Looking to get a set for my son for Christmas. I am surrounded by golfers at work but I am a golf tard. He’s a tall kid at 6’ 4" with a somewhat long torso 37" arms w/ 34" inseam so don’t know if I need special clubs or not. Can you get a decent set of clubs for less than 1000 or 500?
A couple of things -
Get him fitted. Take him to a pro shop at a decent course or a golf specialty store (i.e., not Dick’s Sporting Goods or the like.) This is very important. They will test him and get the proper loft and lie and shaft length. It doesn’t matter if you know what those are, they will know. You don’t have to buy clubs from them, but they won’t charge you for the fitting if you do.
Buying used clubs and having them refit with new shafts will be cheaper than buying new. If there is a buyer’s market for anything in this world right now, it is used golf clubs. Under $500 should be no problem and good for 95% of golfers (maybe more.)
Golf clubs are like bicycles or kitchen knives or stereo equipment. The amount of money you can spend on them is almost unlimited, but the marginal advantage diminishes rapidly as the price increases. You really have to be a pro to gain any advantage past a certain point.
My rough rules of thumb:
Can’t break 100 with regularity - $150 set new, $100< used
Shoots in 90’s - $200 - $250 set is more than fine
85-90 - $350-$500 is plenty good, may take some time to grow into them.
76-84 - Now you’re in the $500-$1000 range. Note that anyone who shoots 90+ would hate these clubs and would play much worse with them. Kinda complicated to explain.
75 and below - He’ll know what he needs.
Don’t skip the fitting!!!
Note that Golfsmith is a golf superstore. They used to have at least one PGA pro on staff at each store (not a touring pro, but a certified PGA pro) but they laid almost all of them off last year due to declining sales across the industry. I’d stay away from buying new clubs there unless it is a putter.
Clothes and bags and balls and other accessories are fine, though.
This might work better in the Game Room. I’ll relocate it for now.
Yeah, a fitting would be best, as well as an assessment of his game/goals. Most tall people have longer arms, so height alone does not necessarily mean longer clubs are needed. I’m 6’3" and used standard length.
Anyone other than a pro can get all the club they need for a grand. Most weekly hackers would be fine with most $500 sets.
There are so many variables - it is far less common than it used to be to find a “standard” set. Golfers can vary widely as to how many woods, irons, hybrids, and wedges they want to carry. One solution would be to buy him a decent used set, and offer to upgrade/replace/supplement it next x-mas.
Any recommended brands to buy used?
What kind of scores does he shoot? In this market, you can get really good used clubs for really cheap. So many people have given up the game. Titleist, Callaway, Ping, Nike, etc. All great brands.
The basic fitting is simply a measurement of the distance from your wrist crease to the floor coupled with your height. Here is a chart. The vast majority of people fall into the standard range. If your son is standard, you will have no problem buying a used set. There are other elements to a fitting, but this is the most important one.
Another variable in clubs is forgiveness. A club used by a scratch golfer is not very forgiving because it doesn’t have to be; they hit ball correctly most of the time. Most golfers need help and they will give up some distance and accuracy for “forgiveness”, i.e if they hit the ball a bit off center, they will still get a pretty good result. The only way to determine this is to look for reviews of the specific clubs you are looking at.
One thing about buying a used set is that it can represent a large investment of time but you can save quite a bit of money.
I’ve been golfing since I was about 12 years old and have never personally known anyone who was actually fitted for clubs. 6’4" is tall, but it’s not gigantic. Any decent off the shelf name brand should be fine, unless, as mentioned he’s a par golfer or something.