With golf being such a complicated sport and a lot of different equipment to choose from, we have decided to make this one of a kind golf club buying guide for you. Starting with what types of clubs you should purchase, and what variant you should buy based on your average score there is surely a lot to discuss.

We will also discuss price ranges and whether you should buy used or new clubs. At the end of our article we will point you in the right direction with a few sources that we highly recommend to begin your search for purchasing golf clubs. Remember that at the end of the day, you can only hold fourteen clubs in your bag so choose wisely. Regardless, sit back, relax, and be prepared to read everything that you need to know when buying golf clubs.

How Handicap Effects Golf Club Buying

There are slight differences in the clubs that are the cause of your average score. These differences include the average loft of a driver, what clubs you should carry, how forgiving the clubs should be and so on. Don’t worry, we will make these differences clear for you starting from the higher handicaps down to the scratch golfers.

Handicap 20+

As you most likely know, when you have or had a high handicap you are more likely to have less accurate shots and you get less distance out of your clubs. If you hear any clubs that say “super game improvement” or “improvement” in general then these are for you. These descriptions are most likely going to come with irons which we will talk about later.

When it comes to a driver specifically, you will want to buy a club with a loft around twelve to fourteen degrees and the largest clubhead possible. This gives you the best chance to get the ball into the air and make contact with the ball in general. Once you consistently get the ball into the air you will see your handicap begin to drop and then your golf club needs will change a little in the process.

When it comes to irons, you certainly do not want to use blade style irons because these have the least amount of forgiveness possible. These are the irons that you typically see on the PGA Tour and they are very thin. Rather than using these irons you should be looking for cavity backs and even “oversized” cavity backs, the larger the better. 

The purpose of these large cavity backs is to lower the center of gravity. A lower center of gravity helps you naturally get the ball in the air, which is a big deal when you have a high handicap. At the end of the day, the lowest iron you should have in your bag is a five or six iron. This is because anything lower will be too difficult to hit with a high handicap, instead experiment with hybrids to cover the ground of these lower irons until you reach for your fairway woods.

Handicap 10-20

This is a step up of course, but there are still a few things that you should be aware of when buying golf clubs. For starters, you can lower the loft on your driver to around 10.5-12 degrees. You can use lower loft, because you will not struggle as much to get the ball in the air. Therefore lowering the loft allows you to get some added distance now that you know you can put the ball in the air.

Now we recommend that you still stay away from any blade irons and still stick with cavity-back irons instead. You are by no means going to be perfect with this handicap, so it is still helpful to have a more forgiving club. With cavity back irons, you are still prioritizing distance and straightness instead of being able to shift the flight path of the ball.

When it comes to what clubs to have in your bag, you can start to put more of the low irons in there, but do not get rid of the hybrids just yet. Hybrids will help you get more consistent results in any type of lie, but it will take some time to produce consistent results with your new low irons. It is still a step in the right direction and one that you should be proud of. 

Handicap 10 and Below

Now this range is when the biggest changes occur in what golf clubs you should purchase. If you are in this handicap range it is highly likely that you have a high enough swing speed to lower the driver loft even more. Therefore we suggest that you drop the driver loft down to between 9 and 10.5 degrees. This will help you optimize distance and it is the first time that moment of inertia (MOI) comes into play.

MOI affects how forgiving a club is, which in turn affects how easy it is for you to put any shape on your drives. The higher MOI a club has, the more forgiving that it is, but it makes your shot harder to shape. On the other hand, a lower MOI driver is less forgiving, but you can shape shots more so these drivers are more popular on the PGA Tour.

When it comes to the irons that you use, blades are now an option but you may be surprised to hear that more professionals today have actually decided to stick with cavity-back irons. This is due to the improvements of technology which allow pros to have better feel and workability even though it used to be exclusive to blades. It will also be more comfortable for you since you have been using cavity-back irons your whole career. This decision is really up to you and your personal preference at the end of the day.

