Golf Essentials For Beginners – What You Will Need To Get Started

Golf has often been considered a less accessible sport, in part because of the number of things necessary to play the game. That begs the question, what are the necessary essentials for getting started playing golf?

We are going to take you through the absolute necessities for playing the game when you are first starting. We’ll also cover a few things that you might think are mandatory but really aren’t, plus a few bells and whistles from experienced golfers that might upgrade your game or style on the course a little bit.

Golf Clubs

The first thing that comes to mind if you want to play are, of course, golf clubs! Whether rented, begged, borrowed, handed-down, or bought new, clubs are the epitome of essential in the game of golf.

Keep in mind, the rules of golf dictate that a golfer cannot carry more than 14 golf clubs in their bag for a round.

From that point on a golfer and their relationship to their clubs usually takes on a life of its own, with some never letting go of their old faithfuls and some changing clubs out every few months (or even rounds!). In any case, golf clubs are rarely perfect and do not need to be, especially for beginners, but they are definitely key to getting started.

Driver

Almost every golfer has had a love-hate relationship with their driver at some point. As a beginner, it actually might not be the most important golf club in your bag. Finding the right driver for you will set up your entire golf game. While it’s a weapon for most competitive players, if you’re just starting out taking lessons and learning the game, a lot of times hitting the driver off of every tee is not optimal.

As far as picking out your driver, if you have one that was made less than 10 years ago chances are you will not see a dramatic difference in performance, despite what every advertisement and paid promotion will tell you.

There have been a lot of technology upgrades throughout the years, but anything less than 10 years old could be considered a “modern” driver and will allow you to learn the game. The extra $500 for a brand new driver would be much better spent on lessons for the first couple of years of playing.

As a beginner, you should choose as driver with plenty of loft. The more loft, the easier the driver will be to hit. Look for drivers in the 10.5 - 15 degrees of loft.

If you find when hitting a driver, that you have a slice, you should consider the Performance Golf SF1 Anti Slice Driver.

Irons

An iron set is the cornerstone to any golf bag. Irons are also the clubs you will learn to hit the most often and build your game around.

As a new golfer, you don't have to spend a lot of money on irons. There are really good iron sets available for under $500.

When looking at iron sets,  there are 3 basic components to check out and see if they are right for you: the club head, the shafts, and the grip.

Let’s take a look at each:

Club Heads

The main point here is to avoid getting “blade” club heads if you are a beginner, with the exception maybe being wedges. Club heads come in different styles and blades are the least forgiving. Even amongst professional players it is becoming rare to see players not taking advantage of some degree of perimeter weighting or “cavity back” club heads throughout their bag.

You can choose if you want more of a players cavity back that will teach you to strike the ball well but still punish off-center strikes more, or if the game is already punishing enough most beginners start with game improvement irons.

Learn to recognize cavity back irons versus blades. Cavity back irons are much more forgiving. Unless you are intending to train yourself for many years to become an elite ball striker, rule out the blades. You can recognize cavity backs because there will be some degree of indention in the back of the golf club and a thicker part around the perimeter to improve forgiveness among other things.

Shafts

Choosing the right golf shaft is important, the wrong shaft won't help your play and might be the cause of that pesky slice!

There are two things you want to check out in your iron shafts for a beginner; the length and the flex. There are many other variables that you can get into when getting fitted, but for a beginner just make sure the flex of your shaft is a relative match to your physical build and club head speed (i.e. a college football player doesn't want a senior flex, while a female golfer should typically stay away from extra stiff). 

The other factor to consider is length. If you are above or around 6’2” you might struggle to set up properly to a normal-length iron set. If you are around or below 5’8" you might need to choke up or cut-down slightly a normal-length men’s iron set. There are many other variables in play that a proper club fitter could deal with (such as arm length, posture, etc.), but for your first set use these as very general guidelines to keep in mind.

You may notice some iron sets come with steel shafts and some with graphite. This is a bigger issue on older iron sets as most modern graphite performs quite well. Check the flex and weight if you see graphite iron shafts, as they tend to be lighter and more flexible, although this is not as universal as it used to be.

Grips

Golf grips generally come in undersize, standard, mid-size, and jumbo, but the majority of men enjoy standard or midsize grips and ladies undersize or standard grips to start out with.

The right golf grip size should fit comfortably in your fingers when you are using a proper golf grip.

The key if you are looking at a pre-owned iron set is to make sure the grips are in good shape and have some tackiness to them still so you can have a relaxed grip and at least play with them for awhile without immediately replacing them.

Fairway Woods

Fairway woods are a major asset to a beginner, mostly because they tend to be easier to keep in play off the tee than a driver. Higher level players tend to become more proficient with the driver, but even they will often use a fairway wood for increased accuracy!

For a beginner, it’s good to have one or two fairway woods in a bag, depending on how you like hitting them and what other long golf clubs you have. At a minimum most players carry either a three wood or a five wood but the seven wood has become popular again lately with Dustin Johnson winning the 2021 Masters with one in his bag.

The main thing to check is that you don’t want to duplicate the loft or distance of one of your hybrids or long irons. While beginning the game, it’s good to have one fairway wood of any loft to hit off the tee if you have a short hole or tight hole where driver isn't appropriate.

RELATED: Best Golf Club Brands

Hybrids

Hybrids are a relatively modern invention, although if you look closely you will see that the head shapes and sizes closely resemble many of the best persimmon woods. These golf clubs are just as they say - a “hybrid” between an iron and a wood. The face is shaped like an iron but there is a bulb of metal coming off the back, similar to a fairway wood.

These really are amazing clubs to have in your bag as a beginner, because of how much easier they are to hit than long irons. Especially if you’re just starting out, you might not need anything in your bag below a five iron, and 2, 3, and 4-hybrid clubs can help if you struggle in those areas.

At the end of the day it’s a useful weapon for short par 4’s, long par 3’s, and the go-to club for getting one back in play out of the rough after those poor tee shots that we all hit.

RELATED: What Do The Numbers On Golf Clubs Mean

Wedges

Wedges are always fun golf clubs for beginners. Most golfers will remember or have even fallen in love with their first wedge or wedges.

Generally, iron sets will come with a pitching wedge, and many also come with gap and sand wedges. There is a lot of versatility in wedges, but ideally you will have something that is at least 54 to 56 degrees of loft or labeled as a sand wedge. This is the ideal club for beginners to use around the greens for short chip shots as well as out of bunkers.

Nowadays, most experienced golfers also carry a lob wedge of either 58 or 60 degrees. One thing to look out for is you don’t necessarily want two wedges that are only two degrees apart. Look for 4, 5, or 6 degrees of difference depending on how many wedges you have.

In reality, most players use the lob wedge as a specialty club. While most tour pros use them religiously, and amateurs have followed suit, tour pros are playing on golf courses that are significantly firmer and faster with pin locations and high rough specially designed to make stopping the ball on the green as hard as possible.

For a beginner, you can play a very functional round of golf and get better faster in many cases by just using a sand wedge for all of your short game shots.

Putter

Along with the driver, the putter is probably the subject of the most ups and downs of any club in a golfer's bag, and that’s saying a lot! It is also the least complicated club, but golfers and equipment manufacturers have tried their best to dress it up.

There is a lot of technology that goes into putters now, everything from face inserts to graphite shafts and oversized grips. But the fact is most copy one of three basic designs. 

The “blade” or “anser” style putter has been the gold standard since it was invented and is the most copied putter on the planet. This is the