What to do with your old clubs??

Hi guys, i'm a beginner and hopefully my following questions do not sound stupid.

Okay here goes. I bought a set of TM Burner 08 irons (Jap Spec with Stiff NSPRO shafts) from Golf House a couple of years back thinking that I was going to learn golf. Gotta admit it was a super impulse buy and nothing materialized so the set just sat in the store till recently when I took up golf lessons.

I've been taking lessons for 2 months and really love this sport. However, was told by my coach that the irons are not suitable for me (I brought them along for my lessons).

Given the age of the clubs, I guess it should be super obsolete in terms of technology and stuff. The clubs are in good condition. Maybe just the 7 and 9 are more used.

Here is my question. What should I do with them?

Are there shops that provide trade in service if I get new irons from them?

Should I sell them here on forum or to the other shops out there? What kinda price can I look to get back? i.e. what percentage of the buying price can i recoup

Sorry the wall of text, hopefully I will get some feedbacks from the experts here on the possible options and what value am I looking at for my current irons. Thanks and good day!

How are the clubs not suitable for u

Other than shaft flex or lie or loft which can be adjusted.

he mentioned that the offset of my clubs does not suit my swing. Did not probe further as I was rushing off. Is the offset adjustable? I did some searching and found discussions saying that it is probably not adjustable or will take someone extremely skilled to do it.

Hi Zacaroo,

you can try selling it off.

if it is the burner 1.0, think you can still get up to $400 for it. (depends on condition)

Good luck!

PS: keen to know what clubs your coach recommends. keep us posted. thks.

Until now I do not know what's suitable for me... hahahaha....

If I were you, I will try to swing it at the range and if it's really not suitable, sell it off and get another set....

Apart from fitting, how to tell what is suitable? Experts, can you kindly advise?

Thanks for the kind feedbacks.

nrafee, this is the iron set I'm talking about just that mine is nspro stiff flex, don't think they are the burner 1.0. any evaluation of the price?

http://www.golfrepublic.org/t8326-wts-tm-burner-irons-5-paspriced-reduced?highlight=burner+iron

Interesting that your coach says the irons are not suitable for you. I remember these irons are very forgiving. You should ask your coach to clarify. No point wasting money to buy another set now.

BTW, have you seen some of the loose irons the coaches loan out to students during lessons? Some of these irons are old and difficult to launch for a beginner - in all shapes, sizes, stiffness, weight... Why would the coach have the students use such irons if it really matters at this learning stage? If it matters so much, all beginners would have to go for fitting prior to learning golf...

Er....yr coach says tat??
He may has his many pts in view of u being his student. Bt this burner 08 irons re very forgiving tools!
Furthermore its fitted w NSPro shaft!
Has brought a similar set (Tour Burner) w almost same club face/loft bt in stock steel shaft (believed its DG R300) n it helps my game durg those 3 yrs til I seek other brand/spec to improve on distance.
I suggest u try it often enough n create more feel w it then u can conclude.

slash wrote:

Interesting that your coach says the irons are not suitable for you. I remember these irons are very forgiving. You should ask your coach to clarify. No point wasting money to buy another set now.

BTW, have you seen some of the loose irons the coaches loan out to students during lessons? Some of these irons are old and difficult to launch for a beginner - in all shapes, sizes, stiffness, weight... Why would the coach have the students use such irons if it really matters at this learning stage? If it matters so much, all beginners would have to go for fitting prior to learning golf...

I guess it's not so much of how old the clubs are but more on the
stiffness of the shaft and the forgiveness of the clubs.

My coach has this old club that is great. Good feedback but it really looks worn
down.

Correct me if I'm wrong bros. Not an expert here.

a coach who says that means not a good coach. not meant to be rude, but i feel coaches should teach or tune the swing to your body physics rather than keep harping on tech/equiment.

I'm not sure, but my 2 coaches only looked at my equipment once and made no further comments other than:
1) "The iron you're using looks like a custom fit, ladies flex shaft." (when I first started and had already made good progress with my swing)

2) "This Nike Iron you have, is a cavity back Iron. This old Mizuno Iron, from the looks of it, would be technologically equivalent to your new Nike Iron almost 10 to 20 years ago. Looks good for beginners and if you're comfortable with it, just stick with it." (when I'd just barely broke in my new SQ Machspeed Irons 3 months after purchasing them).

