What Golf Irons Should I Buy as a Beginner?
After a couple of months of Driving Range sessions and quite a few rounds with friends and family, I realised that I had gotten into the rhythm of playing and practicing. I was spending on average 3-4 hours practicing and playing 1-2 rounds a week.
One of the things that I noticed was that when it came to hitting the ball with Woods and Irons, I struggled for distance compared to my peers. Now, this wasn’t necessarily that surprising, I’m short (5’7”), playing against people bigger than me generally.
However, I was also playing with hand me down clubs from when I first tried the sport when I was 18. That means the clubs I was using (a set of “Ben Sayers” irons, a Wilson 3 wood I got for my 18th birthday, a McGregor 52 degree wedge and a cheap putter ) were at least 20 years old, probably quite a bit older in the case of the irons.
Although my bag had a Driver, I was scared of using it as I could never seem to get the ball in the air. As I wasn’t confident hitting this or the 3 wood particularly, was playing well with both the wedge and putter, I decided that I would start upgrading my bag with the Irons.
Initially, I went online and tried to do some research. There are so many brands out there, YouTube videos etc that it can be a little bit of a minefield, with opinion playing a massive part in reviews (as with anything).
The one bit of information I did find was that getting fitted for clubs was a worthwhile use of time, even more so if you are a beginner. The reason for this, is because standard fitted clubs may not help you if you are slicing/hooking the ball where fitted clubs can help to fix some of these issues.
I now had two options:
1. Go to a large reseller with multiple brands
2. Visit my local courses Pro-Shop
I opted to go with a major reseller - American Golf
For me, there were a number of benefits to doing so. First of all, booking the appointment itself could be done online and was FREE. All of my local courses charge for the session as it’s with a club pro who is missing out on lesson time I guess.
Second, (and for me most important), was that I could try out multiple brands. Unfortunately, my local prop-shops all seem to have one brand that they use, mainly for space. This would have meant travelling around to different clubs to try different clubs.
So American Golf being a “one-stop shop” was what sold it to me in the end. Although Callaway was the brand I was considering the most, I wanted to approach things with an open mind and having the option to try multiple brands allowed this.
As mentioned, booking was easy online, I was able to find a time that suited (4pm on a Sunday) and instructed by the site to bring my current clubs, glove and shoes to make the fitting as accurate as possible.
Once I got there, there was a small wait while the Pro finished up and then our session started. The session started with a discussion about why I was there, where we discussed my challenge of distance and always going to the right. I also stated that I wasn’t interested in price or brand - I simply wanted to get the best clubs for me. If I could have done the comparison blind I would have.
We then started the session by using my old 7 iron to hit a few balls on the simulator to get an average distance etc. After a few tips on striking the ball, stance etc, we got to a place where the pro was happy to then try out a few different clubs.
As I am a beginner, blades were not an option, so we looked at hollow backs and I tried out the following:
Benross Delta X: These were the first I tried and the results were better straight away. First of all, I gained a small amount of distance (about 5 yards on average). But the thing I noticed about them the most was that they seem to be very forgiving. Every shot I hit was straight and they felt great to swing. For a “budget” brand, the look of them was great and the grips felt good for my small hands.
Taylormade Stealth: First of all - these are a VERY nice looking golf club. Although they are hollow, they look like a blade. Like the benross, the grips were perfectly sized for my hands and they felt great to swing. When it came to the simulator, I found that I was gaining almost 20 yards on my old clubs, although they were less forgiving than the Benross, with most of my shots sticking out to the right.
Callaway Rogue ST MAX: Again, a great looking club, with similar styling to the Big Bertha clubs that were a favourite of so many a number of years ago. They have an oversized bounce (same as the benross), which is supposed to make them more forgiving. However, I found the stock grip a little too big for me and the feeling during the swing just didn’t feel right compared to the others. Results wise, I got similar to the Benross in terms of distance, but not the accuracy.
Club Conclusion
I ended up buying the Taylormade Stealth in the end. Although they were the most expensive I tested, the results I got with them distance wise were a massive difference. The feeling I had at the time was that with practice I would be able to straighten out the ball, but the extra distance would not come from the other sets.
We then continued with these clubs working on the shaft length and working out whether the club head should be made flat. This was done using a strike mat and a sticker on the club face to show where the ball was being struck.
In the end, we decided on a shaft half an inch shorter and 2 degrees flat with the club head.
I then had to wait for 12 weeks for stock to arrive and be custom made, which felt like a long time, but it was worth the wait.
The clubs look great in my bag and most importantly improved my game massively. My handicap went from being in the 30’s to low 20’s in the space of a few months. Again, practice makes perfect, so it might be more that than the new clubs, but they gave me a huge amount of confidence.
If you are a beginner looking for clubs, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend American Golf - the knowledge that they have is great and you will often get items at lower prices than at a Pro-Shop due to the larger scale of their business.
The only downside, was that the staff were a little rude at the end of the session. I was booked into the last slot of the day and they actually switched the lights off before my hour was up, which I found very rude and very nearly left me saying that I would buy elsewhere. If it wasn’t for worrying that the Pro wouldn’t get any bonuses due him, I may very well have left. But this is not necessarily what you will find everywhere, it is more than likely just restricted to the Canterbury store.
