golf equipment – Portable Sports Coach

The Golf Equipment Checklist For High to Low Handicappers... What equipment do you need to play golf? Well, it depends. Not the answer you were looking for eh? It depends on how often your play; so, for example someone who plays golf 3 times a week may need slightly different equipment to those who just golf once a month. It depends on what golf equipment your already own – there’s no point in purchasing another 20 golf balls when you’ve already got 10 lurking round the house somewhere. And it depends on the course you’re playing at and the weather conditions amongst many other variables. – Taking up room on your bag with a bottle sunscreen won’t be much use if you’re playing in Scotland during the winter. Taking all these things (and a few others) into consideration I’ve compiled a detailed checklist that covers the essentials, some accessories and few pieces of training equipment that’ll help you improve your game. So, let’s get started… [wpsm_titlebox title="Golf Equipment Checklist" style="4"][wpsm_toplisth3][/wpsm_titlebox] Essential Golf Equipment: What Do You Need to Start Playing Golf? Golf Clubs In order to actually play golf you’re going to need a few clubs. But, contrary to popular belief you don’t every club under the sun in your bag. Where are you playing? First and foremost asking yourself the question as to ‘where’ you’re playing will help with club selection. If you’re only going to the driving range bringing your sand wedge might be a bit too far. If however you’re heading to a 18-hole monster of a course then your club selection will need to reflect this. What’s your playing level or handicap? Another thing to take into consideration is your playing level. In general, beginners will need slightly different selection of clubs than a low handicap player. For example; a low handicap player might want to carry a good selection of low Irons – 2,3,4 for example. A beginner on the other hand would most likely struggle with these clubs as they tend to be hard to get airborne – so a beginners club selection might instead have a couple of Hybrid clubs instead… Hybrid Golf Clubs What are hybrid golf clubs? Hybrid golf clubs are great replacements for hard to hit irons. They are made in such a way where the weight in the club is located further back from the face of the club. This offsets the centre of gravity to the rear of the club head which in turn makes it easier for you to get the ball airborne and ultimately make a cleaner but consistent hit. 1,482 Reviews Pinemeadow Golf Graphite Here's some Hybrids from Pinemeadow ranging from 19-45 degrees which covers most irons. Available for both left and right handed golfers $47.10 Buy on Amazon So, what clubs should you have in your bag? With that said, what clubs should you have in your bag? Well, each player has different preferences. What’s right for you might be wrong for someone else – so it’s important practice as possible to fine-tune your club selection. It’s also important to take into consideration your handicap and playing level. Here’s a quick guide based on handicap; High Handicap vs Low Handicap Golf Club Checklist A beginner’s golf club selection might consist of; a Driver, 3 Wood, 5-6 Hybrids, 7-8-9 Irons, Pitching Wedge, Sand Wedge and a Putter. Callaway Strata Complete 12 Piece Set (Right) Although it doesn’t have all the clubs I listed above – it does have a healthy selection of clubs perfect if you’re just starting out playing golf. Buy on Amazon An intermediate players golf club bag might have; Driver, 3 Wood, 3-4-5 Hybrids, 6-7-8-9 Irons, Pitching Wedge, Sand Wedge and a Putter. And more advanced players could have; Driver, 3 Wood, 3 Hybrid, 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 Irons, Pitching Wedge, Sand Wedge, Lob Wedge and a Putter Full Golf Club Checklist This is a full golf clubs checklist for you to use – remember though; you don’t need every club on this list. Driver 3 Wood 2 through to 9 Irons 2 through to 9 Hybrids Pitching Wedge Gap Wedge Sand Wedge Lob Wedge Putter Chipper Golf Bag & Essentials Unless you intend to carry your golf clubs round individually, you’re going to need something to carry them in – most individuals tend to opt for the safety of golf bag. You’ll want to grab a golf bag; that doesn’t fall over easily when you set it aside for your shots, can be easily carried and doesn’t take up an enormous amount of space. Callaway Captial Stand Comes with a good amount of positive reviews, 6 color designs, complete with a 5-way divider system, shoulder strap, rain hood and towel hoop Buy on Amazon Golf bags like the Callaway one above are great if you don’t intend to carry your bag very far, use a golf buggy or have someone else to do the heavy lifting. But, what about if you intend to play a quick 9-hole? Pitch and Putt? Or, what about if your intend to travel to Europe for a quick weekend game? That’s where lightweight golf travel bags come in handy. They don’t have as much space as your average golf bag and they tend to come with less ‘bells and whistles’ but if you’re carrying less clubs, travel more miles