Not directed at me, but I’ll take a swing (ha!) at this…
I find a good, supportive sports bra indispensable, personally. I find that with all of the swinging motion the chafing from a regular bra is pretty fierce. Ouch! Of course, YMMV.
I’m also constantly on the lookout for cute clothes as well. Anyone have any secret sources for women’s golf clothes?
This is what I was going to say. Unless you actually get good at golf, a driver is a waste of money. You might get a bit more distance on a drive but you’ll get a lot more inaccuracy. The trade off for a beginner isn’t worth it.
Thank you JimmyFlair…nicely horrifying point to bring up in a thread full of men but I’d also like to avoid unneccessary pain. I guess I would have erred on the side of caution and worn one even without an answer from a fellow XX, anyway.
If you are busty, you might want a sports bra. If you’re really busty, get a sportsbra with a LOT of side reinforcment. Less than a C cup, a normal bra will do. Golf isn’t a bouncy activity, but breasts can get in the way of your swing. I don’t have cleavage – my C-cups sit almost under my arms naturally, so my golf bra is a Wonderbra knock-off. Wonderbra types shove 'em in and up, which allows me to keep my arms straight. Straight arms are important.
As for the clothes, I don’t care whether they’re $120 from the Pro shop or $12.95 on sale at Target. I play at stuffy private country clubs, Goat-hill munis and everywhere in between, and have never had a negative comment on my attire from another golfer or course employee.
Plan on needing a comfortable, slightly stretchy (knit or spandex weave) shirt with a collar and sleeves, slacks with pockets and/or belt loops, and a light sweater. Navy and white is a nice safe color theme to start – I have seen khaki-colored Dockers turned away, while my Navy Dockers didn’t raise an eyebrow at the same course. I have never been told that I need a skirt or shorts, instead of pants. You need pockets to carry the divot tool and ball marker, and sometimes even an extra ball. My divot tool/ball marker combo thingy has a little hook to carry on a belt loop, but snugging an extra ball into my waistband before trying to find an out of bounds ball doesn’t work very well.
You might check at pawn shops for clubs and a bag, or hope for a Super-Duper Sidewalk Sale at a sporting goods store. My first set of shitty-but-good enough-to learn clubs, bag, 12 balls, and 100 purple tees cost $125 at Golfsmith. Shoes will run $60-ish. Shoes aren’t crucial, but they really do help. Drivers are the most difficult club – go for a 3 and 5 wood to start.
When and if you decide you like the game well enough to spend a couple grand, Taylor-made is the way to go. 
Please accept this in the spirit intended, but I strongly encourage you to dispense with the bra entirely. Uh - most of the best women golfers find it restricts their backswing. Yeah, that’s it!
I wear a sports bra, but mine are rather…substantial. I find that a sports bra prevents 'em from interfering with my swing.
I’m rather new to golf myself, so I have no equipment advice to offer. I got my set of clubs on sale at the local golf specialty store…Allure by Nexus. (The shafts are navy; the bag is navy and khaki. No pink here!!) The pro at the club where I take lessons seems to think they’re a good set for beginners. I typically wear a polo shirt with khaki pants or shorts; I’ve never been told to wear a skirt.
Most ridiculous accessory I’ve seen: ladies’ gloves with holes cut in the fingertips to allow super-long nails to poke through. How do you grip a club with nails that long?!
The most important thing to know about golf is that once you are on the golf course you are not allowed to make any noise. A batter in baseball has to hit a ball coming at him at 95 mph while 50,000 fans are screaming at the top of their lungs, and a quarterback has to throw a football at a moving target while several 300 pound tackles are trying to knock him down, and a 12-year old gymnist has to jump up in the air, do a double whatachamcallit and land on a narrow beam while the fans are going crazy, but a golfer needs absolute silence to hit a ball that is lying on the grass a few inches from the hole.
I wear a regular bra - I’m a D cup and there is no way a sports bra is the least bit comfortable - or really would work for golf anyway. Far as I can tell, sports bras are useless.
Breasts make a nice marker for golf - if they are in the way, I’m probably standing pretty much the right distance from the ball.
I have Cougar irons and ladies Calloway woods. I think dealing with a pro would be your best bet, but consider buying second hand clubs to start with. There are GREAT second hand clubs out there - Brainiac4 has a second hand set of Pings - while you get enough of a swing down to determine what sort of shafts you need and what sort of feel you want.
I have one of my dad’s ancient old putters - every so often Brainiac4 or my dad tries to replace it and I always yell “who took my damn putter - I LIKE that putter.” They claim its a lousy putter, but I put ok with it - and what you know you tend to like when it comes to putters.
I haven’t had great luck with ladies golf shoes. I’ve owned six pairs over the fifteen years I’ve been playing - and they are all lousy.
I’ll agree with Ronald above - you can be a lousy golfer - but if you are a polite lousy golfer most golfers will tolerate you. If you are a great golfer who talks through someone else’s swing, walks on the line (across where they are going to put), aren’t ready to hit your ball, take forever to line up a shot when you consistantly duff the ball - people will loose patience. Learning how to behave is probably more important than getting any good at being able to golf.
Pretty easily. You can’t keep them really long, but they can be long enough you don’t want to have a tight golf glove over (fingernails wear out a golf glove really quickly - its more for the glove than the nails). If you have rationally long nails, you can grip the club the way you are supposed to (gently!). (I personally like the spot for the solitaire on those gloves).
One other thought: eBay is a great place to buy used clubs. You won’t get the benefit of a professional fitting (and yes, instructors are called “golf pros,” as they are typically members of the Professional Golfers Association, or PGA – and that is not the same as being on the PGA Tour in which golfers compete for huge money every weekend), but if you know exactly what you’re looking for you can get great deals.
