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The Right Clubs for a Beginner? (I've only played about 15 rounds in my life)

SuperStroke
gh0stw34p0nx

gh0stw34p0nx

S3CT10N 8 ¶H4NT0M H4CK3R
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I started playing golf about 6 months ago when a friend of mine gave me a set of Callaway big bertha woods & irons & I absolutely love it, I have some family members that play alot but 4 of them live in Atlanta now so I dont have much in the way of help aside from 2 uncle's & a cousin that still play & live nearby, my lil brothers play as well (bout as well as me lol) Since i just started playing I didnt bother getting fitted I just got online & went to a few stores & picked out the clubs I wanted by reading reviews & hearsay. I gave another friend of mine the Callaways that were given to me hoping he would take to the game as I had (I'm happy to say that he plays every chance he gets) Well here goes, these are the clubs I bought & now own maybe you pros can tell me if i should have been fitted or if I made a good choice. I bought these purely on hearsay & reviews & the simple fact that i wanted the best clubs i could possibly have.... In my Taylormade TMX Stand Bag, Driver/ Taylormade R11S 10.5° RIP PHENOM 60 gram (R) shaft, Fairway Woods/ Taylormade R11S 4-17° & 7-22° RIP PHENOM 70 gram (R) shafts, Hybrids/ Taylormade Rescue 11, 3-18° & 5-23.5° ALOILA RIP 65 gram (R) shafts, Irons/ Taylormade R11 4-P (& R11 Approach Wedge) Stainless steel KBS by FST 90 (R) shafts Wedges/ Taylormade Gap Wedge TP XFT 52° 9 bounce Sand Wedge TP XFT 56° 12 bounce Loft Wedge TP XFT 60° 6 bounce (all 3 with stainless steel wedge flex hi-rev KBS by FST shafts) Putter/ Taylormade 35" Ghost Spider S (please tell me I didnt screw up being i'm a beginner) :banghead: I love.the clubs personally but I'll be honest, I dont think I hit the ball any different with any club I've ever used lol
 
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Welcome to the Taylormade party... Lol. All great clubs in the own right, you just need to get fitted to make sure they are set up properly for you and practice with them to make sure your gaps are evenly spaced. But if your question is about the quality, you have purchased top notch clubs. Congrats and enjoy!


On my iPhone T.. T.. Tapatalking away!
 
I would say get lesson, build your swing then get a fitting later as what fits your swing now will likely change after lessons and building a " proper"swing. iMO
 
I guess my question was along the lines of if there are beginner clubs out there, should I have bought them instead of going all out on the Taylormade name sake? And as far as lessons go, I could never afford that. I was fortunate enough to get the clubs I bought because of a well balanced budget & a nice income tax return.
 
Thank you! I love love love them! I tell you what, I may look terrible when I swing them (for now) but I look like a pro before I tee off! Hahaha
 
If you have an iPad or iPhone you can download golf channel academy app it is free you can record your swing. There are lots of other ways you can work on it. The clubs all sound pretty forgiving and should be great and still have room to grow into it.
 
gh0stw34p0nx said:
I guess my question was along the lines of if there are beginner clubs out there, should I have bought them instead of going all out on the Taylormade name sake? And as far as lessons go, I could never afford that. I was fortunate enough to get the clubs I bought because of a well balanced budget & a nice income tax return.
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Lessons at my course given by a life member PGA Teaching Pro is $25 for a half hour. Lessons don't have to be expensive. I'd always rather see someone start with good used equipment and lessons first. Once you get a workable correct swing, then comes the fitting and better clubs. Its the indian, not the arrow.
 
Great clubs. Keep working at it. The better your swing gets the better the clubs will work for you.
 
Nice set! I really like my Spider S putter, and soon I will have lots more info on the RBZ Stage 2 hybrid, you should check out the review thread!
 
Agreed, but those old Callaways were all stiff shaft including the graphite irons so when I got that check I figured I'd better buy some clubs now or I probably never would have a chance to get them again. I just hope that they will not only work great for learning but last a very long time after the learning experience as well.
 
Since this is more of a clubs thread than an intro thread, I am moving this over to Clubs, Balls and Accessories.
 
