It's not the equipment, it's the swing, stupid.

[jjfcpa]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm coming around to the fact that equipment may not be the answer to playing a good round of golf and scoring well. That's not to say that it won't affect your game somewhat, but anyone who thinks that equipment will make you a better player more over than improving your swing is chasing their own tail.

 

In my short career I've changed clubs much more than I would ever care to admit. I think I finally have my swing where I feel like I'm playing about as well as I possible could given the amount of time I have to practice and play. Improving is not directly related to the amount of time I have to work on my game and is generally not affected by my choice of clubs.

 

With each change of equipment I try to honestly evaluate whether it helped or not. Most of the time, I have to conclude that it didn't make that much difference. On a number of occasions I've gone back to my previous equipment because I saw no improvement.

 

The real improvement in my game has come from a sincere effort to improve my swing and short game skills, and in particular, putting so that I can improve my scores. I also pay much closer attention to minimizing the damage done by my mishits. Course management is crucial so I will always look at the hole layouts before each round so that I don't get caught guessing what to do.

 

Anyone else come to the same conclusion about equipment vs swing?

[dlygrisse]

Easy now. Step back. Take a DEEP breath. It’ll be okay. Don’t be jumping to conclusions. ?

[kwcsports]

> @jjfcpa said:

> I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm coming around to the fact that equipment may not be the answer to playing a good round of golf and scoring well. That's not to say that it won't affect your game somewhat, but anyone who thinks that equipment will make you a better player more over than improving your swing is chasing their own tail.

>

> In my short career I've changed clubs much more than I would ever care to admit. I think I finally have my swing where I feel like I'm playing about as well as I possible could given the amount of time I have to practice and play. Improving is not directly related to the amount of time I have to work on my game and is generally not affected by my choice of clubs.

>

> With each change of equipment I try to honestly evaluate whether it helped or not. Most of the time, I have to conclude that it didn't make that much difference. On a number of occasions I've gone back to my previous equipment because I saw no improvement.

>

> The real improvement in my game has come from a sincere effort to improve my swing and short game skills, and in particular, putting so that I can improve my scores. I also pay much closer attention to minimizing the damage done by my mishits. Course management is crucial so I will always look at the hole layouts before each round so that I don't get caught guessing what to do.

>

> Anyone else come to the same conclusion about equipment vs swing?

 

Well Said, I agree 100% ^^^^^^

[Yarra]

Well, I do see the opposite as well. But I'd say 75% of the time it is the swing, yes...

 

There are times when I see good, consistent and repeatable swing with wrong equipments. Guys think it's their swing, end up tinkering with their swing and make things worse. It got spiraled south from there. But most of the time, people are looking for an easy way out, an excuse and blaming everything but their lack of skills/practice/patience, etc. Everything but themselves, really...

[LeoLeo99]

That's crazy talk.

[dlow206]

I have purchased off the shelf, not fitted clubs, based purely on brand name in the past. I feel much more confident and am hitting the ball better with fitted equipment.

[CaymanS]

The original poster should be banned from this site. Seriously, your swing is 90~95% of the equation. I went through dozens of bag set-ups and none of it mattered. It took me a decade to figure out. I guess I'm a slow learner.

[cforselius]

I gave up on equipment when I played with a guy who came with a sunday bag with Cobra fly Z driver, stock, 714 AP2 stock, some old cleveland wedges and a two-ball putter. The guy shot a 63 (-9) from back tee, shook hands after 18 and went home to his family.

 

After that I dont believe in equipment, of course you should be fitted, but after that, I dont believe in buying your way out to lower scores, which is a nice feeling.

[aenemated]

I've always said the right equipment won't make you better ... it just won't make you worse. I have no doubt I could go out with pretty much any bag and it'd be 99% the same. I might not like the feel, I might not like the look but it's still gonna be my swing and my game.

 

Same with anything else. Hand me literally any guitar and it's gonna sound like me playing.

[RogerinNewZealand]

Silence...HO.....Buy.Repent etc!

[Chuck905]

I understand your point on “course management” but it’s a muted point if you cannot execute the intended shot for what the tee shot calls for.

 

For example, my home land course is old school in tree lines, dog legs and bunkers off the tee. From the public tees it’s 2-4 irons off the tee and from the championship tees it’s driver or 3 wood.

 

Which is the easiest strike for your first hole?

[chafita]

I agree with the OP but I still love the feeling of hitting new (or new to me off BST) clubs!