Last but not least, we do not suggest that you can add even more low irons to your bag like a two to four iron if you would like. Very rarely will you see two irons, but that is up to you as well. However we do suggest that you keep at least one hybrid in your bag because of how easy they are to hit, as well as how consistent they are.

As we mentioned previously, there are still a lot of other factors that go into your golf club purchases. The next one we suggest looking at is simply your natural shot tendency. This is more beneficial for mid to low handicappers, since you will likely be focused on getting the ball in the air rather than your shot shape for high handicappers. Either way it is likely that you hit the ball from left to right which is known as a fade, or in severe conditions a slice.

Adjustable Clubs

What we highly suggest is trying to find drivers that come with adjustable weights so you can adjust the club as your shot shape changes. These adjustable weights come on top of the club head and usually come with a form of screwdriver mechanism. You should also try to find a driver with adjustable loft since the ideal loft of your driver will change as your game improves. These adjustable features are not only great for temporary fixes, but allow you to use your driver over a longer period of time rather than buying a new driver every time your game improves.

Swing Speed

As the header suggests, swing speed can play a big part in selecting the club to buy. It mostly comes into play whenever you are deciding what flex of shaft you should use. It is difficult to judge what your swing speed is without using some sort of expensive golf tracker. So instead we have come up with a helpful table that lays out a rule of thumb for you to judge your speed.

So next time you are out on the course or the driving range, hit some balls and see what club consistently goes 150 yards for you.

Price Ranges

Another important factor when buying a golf club or clubs, is how much you would like to pay for the item. You can imagine that the higher quality clubs cost more money, and that is exactly right. Easily some of the most expensive golf clubs are found in professional golfer’s bags, but that is what they do for a living so they are all in. We will break down three different price ranges for you to give you a better idea of which range you will fall in whenever you are purchasing your golf clubs.

Professional Price Range

Starting with the most expensive option and working our way down, we have the professional price range. With the higher price comes higher quality materials in the clubs as well as premium shafts and better technology. The sets usually come as a package of all fourteen clubs, but the total price range is between $2,500 and $4,800 which could get you a lot of good clubs in the other price ranges.

We only recommend these clubs for the top tier golfers who are trying to play on a professional level. Besides that, we do not see the point of paying this much for clubs you will only use on the weekend, but that is a decision for you to make in the end.

Mid Tier Price Range

Now the clubs in this price range can vary quite a bit, but they are generally still made of high quality materials and have good technology. You will often find the “super improvement” and “improvement” irons in this category. It is not very likely that you will find a full set of fourteen clubs in this price range however, due to personal preferences of players and different companies specializing in different clubs. The bags in this price range seem to hold a mixture of clubs for this reason, ours included.

Since your total of fourteen clubs will vary based on what brands you would like to put into your bag, the price ranges are all different. The price range in this category could vary anywhere from $400 to $2400 based on what you end up buying. A tip is that the older clubs you buy the cheaper they are and they still provide good technology.

We personally try to buy clubs that are four or five years old and are still in good condition. Our advice later on where to buy golf clubs will also help you lower the price, so read onward for that advice.

Economy Price Range

This is the cheapest option on our list which results in the lowest quality clubs, but it is still a good range to start out in. These clubs are anywhere up to $400 on average and include the starter set packages that you will often see in local sporting goods stores. They include a few irons, a few fairway woods, a wedge, a driver, and a putter most often.

They are also typically lower quality clubs with very little helpful technology and are not made by high quality golf brands either. The benefits of these clubs however is that the club heads are typically quite large which makes for a little added forgiveness in your golf game. Either way there is no shame in buying these clubs as we all have to start our golf careers somewhere. In fact these are the sets that we typically buy when we are gifting golf clubs to family friends or loved ones.

Types of Golf Clubs: Hybrids

In this section we will discuss the differences between the types of clubs and they are things that you should keep in mind during your purchasing phase. With the biggest question mark lying around hybrid clubs we will discuss this type of club the most.

