How to Choose Golf Clubs: When New is Only New

From time to time a new or casual player asks me for advice about golf clubs. My first reaction is to think it's rather like asking someone if their girlfriend is hot. They're simply asking for the wrong person's opinion. Still, even though choosing golf clubs is a very personal decision (almost as personal as choosing a girlfriend) I am able to offer some help.

My first rule is that sometimes new is better but sometime's new is only new.

So, when is new better?

New is better when it comes to drivers.

I think having a driver that's more than a year or so old is a big mistake. Even though driver manufacturers are pushing up against the USGA's limit on COR and displacement, there is still a lot of tweaking going on when it comes to driver design and construction. Driver manufacturers are also getting better at mating driver shafts to heads to optimize launch and spin rates. Even if I didn't believe that drivers were getting at least a tad better each year I would still advise players to replace their drivers every year or so (depending on how much they play and how many range balls they hit). The reason is because 460cc drivers are relatively fragile. The precise bulge and roll that's built into their faces are easily, if subtly, flattened with impact after impact. The result is a driver with dead and live spots which results in off the tee inconsistency that none of us want.

New isn't usually better when it comes to fairway woods.

Why is that, you ask? Fairway wood heads are close to the same weight as a driver head but they're far smaller. So, there's less for the club companies to do when it comes to the performance of the face (COR) or distribution of weight. That's why a lot of tour pros have old fairway woods in their bags. They know they're not losing anything compared to new designs so they tend to stick with what they've got. If you've got a favorite 5 or 3 wood and want to infuse it with new life, get it re-shafted and re-gripped. You'll probably fall in love all over again.

New is way better when it comes to hybrid clubs.

Well, let me clarify that: If you already have hybrids in your bag you can simply apply what I've already said about fairway woods to hybrids. If you're still lugging your 3, 4 and possibly even your 5 iron around you need to hit some hybrids and let your ball flight tell which club design is more suited to your game. Better yet, don't waste your time. You will hit every hybrid of a given loft better than the corresponding long iron. I guarantee it. The good news is that it's perfectly fine to buy used hybrids and save a few bucks while you save a few strokes.

New is only new when it comes to irons and wedges.

Sorry, but it's true. Since Ping started making the Eye2 back in the 80s there's nothing really new under the sun when it comes to irons and wedges. In design terms, they are what we call finished art. This should feel like good news to you. You don't have to spend money on new irons unless buying new irons is fun for you. As with all clubs, shafts and grips matter a lot so make sure they're well suited to your game and in good condition.

New isn't even really new when it comes to putters.

Pretty much everything you see at your local golf shop has been done before and folks have made and missed putts with every design ever made. Putters and putting are more about optics, preference and technique than they are about any supposed qualities of design and manufacture. That's why the old guy you played with on Sunday out putted you with his garage sale bullseye with electrician's tape for a grip. All yu have to do is make sure your comfortable with your putter. You have to be comfortable with how it looks, how it feels, how long it is and how much it weighs. After that you just have to learn how to putt. Best of luck with that...

New is better when it comes to golf balls, but you have to be honest about your game.

Contemporary golf balls are miracles of materials science. Simply put, the golf ball gurus have found a way to make a ball perform one way when it's struck with a high swing speed like a driver, another when it's struck with a medium swing speed as might be created by an iron and yet another way when it's struck by a putter or a sand wedge. How did they do it? Do you really care? They did it by creating multilayer balls. Each layer has different rebound characteristics and each is energized by impacts of different speeds. What you need to do is ask yourself whether you really want more spin or less spin. You also need to know where spin is your friend and where it could work against you. The good news is that you really can't lose: The worst ball on the market today is better for the average player than the best ball in the days of yore.

So, sometimes new is better and sometimes it's just new.