Beginners Guide/Golf Sets

Chossing the right clubs Golf clubs can seem very confusing to a beginner. Golfers can put so many different clubs in their bag - a golf driver, irons, fairway woods, hybrids, wedges and putters. Some players prefer to play almost all their fairway shots with fairway woods or hybrids instead of irons, and in fact you can now get entire hybrid iron sets! Then there are lofts to choose, and shaft flexes, and more. It’s a minefield, and the main piece of advice we would offer beginners is to keep it simple.

Keep it simple - get a golf set to start off with
We would recommend that beginners go for a golf set to start off with, which will offer you a good combination of clubs to get you going and work out what you need. Look out for a club set that includes a couple of fairway woods and at least one hybrid, and ideally a mallet putter. For example, the Masters 300 series club pack includes:

• A 450cc driver, with a large sweetspot for extra forgiveness on off-centre hits.
• A fairway 3 wood, for ease of use off the tee or the fairway.
• A hybrid 4-wood, to replace the hard-to-hit 4-iron and get the ball effortlessly into the air or out of a tough lie.
• Irons from 5 – SW in quality 17.4 stainless steel; oversized cavity backs for added forgiveness with great feel and control.
• A Silver Diamond putter, specifically designed to keep the weight behind the ball to promote a good forward roll.
• A stand-bag.

Beyond that, though, what does a traditional golf set include? A set is restricted to no more than 14 clubs, and what you put in your bag depends on your choices - for example, substituting long irons for hybrids.

A traditional set of irons will include a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9-iron, plus a pitching wedge (PW). It will probably also include a driver (1-wood), and a 3-wood and 5-wood, and a putter. Then you have two more clubs to include if you wish, and you might for example decide to carry a sand-wedge (SW) for getting out of bunkers, or a hybrid, which is an iron made with wood technology, and is easier to hit than either a driver or a long-iron.

You’ll probably find you rely most on your 7-iron and pitching wedge at first, and as you get more confident you will reach for the longer clubs, with hybrids providing an excellent means of tackling many longer shots. It’s worth spending more time on your short game, incidentally, before you pick up your driver - most shots are lost here, and you will use your putter two or three times as often as your driver!

Iron lofts explained
The number on the club represents the loft of the club - the lower the number, the lower the loft (angle on the face, which creates the extent to which the clubface will send the ball up into the air) - and the longer the club. Hence a lower loft will have a shallower angle on the face, sending the ball further on a lower trajectory, but with a corresponding potential for loss of accuracy. The long-irons (3 and 4) are often hard to hit, and so are often substituted for hybrids. These are the distances in yards which a proficient male golfer should be able to hit the ball with each club:

• 4-iron: 170
• 5-iron: 160
• 6-iron: 150
• 7-iron: 140
• 8-iron: 130
• 9-iron: 120
• PW: 105

Beginners should choose cast cavity back clubs over forged blades
When it comes to choosing irons, better players tend to choose bladed clubs, with a smaller ‘sweetspot’ and no special weight distribution, and they provide more control and a softer feel, as well as greater accuracy when the ball is struck well. Beginners, however, would be well-advised to opt for cavity backs, which move the weight low and deep into the clubface, creating a bigger sweetspot and therefore forgiveness, and lowering the centre of gravity in the clubface to help you get the ball airborne. Blades are usually forged, created from a solid metal block which is beaten into the desired shape, and they offer great subtlety and feedback to the lower handicapper, but most cavity back clubs are cast (made from a mould), which is more than adequate for beginners.

Choosing the right driver
When it comes to choosing a driver there’s so much more to think about than the latest clubhead design - ‘hot’ faces and on-the-legal-limit head sizes; multi-material heads and moveable weights. Less glamorous aspects such as getting the right loft, shaft flex and grip are just as important in matching a driver to your game - enabling you to gain extra yards off the tee, without sacrificing accuracy.

