Is this equipment suitable for me?

Of late, I've come across a no. of posts from folks who proclaimed to be 'newbie' or 'high hcp' golfers,
who started the game not too long ago and are pondering over some equipment that has 'Tour Preferred' or 'Tour' or 'Stiff Flex' or 'X Flex'
Then they often asked, if fellow forumners can advise if it will be suitable for their game?

there are forumers who are in the school of thought that they should use the least forgiving club to ensure we ingrained
the correct swing, instead of being lull into a false sense of one having a 'sound swing' when it's actually the (forgiving) clubs
doing the work of correcting the swing flaws. In the long term, its better for one's game, they feel.

There are forumers who are in the school of thought that the game is already hard enough, and if we have day jobs and want to enjoy
the game, then why not let technology and equipment help us rather than hinder our enjoyment of the game. Why not just enjoy the game, they feel.

My 2 cents worth

As a rule of the thumb, I feel that genuine beginners should avoid any equipment with 'Tour' written on it. There is a reason why equipment manufacturers categorise their equipment as Super Game Improvement / Game Improvement / Better Player / Tour

Golf is about the score we put on the score card, so the equipment we use should complement our skillset
each of us has a honest assessment of our skills, let's not kid ourselves

Golf is a journey... tinkering with equipment along the way is part of the journey. Why rush to jump from point A to Z?

When buying equipment, its often mentioned that we should try before we buy.
Better still, get fitted before buying off the rack (should beginners get fitted or only 'seasoned beginners' go for fitting is another
discussion altogether - discussed before).

I also realised, getting proper instruction beats buying equipment. Some of my friends remarked, "I only need 5 minutes to buy a new club, but you want me to spend 1 hr with a teaching pro?!?!?". To each, his own then. But with the right instructions (and practice), one should be able to hit a wide variety of equipment

I'm guilty of also tinkering with equipment, been playing for 10 years... just wanna share my views with beginners. Your thoughts?

Hi pocketace, like you I am from the old school of thoughts too. Its been 9 years exactly this month when I picked up my 1st 7 iron to hit a ball at the now defunct old Queenstown Range, and its been a long road to what I called a self opinated satisfactory standard of my own game. To date, I have not seen a coach for advice and learnt the hard way through self taught, videos, books and friend's advices. Taking in the good and the bad advices at the same time. Through the years, I managed to weed out most of the bad ones but of course there are those which remains. Thats why my standard of play is stucked on a plateau, but I am happy to just carry on from where I am.
Through the years, especially at the beginning stage, I have been through a lot of equipment changes but mostly on the drivers and woods. I used my beginner iron set bought from the States direct which serves me a good 7 years before I decided to change to a slightly better game iprovement set which is the Cobra S9 1st generation and am still using it with satisfaction. In the past, I always think that its the arrow which is not straight and so this Red Indian kept on looking and searching for a straighter one. Only later realised its the Indian's fault and not the arrow.
Now, talking about the current generation which like to start off with "tours" and "Pros" equipments, time will tell them they are using the wrong set from which we will know when they start selling their "pro" set at cheap cheap price as they can't handle it.
So here, I personally think that as a beginner, one should start from scratch with a beginner set and not jumped the gun thinking using a professional set will make them improved faster. Of course there are those who can pick up fast within a year but these people are blessed with natural learning abilities in everything they touched. Unless you are one, I advised those beginners to start with the easiest set to make their game more enjoyable. I apologized for being so lor sor but thats just me la.

One senior seasoned golfer once said this to me-
" you are still young and have the strength if you continue using light and game improvement clubs now,what are you going to use when you are old and have a slower swing speed?"

Those words... Poison!

Ever noticed how many almost brand new sets of beautiful better player to blade irons are on sale at 2nd hand golf shops?

Whenever I asked how come such a new set is on sale, more often than not the answer is "the owner can't handle it"

Great this gives me an excuse to explain to my wife abt my impulse buying of the v3... It gets gold medal as SGI set in the latest golf digest

Seriously though... Interesting read for novice beginners .. Would wait tonsee any opposing argument

Birdman wrote:

Ever noticed how many almost brand new sets of beautiful better player to blade irons are on sale at 2nd hand golf shops?

Whenever I asked how come such a new set is on sale, more often than not the answer is "the owner can't handle it"

Wow, that alone sounds like a good reason for a trip down to the lion city.

Birdman, where can I find these 2nd hand golf shops?

