Clubs for growing/older junior girls

Do girls typically move up to ladies clubs (e.g. Ping GLe2’s) or men’s clubs with ladies shafts when they outgrow kids’ clubs? I don’t recall seeing any ladies clubs at tournaments but to be fair, I know very few junior girls older than my 11 year old daughter and haven’t spent time peeking at other girls’ bags. Are ladies clubs a marketing gimmick or are there any real benefits?

Do your research. Find someone that you can trust. Someone not just looking for a quick sell and get her fitted.

My daughter is 11 and on the smaller side 4'8" weights about 68 lbs and we've been using both Ping Prodig and the new Flynn irons. I've tinkered with adult heads for her for about the last year using lighter heads from Taylormade and Mizuno, but ultimately we go back to her jr. clubs they are just more consistent for her age/weight and swing speed. I would be careful on the ladies clubs sometimes they can be even heavier then men's clubs since they are shorter to get the swing weights up. We have friends who have switched over but most of the girls that are playing adult heads are much taller or weigh more. I think it depends on swing speed and size to be honest not age some girls start playing adult heads at age 9/10 some have to wait until 12/13 just depends. I think we will revisit the adult heads trying mizuno b heads or the lighter taylormade heads and do a build later this year.

My daughter is 12 and on the smaller side (5 foot 85lbs). She plays Cobra women’s clubs and has no issues. She has a F9 junior with a senior shaft, F9 irons with ladies shafts, Cleveland ladies wedges. She has been playing with women’s clubs since she was 11. At her most recent tournament, I only saw one girl her age not playing adult clubs. She played US Kids worlds last year and the girls all pretty much had adult irons. The ones who were still playing US Kids irons had the steel shafts. The key to switching to adult irons is clubhead weight. You want to make sure you don’t get anything too heavy. A fitter at Sea Island told me that Mizuno and Ping were the best at being able to manipulate the clubhead weight for juniors. I have never gotten my daughter fitted. She has always played Cobra because I get a big discount through them being a HS golf coach. Kids go through clubs so fast, that I tired to keep it as cheap as possible until she at least hit 5 feet where she could hit a regular women’s length club. She turns 13 in September and Ill pay for a real fitting then. Look at a used set of clubs and cut them down. There are deals to be found on EBay and Callaway pre owned. I used the US kids specs as well as the Ping junior fitting guide to help no how long to make the clubs.

You gotten good advice in the previous posts.

The thing is don't worry about if a Club or component is called Ladies, Senior or Junior or even mens. You should be looking for the best possible club for that person in your budget.

Generally speaking this how to interpret golf marketing

Junior - Very Light Shaft tends to be for kids who need to get the ball up in the air.

Womens - Very light

Seniors - Light weight and tends to help get the ball up in the air.

Mens - Heaviest and widest range of clubs many times stiffer then you really need.

There is a lot leeway in there and why you need to figure out what works sometimes you need mens club with a ladies shaft or a ladies club with a mens shaft. A fitter is probably $100-$200 and in many cases don't charge if you buy a set of clubs. Make sure you have one that can let you try out different shafts and clubs. I wish there was an easier way. If your totally clues go to a demo day and try out stuff.

The difference in clubs and shafts can be the difference between a shot hitting the green or a shot out of bounds on the extreme end. Generally speaking junior clubs are junk there only good if the swing speed is super slow (in that case it's good to stick with junior clubs)

Thanks for all the opinions. Are the salespeople at PGA Superstore (or other big chain stores) as good as fitters at places like Club Champion, Hot Stix, etc?

Stay away from PGA superstore and any chains. It's one the worst places to go for a fitting. The sales people there will fit you wrong and you end up wasting your money. If your lucky you have a place like https://moongolf.com/ nearby. This place is great. Not sure where you live but someone here might be able to point you a place locally . Basically any fitting you do should have a trackman involved and they should have tons of shafts for you try.

I haven't done club champion or club cool but I think there expensive. I would use them though if I didn't have any options but maybe just do the fitting and buy the shafts and clubs elsewhere.

Cool clubs is half price for juniors under 16 or 18 iirc. Full bag fitting for less than $200 is a good deal.

We did Ping Mens head with ladies shaft. Other manufacturers like Callaway or Titelist will also share heads between Mens and Womens clubs.

I've always felt Womens clubs got hand-me-down technology from previous years Mens clubs. This is just my perception. Could very well be false.

Best golf clubs for teens and advanced juniors transitioning from kids clubs

Cool Clubs in AZ is $700 for an outdoor (“Tour”) fitting and $600 for an indoor (“Premier”) fitting.

I agree with this. PGA superstore and these places are absolutely terrible when it comes to fitting. Club champion is at another level but I wonder if they fit juniors? I didn’t inspect but I didn’t see any shorter shafts for kids..... I would definitely call ahead.

one thing to keep in mind is that players like tiger and Anthony Kim all grew up playing their dads clubs. They cut down the shafts and made it to their length. Maybe it should be as simple as that.

All kids aren't prodigies or generational talents.

While I will readily agree that I can go too far in trying to fit my growing kids into clubs, it doesn't seem like ignoring the advancements in junior club options is a solution, either.

One issue I have is my daughter is a lefty. It seems that there are less options for ladies and lefties, independently. It’s exponentially harder to find clubs for a lefty girl. For her Prodi G’s, we went to Ping’s official fitters at the Westin Kierland in Scottsdale. If I hadn’t called beforehand, they wouldn’t have had any lefty demo clubs. I’m going to call around and check out the fitters in the Phoenix area.

Club Champion will fit juniors. My buddy just took his daughter who is 9 in for a driver fitting. They give a reduced price for junior fittings. One thing to consider is when you fit younger juniors, they just have them choke down on clubs. They don’t have shafts cut down to fit juniors so they do the best they can. I’ve been to Sea Island for a fitting and they do the same.