Club Buying: Create Your Own Test Lab
Jog your memory for a moment, and recall getting your first set of golf clubs. Did you pick them out, or were they a gift, probably from your father? Were they Spalding Top Flights or Blue Ridge specials? And, are you still using them today?
If you're an accomplished player who's likely gone through a number of club sets, you've probably been asked this question a number of times: "I'm starting to get serious about the game, and want to buy a good set of clubs. What kind should I get?" Well, whether you're doing the asking or the advising, there's a way to match the clubs with the player.
The easy answer -see your pro- is fine for new club members, but for the majority of golfers, without any club affiliation, this advice often backfires. In most cases, with the high price of equipment and explosion of discount shops, the beginner is like the first-time shopper at the car dealer. Buyer beware!
How it's mostly done ... and why it doesn't work. Here's a typical scenario: Roy, in his mid-thirties, wants to play more, and his wife, wanting to give him a great birthday present, takes the hint he's been dropping all winter, and gives her blessing: go out and buy a new set of good clubs. So, Roy ventures into a discount golf store, and an hour and a half later walks out with a new set of irons, a new driver and three wood. Everyone's happy ... until one month later, where we find Roy frustrated, because despite all the new equipment, his game didn't get any better. What went wrong?
Figuring this game out can drive you crazy, and in a nutshell, Roy's effort was on a losing cause ... he was buying in a vacuum. He really didn't have the feedback to compare where he was at and where he could be. Let's reconstruct the sequence of buying decisions Roy went through, and the pitfalls:
1. Browse: Roy had seen some ads and commercials, and boy, were those claims were enticing! Now that he had a green light, he heads for the golf discount store and takes to the display racks. He makes a qualitative judgement of what is visually appealing. Problem: Common sense may whisper in your ear that cosmetics aren't important ... but looks do matter. Marketing hype (those ads and commercials) also prey upon the mind.
2) Feel: Roy takes various clubs from the racks and waggles them around. Another quick value judgment is made. He starts to visualize shots being hit with these clubs, and the process moves ahead. Problem: Everyone fantasizes making great shots.
3) Advice: Either Roy finds a sales person, or vice versa. A dialogue follows, and in most cases the sales person will discuss Roy's game and make recommendations. Problem: The parameters will be wide at best, and within any given line of clubs there are variations which affect performance. Also, profit motive may influence the recommendation.
4) Action: Roy buys into the recommendation, or perhaps tries a demo club, hitting some balls off a mat into a net. He decides how they feel based on this. Problem: You're still too far removed from the real world. Even a really good golfer gets limited feedback from hitting balls under these conditions. What you think might be good may not really mean anything.
5) The Buy: Roy purchases the new clubs based on this process. He feels great leaving the shop, but the lack of enough valuable feedback means his goal of better play, not just new clubs, has been missed.
The Plan: Buying a good set of clubs is a big investment for most people, so putting in some time to insure that it pays dividends makes sense ... and it can be fun. If done right, you won't really be finding the right clubs, they'll find you. The key components to making a good match are comparison and feedback.
I've had the opportunity to attend demo lab days at golf conferences where over a dozen equipment manufacturers were present. This is always fun, because I get to try an abundance of hardware. However, it can also be overwhelming. The differences in equipment blur after the first hundred balls. By scaling down the number of brands you test, you can simulate this same laboratory process. Remember, all good equipment has the potential to deliver great shots ... which clubs translate into better performance for you is your goal.
Find a store complex which also includes an outdoor driving range. Go through the same process as Roy until step four, Action. At this point, tell the sales person that you want to compare some of the clubs you like best by hitting them. Any advice is welcome, but insist that you want to try out a number of models.
Select at least two or three makes of clubs, but don't go overboard. Like the full-fledged labs, you can overwhelm yourself. If the store is serious about making you a happy customer, they won't mind taking the time to put protective tape on the clubs so you'll be able to hit them without causing any damage. Or, they might have a demo club in the model of your choice (5-irons are the most common demo clubs).
Make sure you have the same number iron for each make of club. You want to compare apples to apples as much as possible. So, in this regard, don't forget to bring your own club, since that will be a benchmark for what will work better.
Many times the store will provide some range balls, but volunteer to buy a bunch more. You want to be able to hit enough shots to make some sound judgements, and not be interrupted. Don't forget, you're on a quest.
What do you want to achieve? This is a no brainer: the universal mantra of golfers ... more distance, more control. Forget trying to find a club that will correct your swing at this point. Take what you've got on the range and see how the club responds to it. Hit some warm up shots with your club, say five or six balls ... then switch to another club for five shots. Remember, don't try to change the swing. Then select another brand of club. Round robin the equipment for at least two to three passes with each model.
As you hit, you'll be making mental notes on different shot patterns: how far, how high, how off-line, etc. In almost every case you'll be surprised. Very likely, the club you thought would perform best, isn't the one which really does perform best. Reality works in funny ways.
You may even find one club feels much better than another, but the performance is identical (I did when trying the same club head with two different type of shafts). You'll discover that the small differences in technical specifications such as lie, shaft, etc. translate into big differences in consistency, and that is what leads to confidence.
If you fall in love, don't be timid. However, if you're cautious (or skeptical), don't feel this process has to be finished in one session. Come back to the lab over a period of two to three weeks. During this time you'll be eliminating clubs that just don't work for you.
Also, you'll want to retest your favorites, to make sure they're the ones which do the best job for you. In fact, if you have it down to a single club line, purposely try a variation; that is, if you have a stiff shaft, try the same in a regular shaft, or steel versus graphite. Confirm that you've found a club which suits your game, and stands the test of comparison.
Drivers and Specialty Woods
Drivers and specialty woods offer a small variation. As the most expensive, and now, mostly individually packaged clubs you will buy, if you are hitting a club which performs absolutely great for you, tell the salesperson that this club, the one you're holding in your hands, is the club for you. Wrap it up and take it home. Don't assume another identical model will truly behave identically. For the $200 - $400 you might be spending, it's got to feel right.
In conclusion, you may not have found the absolutely, positively, best set of clubs in the world for your game ... but you've taken a solid step up the ladder. And you've done this intelligently, so put your confidence in the new clubs, believe that they'll help. We're human, and our bodies and swings continue to evolve. You'll probably be buying more equipment in the future, but for now ... feel really good about what you've got.
May 17, 1999