Thursday, June 24, 2010

Things To Consider When In The Market For Golf Clubs

The golf club market is a strange phenomenon. Every year, new models of clubs come out that every golfer in the world drools over. They are still just sticks with chunks of the same material attached to the end, but golfers always feel the need to upgrade and find higher quality sticks. However, if you avoid falling into this mindset you will find that you are much happier (and probably a bit richer). When you decide that you want your own golf clubs, it is best to step back and take a look at your situation in a way that will let you determine what you really need to spend your money on. Consider some of the following things, and decide for yourself whether you want to spend money on the more expensive clubs or if you’d rather just get some older, more reliable, and cheaper clubs.

First, consider how serious you are about golfing. Are you looking to become a professional golfer, or do you just go out on the weekend with your buddies? If you are still a beginner, then there is almost no reason in the world for you to spend money on deluxe golf clubs, even if you someday plan to be a pro. By buying the high-end golf clubs and skipping beyond your own abilities, you are cheating yourself out of the valuable learning that the other clubs can offer you. So keep within your ability range (if you have lower ability, you will be happy to find that you will have to pay a lower price for your clubs), and if you find that you are still seriously progressing, you may upgrade in the future.

Next you will want to think about how often you golf. If you golf every day, then you will find that it is worth it to pay extra for golf clubs that have a higher durability and lifespan. However, some of the high-end graphite clubs are known for everything but their durability, so you don’t want to mistake costliness for quality. If you stick with a good old set of steel clubs, you are not likely to have to replace them anytime soon. Steel clubs are also stiffer, so if you have a faster swing then you would probably want to go with them anyways. No matter what you choose, you will want to take it out and take a few swings with it before you commit to buying it.

So if the more expensive golf clubs aren’t all that great, why do people spend such obscene amounts of money on them? The truth is that if you have the skill level required to handle some of the more expensive clubs, it could pay off. They are designed to be very unforgiving and unfriendly to amateurs, instead rewarding the skill and accuracy that comes with years of practice. So if you are a beginner golfer who is buying an expensive new set of golf clubs, you are most likely shooting yourself in the foot. Stick with cheaper, more forgiving clubs, no matter what the most popular golfing magazines tell you. If you don’t believe that the more expensive clubs will hinder your game, borrow one and try it for a few shots. See how it affects your game.

Rather than taking any advice you read in golf magazines, on the internet, or even here, you would do best to go out and talk to some of your golfing buddies. See what they recommend, and have them study your strokes to see if they have any suggestions based on your unique playing style. Go to the club stores and try out as many clubs as you can before deciding on one. This will ensure the best results, since you will have personal experience with every golf club that you will be choosing from. This is much better than being completely clueless and choosing simply based on the statistics that you are given.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Importance Of Choosing The Flex In A Golf Club

When choosing a golf club, it is tempting to only focus on the things like length and weight. However, in order to choose the golf clubs that are best for your golfing abilities, you will need to carefully consider the flex of the shafts of the golf clubs you are looking at. Flex is an important factor in any golf club, but most beginners have a hard time wrapping their minds around the reason why. Here I will try to impress upon you the importance of the flex of a golf club. If you can understand why it works the way it does, you can start to buy golf clubs that work better for the goals you are trying to accomplish.

When you swing your golf club, there is a very imperceptible flex in the shaft. You won’t be able to notice it because you will be swinging at the time, but it is there. When you buy your golf club, it will have a flex rating assigned to it that will tell you everything that you need to know about the club. These ratings are extra stiff (X), stiff (S), regular (R), seniors (A), and ladies (L). You may think that it is not very serious to choose the wrong fled rating. When you strike the ball with a club that has a flex rating that you are not accustomed to, your shot is most likely to be angled in the wrong direction. This will cause nothing but frustration for you during your game.

To prevent this game-crippling turn of events, you should definitely be careful when choosing the flex in your shaft. There are certain traits that will always give away someone who should go for a stiffer rod. If your longer shots tend to always fly left of the intended target, this means that your golf club is most likely too flexible. The same goes if your swing is stronger than the average swing. If you swing the golf club extremely fast, chances are you would be better off playing your game with a stiff club. Just take the opposites of these things for the more flexible clubs – if your shots tend to veer to the right of if you have a slower swing, this is what you want to go with.