[jwb10]

Heretic

[Titleist_PT23]

The two equipment areas I think that matter the most are a) a well-fit driver and b) no swing speed vs. loft/clubhead design mis-matches in the upper-teens to mid-20s degrees of loft. For b), lack of speed and lack of loft are just difficult to overcome the closer the CG is to the face (iron-hybrid-fairway in order of difficulty). Everything else is practice and execution on the course.

[SecondandGoal]

With all due respect, the OP is oversimplifying things, as are a few of the follow-up comments. Any time you say "It's all THIS", or "It's all THAT", you're getting into absolutes. The only absolute thing about absolutes is that they're absolutely not the whole story.

 

Is your swing important? Absolutely. Is equipment important? Absolutely. Is either one the end-all, be-all to a great golf game? Absolutely not. A great golfer can play great golf with garbage equipment... but he'll play even better with excellent equipment that's suited to his swing.

 

Just like pretty much everything else in life, it's balance.

 

P.S. I've more than cut my index in half since June 15 (15.3 then, currently trending at 7.4). The majority of that was lessons with my club pro that led to a couple swing changes, but some of it is also due to some new gear that suits my swing better. I've played a couple rounds with my old gear, and it's not the same.

[JDCON]

Eat the un-believer!

[North Butte]

In my experience it is very, very hard to find clubs that much improve the way the ball travels with a given swing. The main thing about "good" clubs versus "bad" ones is the effect they have on me, not on the ball.

 

For instance, give me a set of irons with 80g graphite shafts and I really struggle to keep the club on plane, square up the face and hit the middle of the club. They are so light I just yank them around all over the place during my transition and downswing.

 

But when I do manage a good swing with one (talking about just the one set of graphite shafted clubs I've played with for any length of time), the ball goes nice and high and straight. The light graphite shafts work great in terms of ball dynamics, they are just awful because they screw up my swing.

 

So I'm all about weight, balance, "turf interaction" (to a certain extent) and how the club lines up behind the ball. If I get those things right I make more good swings and fewer bad ones. As a double-digit handicapper, my scores are not determined by how good my good shots are. The vast majority of my score is determined by how many really bad shots I hit during the round.

 

I can shoot around 80 with maybe half a dozen pretty bad swings. But normally I shoot closer to 90 with 10-15 really bad shots mixed in. If a new club can knock two or three awful swings off a round that's two or three (or more) strokes improvement. Even if on solid shots the ball goes the exact distance as with the old clubs.

[BLF0901]

I disagree with OP. I play better off the tee with a 44" driver than I do a 45.5" driver. I play better with players distance irons than I do Miura baby blades. My iron play is better with 120 gram shafts than it is with 90 gram shafts. I hit a 3 hybrid much better than I do a 3 iron.

 

Those are all equipment choices that allow me to play better golf.

[TIM929]

But have you tried the TS3? It’s an absolute game changer.

[SheriffBooth]

I think an equipment change can make you better, if the clubs you switch to are a better fit. But once you are optimized, an equipment change will almost universally make you worse, particularly in the short term while you get used to the new stuff. The problem is identifying when you are optimized, so you don't keep shooting yourself in the foot and chasing performance through equipment.

 

Of course, this applies to the long clubs. Putters require changing at least monthly because none of them work correctly...

[cgasucks]

I'm glad you came to your senses now than years down the road spending $$$ and not seeing your scores go lower. Iron and driver technology has been stagnant for years. Just work on your game with the clubs you have.

[NoTalentLefty]

Lessons first then fitted clubs. Brands not as important.

[deepred]

Golf is a game of inches, none more important than the six between your ears.

That being said, if one has a decent swing and some athletic skills they can adapt to most clubs within reason. From my Wilson Fatshaft Metal driver through countless OEM and component drivers the difference has been at most a few yards and since I rarely play from the tips these days I realize it has been a colossal waste of money.

[nlinneman20]

Meh there are SO Many different scenarios to this 'conclusion' that no one can say for sure.

 

Guy at my office has a terrible swing, he upgraded his driver of about 15 years to a new Rogue, said he still couldnt hit it good. I didnt have the heart to tell him his swing is terrible.

 

I think i have an OK swing, i went from RBladez tour w/ a heavy ass shaft to Ping G30 and noticed improvements immediately.

 

My father in law had like a 10-year old driver. His swing is 'fine' however its slow and deliberate like any 70 year old. I convinced him to get a Rogue after he tried mine and said he noticed immediate improvement.

 

Every situation is different, hell I went from F7 to Rogue and noticed my fairways hit improved significantly. Nothing with my swing changed.

