New Club Recommendation

[myndcraft]

Howdy folks, brand new player here in need of some club recommendations.

Age: 29
Height: 5'10
Weight: 240

I currently suck at the game, but am absolutely hooked! I'm not expecting new clubs to make me a better player, but what I am looking for is something forgiving and will still be a good fit as my game becomes better. Also I don't mind spending a bit of money now to get a nice set that will be with me for a while.

So any recommendations on specific gear? Should I buy a set on ebay? Get custom fitting or in fact custom clubs from pro shop? Or is it not worth yet at this stage in my game? Any other advice?

And if it helps at all the club I hit the best in my hand-me-downs is the 5 iron.

Thanks!

[DDBowdoin]

welcome to our great game! buying a new set of clubs can be a real tough process. For one its always best to have any equipment you buy be fitted by a qualified professional. A technology that I love is HotStiks, it can be found at most of the major golf retailers. With Hotstiks a professional has you hit a series of shots with a hotstiks generic iron or wood, depending on what you are being fitted for. From the information it gathers it creates a list of recommended manufacturers and models based on your specs. Its also important to be fitted for lie angle, shaft length, flex, type of shaft, torque/weight to fit your swing.

Here comes to the tough thing with purchasing clubs... something I experienced myself. I started playing this game 4 summers ago and when I first started I did the whole fitting thing and made every right move but I wasn't able to account for one thing: how fast would I really progress. A year later I found my super game improvement irons useless and spending another 600-700. It becomes tough to think about an iron purchase in that sense...

[myndcraft]

Thanks for the info Daniel =)

[Golf4life]

Check out the Cobra line for beginers.

[coach13]

Cobra FP, Cleveland Hibore Xl Driver, Hibore Wood, Mizuno Hybrid. This setup has really helped me. I would go to a golf shop and try all the clubs and find the ones that you hit the best. I made the mistake of trying to buy a name brand and use all the clubs it may work for some but it didn't work for me. It would have been cheaper for me to do this first but I didn't.

[Golf4life]

When i started playing golf. I made a decision not to care what so ever about name brand. Get that first two-three lessons in. Get a recommendation from your instructor. Then a year or two down the road, become a club Ho!

[DDBowdoin]

demo everything that even interests you! remember, remember that golf salesman work off spiffs... titleist & callaway bring them nothing. they push brands that are trying to emerge into the market. I spent some time working at a local golf store and Taylormade/ Mizuno/ McGregor brought great spiffs... almost $40 on irons and 25 on woods. Listen to them but don't completely buy into the tech speeches they'll throw at you. Take it and then demo the crap out of clubs.

[jcrew]

just honestly go out and try as many of the clubs as you possibly can and see what you hit best

[myndcraft]

So everyone says demo clubs and get fitted for the most part... so how much amI going to be putting on the charge card anyways LOL

I think fitting is around $150 (I could be way off here) and how much should I expect to pay for clubs to get me going? Is there really a big difference between new and used/certified clubs? Any cost to demo clubs?

[Double Bogey]

You should not pay anything to be fitted for clubs. Go into a retail outlet and ask for a Pro to fit you for new irons. Most of the time they will let you hit a few and the Pro will select some clubs for you to try out. Notice I keep saying a Pro. Sales people do not do as good of job in my opinion. The Pro is there to teach lessons but should be able to fit you anyways. I had the pro tell me that the clubs that the sales guy tried to sell me were not a good fit for me. I sure am glad that I asked for the pro.

[Leek]

So everyone says demo clubs and get fitted for the most part... so how much amI going to be putting on the charge card anyways LOL

Depends- on a demo day, a factory guy will fit you for free. Some of the large stores also fit for free.

Mind you the store fittings are at best ok. If you want a serious fitting session where they totally custom design a set for you by tour quality techs, I think HotStix in Arizona does it for $400-800. I've seen $800 quoted, but my friend paid $400.

[tigerwoo]

Welcome to the game!

IMO though, I'm not so sure getting fitted at this stage is a good idea mainly because you don't have a swing that has any consistency nor any foundations to draw upon. You don't want to get fitted now and have your lie angles adjusted when all that may change fairly quickly when you adjust and readjust as you hone in on the mechanics of the swing as you play this technically challenging game. You'd likely have to do it all over again in a few years time.