I really think to mitigate the continous usage of wrong equipment , it has to go to the source ...the real source...and that is when we were kids

how many times, did my mother ask me to wear clothes which do not fit the round-shape body of mine? How many times, did the sales girl keep insisting that i look good in the body hugging tee?

then now, I am a parent.....unfortunately I am doing the same:

i tried to get my kid to use the wooden frame badminton racquet which I used during my MSSD/MSSJ/MSSM days....but to no avail...coz my wife said..." look here, you see Lee Chong wei.....must use those to have chance '......

Duval_S wrote:

I really think to mitigate the continous usage of wrong equipment , it has to go to the source ...the real source...and that is when we were kids

how many times, did my mother ask me to wear clothes which do not fit the round-shape body of mine? How many times, did the sales girl keep insisting that i look good in the body hugging tee?

then now, I am a parent.....unfortunately I am doing the same:

i tried to get my kid to use the wooden frame badminton racquet which I used during my MSSD/MSSJ/MSSM days....but to no avail...coz my wife said..." look here, you see Lee Chong wei.....must use those to have chance '......

Totally agreed. I am in the same shoes as well.

Lee, you can find a high concentration of them at Far East Shopping Centre, it's between Wheelock Place and the Hilton Hotel.

DimWit Kid wrote:

Great this gives me an excuse to explain to my wife abt my impulse buying of the v3... It gets gold medal as SGI set in the latest golf digest

Seriously though... Interesting read for novice beginners .. Would wait tonsee any opposing argument

I see the points of both sides of the debate. The discussion here seems to cover two parts, namely club head forgiveness and shaft flex.

On forgiveness, some points on the other side:

1. a golf swing, once set, is very hard to change
2. a golf swing with highly forgiving club will likely (not absolutely) contain some key flaws within the forgiveness zone of the club, so the ball still goes pretty much straight, thus powerfully reinforcing the swing
3. these flaws quickly become a part of the swing, re. point 1

There should be no fear of good players equipment, provided one builds the swing with proper instruction.

Can a beginner start with blades?

Lest we forget, in the past, all clubs were blades. And nothing like today's blades, which are more forgiving with modern design. Try hitting one of those blades from the classic era; man, you'll wonder why anyone ever took up the game.

Today we have it good, modern design gives us a wide range of forgiveness/playability spectrum to choose from.

Studies have shown that we learn and improve best when we are stretched a certain percent beyond our current level. Below this, we get bored. Above this, we get frustrated.

It's up to us to find what the right amount of stretch is.

If you play blades, find it too much to handle, and give up, the stretch was too much.

If you play SGI or GI clubs, and a few years down the road, find that you have a swing flaw that's very hard to fix, that's the opposite side of the coin.

There's a student taking lessons who has never hit a golf ball before. He brought his father's old blades. Within a few weekly lessons, he has acquired good balance, alignment, release, and finish. Then he tried my MP52 - "Wah, so easy!" I tried his father's blades "Wah, so hard!"

And he was no aspiring pro player, being a banker, he just wanted to be able to network with clients. Neither was he a jock, he's been sitting behind a desk most of his life, judging from his build and complexion.

I have a friend who's been playing many years. He scores in the low 80s, wins some amateur competitions, and likes to play from the tips, all with an outside-in swing with a chicken wing finish. He chops down at the ball, so his driver is very short, but he can get up and down from anywhere. He tried to get rid of his chicken wing recently, taking some advice from somewhere, and ended up with a massive case of tennis elbow. It's probably too late to change his swing. He can't accept the drop in scoring during the change.

I attended a coaching clinic held by Titleist yesterday, with Asian Tour Pro Barry Henson, where I asked, how long it takes him to make a swing change. His answer, a total of 4 years. And we're talking a minor change, no massive flaws at his level of the game.

I would say, get as much club as you can handle or want to learn to handle, and get GOOD instruction.

Swing mechanics and swing speed are two separate and independent areas. One does not imply the other.

Which is why shaft stiffness is a different story. Being fitted is very important.

Getting a shaft with X flex, when the swing calls for R flex, that's just a recipe for disaster. Even with solid instruction, it will take time for the swing speed to build up. Took me about two years, and my shaft has gone from only from R to S.

Then, there are also the bigger-built mesomorphs with a fast transition, who would benefit from a stiffer shaft regardless which level of development their swing is at.

Just that in Asia, a 6 foot 10 beginner, athletic, built like a rock, is very rare, although I do know one personally.

Birdman wrote:

Lee, you can find a high concentration of them at Far East Shopping Centre, it's between Wheelock Place and the Hilton Hotel.

Thanks bro. Got it confused w Far East Plaza for a moment, from my school days.

Haha .. Very meaningful thread..