I'd never heard my 2 coaches say ANYTHING about my equipment after these 2 comments. All other comments from them are reserved exclusively on:
- Fundamentals
- Swing
- Ball positioning
- Set up
- Confidence

Thanks for the feedbacks! Like what you guys have said, I have also read that my clubs are very forgiving.

Actually I've finished my 10 lessons with him and I began to be more interested in golf equipment. That's when after the last lesson I asked him bout the suitability of my clubs. I'll probe further when I see him again to understand his pov.

Not sure if it's anything but I constantly have my fingers locking up and wrist pains. Are my clubs too heavy?

I hv a fren who's teaching pro is trying to sell her a used set and poisoning her thoughts that her clubs are no good for her. He was trying to sell her a set at $300 above what golf direct sells brand new.

Your coach may not hv any agenda and for most times i would rather give someone's the benefit of a doubt...

Guys, I suggest that we refrain from judging why Zacaroo's coach mentioned that the burner 08 clubs were not suitable for him as none of us here has actually seen Zacaroo's swing or are privy to what Zacaroo is asking from his coach.

From Zac's post, the coach mentioned that the offset is the issue. I seem to remember burner 08 as having huge offset. Fair bit of debate on how much offset helps amateur golfers, but I suspect, like everything else in golf, there is an inverted U relationship whereby too little is no good and too much is no good either. As most of us are struggling amateur golfers, perhaps judging why a trained professional is making certain comments about his student's swing is not constructive.

To answer Zac's question about offset being adjustable, many things about a club are adjustable, but I do not think offset is adjustable, not to mention burner 08 are cast, not forged, so even more unlikely.

My 2 cents on whether you should change clubs (after 2 months of lessons) is definitely no. Golf can be learnt with any set of clubs, going by the number of beginners who borrow clubs from the school or pro that they learn with. Give yourself sometime to develop your swing and a sense of what type of clubs you like.

Hi Begbie. Yea, I have my doubts too. That's why I'm here seeking feedbacks haha.

Not sure if my coach has any agenda but so far he seems genuine enough. E.g. Giving my extra lessons and stuff for no additional $$$

But gotta admit golf equipments are very poisonous haha

Who doesn't like the look of the shining chrome? The feel of the big dog and the beautiful swoons of chicks going, "Oooo.... You handle your balls and sticks well~" when you drive that ball past the 250 yard marker on the Driving Range?

We are all suckers for new equipment. But I guess, we all have to realise one fact that an old Burner 1.0 or the latest 2012 Nike VR-S isn't going to make chicks swoon if we are going to hit a 7 at 100 yards and our Driver at 100 yards.

I'm itching to get a set of VR Pro combos too, but a constant reminder would be my weekly range sessions when I realised my distances with the various clubs are not exactly consistent and the only thing consistent about me is that, I'm consistently inconsistent.

Nevertheless, it is also important to do what you think will help you with your confidence.

if we blame our bad game on our skills alone then many will not play liao. The illusion that the new equip can reduce our score is what keeps us going. In a way its true cause there are so many different variations of the equipment. A different setup may well improve our game..its just we like them to be new

thanks for all your constructive feedbacks. Yea, those bling bling clubs are super tempting haha.

Anyway. From what I've experienced from my lessons and some additional practice at the range, I do feel weird with my clubs especially during the backswing. Maybe it is the weight or just my newbie swing haha. However, due to my super auntie mentality, I refuse to think that there are any problems with my clubs as I do not want to 'waste' the clubs I've bought. Now I'm bugged by this issue of whether to change my clubs instead of diverting this attention to working on my swing.

Diverting attention to your swing instead?

On good days, there shouldn't be a funny feeling on your backswing at all. For me, it comes pretty naturally as I start on my (rather short) backswing and whiplash the ball.

If it feels right, it will go straight.
If it feels wrong, it will go wrong.

Newtogolf wrote:

Diverting attention to your swing instead?

