Over the past few weeks, I have replaced almost every golf club in my bag.
That wasn’t the original plan. I certainly didn’t start with a shopping list and decide everything needed to go. It happened gradually as I started questioning whether some of the clubs I had been playing were still the best choices for the golfer I am today.
I wasn’t interested in buying the latest equipment simply because it was new, and I didn’t want to spend several thousand pounds replacing a perfectly serviceable golf bag. Most of the clubs I eventually bought were several years old and came from the second-hand market.
Some worked. Some didn’t.
Along the way I bought and sold one set of irons for a profit, bought another set as an experiment and returned them, bought the same model of irons twice, tried a highly regarded driver that ended up costing me eight pence to test, and learned considerably more about shaft profiles than I expected to.
The final result isn’t the newest bag in the clubhouse, but I think it may be the best golf bag I have owned.
More importantly, I understand why every club is there.
This is how I rebuilt my golf bag through the second-hand market, what worked, what didn’t, what it actually cost, and what the process taught me about choosing golf clubs.
Why I Decided to Change My Golf Clubs
I am a single-figure golfer and can still hit the ball reasonably well, but my priorities have changed as I have got older.
I am less interested in what I can do with a golf club on my very best swing and much more interested in what happens on an ordinary swing.
That distinction became increasingly important throughout this process.
I don’t want equipment that requires me to produce something special. I want to make my normal golf swing and have a reasonably good idea where the ball is going to finish. I want predictable carry distances with the irons, a driver I can swing without feeling that I need to steer it, and clubs at the top of the bag that give me useful alternatives rather than simply filling spaces between lofts.
I have become increasingly attracted to what I think of as boring golf.
I want to be the low-handicap golfer who doesn’t appear to do anything particularly spectacular but keeps hitting sensible shots, making pars and becoming increasingly difficult to beat.
My basic course-management philosophy is simple:
Pick conservative targets but be aggressive in execution.
I wanted the equipment to support that rather than fight against it.
Buying Second-Hand Changed How I Chose Golf Clubs
There is an obvious weakness to rebuilding a golf bag through the second-hand market.
I can’t walk into a fitting studio and ask someone to produce every possible combination of an eight-year-old driver head and a discontinued shaft. I am buying whatever happens to exist on Golf Bidder, Golf Clubs 4 Cash, eBay, Vinted and elsewhere at the time.
That means compromise and patience are part of the process.
But there is another side to it.
I have started treating second-hand golf club purchases as hypotheses rather than conclusions.
I find something that appears to fit what I know about my game, buy it at a price that limits the financial risk, and then test it where it matters.
On the golf course.
If it works, it stays.
If it doesn’t, I sell it or return it and use what I learned to make the next decision better.
That became the method behind almost everything that followed.
Letting Go of My Old Golf Club Distances
I started this process with Callaway XR Pro irons.
I had been custom fitted for them, and there was nothing obviously wrong with the fitting at the time. I played them for around seven or eight years and maintained a single-figure handicap throughout that period.
So this isn’t a story about buying a set of irons that made me play badly.
They worked well enough.
The problem was that I had gradually become attached to the numbers they gave me.
The Callaway lofts are stronger than the lofts on my Mizuno irons, and I had definitely fallen for some of the distance appeal when I bought them. I remember the attraction of being able to say, effectively, look how far your 7-iron goes now compared with the old MP-68s.
That is seductive.
It is also a fairly easy trap for a golfer to fall into.
A 7-iron is still a 7-iron when the number on the bottom of the club says 7, but the loft, shaft, head design and launch characteristics can make the actual club very different from another manufacturer’s 7-iron.
Over time, I realised I had started carrying the distance rather than the club.
Five or six years ago I might have thought of my 7-iron as a 165-yard club. That number had become part of how I saw my own game.
When I started looking seriously at replacement irons, we compared the Callaways against a range of other head and shaft combinations based on the way I actually swing rather than simply how far the clubs could be made to go.
The interesting part was that the XR Pros came out worst for my game from the options we considered.
That was quite a useful moment.
Here were irons I had played successfully for years, with a single-figure handicap to show for it, yet when I looked at them through the lens of my current swing, priorities and desired ball flight, they were no longer the best match.
That helped me separate two things that I had previously mixed together.
Playing well with a club doesn’t necessarily mean it is still the best club for you.
Eventually the XR Pros were part exchanged for £189.60 towards the Mizuno MP-18 SCs.
That was useful financially, but it also gave me a clean break from the distance numbers I had been carrying around with me.
If I have 170 yards now and my current stock 6-iron carries 163, there is nothing inherently wrong with that.
The mistake would be trying to manufacture another seven yards from the 6-iron because I think it ought to go farther.
The sensible answer is to hit the 5-iron.
I wanted to get away from the idea that a club was good because the number was impressive.
I wanted to know how far my clubs carry now, how consistently they do it, and whether they allow me to make my normal swing and still play the shot I intended.
That became much more important to me than how far the number on the sole suggested I should be hitting.
Why I Kept Coming Back to Mizuno Irons
I have always liked Mizuno irons.
I’ve played Mizuno MP-37, MP-60, MP-64 and MP-68 irons over the years, including several different sets of some models.
I like the feedback from a forged head, but turf interaction is probably an equally important part of the attraction for me. I like the way a traditional Mizuno sole moves through the ground.
I’m not particularly interested in large game-improvement irons. I tried a brand-new set of Ping G425 irons and used them once before deciding they weren’t for me.