Hybrids vs. Irons - What’s the Difference?

Well for starters, they look different of course with the hybrid having a much larger club head than a long iron. A long iron tends to be much skinnier than a hybrid, but a hybrid is still not as big as a fairway wood, which we will discuss more later. Besides the club head size, the center of gravity is further back on a hybrid making it easier to hit than a long iron. In addition to making it easier to hit, this aft center of gravity adds to the height of the golf shot and increased launch angle.

The added height and launch angle also makes for increased spin, something that will make a larger impact if you are not a tour pro. Also, a hybrid does add around eight to twelve yards to your shot, which is something an iron makes up with the roll out of the golf ball. Besides these effects, there is no real difference between shaft flex and a hybrid is only slightly longer or equal to the length of a long iron.

In summary, the main differences between a hybrid and long iron are only the clubhead size, and the resulting effects caused by it, to include: more  distance, more backspin, higher launch angle, and higher shot peak.

I Am Ready To Buy Clubs, Now What?

Buying golf clubs can be a very confusing and lengthy process if you do not know what you are looking for. There are so many different available websites and locations that it is difficult to know which ones are legitimate. Even websites like eBay can be a little sketchy, but just trust the reviews or purchase an extra five dollar insurance.

Overall, this section of the article will give you some detailed tips for buying your used clubs whether you are a beginner or a certified professional.

There are many different websites that sell golf clubs ranging from your local golf courses to ebay, amazon, sporting goods stores and much more. Although how will you know where to purchase your new clubs or what is best for you? Well if you are brand new to the golf game, I suggest you begin at your local sporting goods stores.

They will have full sets designed for beginners that will have all the clubs you need. It is also easy to turn around and purchase golf balls, tees, towels, shoes, and any other golf accessories you can think of. This is also an excellent way to get a personal view of what you are purchasing and what you would like to buy.

An excellent advantage that a sporting good store has over websites like eBay is a warranty, which is not something you typically can find at a garage sale or third party seller. This way if you begin golfing, but decide it is not the sport for you, then you can easily return your clubs to the store.

On the other hand, if you are an experienced golfer then with some research you would be safe buying your clubs on Amazon or eBay. I suggest this method because it is much, much cheaper than buying the exact clubs you want than buying them directly from the company website or sporting goods store.

Now with this lower price you will not be able to see the clubs in hand prior to purchase so you must trust that they are what the buyer says. Another disadvantage to using a website like amazon or ebay is that the clubs are typically used, not brand new as they would be at a sporting goods store. For these reasons, I recommend purchasing used clubs online for experienced players who know exactly what they are looking for.

Overall, there are many different things to consider when selecting golf clubs, as well as many different methods to purchasing these clubs. Once you know what you are looking for with height, feel, and other factors then you are ready to officially select your clubs.

It is suggested that first time purchasers go to their local sporting goods store to understand exactly what they are purchasing. For experienced players, you can get away with purchasing your clubs online for a discount from websites such as Amazon or eBay.

Article Recap

With the beauty of golf and all of its options comes the possibility to become confused easily and that is expected. We learned the information in this article after years of experience which involved some trial and error on our own part. We suggest that you start your search for clubs with first taking a look at your handicap. It is important to not hype yourself up in this process as getting clubs that are above your skill level will likely make your game worse rather than better.

Keep in mind that no matter what skill level you are it is important to buy adjustable clubs since they will last longer in your career and can change as your handicap changes. Remember to use our rule of thumb table to judge your swing speed or shaft flex based on what club you use to hit the ball 150 yards. 

The next step is picking a price range to search in based on your budget, and remain reasonable but remember that it is a lifelong investment after all. That price will be paid out over all of the years that you use your golf clubs. Another tricky part can be deciding when you should buy a hybrid versus an extra iron. Once you have all of that sorted out we suggest that you either meet with a professional fitter or if you are more comfortable with the process then simply search online for the best deals.

We hope you found this article helpful and enjoy your brand new golf clubs!