or getting sick and tired or your big bulky bag – they’re one to check out. Callaway Capital Stand Here's one from Knights Pitch. A lightweight, no frills golf bag coming in with 8 color designs and an accessory pocket $33.83 Buy on Amazon Golf Bag Essential Items: What to put in your golf bag pockets? Tees: Metal ones, magnetic ones, wooden and plastic ones - Golf tees are an essential part of your kit. They’re usually pretty inexpensive and come in large packets. Sale Pride Professional Tees These come with a yellow tee indicator to help with your drives. These will get the job done at a very good price $6.40 Buy on Amazon Gloves: Save your hands and improve your grip over your clubs with some gloves Callaway Xtreme Gloves Decent set of gloves that will help protect your hands and improve your grip Buy on Amazon Golf Balls: You’re not going to get very far without a ball to hit. Carry enough balls so you know you’ll finish the course but not too many where they’ll start weighing you down Water: You don’t want to be stuck on the 13th hole dehydrating… Extra socks: If you’re prone to getting blisters or just like to care for your feet make sure you bring a spare pair of socks with you as well. There’s nothing like changing a pair of socks when you’ve been on your feet for a long time Towel: At times throughout your round of gold you might need to clean your ball or your clubs. Having an inexpensive towel to hand will help Divot Tool: Be a good golf player and fix those divots you leave behind Blue GoPick Gold Divot Repair Nice looking, durable divot repair tool complete with detachable ball marker $8.99 Buy on Amazon Sun Protection: If you’re prone to a spot of sun burning I’d recommend you carry one of these with you Umbrella: Not only essential for the rain but can also be used as an alternative in the sun too Golf Shoes You’re also going to need a pair of golf course friendly shoes. Not only to look after the course itself but to stop you from going head over heels after a shot. In times gone by, Golf shoes weren’t the nicest looking pieces of clothing you could’ve bought – but these days things have changed. I went into more detail on the best Golf Shoes currently on the market here if you’re interested. Here’s a pair to save you some time… adidas Mens Response Metallic Golf Shoes Stylish, golf cleated trainers from adidas with 6 color designs to choose from Buy on Amazon Golf Club Head Covers Head covers not only protect your clubs from smashing against each other but they can also protect them from weather too. Fairway Protective Head Covers Soft and durable head Covers; 1, 3, 5, 7, x head covers that made from a durable, soft stretchy material $29.90 Buy on Amazon Golf Rangefinders Rangefinders can assist you in determining the distances from your ball to the hole. Once you know the distance, choosing the right clubs and hit power become easier. Rangefinders are basically like your very own caddie that you can carry round in your pocket. They typically fall into 2 categories; GPS Rangefinders GPS rangefinders tend to already have the course mapped out and built into it. Because of this, they they’re much quicker at laying out the distance for you so you can get on with taking your shot. Usually what happens is you’ll load the course onto your device before you leave the house and then check it periodically throughout your game. The great thing about GPS rangefinders is the level of detail they can give you on a course – this is especially useful for courses you haven’t player before. Some come very basic with just the numbers and details on the screen – others have a more visual look to them where you can actually see the course you’re playing. Most GPS rangefinders have the following; Yardages: So you know how long the hole it and how far you have left on that hole Bunkers: So you can hopefully avoid them Water hazards: So you can hopefully avoid them too The whole course laid out for you: So you can have a true birds eye view of the course Size and shape of the green: To help you with your shot selection On the downside the accuracy and course availability can be sticking point for GPS rangefinders. If you decide to go with a GPS then just make sure you read the reviews on the accuracy details and whether or not the courses you’ll be playing at are mapped to the device you’re buying. IZZO Golf Swami 5000 Rangefinder Comes pre-loaded with 38,000 global golf courses with an added auto-recognition feature that can save you time. The IZZO is water resistant and comes with 12+ hour battery life Buy on Amazon Laser Rangefinders If on the other hand you want to save yourself a bit of time a laser rangerfinder might be a better choice. The biggest pro of laser rangefinders are their ability to accurately detail the distance from yourself to your target. Another pro that laser rangerfinders have is they can be used on any course in the world without you having to load the course map onto your device. Laser rangefinders on the other hand don’t have a built in map and therefore can take a little bit longer to respond. This could affect your game if you always