I play a lot of my non-competitive golf with an old set of persimmon woods and blade irons and it's the best practice I get. If i'm playing well with those clubs then the game feels very easy when the new stuff comes out. I can understand why new equipment doesn't necesarilly produce lower scores too, as the game is, was and always will be about keeping the ball in play, not wasting shots (hitting OB, into water hazards, unplayable lies etc.) and getting the ball up and down from inside 100 yards, all things that new equipment can't really help with. You can buy a club that hits 15-20 yards further but you've still got to swing on line and square the club face up for it to reduce your scores and you can buy wedges and putters that help you to spin the ball or help with alignment but you still need to be able to judge distance and direction pretty well for these things to have any impact on scoring ability. And there isn't a club that you can buy that helps with course management and until there is I would expect average scores to remain pretty consistent around that high 80s low 90s level that it is now.