EQUIPMENT

Very commonly, beginners or even people that have been playing golf for years, want to know what is the best approach to purchasing equipment.  We don't want to make this more complicated than it has to be.  There have been numerous times that people have shown to me what they had purchased before they had sought out expert advice.  Too many times, I have looked at what they bought and then wished that they had come to me first as I could have guided them through the process of buying equipment...and thereby helped them to get not only the right equipment for themselves, but also to save money. 

I often suggest to people who have put themselves on a budget for golf equipment, that the best way to buy golf equipment is buy the highest quality, just buy it used.  Golf equipment is like anything else, once it is taken out of the store where it was originally purchased, it is devalued immediately.  The reason for buying the highest quality is that there are many golf equipment manufacturers that make inferior equipment.  This equipment will not perform consistently and also has virtually no resale value.  If you buy the highest quality, you will have equipment that will not keep you from playing golf up to your potential.

By the way, you can usually buy the highest quality equipment used...for the same price or less than what you would pay for inferior equipment new.  Academy, Sports Authority and such like do stock some quality equipment but much of what they have, is not worth buying.  I will give you an example of what exists today in buying equipment.  If you were to buy a set of clubs today, that are what we would consider "top of the line", you would pay an average of:
 
Driver-------------------$400.00
Fairway Metal--------- 250.00
Two Hybrids---------- 400.00
Irons (3 - PW)--------- 700.00
Sand Wedge-----------  90.00
Lob Wedge-------------  90.00
Putter-------------------- 150.00
Bag----------------------- 180.00

TOTAL                   $2,260.00

These prices are just average.  You can easily pay more than the examples given and you can pay slightly less but these are fairly normal.  Now I am going to give you some typical resale prices of the same equipment after it may have been used for let's say 2 - 4 years.  

Let's say that the equipment is still in virtually perfect condition functionally, although there might be a few minor scratches here and there that affect the equipment cosmetically.  We will assume that cosmetically, the equipment still looks nice but it doesn't have the new look of coming off the showroom floor. 

Driver-------------------$100.00
Fairway Metal--------  100.00
Two Hybrids---------   100.00
Irons (3 - PW)---------  300.00
Sand Wedge----------    40.00
Lob Wedge------------    40.00
Putter--------------------    50.00
Bag-----------------------    40.00 

TOTAL                        $770.00

You can see that there is a substantial savings in buying high quality equipment used as opposed to new.  Functionally, the equipment is still great...it just doesn't have that new look that is gone by the time they have been played with for a few months anyway.

Now I would like to give another example that you can consider.  The same clubs that we just looked at, but have been used for maybe 5 years or longer.  Still in great shape functionally but cosmetically more worn than the example above.

Driver----------------------$  50.00
Fairway Metal----------     50.00
Two Hybrids------------    50.00
Irons (3 - PW)-----------  150.00
Sand Wedge------------    25.00
Lob Wedge--------------    25.00
Putter----------------------    25.00
Bag-------------------------    20.00

TOTAL                         $395.00
                              

Although it can be difficult to find a deal like the one above, it is not uncommon if enough research is done.  Sometimes it is difficult to convince people that buying equipment such as the example above is better than buying brand new equipment that is inferior.  Although I will agree that any time that there has been a significant change technologically, it would be better to go with newer equipment...the vast majority of the time, you would be better off buying the best, just buy it used if you are on a budget.