Budget golfer club advice

[1badbadger]

When I was in golf retail, I dealt with this situation many times.  I would start by asking the customer: 

"What is your main reason for wanting to replace your irons...what are you trying to accomplish?"

If someone just wants new clubs because they want new clubs, that's fine.  But in a situation like this where money is a consideration, I think it's important to determine what your goal is, which will help insure your money is spent effectively.  For example, are you looking for a set that is more forgiving, or a set that will allow you to work the ball more effectively, or irons with a higher trajectory...have a solid plan on what you want to accomplish.  You don't have to consider certain brands of clubs or which model at this point, just what you want an iron set to do that your current ones don't.  If your reason is to "update them", update them in what way?  (these are rhetorical questions)

This will help determine which direction to go, or you may realize that you don't need to replace your irons at all.  If you hit them well you might consider continuing to play them. 

[Hat]

Some questions answered:

Quote

Do you have the 3-pw with those di9 irons?

4-SW, including a GW I added later as the gap between PW and SW was over 30 yards. I don't have much issue with any but the 4-iron, which I sometimes struggle to get up in the air.

On 09/02/2017 at 4:13 AM, 1badbadger said:

"What is your main reason for wanting to replace your irons...what are you trying to accomplish?"

This is a really good question - for me it's what I don't know, as I haven't hit that many different golf clubs. I hit the DI9's pretty well, as far as I can tell, but  I worry as they are game improvement irons I am not able to feel the mishits so easily and learn from them...could just be pure paranoia, but I don't know what I don't know. I know I probably don't want a set of blades which are going to punish me into giving up the game, but I do want to learn, and I worry that I am not getting the feedback to do so.

Thanks all again for your replies. I got out to play yesterday and didn't have feel any dissatisfaction with any particular club. I think part of the idea of buying new clubs is that you're somehow improving your game when you don't have time to play. From yesterday, I need to work on consistency, since I hit both a 240 yard drive and a 110 yard one with the same club :( . And I also need to work on my short game, since I think I lost most strokes from inside 50 yards. Although that got me thinking about wedges... :)

Hat.

 

[jkelley9]

I'm absolutely a budget golfer. The only club I bought new was my Scotty Cameron putter which about KILLED ME lol. My last 2 drivers were used on Cragslist for CHEAPS. Irons were used on ebay. Wedges were 2nd hand online golf retailers. My aeroburner 3-wood was on massive sale on Amazon, I think I paid $80 for it. And my hybrid was from Rockbottomgolf (I love that store).

That said I never think about technology improvements in my purchases. I fee like it's mostly a gimmick, except when comparing decades apart between equipment. but 3-5 years? Nah. 

Also I personally feel the most important part of fitting is just shaft length and flex. The loft/lie and stuff like that not so much. Again, many MANY people will disagree, but I'm more about learning to play with what I've got while I'm still improving my swing mechanics. 

If I were you, I wouldn't even bother upgrading your clubs - at the frequency you play. I do think the putter and the driver are the most important clubs to "get right." But even then, I feel like people should mostly just play with what they have and learn to swing it. I kind of regret buying my putter, honestly, because I still can't putt worth a darn! lol

[deadon500]

Try looking at Tour Edge they have complete sets for sale.     touredge.com

[1badbadger]

5 hours ago, jkelley9 said:

I'm absolutely a budget golfer. The only club I bought new was my Scotty Cameron putter which about KILLED ME lol. My last 2 drivers were used on Cragslist for CHEAPS. Irons were used on ebay. Wedges were 2nd hand online golf retailers. My aeroburner 3-wood was on massive sale on Amazon, I think I paid $80 for it. And my hybrid was from Rockbottomgolf (I love that store).

That said I never think about technology improvements in my purchases. I fee like it's mostly a gimmick, except when comparing decades apart between equipment. but 3-5 years? Nah. 

Also I personally feel the most important part of fitting is just shaft length and flex. The loft/lie and stuff like that not so much. Again, many MANY people will disagree, but I'm more about learning to play with what I've got while I'm still improving my swing mechanics. 

If I were you, I wouldn't even bother upgrading your clubs - at the frequency you play. I do think the putter and the driver are the most important clubs to "get right." But even then, I feel like people should mostly just play with what they have and learn to swing it. I kind of regret buying my putter, honestly, because I still can't putt worth a darn! lol

I agree with you on the importance of shaft length and flex, and feel it's not necessary for a beginner to invest in an extensive fitting process while their swing is still going through major changes, but I' afraid I am one of the guys who disagree on the lie angle not being as important and the concept of learning to hit what you've got.  Let me explain why...

A player who is hitting a poorly fit club will struggle when they put their normal swing on it.  The brain will quickly determine that some adjustments need to be made in our set up and/or swing to make contact with that club.  Our subconscience and natural athletic ability will make the compensations to start making better contact.  The problem is, the more compensations that have to be made, the harder it is to repeat that swing the same way.

This is a funky analogy, but go with me on this one...imagine a dude who is 6'10" moves into a new house with doorways that are 6'7" high (if you need to know why, just imagine he got a smokin' deal on the place). After smacking his head once or twice on the top of the door frame he will realize that he cannot walk normally through the doors.  He must compensate for that and make an extra adjustment to get through. If he ducks too much his back gets sore, so each time he needs to duck 4".  If he could walk through normally he could do it exactly the same way every time.  But what are the chances of ducking exactly 4" every time? It's hard to repeat.  Even if he could master it through practice and muscle memory, when he goes to his girlfriends house her doors are 6'5" tall!  My point is even if you could learn to hit a poorly fit driver, you'd still have to adjust differently to hit your poorly fit irons.  I told you it was a funky analogy.

Rather than adjusting your swing to fit the clubs, adjust the clubs to fit your swing.

[onthehunt526]

On February 27, 2017 at 10:29 AM, deadon500 said:

Try looking at Tour Edge they have complete sets for sale.     touredge.com

I personally play Exotics and they can get expensive. The XJ1 Driver retails for $700. Tour Edge has good full sets as well, Bazooka Max D and Hot Launch are pretty good. 

You could probably stick with the D line @Hat. You can upgrade to the d100 for reasonably cheap around 200 quid. Even the d200 are less than $300 over here. Not sure shipping and import fees would be worth it from the States. But over in the UK I know that they have a lot of Second hand pro line shops and such. Heck Peter Finch and Rick Shiels went in to one with £500 and came out with full sets of clubs.