What's the best way to pick up a used set of golf clubs? And how do I pick them?

GameHat

Playing golf seems to be becoming a required component of my career. Not that I mind, I played a few times last year and had a blast.

I'm an almost complete newcomer to golf. Never even swung a club until last summer.

Now that the weather's getting nice I'm getting invites again to hit the course. It'd really be nice if I had my own clubs so I didn't have to mooch off the guys in my group.

So:

I understand the basics of what each club is.

1) How do lengths vary for any particular club? How do I know which length I should be using?

2) What clubs would I want for a minimalist set? I was thinking maybe a driver, 3-5-7 iron, pitching wedge and a putter.

3) What's the best place to buy? A used sporting-goods store? eBay? Craigslist?

I don't care about top-of-the-line anything. I just want a basic set so I can go out and play maybe five times a season.

Any advice welcome

Wiley

Go to a pro-shop and look at what they have used. Take the clubs out on the driving range and hit a bucket of balls to see if they fit you. At that point I would look around to see if I could find them cheaper. Watch out for ebay though, I had a friend buy some irons on ebay and have to go to some lengths to get his money back because the clubs were a cheap department store brand instead of the Nike Irons he had paid for.

GrimmyTOA

1) Drivers are going to be longer than irons, which will be longer than wedges. Unless you're really tall or really short, you can get away with standard shafts pretty well. Especially as this is your first set and you're buying it used. Get steel shafts. They're heavier, but they're cheaper. They're also more rigid, which makes them easier to learn on. People who say you need graphite shafts right off the bat are usually trying to sell them to you.

2) If you really want to keep your club numbers down, I wouldn't bother with the three iron. They're tougher to hit with, and don't really do anything that a hybrid doesn't do better. So.

Driver, Hybrid/fairway wood of some sort (5 or 7), 5 iron, 7 iron, 9 iron, wedge, putter.

After that, you want to be adding a sand wedge and some more short irons. Then you want a longer fairway wood like a 3 or 5. All of those can be purchased when you have time and cash (although the sand wedge will really help out on those occasions when you need one).

3) I'd stick to used sporting goods stores. You want to be able to try them out before you buy them... or at least examine them. Check the shafts for cracks, especially near the club head. Check the club faces for damage and the grips for wear (although worn grips can be cheaply and easily replaced if the set's in good condition otherwise).

Hmm. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

Wiley

For just starting out you can often get a set with the bag for less than $200 at some of the chain sporting goods stores. They'll come with the bag, putter, pw, 1 wood, 3 or 5 wood and about four or five irons. These aren't something you would want to play with if you were a scratch golfer, but when you're just starting out you don't need to spend $800 on something you'll leave in your closet 360 days a year.

truck-a-sauras

stick with cheap sporting goods store clubs if you don't know much about clubs. If you want to save money with craigslist/garage sale then bring a friend who knows golf, you don't want to end an old set of "blades". Blades are a certain style of club that was a bit more popular in the past and probably very easy to find at a garage sale. The problem is that they are incredibly hard to hit if you don't know what you are doing.

Also avoid antique clubs where the drivers have wooden heads. They crack easily. If you swing with even a medium amount of power it is only a short time till they split in half during a hit, especially easy to do on those colder fall/winter mornings.

Djeet

1) You're likely "standard" length, though you can go to Ping.com and enter some measurements and get an idea if you need longer or shorter clubs then average. If a local golfsmith/golf galaxy does a free fitting then do that.

2) If I were you I'd get a full set of irons (maybe hybrids for 3 and 4) including a pitching wedge and a sand wedge and also a putter. You don't need a driver for your whole first year unless you're a prodigy, but if you want a big stick (cause they're fun to hit) then get one. Just understand if you can't hit straight, hitting long doesn't mean shit cause you'll just be wandering around the wrong fairway trying to find your ball. If you need more short game club pick up a lob wedge.

3) Craigslist. You should be able to get a "starter" set including bag for $80-$150.

It's OK to club up, especially when starting out and playing with more experienced players. If when clubbing up you start overshooting, go down a club.


Edit: As for how to pick used clubs: try to find ones with grips that'll last the season, if you're only playing 5 times it doesn't matter that much, but regripping is likely to be $5-10/stick, some wear where the thumbs contact the grip is fine; find a set where the clubhead faces and soles aren't too badly beat up. Clubheads where the weighting is biased towards the perimeter are more forgiving to hit, look for indications like "perimeter weighting" or "cavity back."

Weretaco

A good safe bet for used clubs is also

www.callawaypreowned.com

They have a pile of used clubs from callaway and other brands and you can buy them by condition to save some money.

Dman

It's garage sale central this time of year where I live, so I would try to pick up some used clubs that way, YMMV.

jclast

Hit up a Goodwill or Salvation Army. If you're right-handed they're almost guaranteed to have a half-decent set of clubs for a low price.

Newton

What is your price range? I bought a set of clubs from target a few years ago for about $150-175. They aren't the greatest, but I only go out maybe 5 times a year, so they work well for me. You can get ones cheaper than that by buying used, but they can be kind of a crap shoot as to the quality and condition if you don't know what you're looking for.

If you do buy individual used clubs, don't bother getting a driver. That is the last club you should learn to hit. Use a 3-wood for your tee shots, it is a lot easier to get a good drive with that.

CrystalMethodist

Craigslist Craigslist Craigslist.

If you have to ask about club lengths, etc., you're not going to be limited by your equipment for a long time. I'm a pretty decent golfer and I got a set off of Craigslist for *$20*. Twenty. Is it the best set of clubs that I've ever owned? Absolutely not. But I can play a round of golf just fine with them.

The nice thing about Craigslist is that you can go and look at sets before you buy them. If they seem reasonable, or even a little shitty, get a set for under $50. Every dollar you spend on golf initially should be spent at the range, because you're going to be hitting a lot of balls before you're even close to good. If you can save $100 on your first set of clubs, that'll get you a lot of range time and by the time you go to buy a real set of clubs you'll actually know what you want. And you only "wasted" $20-50 for the privilege of getting a feel for the game before you dropped a ton of money on clubs that may not be a good fit for you.

And don't ever listen to people who tell you to spend lots of money on golf. I've seen people like that in every single sport, but it's the worst in golf. Spend in proportion to how much time you've put into the hobby-- if you find yourself playing a lot, get a nice set of clubs. If you go out less than once a month, get a set of decent used clubs. If you've never played before, spend $20-50 and put the rest on balls. Nice clubs don't make your swing any better (unless they're a horrific fit for you, which is pretty rare).

Wiley

I want to repeat what a few others have said earlier. Starting out you don't really need a Driver, or 1 wood, unless you are just naturally gifted you'll loose a half dozen balls a round just from slicing drives into the undergrowth. Use a 3 wood. You'll lose some distance, but it is alot more forgiving and you'll be glad that you got 150-175 yards of relatively straight distance out of your tee shot.