Opt for a regular graphite shaft, higher loft and larger head
For a beginner, it’s important not to go for a stiff shaft - you will be unlikely to generate the swing speed that would be optimised by one, so a regular (or senior, or ladies’ shaft), which is more flexible would be better. Some control may be sacrificed but this is unlikely to make much of a difference at this stage. Most drivers come with light, more flexible graphite shafts - steel, which is far stiffer, is strictly the domain of the better golfer for whom finesse and absolute accuracy are paramount.

Similarly, better golfers will choose a lower loft (9 or 10 degree), as this will generate more distance, but beginners should go for a higher loft (10.5 - 12 degree), which will suit a slower swing speed and will also send your ball less far off-line - the greater the distance, the further hooks and slices will deviate from your aim-line too!

Finally for beginners, go for the large heads (up to 460cc), as these have a larger sweetspot, and a thin ‘hot’ face creates a trampoline effect, sending the ball further. Much has been invested in technology to send the weight lower and deeper into the clubface, with the aim of making drivers easier to hit, and generating more distance with greater forgiveness, so composite crowns may be worth looking at - but only once you are confident that you can use a driver with any facility. Moveable weights will correct hooks and slices - but if you go for a club with these, bear in mind tht you may never actually correct the cause of that hook or slice!

For fairway woods, the technology is very similar to that used in drivers, only the heads are smaller and the shafts shorter, and the lofts greater, so the ball will correspondingly fly higher and travel less distance.

What is a hybrid and why should I have one?
Hybrids combine the best elements of fairway woods and long irons into one club whose goal is to be easier to hit. They should provide the distance of a fairway wood or long iron, with a higher trajectory. This means the ball gets airborne, flies high and lands soft. Meanwhile shafts are shorter and club-faces stiffer – more akin to irons – for distance, control and accuracy. Compact heads and features such as rounded soles or rails on the bottom help you deal with a variety of different lies (such as out of the rough or on the fairway), and they are highly recommended for players of all abilities. Many players swap their 3 and 4 irons for hybrids, as they are so much easier to use.

Do I need more than one wedge?
Most sets of irons will include a pitching wedge (PW), but better players tend to have three or even four, as they can really make a difference to your short game. As a guide:

Wedge	Loft Range	Bounce Range	Average Distance	Usage
Pitching Wedge	45-51°	Low 2-5 °	100-125 yards	- Longer approach shots - Included in most sets of irons
Gap Wedge	51-54°	Standard 5-12 °	80-110 yards	- Fills the gap between PW & SW - Choose loft that divides this gap evenly - Requires less bounce
Sand Wedge	55-58°	High 10-16°	65-95 yards	- Used for getting out of bunkers - Closer shots requiring height - High bounce to help reduce dig
Lob Wedge	60-64°	Low/Standard 0-10°	50-75 yards	- Used for tricky short high flying shots - Higher the loft the higher the ball with less distance

But for beginners, a basic pitching wedge will probably do the job, with a sand wedge being the next most important, to help you out of bunkers. Only once you get more refined with your pitching will you need to consider more subtle options.

Putters: Mallets v Blades
Putters fall into the categories of blade, ‘heel-and-toe’ and mallet. Purists claim that even a cheap and cheerful blade forces a more consistent stroke, but many golfers – both pros and amateurs – now favour the larger sweet spot and high MOI (moment of inertia), which creates the resistance to twisting that you find on mallets. Many of these feature sightlines or even whole ball-shapes to help you line up, and their large faces push weight to the perimeters to help you achieve a steady stroke. Many also include soft metal inserts for feel and feedback.

Balls - do they make a difference?
Finally, the choice of golf ball undoubtedly makes a difference to the professional player, with complex 3 or 4-piece constructions offering a softer feel for more control. But beginners will want distance, and for that you can’t beat a cheap and cheerful two-piece, hard-centred golf ball which will fly down the fairway!

To conclude, then, beginners should keep it simple by investing in a fairly basic club pack to start off with, and once they progress they should talk to one of our experts about their next steps. Most golf sets will come with a simple stand bag. Once you’re a more accomplished player, custom-fitting will definitely help your game, and you may be able to appreciate the subtleties of forged, bladed clubs. To start off with, you’ll also definitely want a graphite shaft in your woods, and a regular flex, and as much forgiveness as you can get.

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