No matter your skill level, the market for golf clubs can be confusing. Modern manufacturers create the most efficient products, which are often best suited to your swing. New clubs can be expensive.
Is it worth spending money on new clubs in a sport already very expensive?
GolfWRX.com believes that a professional fitting is essential, regardless of whether you are buying new or used equipment. Club length, loft, lie angle and overall design all have a significant impact on how the club performs for each individual golfer. It can be difficult to understand all this information by yourself so it is important to work with an expert.
When it comes time to decide whether to buy old or new clubs, the conversation is more personal to your budget and performance requirements.
Look at the clubs being used on the PGA Tour. Most professional golfers choose to use the most up-to-date equipment or have clubs custom-made to their specifications.
However, this is not always true. Sometimes, PGA Tour members use clubs from years ago that are still on the market at a lower price. Even though the clubs are old, many Tour players still enjoy the benefits of the older designs.
These clubs are my “Modern Classics”.
These Modern Classics offer consumers a benefit in that they are currently on the market at a fraction of what new equipment costs, and they still make viable options for use – even on PGA Tour.
For the 8-part club testing series, in partnership with 2nd Swing Golf I selected 8 classic golf clubs. Each club can still be found online at 2nd Swing Golf’s website or at 2nd Swing Golf retail outlets. These used clubs are also available at third-party sites. However, 2nd Swing has the best selection of equipment and can be tested.
The 2nd Swing Scottsdale store has 15 fitting bays equipped with launch monitors and a team expert club fitters who can help you analyze the numbers.
In this 8-part video series, the first club I tested was a TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC 4 iron. It was released for the first time in 2011. GolfWRX.com has discussed in detail that Daniel Berger, PGA Tour player, still uses a TaylorMade TP MC 2011 set of irons.
This test was done with a TaylorMade TP MC 2011, used 4-iron (22°) and my current gamer 4-iron (24%). Each club was shafted using an extra stiffened steel shaft. I hit five shots with each club using a Tour-quality golf ball. Cliff Walzak is a respected and experienced club fitter. We then deleted any outliers.
The video at the top of this page explains the whole test and the launch monitor numbers. Finally, I give a club a rating. We started with a Modern Classic, which is a top-tier club.
You can test the TaylorMade TP MC 2011 irons by visiting 2nd Swing. They are $84.99 per iron or $3539.99 for an entire set.
Which 7 other clubs would you choose for the Modern Classics video series, or do you?