have to get your rangefinder out and start measuring after every shot. On the plus side, it is productive time well spent… TecTecTec VPRO 500 Golf Rangefinder Measures up to 540 yards with a coninuous scan mode. Pin point accuracy within 1 yard of the target - check out one of many thousands of reviews on Amazon... $149.99 Buy on Amazon Golf Training Equipment Checklist Spending time at the driving range is a great use of time if you’re looking to improve your game. The big downside to this however is the time and cost of packing your clubs up and putting them in the car, driving down to the range, paying for a bucket of balls and packing everything away and driving home again. I don’t recommend you stop doing this altogether but for those days where you want to save a bit of cash or time, purchasing an inexpensive piece of equipment can go a long way. If you’re looking to improve your game in any way at all – knowing what training equipment is available to you is time well spent. These days you can improve your chipping, driving technique and swing mechanics right from the comfort of your own home or backyard. Golf chipping net Improve Your Short Game The chip shot often occurs very close to the green and has a relatively small swing. Because of the short swing it can be a very hard shot consistently play. And, it’s an important shot to master as you could easily add another 2 or 3 unnecessary shots to your game if you’re not careful. Getting the right power to accuracy ratio is vitally important so you don’t over hit the ball down the other side of the green or under hit it so it falls a few inches away from it started… A great way to develop this shot is to use a chipping net. Some chipping nets come with 1 target to aim at, some with multiple targets. This pop up net from RUKKET can be set up seconds and takes up very little room. It comes with 3 targets so you can practice chipping at varied heights and comes complete with a carry bag for easy portability and storage. RUKKET Chipping Practice Net This pop up net from RUKKET can be set up seconds and takes up very little room. It comes with 3 targets so you can practice chipping at varied heights and comes complete with a carry bag for easy portability and storage. $29.99 Buy on Amazon Golf Driving Net The drive shot is not only an extremely important part of golf but is also an incredible hard shot to master. In order to drive the ball with accuracy and consistency there’s a few areas you’ll need to practice on: Making solid contact with the ball Learning to work the face of the club Breaking down the individual parts of the swing Limiting the amount of unnecessary movements before you make contact with the ball And generally getting comfortable with your clubs Again, while this all can be achieved by spending some time either on the golf course or at a driving range – you could purchase a driving net to complement your driving range practices. Here’s another net from RUKKET, that’s quite popular among golfers. Again, easy to setup and dismantle and comes complete with a carry case. A great addition this net has its competitors is the ‘tri-turf’ golf mat that comes with the set. You’ve got options for practicing both your drives off the tee, from the fairway and out of the rough. Well worth having a look at… RUKKET Chipping Practice Net Here’s another net from RUKKET, that’s quite popular among golfers. Again, easy to setup and dismantle and comes complete with a carry case. A great addition this net has its competitors is the ‘tri-turf’ golf mat that comes with the set. You’ve got options for practicing both your drives off the tee, from the fairway and out of the rough. Well worth having a look at… $159.99 Buy on Amazon Golf Swing Training Aid Without the ability to control and improve your swing – you’re going to pretty-much struggle hitting the ball let alone improving your game. In order to improve your golf swing you’ll need to; Improve your swing mechanics Create balance between power and technique Warm-up properly And ideally gain feedback and correct accordingly A great way to achieve these areas is by investing in a swing trainer. Now, swing trainers can come in various shapes, sizes and each one can help different parts of your swing – so it does help to have a little bit of knowledge on what part of your swing you’ll need to improve. That said however, this next one I’m recommending can achieve most of (if not all) of the above areas. SKLZ Gold Flex Golf Swing Training Aid With a healthy amount of reviews, the SKLZ Gold Flex can help you increase the range of motion in the back swing, improve your follow through and overall help you improve your swing mechanics so you can start hitting balls more accurately with consistency. $68.46 Buy on Amazon And in the end…? …this equipment checklist can not only help you improve your game by actually practicing on your weak areas, but also can ensure your turn up to your next round with the confidence you haven’t forgot anything… Anything you think we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments section below… All the best on your game, Coach