Sounds like you have a nice set to start with you can always change shafts if you need a stiffer or weaker flex that is the one of the nice things about the adjustable clubs
 
Certainly nothing wrong with the clubs you have - plenty of folk around here (myself included) who love the gear that TMaG knock out. Your putter in particular I love - have the original Ghost Spider myself and that won't be coming out of my bag anytime soon!

I would agree with those above who have suggested getting yourself a fitting, you may well find you need your clubs bent flat or upright depending on your swing and this will make a huge difference to the way they play - personally I won't buy irons now without having a fitting done at the same time.
 
Nice sticks. Al 16 of them. :wink:
 
:welcome: looks like TMaG has a fan. Nice set up.
 
Like others suggested, take some type of lessons, even a group lesson to start off with can be very helpful to get you going in the right direction. Only thing I see with the equipment is you might have some overlap with the fairway's and hybrid's
 
Somebody likes TaylorMade! (don't worry, I do too :D)

Other than the fact that you have 2 too many clubs (which is fine if you're not entering tournaments or playing with sticklers), it's a great set! I have the R11S with the stiff Phenom shaft and love it - hit it better than any driver I've owned thus far. If you're talking about forgiveness, on the irons you probably could have gone more forgiving if you went with RocketBladez/Ballz or something from the Burner series, but I think you made the right decision with R11s as long as you can hit them well, since they will probably last you longer as you get better. Might not be a bad idea to go get the lofts/lies checked on the irons once you have an extra $50 lying around for the necessary adjustments, and it definitely wouldn't hurt to get a shaft fitting done on all your clubs to see if you are swinging the right flexes and swingweights. But if you got a great deal, then kudos! Enjoy the game :D
 
Nothing in your bag will keep you from scoring to your potential. My only recommendation as to what's in your bag is to reserve the 4 iron and 60* wedge to the range and practice greens. Unless you are a prodigy you're 4 iron probably doesn't even go as far as your 5 iron (9 out of 10 times), and until you can hit a variety of shots with your 56* the 60* will most likely only hurt your scores, while you're first learning.
 
Thanx, I love the set & as far as a deal goes I got the price reduction deal since the R1 came out but thats about it! Good thing here is like I said b4, I am a beginner & just bought them all so the plastic is still on the hybrids, fw's & irons! I've only used the driver, putter &:) wedges so far so if I made a mistake in my purchase I can still take them ;back to dicks not to mention that I have free fittings for my clubs as long as I dont lose my receipt! :) I cant play worth a penny as of yet but I looked at many reviews & clubs b4 I decided on the Taylormade brand. I think I am gonna keep the wedges, Irons, Driver, putter, FW's & 3H but take the 5H back from what I have been told so far. Then I wont have overlapping hybrids & woods? I'm keeping the FW's cause I was told you can pretty much turn your 4W into a 3W & the 7W into a 5W cause of the R11S technology? & I'm gonna continue to practice like crazy & take a couple swinging & posture lessons b4 I take them to dicks to be fitted. (Keeping the wedges cause they came from edmin watts, they were the 1st clubs I bought new & couldnt wait to take the plastic off of them so I'm stuck w/ them now. Better to be stuck w/ butter than gutter tho!) I appreciate the help folks & ANYMORE & ALL suggestions are welcome! :)
 
gh0stw34p0nx said:
Thanx, I love the set & as far as a deal goes I got the price reduction deal since the R1 came out but thats about it! Good thing here is like I said b4, I am a beginner & just bought them all so the plastic is still on the hybrids, fw's & irons! I've only used the driver, putter &:) wedges so far so if I made a mistake in my purchase I can still take them ;back to dicks not to mention that I have free fittings for my clubs as long as I dont lose my receipt! :) I cant play worth a penny as of yet but I looked at many reviews & clubs b4 I decided on the Taylormade brand. I think I am gonna keep the wedges, Irons, Driver, putter, FW's & 3H but take the 5H back from what I have been told so far. Then I wont have overlapping hybrids & woods? I'm keeping the FW's cause I was told you can pretty much turn your 4W into a 3W & the 7W into a 5W cause of the R11S technology? & I'm gonna continue to practice like crazy & take a couple swinging & posture lessons b4 I take them to dicks to be fitted. (Keeping the wedges cause they came from edmin watts, they were the 1st clubs I bought new & couldnt wait to take the plastic off of them so I'm stuck w/ them now. Better to be stuck w/ butter than gutter tho!) I appreciate the help folks & ANYMORE & ALL suggestions are welcome! :)
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Honestly what I would do is, since you've already opened the wedges, I would see if you can return the R11 AW. The loft on that club is 50* and you also have a 52* wedge - I don't think you need this close a gap, and there will definitely be a lot of overlap between those two clubs. I would also return the 5H, but regarding the 7W I would take that guy back as well because (a) you already have that loft covered in your irons and (b) even if you can change to a 5W (and I'm not sure you can get the loft that low), the typical loft for a 5W is about 18*, which you also already have covered in your 3H. So in summary I would keep:

Driver
4 wood
3 hybrid
Irons 4-PW
52*, 56*, and 60* wedges
Putter

leaving you with the allowable 14 clubs. You can definitely keep the others if you want spares or to rotate out, but it's not really necessary due to the overlap I mentioned above.

Glad you got some discount anyways! Enjoy getting into the game, and let us know if you have any other questions!
 
Thanx for the great advice! The AW came new with my iron set but I'm sure I can sell the 52°9 Wedge to my lil brother & not lose a penny, I got a hell of a deal on the wedges ($35.99 each) & from that deal I built my set so thats good news & the 7W & 5H both have the plastic on them still so Dick's should have no problem taking them back! So thats even better news! Whew, no money lost & an awesome set of clubs completed now! Maybe I can take that change I get back to put towards a couple swinging lessons. Then, like I said b4, Dicks owes me free fittings for my irons, FW's, driver & hybrids so when I get a pretty consistent swing down I'll take them to be fitted. :)
 
SkiBumGolfer said:
So in summary I would keep:

Driver
4 wood
3 hybrid
Irons 4-PW
52*, 56*, and 60* wedges
Putter

leaving you with the allowable 14 clubs. You can definitely keep the others if you want spares or to rotate out, but it's not really necessary due to the overlap I mentioned above.

Glad you got some discount anyways! Enjoy getting into the game, and let us know if you have any other questions!
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SkiBumGolfer's recommendation would be a solid bag fo sho. But, I would suggest a couple little tweaks if you really can return the clubs. I would trade the 7 wood and 18* hybrid for a 21* and 24* hybrids which would fill the gaps nicely between your 4 wood and 5 iron. The 24* hybrid could rotate in or out of your bag for the 4 iron depending on the course and/or your confidence level. I have a 24* hybrid that rotates in and out of my bag instead of my 3 iron during colder months and depending on course conditions.

Either way I think the 18* is not only unnecessary with your 17* 4 wood, but it is also a very difficult club to hit correctly even though it's a hybrid. The fact that it's a hybrid does make it easier to hit that an iron of the same loft, but that doesn't mean much at only 18* of loft.

For what it's worth I hope that something in here is helpful.
 
If all of your gaps are nicely spaced apart and you hit everything well, it's a good bag set up.


THPing on Tapatalk
 
So basically ima take the 7W back cuz its an unnecessary club w/ what I already own? Take the 3H-18° back cuz its unnecessary & to hard to hit for a beginner? & replace them both w/ a 4H-21° to go along w/ my 5H-23.5° that will space the gap between my 4W & 5 iron eliminating (rotating) my 4 iron n the process? Also get rid of the 52°9 Wedge cuz its not enuf difference n loft competing w/ my R11 PW & AW? This would make my bag look like so.... Driver-10.5°, 3W-17°, 4H-21°, 5H-23.5°, Irons-4-PW & AW, Wedges-56°12, 60°6, Putter 35“ Ghost Spider S. Total of 15 clubs w/ a rotating 4 iron & 5H-23.5°??? Editing this post cuz looking back on u guys comments I see they are conflicting. Looks like I need to be rid of the 5H n one post & keep it in the other. Hummmm, so maybe I just need to do away w/ the 7W & 5H-23.5° & maybe add a 4H-21° to complete the setup?
 
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