Also, another forum that is chock-full of golf advice can be found at http://www.thesandtrap.com.
You’ve named my bag exactly (except my driver has much less loft.) I’ve done well with my hybrids and they are much easier to control than the 3 and 4 irons I took out of the bag.
Many, if not most women excape the trap of trying to kill the ball. That really helps the score. One of my friends went golfing the other day and a man in his 80 joined. The guy was shooting less than his age! He couldn’t drive or hit that far, but he’d hit it straight every time.
Good luck!
If your nails are in the way, you’re gripping too hard. 
For ridiculous accessories, I vote for a platinum divot tool, and the ladies gloves with the slit to display a giant freakin’ diamond solitaire runs a close second.
(ETA: Sorry, Dangerosa. I’ve seen too many bitches displaying their Engagement Rock rather than their drive lately)
The engagement glove is almost as hilarious as the idea of you all absconding with one another’s golf balls.
It was a sarcastic “like” - my band is flat and I take off my ring when I golf. I can wear a regular bra - but I can’t golf with a even my fairly flat wedding ring. But I have golfed with ten fairly long well manicured nails (not anymore, my hands look like hell right now, and I’ve managed to golf once in the past year).
On the other hand, if I sported a $10,000 rock, I’m not sure I’d toss it in my golf bag quite so casually. I might find a ring slit to be extraordinarily useful.
BTW, I like to wear skorts on a golf course, but I’m a middle aged surburban woman - skorts actually look cute on me when I hold a golf club. But when you golf a public course (which I do), you can generally golf in anything - I’ve worn jeans (and sometimes in Minnesota you need to), shorts, skirts. I’ve shown up forgetting it was league night wearing something that was far more appropriate for the casual office than the golf course. Sweatshirts, tank tops - and of course cute little golf shirts that may even have alligators on them.
If you are golfing with someone for business, dress appropriately. Comfortable collared shirt, skort. If you are going out to a public course to hit the ball around, you’ll find fourteen year old boys with their shorts around their hips, putting on their t-shirts when they think the ranger might be nearby and golfing in sandals.
Look for pants (skirts, shorts, skorts) with pockets, you’ll want to tuck your tee (assuming you don’t break it and want to reuse it), and your ball marker (and maybe a divot tool - I have one, but seldom hit the green with enough force to use it, a little cash, or something) in a pocket. Also get a bag or buy a bag with a little zippered pocket that can hold kleenex, jewelry, a credit card, your car keys, lip balm. You’ll also want to carry sunscreen, bug spray, a hat, and an extra jacket in your bag. Advanced golfing involved rain umbrellas and rain suits - you probably don’t want to go there yet.
What did you not like about the golf shoes, Dangerosa? Do you just wear regular sneakers?
I’m a C cup, and I wear a sports bra to play - not because of the compression or anything, I don’t feel most women need it for that, but because of the sweat wicking qualities of a good sports bra. I can’t stand how a regular bra feels when you start to sweat in it.
I’ve gotten plenty of golf skirts and cute women-shaped shirts from places like Dick’s and assorted other sporting good stores. Be prepared to go in there and see men’s stuff as far as the eye can see, and then two kinds of womens’ clubs and one skirt. This is part of the challenge. There are also places to shop online - Golfsmith has good sales sometimes on women’s stuff if you know your size and all. (I’ve found sizes comparable to “real world” sizes in golf, at least - I know that isn’t true with other sports.) Most golf skirts are actually golf skorts, which is great - you never have to worry about them. I don’t care for the actual skort look, though - all mine have the "inner’ skort rather than that weird front panel thing going on. Golf capris are also cute.
I love shopping for golf clothes because you can go full on plaid crazy tacky everything and it’s just a commentary on the sport. Just go nuts - it’s a lot of fun.
If you really want to get into the “feel” of the history of the game, may I suggest you read The Greatest Game Ever Played? There’s also a Disney movie. It’s about the 1913 US Open, a tournament you’d swear they made up if you didn’t know it was true. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s really exciting in the best tradition of sports writing, in that you don’t need to know much about golf to enjoy it.
Also, pick up a copy of the Rules of Golf and read them. It’s really surprising how many people you’ll meet who don’t understand them at all. Play by the rules even when you’re practicing, so that when you play with others you’re in the habit.
ETA - I have pink-ass clubs and a pink bag. Why not embrace it? It’s sort of all a big joke. My boyfriend got me a pink towel, too.
No I wear golf shoes. But I haven’t had a comfortable pair. Perhaps they don’t get worn enough. They seem comfortable enough in the store, and then after walking even nine holes, they just don’t feel good. I’ve had Footjoys and Nikes and … well, with six pairs probably every reputable (and some not so reputable) brands out there. But I will say I’m naturally frugal, so I’m often buying end of season clearance shoes…
I agree. I have my share of pink. But I’ve been “golfing for the cure” for years - and everything breast cancer related is pink - so you get your share of pink sun visors, pink balls, pink tees…
Besides, I seldom golf with other women - so there is sort of a collective horror and shock among a foursome of me and three guys when I actually play with a lavender or pink ball - or have manicured nails sticking out of a golf glove.
We really aren’t absconding with one another’s balls.
You hit a ball. It goes high into the air, you loose it in the sky, but it seemed to be heading for the treeline. You go over and look, but you don’t spend a lot of time looking because of speed of play concerns. So you call it lost and drop another ball (I think according to the rules, you’ve hit a provisional off the tee - we usually just call it lost and drop it nearby, but I’m a casual rules golfer). And you move on.
Someone comes by after you looking for their ball and sees yours. Picks it up, puts it in their bag.
They are more “found” balls that balls that belong to someone. It isn’t like their owner will ever come back to find them.