasn't the equipment that made me better, it was working on my game.
I know the new equipment makes the game easier, but that will only take you so far. You have to work at the game to truly improve.

I'll be able to test this out in the near future. I have been playing on old hand-me-downs that are probably as old as me (35). Recently, I purchased newer, but still older, clubs (about 7 years old and just a set of irons) and I intend on playing my next round on them. They are forged Ben Hogans. I'm hoping to break 100 for the first time. We'll see.

I did the same thing recently and trust me, it does help. You will notice a lot less mishits that us high handicappers will always have. The difference will be that the mishits will be findable where in the past with inferior equipment you were lost.

To answer that question all someone has to do is go try and hit an old persimmon driver on the range. Good luck.

sure fitting your grips/shafts/lenghts and lie are good starts and getting a driver from 2001 and newer is good. but some irons that were older were still as good as todays equip. I play with 1993 ping eye2+ and those are still some of the best irons made and you will find alot of guys playing them. the bottom line is practice and more practice makes you good. and making sure your mechanics are sound. you can buy 1600.00 of all the newest stuff on the market and if you cant swing properly and you don't practice. your toast. last yr I came back from just playing like once month or so, while I have played all my life from 10yr old on and was a +2 in HS/Collage. so my hcp was like a 12.7 last sept and I have taken this yr seriously and practice twice a week and play at least once a week. my hcp is now about a 6. so to answer the question I say NO unless your using old stuff that is under a 100.00 set and you have never been fitted properly. otherwise practice and a lesson will take you way futher.....good luck

See this is where I just don't agree, I just played today with my sisters father in law, he had an old driver like you mentioned, jesus this thing had a steel shaft and was wood with a metal plate under it. Let alone he out drove me and much straighter than my driver listed, we still were even at the end of our game. ( 94 for me, 103 for him ) By the second round, for @#%^ and giggles, I tried his driver out on many holes, and what do you know.. A different sound, yet about the same distance. Its all about feel and confidence with clubs, newer stuff makes you feel better which is obviously a great thing, but IMO it doesn't make enough difference for me. Now, most people play with old clubs/drivers, they get new clubs and will do better mostly because of their confidence, and eventually after months of playing with their new stuff, they actually WILL GET BETTER. But its not like if you went to your old set again you would be shooting back in the 1-teens.