What I would suggest for the time being is to go out and buy a set of clubs (a decent set) that's on sale or value priced because it's last year's model or they need to blow it out because of excess inventory. I just went through this process with my very good buddy who decided he was also now going to try and learn the game. So a few months ago we went to our local golf retailer and he let me fill his bag up with all the necessities. The cost came to around $1000.

What's in HIS bag?

Driver: Callaway 454 Big Bertha ($198)
Hybrid: Taylor Made Rescue Mid 22* Graphite ($120)
Irons: Callaway Big Bertha 04, 4-GW uniflex steel ($450)
Putter: Taylormade (I forget which model) ($75)
Bag: Generic stand bag ($75)

As you can see, he pretty much got all name brand clubs and along the way as he got a little better he picked up a cleveland sand wedge for $100 and an Adams Redline 3w with an Aldilla shaft for $110 all on sale/discount.

He started shooting around the 120-130 range at first and now he's shooting consistently in the low 100's with his best score being 102.

He's got a long way to go if he's going to start shooting in the low 90's or even breaking 90 for that matter but with the clubs he has he can definitely be happy with their performance and not have to worry about them being an issue. As he refines his swing and gets better he can start adding to his bag again with perhaps another wedge or perhaps even replacing a few clubs. Or if he never really gets better... and/or decides to take a bit of a hiatus from the game, his initial investment hasn't cost him a chunk of change that he could have used towards his mortgage!

Good luck!

[shortgame85]

Buying clubs for the first time can be confusing. The previous posts have been good. Sure, the best thing is to get fitted. A good pro will size up your ability, swing and skill level. He will recommend clubs appropriate to his analysis of your ability, if not exactly your potential. You might ask yourself how much time you intend to devote to practicing. This question may be more important than you may at first think. With a little practice and some native ability, you should be able to hack your way around a course. Many folks are happy to do just that. If you are willing to put in some time several days each week, along with some instruction, you will probably do better. If you follow the former route, get fitted for super game improvement clubs and be happy; if the latter course is your choice, then super game improvement with the probabilty of moving, at some point, to game improvement and, perhaps, beyond to what is known as players' clubs. There are a lot of good clubs manufactured, today. The state of technology is as good in golf as it has ever been. Companies such as Cobra and Callaway are great choices for the novice and, of course, there are others. Most important of all, go play and have a hell of a good time! Good luck.

[DDBowdoin]

most places either work on two systems, one is they just charge the total of the club to a credit card and then refund that ammount when you return the club. the other is they charge you 10bucks or so a day and then take the ammount off the end purchase when you decide what clubs you want.

if you don't have a problem with used clubs then you should try to find another shop to demo from if they charge per day.

golf is an expensive sport but if you do your research and are fitted correctly its a long term purchase. these prices are for brand new clubs 500-800 for irons, 3-400 for a driver, 150 -2 for a putter, 90-110 for wedges, 125-200 for a hybrid/s.

[myndcraft]

Well I think I am going out this weekend to look around a bit and get a look at my swing. So far from comments here, other forums, and a TON of online review readings I'm looking, primarily, at either

Cobra S9
Callaway X-20
Taylormade r7 Draw iron/hybrid set <-- Worried here because I do slice, but what about after lessons and that problem goes away

Obviously no one here has seen my swing, but any comments on these two?

[myndcraft]

updated because I forgot one and looking for opinons =)

[ettsn]

You should absolutely try some Big Bertha irons. IMO they are the best game improvement irons out there. Especially look for the 2004 models. Functionally pretty much identical to the 2006 versions (although Callaway would hate to hear that) and can be found much cheaper at both retail stores and on the Callaway outlet site.

When I came back to the game, I went and hit everything and I couldn't mis-hit the BB irons. That's why I carry them in my bag.

[myndcraft]

You should absolutely try some Big Bertha irons. IMO they are the best game improvement irons out there. Especially look for the 2004 models. Functionally pretty much identical to the 2006 versions (although Callaway would hate to hear that) and can be found much cheaper at both retail stores and on the Callaway outlet site.

Thanks, I will give them a swing =)