 

All depends, is the swing garbage to begin with? Are you upgrading from a 2000 model club to a 2019 or from a 2018 to 2019? When you say upgrade do you mean going from maybe a stiff flex which could be too stiff for you to a regular flex?

 

I do agree though that going from the Callaway Rogue to a Epic Flash (just as an example) probably isnt gonna change much.

[caniac6]

> @jjfcpa said:

> I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm coming around to the fact that equipment may not be the answer to playing a good round of golf and scoring well. That's not to say that it won't affect your game somewhat, but anyone who thinks that equipment will make you a better player more over than improving your swing is chasing their own tail.

>

> In my short career I've changed clubs much more than I would ever care to admit. I think I finally have my swing where I feel like I'm playing about as well as I possible could given the amount of time I have to practice and play. Improving is not directly related to the amount of time I have to work on my game and is generally not affected by my choice of clubs.

>

> With each change of equipment I try to honestly evaluate whether it helped or not. Most of the time, I have to conclude that it didn't make that much difference. On a number of occasions I've gone back to my previous equipment because I saw no improvement.

>

> The real improvement in my game has come from a sincere effort to improve my swing and short game skills, and in particular, putting so that I can improve my scores. I also pay much closer attention to minimizing the damage done by my mishits. Course management is crucial so I will always look at the hole layouts before each round so that I don't get caught guessing what to do.

>

> Anyone else come to the same conclusion about equipment vs swing?

I have seen equipment make a huge difference. I a 4hdcp. and have a fairly consistent swing. Last year I was fit for a driver, and all the Trackman info was great, but I couldn't hit it on the course. I traded it for another driver, and got good results. Same swing, different results with different clubs. You might get decent results with a good swing and the wrong clubs, but the results with a good swing and proper clubs will be much better.

 

[dubbelbogey]

On whole, I agree with the OP.

 

Where I think equipment does matter comes down to fit. And by this I think there is now a real distinction between clubs that fit and "fitted clubs" - the latter is now (and too often) code for expensive new equipment. The "fitter's" primary goal is to sell you new, typically expensive gear. You can "fit" your existing 10-year old set just fine, at far less cost, but that seems to be less and less the case these days.

 

The other area is for those clubs where relatively modern-era clubs are generally beneficial compared to their multi-decades old counterparts. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say a hybrid is easier for the majority to play well than a 3i. Same for a 460cc driver vs. a persimmon.

 

But beyond that, the OP is spot on. Frankly, the most costly misses I generally see out there are flat out poor swings (chunks, tops, etc...) No club can fix that.

 

 

[North Butte]

> @dubbelbogey said:

> On whole, I agree with the OP.

>

> Where I think equipment does matter comes down to fit. And by this I think there is now a real distinction between clubs that fit and "fitted clubs" - the latter is now (and too often) code for expensive new equipment. The "fitter's" primary goal is to sell you new, typically expensive gear. You can "fit" your existing 10-year old set just fine, at far less cost, but that seems to be less and less the case these days.

>

> The other area is for those clubs where relatively modern-era clubs are generally beneficial compared to their multi-decades old counterparts. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say a hybrid is easier for the majority to play well than a 3i. Same for a 460cc driver vs. a persimmon.

>

> But beyond that, the OP is spot on. Frankly, the most costly misses I generally see out there are flat out poor swings (chunks, tops, etc...) No club can fix that.

>

>

 

Yes, I've had to adopt the phrase "Clubs to suit you" to make it clear I'm not talking about "fitted clubs" in the sense of "clubs that you paid 3x retail for after two hours of trying high-$$$ upcharge shafts on Trackman".

[third-times-a-charm]

A bad swing is nothing 20g of lead tape cant fix.

[Davidv]

Not yet, I still love the new equipment train I am riding.

[jholz]

Most of my bag is almost, if not more, than ten years old. I have stock shafts in much of it, and a few aftermarket ones mixed in. I have had a few cursory demo day fittings. All of my sticks are standard OEM L/L/L. I have no problem playing decent golf with a rental set. Clearly I am not a WRX equipment junkie. I know a new club is not going to revolutionize my game.

 

Yet, even I have to acknowledge that equipment matters and can have a significant impact on one's game. Although my bag is all over the place, I have hand picked every one of the clubs, and have worked with them extensively to get them to do what I want. I think every player needs to do some fitting of this type, at least. Regardless of the means, each player needs to find equipment that matches their playing ability, swing traits, body dimensions, and personal preferences. Also, those choices will probably evolve over time.

 

Additionally, and if new equipment is well matched to the player, it can provide a significant psychological benefit.