Best Golf Clubs For Beginners In 2024

There are, however, certain features you need to look into before buying your first golf set. Regardless, you’d want your first set to have clubs that provide as much forgiveness as possible. Features that offer forgiveness are different for every club type, so that’s what we’re going to break down for you in this post as well as recommend our top 5 golf club sets for beginners.

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1. Callaway Golf Men’s Strata 14-Piece Complete Set (Winner: Best Overall Golf Clubs For a Beginner)

Callaway’s Strata golf set is without a doubt the most popular golf set available to beginners right now. 

It comes with all the clubs you need to get the ball rolling by allowing you to practice efficiently with a wide variety of forgiving clubs. Plus, this set is extremely affordable compared to other golf sets in the market, allowing you to get the best bang for your buck on your purchase. 

The Callaway Strata set comes in either the 12-piece, 14-piece, or 16-piece set. However, the number is not correlated with the number of clubs in each set. Meaning the 12-piece set won’t have 12 golf clubs, but instead 9 golf clubs, 1 golf bag, and 2 headcovers for the woods. Therefore, it’s important you pick the right set with the ideal types of clubs to start with.

We recommend the 14-piece set because you’ll be getting the most essential clubs to practice with while saving you money from clubs you won’t need as a beginner. The 12-piece is good too, but it doesn’t have a sand wedge, which is the most important club for your short game from 100 yards and in.

The sand wedge is crucial for you to start learning how to pitch the ball onto the green and hitting balls out of bunkers, which you can’t do with most other wedges or golf clubs. On the other hand, the 16-piece comes with just an additional 4-hybrid and a headcover which isn’t really worth it for its additional cost.

Our advice would be to get the 14-piece set first and save the money on a new set later one where you can have a full set of 14 golf clubs to work with.

Keep in mind, the 14-set includes a driver, a 3-wood, a5-hybrid,  6- to 9-Iron, PW, SW, a mallet putter, a stand bag, and 3 headcovers for your woods

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2. TaylorMade RBZ Speedlite (Most Premium and High-Quality Option)

TaylorMade is the most popular golf brand known today. With the increase of beginners joining the sport, TaylorMade decided to release its own set of golf clubs made specifically for beginners.

This set comes with a 460cc driver,  3- & 5-wood, a 4- & 5-hybrid, 6- to 9-iron,  PW, SW, and a mallet putter. These are all the ideal clubs you need to start with while the clubs themselves offer absolute forgiveness. 

For instance, their wedges have excellent grooves that allow you to control the ball easier, the irons are easy to launch and give you confidence when you set it next to the ball with its thick top lining. 

On the other hand, don’t think just because it’s a beginner set it’s not equipped with some of TaylorMade’s technology. Like the driver, it comes with TaylorMade’s famous Speed Pocket technology which effectively allows golfers to swing faster with the club.

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3. WILSON Profile Men’s Complete Golf Club Package Sets (An Extremely Popular and Good Beginner Set)

The Wilson Profile set comes with 10 golf clubs, a stand bag, and 3 headcovers. 

What you’ll notice right away is its fantastic 5-hybrid and 5-wood which will soon be your favorite clubs off the tee and off the fairway for father shots. Its hybrid is a great way for you to realize why hybrids are so great in replacing the longer irons with your future golf sets. Plus its high loft 5-wood will be an absolute powerhouse off the tees.

The set comes with a pretty standard set of irons and wedges. Specifically, the 6- to 9-iron, PW, and SW. just the right amount for beginners to get introduced to the mid to short-game. 

The driver, however, is a 460cc 10.5 degrees driver. As much as we love this set, a 10.5 driver is not really that beginner-friendly as the loft is too low, making it good for high handicappers, but not forgiving enough for absolute beginners.

That said, your driver, 5-wood, and 5-hybrid will be well protected as each of them will have their own headcovers!

Another thing to consider is that the putter is not a mallet putter but shaped more like a blade putter. The good news is that it doesn’t feel exactly like a blade putter either as it’s designed with more weight and more forgiveness in mind. Therefore, if you’re looking for a non-mallet putter but still a putter that offers the forgiveness on the greens, this set may be for you.

