Advice needed for a brand new golfer

[urbanknight]

I am thinking about getting some clubs for my wife who currently doesn't play golf. After telling me how many offers of golf rounds and PGA attendance she has refused from prospective clients (mostly lawyers) and her boss, I figured she should at least try it. Since there's no guarantee she'll like it and keep playing, I was trying to figure out how cheap you can go without damaging your chance of enjoying the experience.

So, I was looking at Dunlop Attack Womens for $130, Wilson Hope for $200, and Top Flite Ladies XL for $200. Are any or all of these decent for a first time beginner and leave room for her to upgrade later if she wishes?

By the way, I don't play at all either, but would give it a shot if she likes it enough to play outside of her business relationships. Thanks in advance.

[Danattherock]

Go to Walmart and get a set of Dunlops. Woods, irons, putter, and bag for about $170. Get a bunch of cheap balls. Pinnacle makes a good cheap ball. Maxfli "Noodle" also great ball. If you don't do anything else, take one half hour lesson with a local PGA pro and have him teach you the proper grip, stance, and ball position for the different clubs. Nothing will slow your progress down faster than a poor grip. Trust me on this, I know from experience. Get out and have fun man. Upgrade it all later if you really get into the game. For now, you would have a new set of clubs, a basic understanding of the proper fundamentals, and a new game to learn. A wonderful game might I add.

[Comeback City]

You should've just told her to slide those rounds of golf to you...anyway yeah, you can pretty much get a cheap set for under $200 or much lower than that...My brother just got the "Ram Sensor" set for about $75 (He had like a $25 off $100 and it was the floor model).



I mean for $75 it's something to work with I guess and if he develops more interest he can easily upgrade. If not, $75 ain't that bad.

[urbanknight]

You should've just told her to slide those rounds of golf to you...

Heh, yeah. I don't think I'd do too well for her business relationships trying to talk furniture and interior design when I'm a musician who can't differentiate between close hues of any shade

. Actually, I'm heavily into cycling right now, but she hates it when I go off for a 6, 7, 8+ hour ride (she calls the bike my mistress) so I figured if she likes golfing, I'd give it a try so we can spend more time together. Thanks to both of you! I'm thinking of seeing if she'd be up to us giving each other a starter set for our anniversary and taking a lesson together.

[leftcoastsrt04]

My wife who has also never played golf has decided that she wants to start playing. Roger Dunn let her hit a few balls and she ended up getting hooked. They then tried to sell her a $700 complete set. Yeah.... We are going to Wal Mart this weekend. If it turns out she loves it as much as I do, I can see a really nice set in her future. But like Urbanknight was thinking about doing, we have our anniversary at the end of the month, thinking bout us both getting lessons.

[Technospaz]

Given that she's not played golf before, why don't you pick up a 2nd hand golf set from eBay or other local stores? It may be better for her to see if she likes the game or not first. If she does and really enjoys it, then it makes sense to invest in a good set. The alternative is to see if she would undergo coaching at your local driving range and some of these do have spare sets which you can use to play.

Well, that's the approach I'm taking with my wife who, like yours, is also going to start playing pretty soon :)

[Fat Slice]

My fiancee decided she wanted to try and learn golf as a way to spend more time with me. I take her out for 9 holes when I feel like working on my irons. She's pretty good and I expect with practice and time she'll be scoring better than I do (I simply cannot improve). The best thing is that she has fun and doesn't end up resenting the time I spend golfing without her. I got her a set of Adams irons, an Adams hybrid, and a Nike Driver. She likes her setup and takes good care of it. I had a putter I used a few times and didn't like (Taylor Made Rossa) and put that in her bag too. She wanted to make sure everything looked "cute" (including bag, shoes, visor...even the ball!). After she played a few times, though, she just got in to hitting the ball and putting. It's worth mentioning that I took her to the range 5 times before we went to a course to play.