i love callaway with stiff shaft all the way. my driver is hella old. its one of the first titanium driver when it first came out. i still use em. i tried the newer taylor made, callaway, etc. but those heads are way too big for me.

at the local practice range they told me to stop using my driver at their range cuz my ball will go over then fence and hit the wearhouse in the back. it's hella fun though. does anyone else try to hit the golf cart too when they are picking up the balls? i know it's ****ed up but can't help it.

 

As in baseball - it is the batter, not the bat.

Buy a set of irons, no woods, a putter, and start practicing. Split your time between putting green, chipping/sand work, and driving range. You will likely never be good enough to need new clubs, though one day you can experience the frustration of woods. You won't look macho and flashy, but you will start to post good scores and have a pocket full of cash.

My 02.

 

with these guys, spend the money you save on lessons so you don't develop bad habits that are extremely hard to break

 

I don't agree with some things here. You need clubs that are fitted for you or at least fairly close. You don't want to learn with a set that doesn't fit you, because then you learn how to play and then want to get better. Then you would then go buy a better set that is made for you and would hafta relearn how to swing again, that sucks. You prolly need to talk to a golf shop, but talk to several before you buy just in case you run into one of those that just wanna sell you what they have.

If your just starting out you may not like golf so with that in mind I would get clubs that hold their value best.

Callaway and Ping hold their value better than anybody else so I would strongly consider these. Taylor Made makes very good clubs and I like Cleveland especially the wedges.

I would also strongly consider lessons.

Good Luck

 

my bag consists of:

callaway fusion driver, grafalloy stiff shart
titleist 3,5 wood
macgregor tourney vip irons (blades)
cleveland 52,56,60 degree wedges
bobby jones cobra putter
ping hoofer bag

you don't need this to start. when i started i bought some knockoff cobra irons (king snakes) and woods and a callaway putter. Your best bet is to go to a local crappy course who sells knockoff clubs, they should be able to fit them to you for free and you will have spent around 400 bucks tops.

john

 

If you are between 5'9" and 6'1" then custom fitting wouldn't be my first concern. Most any standard length set will be OK to start. Pawn shops can be a very good source for used sets but make sure they're not broken or overly worn.

I would suggest cavity back cast oversize irons rather than forged irons because they are more forgiving on mishits. I would also get graphite shafts if possible as they tend to minimize vibration on off center shots.

The irons (3-PW) and a decent putter are all I'd buy initially unless you find a set with woods included.

Then in addition to time on the range see if you can play some par 3 courses. When I begin the season I go to a local par 3 course close to home and pay for 18 holes but play 9 holes with 2 balls walking not riding. I know a lot of courses probably won't allow this but it's a great way to build your confidence if you are a beginner or after a layoff.

The most important thing though is simply this:

Don't take your performance too seriously or beat up on yourself about your game.
Remember - it's supposed to be fun.

 

I agreed with what you said except for this part. Forged clubs should be MORE forgiving than cast clubs. They're more uniform in construction, weighting, and are generally more precise. If anything, they should be MORE forgiving of miss-hits.

Cavity back irons of any kind should be pretty forgiving (vs blades or muscleback clubs) but I don't for a moment find cast clubs to be more forgiving. Maybe more forgiving in that they aren't asgood to start with so when you miss-hit, you can't get much worse.

Minimizing how you can tell when you hit a bad shot (aside from the ball not going where you wanted it to go) seems to be a poor way to learn to play (to me). That's why I bought a second set that required precision and clean hitting. Now I really know when I hit poorly, so I know what I'm doing wrong (and, very occasionally, right).

When we try and minimize our poor playing through equipment, we're really limiting our ability to get truly better.

ff soapbox:

 

[QUOTE=JonBoy,Nov 18 2005, 05:37 PM]I agreed with what you said except for this part. Forged clubs should be MORE forgiving than cast clubs. They're more uniform in construction, weighting, and are generally more precise. If anything, they should be MORE forgiving of miss-hits.

That has not been my experience. I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree on that.

Cavity back irons of any kind should be pretty forgiving (vs blades or muscleback clubs) but I don't for a moment find cast clubs to be more forgiving. Maybe more forgiving in that they aren't asgood to start with so when you miss-hit, you can't get much worse.

Ah, but when you learn to pure a 3 iron with one, you'll be ready to spend the money for a set of forged blades or musclebacks.

Minimizing how you can tell when you hit a bad shot (aside from the ball not going where you wanted it to go) seems to be a poor way to learn to play (to me). That's why I bought a second set that required precision and clean hitting. Now I really know when I hit poorly, so I know what I'm doing wrong (and, very occasionally, right).

When we try and minimize our poor playing through equipment, we're really limiting our ability to get truly better.

But if we become so discouraged at our inablity to get the ball in the air or on line initially, we may not have the patience to put in the work to truly get better.

Back on topic, the shots from 60 feet in count just as much as the ones from 250 yards out. You're going to have a whole lot more of those, so don't forget chipping, pitching, and putting as the most important part of your practice.