Which Type of Golf Clubs are Best for Improving Golfers?

When you start playing golf, there can seem to be a bewildering array of types of clubs available to buy. Should you go for steel clubs? Graphite clubs? A combination of both? And what do these things actually mean? I got some good advice from my golf coach about choosing golf clubs, which I'm going to share with you here.

You'll want to decide how much you wish to spend on the clubs. To determine the right amount, you need to firstly be truthful with yourself about your dedication to the game. If you're likely to be playing quite regularly, you need to get yourself a good set of clubs.

Secondly, you need to be honest with yourself about what level of golfer you are - and the level you intend to achieve over the next year or so. If you're a complete beginner, there's no real point buying very expensive clubs, in the hope that somehow the magic will rub off and you'll instantly play like a professional.

As well as this, though, you also don't want to buy clubs that are not very good. If you do, the clubs are most likely to annoy you, and end up unused at the back of a cupboard, on donated to your local charity shop. So set yourself a realistic budget based on the amount of time you'll be playing and the level you're expecting to play at.

As you'll have seen, there are three main types of sets of club. These have steel shafts, graphite shafts, or a combination of both steel and graphite. There are pluses and minuses for each type set, and as a result it's common to see people using graphite woods and steel irons.

For myself, though, I prefer graphite shafts for all the clubs, and play with an all graphite set - except for the putter, which has a steel shaft. The reason I like all graphite is they are lighter, and cause less of a vibrating sensation on impact with the ball (or, as is often the case when starting out, the ground!).

Steel shafts will offer more rigidity - hence the putter being a steel shaft - while graphite shafts offer more "swingability", being lighter and more flexible. I find my graphite woods give me a lot more length on the shot that when I've used steel shaft woods - especially with the driver.

For these reasons, you might find that a combination of steel shafts for the irons and graphite shafts for the woods works best for you. But whichever type of club you choose, make sure you only spend to the level you want to play to, and you'll be enjoying your clubs for years to come.