I am a beginner who learnt less than 2 years ago .. I started with a basic set and have since revamped almost all that i have, despite others telling me that there is no need to change, new equipment won't be much different.

I feel that one has to find his or her motivation. Changing equipment can be helpful sometimes.. For me, I feel I have improved because while I was looking for a new equipment, I began to be conscious of my Own swing style, how different set of irons and driver feels like and thus the feeling I like. When I finally take the plunge to buy I will tell myself to give no excuses but to make it work..

To the beginners like me, please try what you want to buy and be honest with yourself ...

To old timers who hasn't change in 7 to 10 years .. (Even though i am not qualified to give any kind of advice) maybe you should start to look around and find a new set. You might be surprised that there are better equipment out there that can help your game somehow!

i havent change

1) my irons in 5 years....
2) my fairway woods also 5 years
3) my wedges in 2 years
4) my driver in 1+ year


only my putter...... sadly is not a fixture in my bag

however, i have change all my shafts during these times....

yes, i am a shaft slut....

i haven't change

Driver - 7 years (same model head, second shaft)
3 wood - 6 years
wedges - i collect a few, oldest is 7 years and still in the bag
irons - just changed but is old model and quite used but i like

Am I suitable for golf might be a better question to ask.

I will think I'm the 3rd school of thoughts...
Get clubs with nice design (personal preference) and Must have good resale value( lose less when you sell) and most importantly 2nd hand. Then save those money for LESSONS to work your swing with your New equipments. Haha...

In my (only)4 years of playing (socially), I have changed:
- 3 sets of irons
(R7- graph shaft>TM tour prefered- stiff steel shaft> miura- KBS Xflex)
- 3 drivers
(XLS- R flex> 909d2- Stiff> 910d2- Xflex)
- 3 hybrids
(cobra DWS- R flex> Adam - Stiff> R11- Xflex)
- 2 set of wedges
(TM wedges > Scratch wedge (some sole grind)
- 3 putters
(Nike - mallet 34in> SC studio design- blade 34in> SC Kombi - mallet 33in)

It was like a journey to search for the 'ONE'.

But I realised, while working with a coach, my swings got stronger and the 'feel' changes through stages... Hence the BUY-TRY-SELL... ...sigh

Dstruc wrote:

I will think I'm the 3rd school of thoughts...
Get clubs with nice design (personal preference) and Must have good resale value( lose less when you sell) and most importantly 2nd hand. Then save those money for LESSONS to work your swing with your New equipments. Haha...

In my (only)4 years of playing (socially), I have changed:
- 3 sets of irons
(R7- graph shaft>TM tour prefered- stiff steel shaft> miura- KBS Xflex)
- 3 drivers
(XLS- R flex> 909d2- Stiff> 910d2- Xflex)
- 3 hybrids
(cobra DWS- R flex> Adam - Stiff> R11- Xflex)
- 2 set of wedges
(TM wedges > Scratch wedge (some sole grind)
- 3 putters
(Nike - mallet 34in> SC studio design- blade 34in> SC Kombi - mallet 33in)

It was like a journey to search for the 'ONE'.

But I realised, while working with a coach, my swings got stronger and the 'feel' changes through stages... Hence the BUY-TRY-SELL... ...sigh

For a 4-year duration, that's not bad, actually shows remarkable restraint and self-discipline.

I know if I were in Singapore, with the wealth of choices and at those prices, I'd be a total equipment 'ho and amass a lot more than that.

The progression of equipment shows the coaching is bearing result.

Just wondering, did you get custom-fitted at all, or bought by feel?

I have not gone for fitting before. It was all based on feel and reading of clubs / shafts reviews.

Like I said, my purchase decision are
1) nice design ( to me)
2) resale value ( research on the 'gold/ silver awards' equip. or any latest hype brands)
3) look for them online - 2nd hand if not discount sales

Duval_S wrote:

I really think to mitigate the continous usage of wrong equipment , it has to go to the source ...the real source...and that is when we were kids

how many times, did my mother ask me to wear clothes which do not fit the round-shape body of mine? How many times, did the sales girl keep insisting that i look good in the body hugging tee?

then now, I am a parent.....unfortunately I am doing the same:

i tried to get my kid to use the wooden frame badminton racquet which I used during my MSSD/MSSJ/MSSM days....but to no avail...coz my wife said..." look here, you see Lee Chong wei.....must use those to have chance '......

Persuade your wife to let your kid to continue using the wooden framed badminton racquet so when he changes his to a graphite frame with 150 new technological improvements in it, he'll beat whatever Lee Chong Wei-s to a pulp.

Use the Kungfu training in underwater analogy so your wife will understand.