One way to determine what category you fit in is to go out to the driving range and hit the ball as far as you can. If your maximum drive is less than 200 yards, stick with an L flex rating. If it between 200 and 230, go with an S. Between 230 and 250, R. 250 or more, S. XS is usually only used by professional golf players, and doesn’t often come in handy for consumers. However, the rating system overall is a very good system and a great way for you to make sure that you are getting the golf club that you need. If you need more advice as to which rating you should choose, talk to some of the more experienced golfers around your favorite golf course and see if they can offer you any words of wisdom. The more personal advice you can get regarding the flex rating of your future golf clubs, the more likely you are to be happy with the choice.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Understanding The Basic Types Of Golf Clubs

For those new to golf, it can seem ridiculous to need 14 different clubs just to smack a ball enough times to get it to the end of the course. However, as you play the game more and more you will begin to see that all of the different types of golf clubs will almost certainly come in handy quite often. Here I will outline some of the most important key things that you need to understand about golf clubs. After you understand these, you can start to perfect you own ability to choose the best club to use at any point in the game. This, along with a powerful and accurate swing, is how you can begin to win more and more games.

The first type of golf club is a wood. To the contrary of what the name suggests, the heads are not made out of wood. Usually woods are made out of hollow metal, usually steel or titanium. They are designed to allow for the greatest distance with each stroke. Out of the 14 clubs in a standard set, the woods make up less than half. They are usually used on the long and straight portions of the golf course, since they allow for the greatest distance with semi-decent accuracy. The accuracy is certainly not the strong point of the woods, and usually it takes plenty of practice to be able to keep the ball on a straight course. Woods are also the longest clubs in the set.

Irons come next, and they are used most frequently throughout the game. They are very versatile compared to the other two types of clubs, and therefore make up a larger amount of the clubs in your bag. They can still achieve fairly large distances, though not quite as far as the woods can. Depending on which particular iron you use, you can have a much higher level of accuracy and get the ball a lot closer to where you want it to be. There are many different kinds of irons that have very specific uses, such as those that are meant to get you out of the sand traps or pop the ball up over an obstacle.

The final type of golf club is the putter, and a standard golf bag usually only contains one of these. These are used on the putting green at the end of the course, or in other parts of the course that require delicate accuracy. They are meant to be the clubs with the shortest distance and the highest accuracy, usually only going a few yards to the target. Balls hit with putters are not meant to fly up in the air. Rather, they are just pushed lightly along the ground where they will roll gently to the target. Putting is arguably the most important part of the game, so it is a good idea to get a nice putter and practice a bunch with it.

These 3 types of clubs are the basis for the game of golf. When you begin to start recognizing when you should use a wood or an iron, that is when you are beginning to get a hang for the game. Until then, you will just have to practice all you can with the golf clubs that you have.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Basic Guide To Choosing Golf Clubs

Choosing a decent set of golf clubs is a very important part of maturing in the game. Therefore you should consider many different things when buying the clubs. If you have no previous experience with the selection and purchase of golf clubs, you should be glad that you have stumbled across this article. You will find out some of the most helpful advice when buying clubs, as well as general helpful information that any golfer should know. If you are very thorough in your search for the right golf clubs, you will be glad that you took the extra time and research to find out the information needed to make that choice.

Firstly you should familiarize yourself with the types of golf clubs that you need. There are 14 clubs total for each set, but they can all be categorized in the following: irons, woods, and putters. Irons are the ones that are used for very distance specific golfing work, and the distance is determined by the size and weight of the head. You are provably most familiar with these from using them on the golf course. Woods are used to achieve very large distances with a slightly lower accuracy level than irons. You will have to hit a ball a few times with a wood to get an idea of how far it will go with your stroke. Putters are used for shorter strokes, and strokes that require a higher level of accuracy than the other clubs can provide. In order for your golf club collection to be complete (or even functional within the golf game), you will need to have at least one of each of these.

If you are just getting started with golfing, then you probably won’t want to buy a full golf set. It is a better idea to buy adjustable clubs that can change into different types. You may be able to change the 14 clubs into just 5 or 6. This not only means less to carry, but also that you will be able to tweak your clubs to perfection after you purchase them. This is the best way to get a feel for your needs when it comes to the specific statistics of the club. Once you have pretty much decided on certain settings, you may decide to buy golf clubs that are permanently set like that. Until then, you should be perfectly fine with adjustable clubs, especially since you are a beginner.

