Beginner: Top Flite or Hagen Clubs

[BluMustang]

Hey guys. I'm new to the sport having played one 18 hold round in my life. I've talked to a bunch of friends who play regularly, and a guy at my local pro shop. That has brought me to the fact that I need a lesson or 2, and a starter set to beat up and grow a bit with early on. I'm excited to start.

I see the Top Flite XL 7000, Walter Hagen T3, Walter Hagen MS2, and MS2 Graphite sets.

I was told these are basically on the same level and I understand it won't matter much but any advice on which would be a LITTLE preferred for a beginner would be appreciated. Thanks for your help

[talismand]

I bought a set of Top Flites about a year ago at a garage sale when I first decided to take up golf. If you're determined to go this route with a beginners box set, then I highly recommend them to learn on. mine are XL5000s, but I'm sure the 7000s are equivalent. I've put mine through the equivalent of a war zone, and they've held up just fine.

They have plenty of distance and forgiveness as well, especially for a beginner. Here are some of my average distances with these clubs:

PW - 135
8 - 155
7 - 170
4-hy - 200

Which is more than enough to handle typical courses at a reasonable tee box.

But I will say that the driver, 3-wood, and putter are garbage. I replaced those within the first 2 months with some decent used clubs from a local golf shop.

If you can find this set used, go for it, otherwise, it might not be worth the brand new asking price if you're going to hate 3 clubs from the set, right off the bat.

[jakatan]

I played with the Topflite XL 15 piece set as my introductory set of clubs. The irons are actually quite good (including the hybrids). The 3 wood, however, was atrocious. The driver was so-so and the putter was just something I didn't like. I replaced the driver and putter fairly quickly and, for the most part, simply didn't ever use my 3 wood because I believed I couldn't hit woods. I finally came around and bought a new wood (a 4 wood, actually) and have come to not mind hitting woods at all.

I wouldn't pay more than 200 for the topflite complete set. I got my set from walmart for about 198 I believe, a little over a year ago. It's a great starter set and, who knows, maybe you will like the clubs most others detest.

[RDM#]

You can always look into a used set of older Ping's, Callaway's, Taylormade's, etc, they may be 12-15 years old but they are good clubs. I had a set of Titleist DCI Oversize+ clubs and hit them pretty well back in the late 90's.

[jakatan]

  RDM# said:

You can always look into a used set of older Ping's, Callaway's, Taylormade's, etc, they may be 12-15 years old but they are good clubs. I had a set of Titleist DCI Oversize+ clubs and hit them pretty well back in the late 90's.

Great advice. I check craigslist fairly religiously just in case someone is trying to get rid of some nice clubs for cheap. I would highly recommend doing so. That is how I got my current set of Irons for much, much less than I would have paid new.