Hi AD17,
I am a little hesitant to respond because I too am a new golfer, but, being a new golfer, I hope that my experience will be helpful to you.
I started golfing earlier this summer and also fell in love with it. I was playing with a set of beginner clubs inherited from my dad, who received his set as a gift from my sister. He never took to the game and so they sat in the garage. It was a set of Maxfli clubs (driver, two hybrids, 5-PW irons, and a putter). I took those clubs out to the range for a few weeks and played with them them a few times. One day at the driving range the head of the 3 Wood flew off when I hit the ball. My dad had barely used the clubs so they were pretty much brand new. They obviously weren't top quality.
My brother who has golfed for years gave me some very sound advice. Being new (I was after all still just trying to figure out how to swing the club) he suggested I check out a used sporting goods store. He said maybe I'd get lucky and find a decent club for next to nothing. I followed his advice and found a used Titleist 3-Wood that was probably 15 years old but appeared to be in good shape for $28 at Play It Again Sports. Problem solved because I just wanted something to hit, I didn't (and probably still don't) know what I really need. And I'm not ready for a club fitting.
Even though it was an old club, you could feel the difference, and the rest of those Maxfli's started to seem pretty weak. I managed to find an almost brand new set of Titleist 716 AP1's (5-PW) for $350 at Golf Galaxy. From there I soon bought a used Titleist driver for about $50 (again probably around 15 years old but in very good shape - and I had it re-gripped for $13 at Golf Galaxy). I eventually got a couple new PING hybrid's at Dick's Sporting Goods. One was brand new ($180) and the other was a demo club. I lucked out because the demo club had never been hit, but being a demo they couldn't sell it as new so I got it for half price ($90). Then I found myself two used wedges (a Cleveland in good shape and an almost brand new Titleist Vokey SM5), and finally a brand new TaylorMade wedge that was on sale. After a few months, the shaft on that Titleist 3-Wood started to bend a little, so I had it re-shafted and re-gripped for around $30-40 and it's fine now. I rounded out the set with a new Ping putter for $180.
To some, this may seem like a circuitous, disorganized, and uninformed way to go about putting together my first set of clubs. I will agree that it is uninformed, but I managed to find some great deals on equipment that was in some cases almost completely brand new, and in the process I was doing this as my swing was starting to develop and I was finding a need for clubs that weren't included in the starter set (wedges!). I also looked at, handled, and swung a lot of different clubs (my Golf Galaxy has a swinging area for the used clubs which was really valuable). It was a very enjoyable summer spent learning something completely new. As time goes on I'm sure I'll go to fittings, buy new clubs, and become far more knowledgable about what I need for MY game, instead of just using what I found because it was in good shape for the right price. But this is how I got started and I hope that relating this experience helps you.
To answer your question, I started replacing the starter set with one club that was totally broken and proceeded opportunistically from there, buying "new" clubs when I found something in good shape for a price so far below what that club would have originally cost that I couldn't pass it up (and then getting a few actually new clubs along the way that just excited me). I will be interested to hear what the truly experienced among us recommend.
All the best,
Max