Graphite is something that many golfers are split on. The advocates of graphite say that it is lighter, easier to swing, and allow for more powerful strokes because of this. However, there are many who disagree with graphite and will remain steel golfers for life. They maintain that graphite clubs are unnecessarily expensive, without giving noticeable benefits. Some prefer the stiffness of steel over the comparatively flexible graphite clubs. If you have a fast stroke or you prefer to have some weight in your club, you will be fine sticking with steel clubs. After all, there’s nothing better than really having a heavy club that you can feel the momentum in when you swing.

Until you are an advanced golfer, you won’t have to worry about things like spin and head weight. The best thing you can do as a beginner is to familiarize yourself with all aspects of the game, and become very skilled with the equipment that you already have. Doing this will allow you to make smart choices for the future, and therefore constantly improve your golf game. Until then, just stick with what you have and master it. You will be glad in the future when you have not wasted huge amounts of money on equipment that is far more fancy and technical than you could possibly need. This is something that many golfers regret, and something that you can avoid.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Saving Money By Choosing A Half Club Set

For a beginner at golf, buying a full set of deluxe clubs is almost always very foolish. When a beginner uses the more advanced clubs, he or she will likely encounter nothing but frustration. If you are a beginner and you want to buy some golf clubs of your own, you should look at some of the options that are alternative to buying a full new set of clubs. You can use a few different options (and even combine them if you’re lucky enough to find such a deal) to get golf clubs without doing too bad of a number on your wallet. The first way that a beginning golfer can get away with these huge savings is to buy a half set of clubs. This will not only save money and be lighter to carry, but it will also improve your game since you will have less of the more advanced clubs to choose from.

The half-set doesn’t have a combination that is set in stone. Usually you will end up having to choose a few to exclude and include. In most cases, a half set will include 4, 6, and 8 irons, as well a sand iron and a pitching wedge. It will include several woods, as well as a putter. Using these clubs, you will be able to have one available that will work in almost every situation. There are certain equivalencies between clubs that will allow you to drop them from your collection. For example, a 5 wood and a 2 iron have very similar. However, the wood will allow you more forgiveness if you hit it a little bit off-center. Therefore you can drop the 2 iron from your golf club set until you become enough of an expert to really need the unique hit it will give you.

Having a half set of clubs will usually allow for a beginner to really improve his or her swing before getting really involved in the game. Once you have had the half set for a while and you are proficient in using them and swinging them, you can begin to think about moving up to a full club set. The experience that you have gained from using the half set will carry over to the new ones, and you will be much more skilled than if you had simply started with the full set. It will also give you a chance to figure out your own personal preferences such as club length and head weight. When you buy the full set, you will be much more positive that it is the perfect golf club set for you.

You can acquire a half club set in one of several different methods. The first is to simply buy one that is geared towards beginning golfers. This could be a good choice, but you should definitely try them out before you buy them. An even better way to get a half-set is to mix and match individual golf clubs. Many club stores will allow you to do this, and you will just need to get some advice from an expert golfer as to which ones you will most certainly need when you are out on the golf course. Have a seasoned golfer come to the store with you and pick out all of the clubs in your half-set.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Resources You Can Use For Picking Golf Clubs

Picking the right golf clubs is never easy, but it is definitely something that is worth the effort you put into it. The more time you spend researching the possibilities and trying out different golf clubs, the more satisfied you will be with the final choice that you make. So when you are going through this process, you will need to be very careful about what you choose, and what sorts of resources you use. While you can rely solely on the advice of the store worker, this is usually a bad idea and you may not get exactly what you need. Here you will find out about some of the top resources for someone looking to pick out golf clubs, as well as how you can bring them into play and take advantage of them.

If you are here, then you have most likely already discovered the ultimate source of information of any kind – the internet. You can visit guides that will help you make the choices on very specific features of the club, or you can visit the web sites of the companies who actually manufacture the clubs to find out their specifications. Just use your favorite search engine and punch in the terms that you want to search for. It’s as simple as that. As you search around enough, you will most likely find a few web sites that stand out above the rest. When you find these particularly helpful websites, it is a good idea to bookmark them or remember them for future usage. Since the internet is full of just as many unreliable as reliable sites, it is good to stick with ones you are familiar with.