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4. Precise M5 Men’s Complete Golf Clubs Package (Best Iron Set Variety)

The M5 set is the latest set of golf clubs for beginners released by Precise Golf. These clubs offer solid forgiveness and provide a reliable foundation for golfers to enjoy the game.

It comes with a driver, a 3-wood, a 5-hybrid, a set of 5- to 9-Irons, a PW, a mallet putter, 3 headcovers (for all three woods), and a stand bag.

In terms of the woods, the driver is a 460cc titanium driver with a large club face and high MOI. Therefore, during your mishits, the club face won’t twist as easily and therefore leading to a relatively straight golf shot. 

The 3-wood has a relatively lower degree of loft than what we’d recommend for beginners. At 15 degrees, the 3-wood is best used off tees. However, we don’t think their 3-wood is going to be as helpful for most beginners on the fairway as the low loft makes it extremely hard to launch the golf ball. The 5-hybrid has 21 degrees of loft and is a great hybrid to help you reach farther distances when you’re on the fairway. 

This set also comes with more irons than the rest of the golf sets on this list. With an additional 5-iron, it’s a great opportunity for beginners to get familiar with the longer irons early on. The irons in this set are all cavity-back irons and are extremely good to hit with. Shots within 150 yards will be accurate and relatively easy to reach. 

The main downside of this set is that it doesn’t have a sand wedge. For beginners who care a lot about the short game, this set may not be for you as you’ll be struggling out of the bunkers and will need to rely on a pitching wedge for all your pitching and chipping.

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What makes a good set of golf clubs for beginners?

You might not know the difference between a golf set as shown on this list, and what most other golfers have in their bags. Don’t be mistaken, everyone has their own set of golf clubs, but most non-beginners don’t use these ‘pre-packaged’ golf sets. Instead, they’ll make their own set by adding their own set of clubs into the mix.

Golf club sets sold with a golf bag are pre-packaged, same brand golf clubs made specifically for beginners. These sets often come with 9 to 14 clubs and always include at least a driver, a fairway wood, a set of irons, a pitching wedge, and a putter.

Why are these sets only sold for beginners? Mainly because most beginners only need a few simple and forgiving (easy-to-hit) clubs to get them familiar with the sport. Once you’ve taken some golf lessons or developed a decent golf swing, that’s when you need to transition to a more customized set of your own.

So, to recap, what are your choices? You can either:

• Buy a pre-packaged set of golf clubs made specifically for beginners.
• Buy separate iron sets, wedges, driver, fairway woods, putter, and golf bag yourself (for more advanced golfers and is a lot more expensive option).

Important things to consider when looking for A Good beginner Golf Set

We need to be careful when picking the best golf clubs for beginners, mainly because there are many knock-off brands that make extremely low-quality beginner golf sets to make a quick profit. Don’t worry, all the sets we mention in this list are reliable options.

Still, it’s always good to know what you’re buying, so we’re going to break down what makes a worth-it beginner golf set that offers the feature you need to start. The main thing we want to keep an eye out for is how much forgiveness was considered in each club on that particular set. 

Let’s begin

Driver with a high loft and beginner shaft flex

The driver is the biggest and longest club in your golf bag. It’s also the main club you use off the tees to get the ball as far as you can on the fairway.

For beginners, the driver is the hardest club to hit well with and there are a couple of reasons why.

First, because the driver is long, which makes it harder for us to stay in-sync with the club head throughout our golf swing. This leads to a plethora of issues such as an open club face on impact, hitting the floor, and off-center shots. In order to fix this issue, we must make sure the shaft flex of the club is stiff enough to not bend too much during our golf swing.

The good news for you is that all beginner golf club sets are fitted with a shaft with a suitable amount of shaft flex, this is usually the Regular shaft flex for male sets and the Ladies shaft flex for female beginner sets.

The biggest thing we need to look out for in a beginner-friendly driver, however, is its loft. By far the main reason why the driver is the hardest-hitting club from its low loft. 

Besides the putter, the driver has the lowest loft out of all your clubs. With a very low loft, off-center contacts or a slightly opened/ closed club face will lead to hooks and slices. That’s why getting a set that comes with a higher loft driver is ideal. To keep things simple, a driver that has a loft range from 11 to 13 degrees is ideal for beginners(the higher the better).

