Our Recommendations for a Beginners Golf Set

There is no need for a beginner to buy the golf set that your favorite PGA Golfer plays. Besides the fact that these clubs will be too difficult to play they are also way too expensive. Any money saved on clubs should be used for proper golf lessons, a much better investment by any standard.

You are allowed to carry 14 clubs, but you actually don't need that many. The first clubs to leave out are the long irons (3, 4). Your iron set should start with the 5 or 6 iron and go up to the pitching wedge (PW) and sand wedge (SW). For longer shots use lofted fairway woods (3, 5) and hybrid clubs (3, 4, 5). You may find you still hit them all about the same distance, so if you can experiment, test them all to see which ones feel the best. Don't take the ones that you don't hit well and leave them at home. You should still buy them because you will get better and need them later.

The right set also depends on swing speed. Swing speeds between 65-80 mph (women, juniors and some seniors) will need more woods and hybrid clubs as well as more loft to help get the ball up in the air. Average male golfers with swing speeds of 80-90 mph can begin to add a few more irons (5-6), but you still should use hybrids and lofted woods instead of long irons. Woods are always easier to hit for beginners, so why make life difficult? Their larger heads and flat soles compared to irons also create more confidence. Slightly shortened versions of 3, 5, and 7 woods (-.5") should be considered for all beginners regardless of swing speed.

The driver should have a 440-460 cc titanium head. These new large headed drivers are a lot easier to hit, there are no second thoughts about it. Make sure you have extra loft - at least 10 - 12 degrees for men and above 12 degrees for Ladies - to increase accuracy and distance. If you find you still have problems hitting it accurately try holding the grip an inch or so lower down than usual. Many golfers, especially beginners, have a tendency to slice their shots. If you do you should consider an offset driver as their design helps to counteract a slice. Don't buy a driver with fancy weight ports for now, it will confuse you unnecessarily. Later on once your game improves you may consider one to further fine tune your game.

For a putter, you should get one of the new large headed mallet putters. These impressive putters provide great stability (i.e. they don't twist on mishits), and their alignment aids make short putts much easier.

In our opinion your preferred set configuration should be: Woods (1, 3, 5), Hybrids (4, 5), Irons (Super Game Improvement) (6-SW), Putter (Mallet).

So here is what we think would be a great set for you:

Driver: The popular ZR1 Ti Driver 460cc from Pinemeadow Golf is modelled after the Ping® G10 Driver. The 460 cc club head and the large clubface will make your shots a lot easier and more consistent. This design is perfect for beginner golfers.

Fairway Woods: To maintain consistency thru the different woods we recommend to stick with the ZR1 #3 Fairway Wood. It offers the same playing characteristics as the 'big brother' (= driver or #1 wood), and the same high-tech and beautiful design.

Irons/Hybrids: Instead of mixing and matching different shorter irons and longer hybrid clubs the ZR1 Hybrid Iron Set has done the work for you. As a perfect iron/hybrid set for beginners it replaces the hard to hit 3, 4 and 5 irons with perfectly matching hybrids. We recommend to get the full set with graphite shafts if your swing speed is slow, or to get at least the hybrid clubs with graphite shafts no matter how fast your swing speed is.

Putter: As a beginner golfer you will use the putter more often than any other club in your bag, so it makes sense to get one that will make the task of putting as easy as possible. The Xeon Titan putter is a great candidate for this: it is big, well balanced and has a superb alignment aid to help particularly with shorter puts.

The set recommended here is only about $450, compared to over $2000 you would have to pay for the equivalent branded clubs. The golf set will help you to get your game into shape, and it will suit you for at least a couple of years depending on how often you play. Use at least some of the money saved to get good lessons from a golf teaching pro, and you're on your way for a lifetime of fun (…and frustration…).

Here is some additional info about the clubs we recommended above:

• ZR1 Ti Driver 460cc



• ZR1 Offset 3 and 5 Fairway Woods



• ZR1 Hybrid Iron Set



• Xeon Titan Putter