Golf magazines usually have entire sections dedicated to reviews of the latest golf clubs to hit the market. If you are looking at a particular brand, it could be a good idea to search through golf magazines (or their online counterparts) to find out their professional opinions on the club. You can visit the official sites of the golf magazines to search for the review, or you could even go to consumer-based web sites that will gather the reviews from many different sources. These review aggregators exist all over the internet, and are some of the best places to go (although occasionally you will find that some products are spammed by reviews either suggesting another product or unfairly promoting the product that you are already looking at). As long as you can use your own discretion to tell the difference between an advertisement and a review, you should be fine.

Another way of getting very sound advice is to get in touch with some expert or seasoned golfers. This can be accomplished in many different ways. Perhaps you know a few from the course you most frequently visit. If so, don’t hesitate to ask them for advice as to which club you should choose. You will most likely find that they will be more than happy to share their knowledge with you. If you don’t have anyone that you feel comfortable asking, you can visit one of the many online golf communities. There are countless forums and mailing lists dedicated to helping golfers get in touch with each other, and you should definitely take advantage of one of them.

By far the best way of choosing a product is to try it out for yourself. If you want to know if a certain golf club will work well for you, do everything you can to get it out on the range with you for a bit. Lots of stores will allow you to test clubs for a bit before you commit to buying them. If you can’t find the opportunity to do this, then you might be able to find someone who already owns the clubs that you want to try. Talk to them and see if you can’t borrow the clubs for a game of golf – that’s the best way to find out whether you like them or not.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Picking the Right Golf Club Shaft

If you are picking out some new golf clubs for your personal enjoyment, one of the biggest factors will be picking the right shaft. The shaft of a golf club is the metal that connects the handle to the head, and effectively holds the entire golf club together. It plays a huge role in the swing of the club. Picking the right one can have a huge effect on your whole game, but you have to consider many things when picking it. The best thing you can do is get a seasoned golfer to help you out in this matter, and try out enough golf clubs to feel confident in your choice. There are, however, a few guidelines that will always be helpful for someone picking out a golf club shaft. Pay attention to them, and you can make a wise choice when picking out your golf clubs.

The length of the shaft is definitely the factor that needs the most thought put into it. Since everyone’s swing techniques and height are different, the shaft you choose will have to be tailored personally to you. One way that people determine their desired length is to measure from their navel straight down to the floor. Once you grip the club and lean over to make your stroke, you will find that the length is almost always perfect. However, if you don’t lean as much as other people (or you lean further), the length will have to be altered. Just try out a few lengths before you decide on one, and you should end up being happy with the length of the golf clubs that you choose. However, that’s not all.

Golf club shafts also have another factor that is specified by the manufacturer, and this is the flex of the club. If you try to bend it with your bare hands you won’t notice it bending visibly, but when you swing your club it does bend in an almost imperceptible amount. This can largely affect your game, especially if you are used to using another type of club with a different amount of flex. The main thing that changes your choice of flex is the speed of your swing. Do you put all of your force and speed into a swing, or do you do it more delicately? The faster swings will probably be better off with a stiffer shaft. Club shops should be able to help you determine how much flex you need.

Most of these things can be altered by the material that the club is built out of. The two most popular materials are steel and graphite. Each one has its own unique characteristics – generally graphite is considered to be the more professional choice, but you may find that steel shafts work perfectly well for you. The steel shafts are heavier and more durable, and usually cheaper than graphite. However, graphite is perfect for those who prefer lighter clubs and higher torque ratings. The needs of a golfer can range across many different variables, but many find that their needs fall within the offerings of steel shafts.

Lots of golfers find that they are fine with simply sticking to the golf club shafts that they have learned on. However, if you are a dynamic golfer and you feel that you can improve your game by buying a shaft that is more suited to you, then you will find that it can increase your enjoyment of golf by quite a bit. The right shaft paired with the right person can work wonders. Therefore you should consider all of the factors that have been discussed here, and decide how you can use them to your benefit. With the help of expert golfers along with club store employees, you should be able to use the combined knowledge to pick out something great to replace your current clubs.