Go straight for the 5-Wood

Since we’re on the topic of the woods, many beginners don’t know what to do with a fairway wood. 

The fairway wood looks like a driver with a smaller club head. It is the farthest hitting club you can use on the fairway (unless you decide to use the driver). However, just like the driver, it’s used a lot off the tee on tighter fairways because it’s much easier to control while still able to put out some impressive distances.

For beginners and even high handicappers, we advise you to pass on any fairway wood that has a loft of 17 degrees or more. For beginners, skip the 3-wood completely, you’ll rarely use this club at this stage. Instead, go for the 5-wood or the 7-wood. They are a lot easier to hit and it may soon become your favorite club off the tees or on far fairways when you are down at the course. 

Start with Cavity-back Irons

Most golfers prioritize a good set of irons before anything else. This is particularly true for beginners who will be spending the majority of their practice sessions hitting with a wedge and a 7- or 8-iron. 

There are many different features that determine if an iron is forgiving. For the most part, it’s the way it’s built.

Generally, there are two categories of irons, muscle-back irons (or blades) and cavity-back irons. For beginners and even some mid-handicappers, cavity-back irons are the best options when you’re looking for an easier time to get the ball up in the air and relatively straight. 

Cavity-back irons have a hollow-shaped design at the back of the club head. This design allows golf manufacturers to spread the weight of the club head on the edges of the face, a process known as perimeter weighting. In simpler terms, this allows off-center shots, which is very common for even some mid-handicappers, to still get the ball relatively straight by preventing the club face from twisting when you make contact with the toe or heel respectively. 

Of course, shaft flex is important too. For beginners, a graphite shaft is ideal as the lightweight and flexible material makes it easier for golfers to make contact with the ball. The downside to graphite shaft is that it offers little feedback and is often too flexible for some more advanced golfers.

Replace your longer irons with a hybrid 

Hybrids are the in-between of a fairway wood and iron. They’re shaped similar to a fairway wood but play like an iron. So what’s the point?

As you start to practice with the fairway wood, you’ll start to realize how easy it is to launch the ball up in the air. Irons, however, aren’t as simple.

Golf manufacturers know this, and thus created the hybrid golf club. Essentially, it’s the best club to replace any of your irons that you find too hard to hit well with.

For most golfers, these are the 3-iron and 4-iron where it is replaced with their hybrid counterpart, the 3-hybrid, and 4-hybrid. To do this, golfers can either look for a hybrid they want to buy individually to replace each iron in their set or buy a set of hybrids and use those instead.

Most beginner golf sets come with a 5-hybrid, which is a great club to tackle farther fairway, getting the ball out of the rough, and even teeing off on shorter par 4s or longer par 3s.

Prioritize the Sand Wedge

For those who don’t know the difference between a wedge and an iron, they’re pretty much the same ‘type’ of golf clubs. However, the wedges are in a category of their own as they’re specifically made for the short game (roughly 140 yards and in).

Since the wedge is similar to the iron, as a beginner, your wedges should also be cavity-back instead of blades. 

There are four types of wedges (from lowest loft to highest loft): the pitch wedge (PW), the gap/ approach wedge (AW), the sand wedge (SW), and the lob wedge (LW).

If you’re getting your first wedge, always prioritize the sand wedge. The sand wedge is the most versatile wedge that allows you to hit great pitching shots from within 100 yards, low-spin chipping shots, and bunker shots.

As you move on to different golf clubs, we advise you to have at least have 3 wedges in your bag. For most golfers, the lob wedge should be avoided until you’ve reached a mid-handicap.

All golf sets will automatically come with a pitching wedge.

Mallet Putters All the Way

One of the most underrated golf clubs by beginners is the putter. Maybe because you’ve never played an official round of golf before, but those with course experience know that the putter is the easiest and fastest way to blow up your score.

Therefore, many golfers don’t hesitate to spend a lot of money on a putter that gives them the best feel on the greens. For beginners, the feel of a putter is not as important as forgiveness.  

Just like irons, the putter has many designs that determine how forgiving it is to hit with. In putters, the two main types of putter designs are the blades and the mallet putters. 

