Chasing Par

Golf doesn’t have to be an expensive sport to play, you can get started for less of an investment than you probably thought.

In 2021, golf experienced the largest surge in golfers in 17 years, mostly due to COVID-19 pandemic. Both new players and lapsed golfers have numbered more than six million only in the USA. Most of them will find themselves needing to buy their first set of clubs, but not be willing to spend more than $2000 on a brand-new state-of-the-art golf set. And harsh as it may sound, a $500 driver is not the solution to your swing problems. It might help, but is it worth it? As with your phone, you do not need the latest model, nor upgrade it every year.

In this guide, I will show you how to get yourself a new (or almost new) set of clubs for under $800.

The Very First Step

You cannot go shopping for a shirt without knowing your measurements. And following the same logic, you shouldn’t buy a set of clubs without knowing some key metrics of your game, such as swing speed, face angle, lie angle among many others. 

Club fitting is a cheap service provided in every golf shop and is the best investment when you are planning to change your clubs. Just imagine the cost of buying a club that is not right for you. Swinging a club that is not right for you has a similar effect as wearing a smaller shoe: decrease performance, pain, anger, and frustration.

Once you have swing metrics and the recommendation of the fitting professional you are ready to start the quest for new clubs.

Do not get me wrong, if you are lucky enough to have a couple of thousand dollars to spend on state-of-the-art golf equipment go for it! But in case you do not: DON’T DESPAIR! There are plenty of other options to find excellent golf clubs at a fair price. Let’s explore them!

Using eBay to Find Used Golf Clubs

eBay is a wonderful platform to find great deals on brands with rapid release cycles such as TaylorMade or Callaway. But beware! Buying at eBay requires extra precaution to avoid being scammed, buying rip-offs, or just making mistakes in your purchase. (I once bought a hybrid for half the retail price only to discover after delivery that it was for left-handed golfers).

Tips for buying on eBay:

• Carefully read the whole description of the product.
• Only buy from local top sellers.
• Ask as many questions as you need to.
• Only buy products in very good or mint condition.

Trusted Websites for Used Clubs

GlobalGolf and 2ndswing are just two examples of great online golf shops that specialize in buying and reselling golf clubs. You might not find deals as good as in eBay but they offer buyer protection and free returns. Plus, they have their own club rating system to guarantee that you get what you paid for. 

Tips for buying at used golf club websites:

• Choose brands with rapid release cycles such as TaylorMade or Callaway over Titleist or Ping as the latest of these last brands will depreciate less over time.
• Only buy product in very good or mint condition.
• Shop during holidays and stay alert for discount codes!

Building Your Set of Pre-Owned Clubs

I did the exercise of building a golf bag using Global Golf. In the table below I detail what I found. Don’t forget you can also combine purchases from different options and sites.

Club	Original price	With 20% discount
Preowned TaylorMade R1 Driver	$159.99	$127.992
Preowned Ping G10 Fairway Wood	$79.99	$63.992
Preowned TaylorMade GAPR Hi Hybrid	$89.99	$71.992
Preowned Callaway Steelhead XR Iron Set	$419.99	$335.992
Preowned Mizuno T7 White Satin Wedge	$119.99	$95.992
Preowned Ping Karsten TR Anser 2 Putter	$109.99	$87.992
Total	$979.94	$783.952

No Reason to Not Play Golf!

Online shopping is a great option to get a golf set on a budget. It does require some digging and performing some comparison between sites but your findings will surprise you. 

Your new clubs are laying somewhere waiting for a new owner, go find them!