Beginner Set Selection
Beginner's Profile:
The biggest problem a novice golfer has is having a hard time making consistent contact with the golf ball. Off-center hits (striking the ball on the heel or toe of the clubhead) happens often, as well as topped (hitting the top of the ball) and fat shots (striking the ground before the ball). To sum it up, you don't hit the ball with the center of the clubface very often.
The next problem the beginner faces is swing speed. Your swing speed is often slow due to a poor swing path or inexperience with proper swing mechanics (younger and more athletic beginners may not suffer as greatly). Women, juniors, and seniors have a slow clubhead speed due to a lack of strength. Slow swing speeds can cause difficulty in getting the ball up in the air and will result in a lack of distance.
Your ball flight is often a slice (left to right turn for a righty). This is because your clubhead generally approaches the ball from the outside of the target line (called out-to-in) and at too steep of an attack angle. A slice not only curves the ball to the right, but dramatically reduces distance as well.
Slow swing speed and poor contact makes it hard for you to get the ball in the air. A big mistake many beginners tend to make is trying to help the ball up by scooping under it. This will cause you to frequently hit fat shots, especially with your irons. You have yet to learn that you need to hit down on the ball to make it go up.
You have no idea what to do in the sand. You haven't learned that to get your ball out of the sand you can't hit the ball, instead you have to hit the sand first (about two inches or so behind the ball) and let the sand carry the ball out of the trap.
The Beginners Ideal Set
The perfect set for the beginner golfer would be one that can take into account all of these swing problems. The goal is to help you play your best golf possible. The solution is a set of clubs with maximum forgiveness.
Having an oversized clubhead will help offset the problem of inconsistent contact. Oversized clubs have a larger clubface and sweetspot so there will be fewer mishits. Oversized irons have extra perimeter weighting which helps keep the off-center hits straighter. Those shots that come off the heel and toe will be more solidly struck and you will lose less distance. The wide sole helps the club slide easier through the turf which gets the ball up in the air better. Playing slightly shorter clubs enable you to make a more accurate club to ball contact with more consistency.
To help correct the slice, an offset clubhead will help square up the clubface at impact by slightly delaying the time of impact. This means the clubface will be moving in a more square to the target direction and not left open. The offset clubhead also keeps the hands slightly in front of the clubhead, which will help prevent those fat shots.
A beginner wants to choose woods and hybrid clubs with a high loft and a low center of gravity to deal with the longer shots from the fairway or rough. More loft and a lower center of gravity makes it easier to get the golf ball up in the air as well as helping increase the distance. This also creates more backspin which counteracts the side spin of those off-center shots, preventing them from curving quite as much. The resulting shots should end up traveling a little bit straighter and longer than what you are used to seeing.
A beginner's driver should have a larger head (over 430cc) to increase the size of the hitting area. Additional loft (12-15 degrees) will get the ball in the air. Added loft once again will increase backspin and make those left to right curves less pronounced.
One putt, two putt, three putt, more... We've all done it. Some of us a lot more often than others. And with a little practice, putting is something that could be a lot better. Being a good putter doesn't take any great athletic ability, just the ability to read a green and judge the distance. Beginners will find it hard to judge distances and read greens, so 3 putts are always a possibility. But once you start to get the hang of it, putting really comes down to alignment. For the beginner, alignment is an issue because you haven't learned that you need to keep your head directly over the ball to properly see the line. This leads to second guessing yourself and results in inconsistent contact with the ball. Having a putter with good alignment markings can help offset this.
Beginner Set Configuration
So what is a good club set configuration for a beginner?
For starters, a beginner does not need as many clubs as the 14 clubs allowed by the USGA. Beginners generally need no more than 10-12 clubs. Having fewer clubs in the bag can help make the game less confusing and also promotes using the clubs more often. By hitting each club more often you will become more comfortable with each club. Beginner golfers will also find that they will hit many of their longer clubs about the same distance (this is especially true for women and seniors). The differences in the distance are only realized when using the 7-PW. Keep it simple and you'll help keep it consistent.
Super Game Improvement irons are the best choice for maximum forgiveness. SGI clubs come with the maximum perimeter weighting, a larger offset, wider sole, and low center of gravity. Club choices are usually the 6 iron through pitching wedge or 6 through sand wedge. The sand wedge should have a higher "bounce." Bounce is the angle on the sole of the club which determines how easily the club will glide through the sand or rough.
Now its time to cut out some clubs from your set. The first clubs to drop are the long irons (3, 4). A beginner's iron set should start with the 5 or 6 iron and go all the way up to the sand wedge (SW). To replace the long irons for longer shots you should use lofted woods (5, 7, 9) and hybrid clubs (3, 4, 5). If you find that you are still hitting them all around the same distance you might want to experiment with them to see which ones are the most comfortable for you to hit. Leave the others at home. If you leave them in the bag you'll be tempted to hit them on the course.
Swing speed is also important to consider when choosing your ideal set. Swing speeds that are in the 65-80 mph (women, juniors, and some seniors) require more woods and hybrid clubs and usually more loft to help get the ball up in the air. The average male, with swing speeds of around 80-90 mph, can choose to add a few more irons (5-6), but will still be better off using the hybrids and lofted woods as these are easier to hit than the long irons. The larger heads and flat soles of the woods and hybrids compared to those of the irons will help to instill more confidence during address. It is also recommended that beginners play a slightly shortened versions of the 3, 5, and 7 woods (about .5" shorter), regardless of their swing speed. This helps to promote more consistent solid contact.
The new large headed drivers (440-460 cc titanium head) are a good choice for beginners as they are easier to hit without sacrificing the distance. It is important to get a driver with extra loft to help increase accuracy and distance. If you find that it is still difficult to hit these drivers accurately, you can try choking up an inch or so or even better, get custom fitted for length and shaft flex.
One of the new large headed mallet putters are a perfect choice for beginner golfers. These new putters have a greater MOI (meaning they don't twist on off-center hits) and better alignment aids to help make those short putts that much easier.
Recommended set configuration - Driver, 5 wood, 7 wood, Hybrids (4, 5), Super Game Improvement Irons 6-9, pitching wedge, sand wedge, and putter.