On good days, there shouldn't be a funny feeling on your backswing at all. For me, it comes pretty naturally as I start on my (rather short) backswing and whiplash the ball.

If it feels right, it will go straight.
If it feels wrong, it will go wrong.

haha or rather I'm diverting my attention to equipment and stuff.

Yea when it's feeling right I can hit the ball straight and feel happy. But that is like maximum 10 balls per session.

Most of the time I feel weird and slice my ball super bad despite the huge offset that is supposed to help with slicing

I think you should stick with your current irons for now.

Perhaps maybe, just invest in a hybrid, 21 - 25 deg loft, and a wood, 5 wood.

IMO, i dont think you should buy a driver now. This would save you a little more money. You can still tee of with your hybrid or wood. Wait till you are more consistent with your hybrid and woods, then you can consider investing on a driver.

Not really necessy to buy new eqpt. You can look for used hybrids or woods here, or at shops in FESC.

golfnut wrote:

a coach who says that means not a good coach. not meant to be rude, but i feel coaches should teach or tune the swing to your body physics rather than keep harping on tech/equiment.

I Second the motion on this.
A Good coach will teach you the proper way to hit your club even if you are using a 10year old club.

In my home course driving range. I see a lot of new golfers who bring along "aged old" clubs and our Golf Pros would teach them the right way to Golf.

There are a few teachers who would say or comment but its not yet the "end of the world"

Tell you a story. There was one Chinese golfer, 6 foot tall who brought an iron set whose flex are "ladies flex". The father of Juvic Pagunsan, demoed and used those clubs and hit them liked it was a "Men's club"

He, "Juanito Pagunsan" taught that the Newbie and is now a 12 handicapper. Of course he changed his irons but previously. He used those clubs as he was trying to learn Golf.

I think there are a lot who are not sure if he/ she would liked to play Golf.
So they wouldnt buy expensive or brand new clubs.

I for one. My wife was not expecting that I would LOVED GOLF. But I did.
And have been an equipment junkie.

Just used those clubs until you are able to lower your handicap by 10 then go buy what you want.

I think your Burner iron is a game improvement iron. If its really offset then your iron should be Burner Plus which is a Super Game Improvement iron

nientsu wrote:

I think you should stick with your current irons for now.

Perhaps maybe, just invest in a hybrid, 21 - 25 deg loft, and a wood, 5 wood.

IMO, i dont think you should buy a driver now. This would save you a little more money. You can still tee of with your hybrid or wood. Wait till you are more consistent with your hybrid and woods, then you can consider investing on a driver.

Not really necessy to buy new eqpt. You can look for used hybrids or woods here, or at shops in FESC.

Nientsu, as a fellow caddie, you must help advertise P2C! :p

zacaroo wrote:

Newtogolf wrote:

Diverting attention to your swing instead?

On good days, there shouldn't be a funny feeling on your backswing at all. For me, it comes pretty naturally as I start on my (rather short) backswing and whiplash the ball.

If it feels right, it will go straight.
If it feels wrong, it will go wrong.

haha or rather I'm diverting my attention to equipment and stuff.

Yea when it's feeling right I can hit the ball straight and feel happy. But that is like maximum 10 balls per session.

Most of the time I feel weird and slice my ball super bad despite the huge offset that is supposed to help with slicing

I used to have slicing problems with my current set of irons. But I still think the problem usually lies with the Indian and not the Arrow.

yeah hybrid.. my singaporean thinking, i pay you or your acadamy thousands of dollars to teach me the basics, not the coach telling me the irons are not suitable for me, then my question, what about the olden times when golf has already prevailed? Modern era, in terms of research and studies, these epuipments are built to counter the nature forces, ie club speed, weightage, bigger club head, game improvement blah blah, as what newtogolf as mentioned, its always the indian not the arrow. the first person who gather more interests in this game is a senior pro, who travels arund asia for senior tournaments and happens to be my friend's dad. guess what was the first thing he told me, is your swing, i can give you the most expensive equipment to date, the most forgiving clubs or fitted to your body and swing, if you can't place the ball where it ought to be, then whats is the point of wasting money on them. learn to crawl before trying to walk. learning the basics is one thing, practice and more practice the right fundamentals is another.