What are the Best Golf Clubs for Beginners?

If you're looking for the ideal golf set for beginners, then this article is for you. Your choice of golf clubs is an essential element to improving your game. However, it's not the only element. There are several areas in which you can improve your game.

As a beginner golfer you'lll have been frustrated many times already at the lack of consistent hitting. Whether you top the ball; slice the ball; hook the ball; or you're hitting the ground first before you make contact with the ball; whatever you're doing incorrectly, it can be solved.

Also, as a beginner golfer, you may have the slightest trouble of connecting with the ball at the centre of your club head or getting your club head in a square position on impact. This can be fixed by altering your swing slightly.

You may be approaching the ball from the outside and then having to alter your swing to come inwards half way through your downswing. This is what will cause your shot to slice. To cure this slice you would be helped a great deal if you have the proper clubs at your disposal, if not, it would also help a lot if you read a little more into how to cure the golf slice with Bobby Eldridge's Full Swing DVD.

To sum up, you have a problem with hitting the golf ball with the centre of the club face. Your club head speed may also be slow due to your inexperience with proper golf swing mechanics. With ladies and also with seniors and juniors, your club head swing may be a little slower than the average fit golfer. With various exercises and correct nutrition you can improve your strength and flexibility.

Mike Pedersen's Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide is a great fitness eBook available for download. Check it out if you want to improve your distance and your game.

A recommended golf set for beginners struggling with consistency and accuracy

The absolute ideal golf set for the beginner golfer is one that will induce maximum forgiveness and improve their ball striking abilities.

To combat this problem of inconsistent hitting, an oversized club is ideal. The larger the clubface is, the more it decreases the chance of a mishit shot. With irons, the perimeter weighting can be used to make those duffed shots go that bit straighter.

Shots that are hit on the toe or the heel of the club can be hit a lot truer with the weighting in place, as the contact is made a lot more solid than without the perimeter weighting. A club with a wide sole will slice through the grass a lot easier and will result in much higher shot trajectory. Also, slightly shorter clubs will help with better club to ball contact.

Type of Clubhead

Now, to help with the out to in swing path I talked about earlier...

A club with an offset club head will help, as the clubface arrives at impact slightly later. This results in the club head being closed rather than open at the moment of impact with the ball. The offset of the club head will also induce the hands into moving forward slightly in the grip, which will help you with the problem of hitting the ground before hitting the ball. A club head that has an adjustable weighting system can be adjusted to suit the golfers particular swing pattern.

Shots from Fairway or Rough for Beginners

For shots from the fairways or rough, a beginner golfer should always use a hybrid or a wood as they tend to have more loft together with a low centre of gravity. A club with more loft and low centre of gravity will be easier to use to get the ball high in the air and to also get more distance from a shot too. In addition to the loft aspect of shots, the more backspin you shall retain, which will then counteract with the side spin or top spin, and will keep them from curving as much. This will therefore result in a much straighter shot.

The Beginner Driver

The driver of a beginner should be larger in terms of head size, so that the size of the clubs face and hitting area are increased. Also, additional loft of at least 12-15 degrees will help increase the height of your shots. The added loft as described will increase the backspin and reduce the risk of left or right curves as mentioned above.

A Beginner's Putter

Putting is very difficult at first for the beginner golfer, and three putts are very common place. With practice though, you will get better. You don't have to be an athlete to putt well, but it can still be very hard for beginners to judge the distances of putts well. Keeping your head directly over the ball can help, but a good alignment system should be in place too. A good system for putting is shown in the Purepoint Golf Video Putting Series.

The Beginner's Irons

Some super game improvement irons are the choice for more consistent shots. SGI clubs offer perimeter weighting, a larger offset, a wider sole, and a low centre of gravity too. The club choice range can be from either 6 through to pitching wedge, or 6 through to sand wedge.

The sand wedge will offer more loft and more bounce for shots around the rough or in the sand. The bounce is the feature on the sole of the club and it helps the club to glide easily through rough or sand.

Most Important Golf clubs for the Beginner

While you are allowed to carry anything up to 14 clubs in your bag at one time, you don't actually need all these clubs in your bag. The first clubs you should take out are the long irons (three, four). So you will be left with a five or a six iron that goes all the way through to a sand wedge or pitching wedge.

For shots of longer distance you should use lofted woods (five, seven, or a nine) and hybrid clubs (three, four, five). You may find that you actually hit them all roughly the same distance, so do a little experimenting to see which one you hit the best.

Choosing the Right Golf Set for Beginners

Choosing the right set of clubs also depends on your swing speed. Swing speeds of 65 to 85mph will need more woods and hybrids. Generally seniors, women, and juniors will need these so that they can get more loft on their shots and more distance.

The average swing speed of a male golfer is between 80 and 90mph so they can begin to add more irons to their golf sets. It is advised that you still use woods and hybrids instead of long irons however. Woods are always easier to hit for the beginner because of their larger surface areas and flat heads.

Your driver should be a 440-460 cc titanium head. The new larger drivers are designed for easier and more consistent hitting. Also, make sure you have extra loft so that you can increase the accuracy and distance of your shots. If you still see problems, you may want to choke it up an inch or so.

Now for the putter, you should get one with a large head like the new large headed mallet putters. These new putters have a great Moment Of Inertia (MOI) as they don't twist on mishits. Also, their alignment aids make it a lot easier for shorter putts.

Your ideal set should consist of Woods (one, three), Hybrids (three, four, five), Irons (SGI irons six-SW), Putter (Mallet).

Example of a Good Beginner Set of Golf Clubs

A good example of an ideal set for beginners consists of:

Or if you don't want to buy your clubs individually, beginners have a wide selection of beginner golf packages available in the shops. You usually get your driver, 3 & 5 woods, 4-9 irons, SW, PW, and your putter. For beginners I'd recommend getting cloned clubs, or some half decent pre-owned ones. This way, you're not out of pocket and your not embarrasing yourself duffing shots on the range with a brand spanking new set of $1000 clubs in your bag.

A good place to look for these golf packages is GigaGolf.com. Aswell as some great deals on packages, they also offer a free custom club fitting service on purchase. Custom fitting is a very good idea for those beginners like you, were every little thing you can use to your advantage is key at this stage.