8 simple rules for buying the right golf equipment

Golf Digest, Dec, 2002 by Frank Thomas

Golf Digest's Chief Technical Advisor shares his advice for helping you choose the best gear for your game

Be honest. What you really need is a swing change. But what you really want is a new driver. Or a sand wedge. Or a putter. And you want it so much, you're not merely dropping hints to anyone who'll listen, you're tearing out catalog pages and leaving them on the living room coffee table.

The trouble is, like everything in golf, buying equipment isn't as easy as window shopping. It's a world of precision, and all that precision is designed to help you enjoy the game. Still, it can be confusing, whether you're buying for yourself or someone else. Let me show you the best way to approach the buying process. Go slowly and study the information in these eight simple rules, and you just might get what you need--and what you want.

*1 KNOW YOUR SKILL LEVEL

Despite what the ads say, you are not Tiger Woods. What you are is either a beginner, an intermediate player (somebody who shoots 80 to 95, let's say) or an advanced player (someone who consistently breaks 80, or about 7 percent of the male golf population and less than 1 percent of the female golf population). Each level of player needs something different.

Beginner: This group needs as much help as possible. Believe it or not, that often means less equipment, not more. You don't need to go through an extensive fitting program, because you really don't know how to swing yet. Ask for clubs that fit your strength and general posture when you stand to the ball properly. A basic set that includes two or three woods (3-, 5- and/or 7-wood) and a handful of irons (5-, 7- and 9-iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge) and putter are plenty. That's not to say you shouldn't buy a full set of clubs, just put the rest of the set in storage until you need them. The clubs you buy should be forgiving. Oversize, perimeter-weighted clubs will help you enjoy the game. If you're a beginning golfer and spending more than $250 on a starter set of clubs, you've likely overdone it.

Intermediate: This is the bulk of the golf nation and who most new equipment is designed to satisfy. You can have your pick of any clubs you want, but I'd focus on forgiveness. You want your misses to stay in bounds. Most companies will be happy to tell you which of their irons are most forgiving. As for comparing or testing various clubs from competing manufacturers, some are more worthwhile than others. One interesting concept is a special project from club design expert Ralph Maltby called the Maltby Playability Factor, which rates clubs in terms of forgiveness. (There is a table comparing clubs at my website, www.franklygolf.com. My site also can be accessed through www.golfdigest.com.) But the only comparison rating that really matters is yours.

Advanced: The entire cornucopia of golf equipment is at your doorstep, but even for you I'd still lean toward clubs that offer forgiveness. Still, you are on the verge of being able to play irons that mix perimeter weighting with a more traditional-looking blade design. Don't make the switch, however, unless you believe you are being held back by your current equipment.

*2 KNOW WHAT YOU NEED

A set of three woods and eight irons has been the standard configuration. Not anymore. Assuming you are past the beginning stage of the game, get yourself custom-fit for irons. The fitting procedure may tell you things about your game you didn't know. Like maybe you're playing the wrong shaft. Most average golfers swing clubs with shafts too stiff, and they are continually fighting the club, trying to produce that one shot out of 20 in which everything comes together. How do you know the shaft is too stiff? If you can't feel where the clubhead is during the swing, this may be one consequence, but again, it's what feels right to you. You want to feel in control of the clubhead. Regardless of how good you think you are, I recommend you take a pass on the X-Flex shaft and the 1- and 2-iron. If you put more higher-lofted woods in your bag, you'll likely improve your score without changing your swing.

*3 BIGGER IS BETTER--SOMETIMES

There's a reason the drivers you see in magazines are the size of a genetically mutated grapefruit. Supersize often means a greater moment of inertia. (That's just a fancy phrase meaning big head makes up for bad swing.) Bigger also means the driver likely will be made of titanium and have the springlike effect that provides better transfer of energy from the clubhead to the ball (resulting in more distance). There is a point of diminishing returns, however. Once you get much beyond 450 cubic centimeters (more than twice the size of Callaway's original Big Bertha), the head gets too cumbersome, and any increased distance might only land you farther into the woods. Be leery of the length of your driver's shaft, too. The best players in the world, who can have any length shaft they want, have settled on 44 or 44.5 inches (Tiger has even gone down to 43 inches). Your typical off-the-rack titanium driver has a 45-inch shaft. My advice: Go for a shorter shaft. There will not be any significant loss of distance, and your accuracy will improve.