Beginner Bag Suggestions

[logantrky]

Hello all.

I have been out of the game for 3-4 years now, sold all of my equipment, etc. Now, I'm ready to get back into the game. Keep in mind, I am a high handicapper. The last clubs I owned were Titleist AP1 712 irons, Titleist 910 Driver, and Odyssey White Hot putter. In my opinion, I spent a bit too much $$ in relation to my ability.

This time around, I have a budget of around $500. I'm hoping this could purchase a decent set of irons, driver, and putter (I'm fine with buying used clubs). I am open to other brands, but considered purchasing some older Titleist irons... Thoughts?

Like I mentioned, I've been out of the game for a while and am open to any thoughts/opinions on equipment recommendations you may have!

 

[WUTiger]

Go to a local golf shop, and tell the player's reps your situation. If you connect with the rep, try out some clubs and see what you like.

Shops often have trade-ins they want to sell to get their $$ back.

As for club models, you probably want to try either SGI or GI irons. For examples, look at the Golf Digest Hot List from 2015. Lots of brands available.

[gregsandiego]

4 hours ago, logantrky said:

Hello all.

I have been out of the game for 3-4 years now, sold all of my equipment, etc. Now, I'm ready to get back into the game. Keep in mind, I am a high handicapper. The last clubs I owned were Titleist AP1 712 irons, Titleist 910 Driver, and Odyssey White Hot putter. In my opinion, I spent a bit too much $$ in relation to my ability.

This time around, I have a budget of around $500. I'm hoping this could purchase a decent set of irons, driver, and putter (I'm fine with buying used clubs). I am open to other brands, but considered purchasing some older Titleist irons... Thoughts?

Like I mentioned, I've been out of the game for a while and am open to any thoughts/opinions on equipment recommendations you may have!

 

Ebay has the local golf store beat for this. More choices to get what you want, and much less time.

I'd start out with a recent but used iron set under $150, then regrip to make them your own.

Buy a new golf bag, maybe $120 or less.

Then pick out a driver, putter, wedge.

I tried to stay with all TaylorMade including bag but you can find whatever you want.

Should be fun and come in well under $500.

 

Edited June 29, 2016 by gregsandiego
typo

[WUTiger]

Caution on eBay... You don't get to try out the clubs first. If you buy on eBay a couple of times and the clubs don't work, you can waste a full season and quite a bit of $$ just going with hit and miss.

Don't confuse price with value.

eBay OK if you want to get a LW to match a SW you already use, but avoid if you're not sure what you want.

[Piz]

$500 is a fortune.  Check out the gear that was top-of-the-pops 3 or 4 years ago.  Check out the stuff that was the ------ 6 or 8 years ago.  There is tons of good stuff out there and lots of information to help you decide.  Besides, it's cool to do a bit of digging and come up with something on your own.  

[70sSanO]

I agree with trying out older clubs at a Golfsmith or Roger Dunn if one is close by.  You can find some good deals in used clubs.  I would think that you would find good value and quality with Adams since they are no longer in business but they produced some very good GI/SGI irons.  Non-Walmart Wilson Ci/Di or Cobra irons are also good budget choices and still good equipment.  Older Ping drivers and fairways are solid offerings.

My only reference for Titleist was when I bought my Wilson Ci7 irons.  For me the Wilson's were a poor man's first generation AP1 with maybe a bit more distance.

You will need to do your homework and buy used if you want to build an entire bag from scratch for $500, but it can be done.  Not to over-generalize, but from my experience, the bigger the swing the better the fit needs to be, especially the shaft.  But if you were fit for your AP1's you should at least have a starting point.

John

[Jarhead247]

I have had good luck with the Callaway Pre-Owned website.  Bought new driver, 3W, 3H, 4H, & 5i-SW within the last 12 months.

[SavvySwede]

On 6/29/2016 at 3:46 PM, WUTiger said:

Caution on eBay... You don't get to try out the clubs first. If you buy on eBay a couple of times and the clubs don't work, you can waste a full season and quite a bit of $$ just going with hit and miss.

Don't confuse price with value.

eBay OK if you want to get a LW to match a SW you already use, but avoid if you're not sure what you want.

If you find the quality used listed this isn't really an issue. Almost everything I decided to get rid of that I bought on ebay I resold for the same price, even made a small profit a few times. 

[Rainmaker]

On 7/2/2016 at 10:33 AM, Jarhead247 said:

I have had good luck with the Callaway Pre-Owned website.  Bought new driver, 3W, 3H, 4H, & 5i-SW within the last 12 months.

I've also had great luck with the Callaway Pre-Owned clubs.  I've had good luck with 2nd Swing, as well.  Both sites allow you to send back the clubs if they don't work for you - although I've never had to do that. 

I would say, if you're looking for SGI clubs and you, for whatever reason, can't try them out first - it would be hard to beat a set of used Callaway Big Berthas irons.  They're super easy to hit.  Very long.  As far as getting something used for, say, less than 300 . . . I'd definitely consider Big Berthas.     

[onthehunt526]

On 6/28/2016 at 9:06 PM, logantrky said:

Hello all.

I have been out of the game for 3-4 years now, sold all of my equipment, etc. Now, I'm ready to get back into the game. Keep in mind, I am a high handicapper. The last clubs I owned were Titleist AP1 712 irons, Titleist 910 Driver, and Odyssey White Hot putter. In my opinion, I spent a bit too much $$ in relation to my ability.

This time around, I have a budget of around $500. I'm hoping this could purchase a decent set of irons, driver, and putter (I'm fine with buying used clubs). I am open to other brands, but considered purchasing some older Titleist irons... Thoughts?

Like I mentioned, I've been out of the game for a while and am open to any thoughts/opinions on equipment recommendations you may have!

 

Titleist usually has a high resale value so the prices are kind of high for recent models.

My suggestion is any quality used set of clubs made within 4 years that you would have a chance to hit. Older PINGS are a great GI/SGI model... Eye 2, G2, i3 o-size, G5, G10 and G15 can be had on the relative cheap on eBay and even at some local used sporting goods store... Were talking $100-150 for a set of 8....

Driver models made within 3-5 years ago, You won't notice a difference really from now... Some 3-5 year old models are going for like $40 on eBay.

Titleist 910s are still up a bit, but the SLDR is on clearance from like $80... The JetSpeed Driver is around the same price point.

Putters unless you want a brand new custom Scotty Cameron you can get for cheap.