By now, you should know that any ‘blade’ clubs are known to not be the most forgiving clubs around. If you’re wondering why people prefer them is due to the improved feedback it provides to the golfer. 

That said, as beginners, we just care about whether we can hit the putter consistently on the center of the face with a smooth putter swing. That’s where mallet putters come in. The heavier weight and wider shape of the head make it easier for golfers to glide through the greens and hit the golf ball centered. This is great for beginners to learn how to swing the putter smoothly which will eventually help them transition easier to the blade putters if they choose to do so.

Every golf set in this list comes with a mallet putter.

The DOWNSIDE of Pre-Packaged Golf Sets (read before you buy)

If you’re on a budget and just want to get your first foot into the sport, a beginner golf set (shown in this list) is your best bet. However, a downside to most of these golf sets is the quality of the clubs. We’re not saying they’re poorly made, but you may notice some reviews showing the clubs getting dented or snapping in half.

That said, please know that if you’re a high handicapper or non-beginner, don’t use these sets. Chances are your golf swing is pretty fast, and may damage the clubs as a result. Beginners, on the other hand, can use clubs on this list without worry as your swing speeds will likely not be that fast.

If, however, your club does break, don’t hesitate to contact the manufacturers directly. They really do care about their customer’s experience.

Best Alternative Golf Set for High handicap Golfers

Not to mention the quality of the clubs in this set are absurd, they’re made of a composite material of stainless steel, graphite, and titanium. Only the best of the best golf clubs have this and never before seen in a golf set.

If you’ve been around golf for the past year or two, you’ve likely heard of these clubs, and if you’re willing to spend slightly more on an amazing set that can last you for years and even be played at a mid handicap, get the Stix Complete Set. Don’t worry, they’re super forgiving and is look fantastic (matter black design)!

Check out our in-depth review of the Stix Complete Golf Set. 

To buy the Stix set, click HERE.

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FAQ

Should women use a men’s set?

The short answer is no. Women are biologically different from men and tend not to swing as fast as male golfers.

For that reason, buying a golf set made for men won’t be beneficial. The clubs may be too heavy, too long, and the shafts fitted on the clubs may be too stiff. This will make you vulnerable to picking-up bad habits as you try to adapt to these clubs.

As a female beginner, buying a female golf set like the Callaway Women’s Strata 11-Piece Complete Golf Set will benefit you the most. 

Should I start with a new or used golf set?

This is definitely something you’d want to consider as a new golfer. New sets can be expensive and if you’re unsure if golf is what you really want to get into, it’s natural to be hesitant in buying a new set right away.

Regardless, we recommend any beginner to start with a new golf set from this list. Mainly because when we consider the benefits of a new set and the benefits of a used beginner set, a new set makes more sense at the end of the day. 

New beginner sets are still relatively cheap, they won’t come with dents, and they’ll most likely fit you. On the other hand, used sets may be cheaper, but used beginner sets are rare and will often be sold in bad conditions. 

In our opinion, it’s not worth saving a few bucks but ruin your first golf experience.  

How many clubs can I have in my golf bag?

According to the USGA, you’re allowed to carry a maximum of 14 clubs in your bag during official tournaments. These 14 clubs must be deemed ‘legal’ according to the USGA.

That said, as a beginner, you don’t need to start with 14 clubs as you’ll unlikely use that many clubs on the course right away. Therefore, just make sure your first set includes the most important clubs. These clubs are:

• A driver
• 6- to 9-iron
• A sand wedge

Some non-essential but great clubs to have as well are the:

• 4- and 5-hybrid
• A 5-wood
• And a pitching wedge (this club is included in every golf set)

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Conclusion

The Callaway Strata Complete Set is the best set of golf clubs for beginners. It meets all the criteria and we’re confident you’ll be able to establish a great foundation in golf with these clubs. 

Now that you’ve got a good idea of what you need to get the ball rolling, you should start practicing right away! In fact, check out our guide on how to play golf for beginners and best golf tips for beginners article to learn the fundamentals of the game. If you’re a female beginner, take a read on our pick for the best women’s golf clubs for beginners instead.

Good luck, and feel free to contact us if you need any tips on your next practice!