Plenty of golfers would probably play better golf with them. I simply didn’t like looking at them and didn’t particularly enjoy hitting them.
I have always been comfortable accepting that a traditional forged iron will punish a genuinely poor strike. If I make a bad swing, that is on me.
What I no longer wanted was an iron that made an ordinary swing feel unnecessarily difficult.
Finding the line between feedback and difficulty became the central question in my iron search.
My First Mizuno MP-64 Experiment
For quite a while, I was convinced the Mizuno MP-64 might be my ideal iron.
I had used MP-64s before and remembered them very fondly. I liked the shape, feel and turf interaction, and whenever I thought about classic Mizuno players’ irons, the MP-64 kept coming back into the conversation.
The specification I really wanted was an MP-64 fitted with N.S. Pro Modus 105 Stiff shafts.
Unfortunately, that combination proved extremely difficult to find at a sensible price.
One of the sets I tried was a 4-PW set fitted with N.S. Pro 1150 Tour Stiff shafts. I paid £163.08 for them.
I hit the 6-PW very well, probably even longer than my Callaway XR Pros. The 5-iron needed a little more concentration, while the 4-iron looked difficult to me before I had even hit it. That mattered because I was specifically trying to move towards clubs that required less effort from me, not more.
They were part of the process of working out whether the MP-64 really was where I wanted to end up.
They weren’t.
I eventually sold that set on Vinted for £240, which meant the experiment actually produced a £76.92 profit.
That wasn’t why I bought them, but it demonstrates one of the advantages I found in buying carefully on the second-hand market. Trying something doesn’t necessarily mean losing a large amount of money if I decide it isn’t right.
Trying the Mizuno MP-18 SC
During the search I also bought a set of Mizuno MP-18 SC irons fitted with N.S. Pro Modus 105 Stiff shafts.
These immediately gave me something the MP-64 search hadn’t.
Ease.
When I played the MP-18 SCs, I found myself thinking about the finishing target rather than thinking about hitting the club.
The 4 and 5-irons were relatively easy for me to hit and my directional dispersion was good.
My concern was distance.
One sequence summed it up particularly well.
I had approximately 178 to 182 yards to a front flag and hit 5-iron. The first shot came up roughly ten yards short of the green.
I hit another.
Almost exactly the same result.
I then hit 4-iron and finished pin-high, around eight feet left.
Initially, I was disappointed that the 5-irons hadn’t reached the green.
Looking back, the more important information was that all three shots had good shape and were reasonably tight from left to right.
I didn’t have an accuracy problem. I had a club-selection problem.
If the 5-iron doesn’t carry 180 yards, that’s fine.
I simply need to know what it does carry.
Despite liking the MP-18 SCs, they initially felt too short to me. My XR Pros had been an inch longer than standard, while Mizuno’s standard length is around a quarter of an inch shorter than what is commonly treated as standard elsewhere. There isn’t really one universal industry standard for golf-club length, but that’s a subject for another article.
That difference was significant enough that I returned the first set while I continued exploring the alternatives. The return cost me £13.99 in postage.
So I returned that first set while I continued exploring the alternatives. The return cost me £13.99 in postage.
In hindsight, I had probably already found the answer.
I just wasn’t ready to stop looking.
Why I Still Went Back to the MP-64
The MP-64 remained in my head.
I had liked those irons for years, and part of me still wanted to find the combination that made them work.
Eventually I found another set, this time 3-PW with KBS Tour Stiff shafts for £222.99.
There was an unusual part to this purchase.
The clubs had been built approximately 1.5 inches longer than standard.
I knew that and bought them as an experiment.
I wanted to see what the combination actually did rather than dismissing it because the specification looked unusual on paper.
When they arrived, the extra length was immediately noticeable. The 3, 4 and 5-irons also looked as though they were going to require work.
At the other end of the set, the 9-iron and pitching wedge looked larger and more offset than I remembered.
I didn’t want to make the decision in the house, though.
Golf clubs can look very different once there is grass under your feet, a target in front of you and an actual shot to play.
So I took them onto the golf course.
That settled the argument much more quickly than another week of analysing specifications could have done.
The MP-64s were difficult for me to hit consistently. More importantly, I felt as though I had to work hard with them.
I pulled a lot of iron shots left during the round, including a couple that went out of bounds. Instead of standing over the ball thinking about where I wanted the shot to finish, I was thinking too much about the golf club and what I needed to do to hit it properly.
That was almost the opposite of what I was trying to achieve.
I returned them and received the purchase price back.
I still think the MP-64 is a wonderful iron. Nothing about that round changed my opinion of the design itself.
It simply established that this particular combination wasn’t right for me now.
Golfers can waste an enormous amount of time trying to convince themselves that a highly regarded club ought to suit them.
The golf ball doesn’t care about reputation.
I Had Already Found the Right Irons
The slightly ridiculous part of the story is that I had already owned the irons that would eventually replace the Callaways.
After the second MP-64 experiment, I bought the MP-18 SCs with Modus 105 Stiff shafts again. In fact, I bought the exact same set I had returned.
This time I stopped looking.
The full purchase price was £281.98, but I used the part-exchange offer on my Callaway XR Pros and received £189.60 for them.
That left £92.38 to pay for the final MP-18 SC set.
More importantly, the golf made sense.
I could stand over the ball and think about the shot rather than the club.
After buying them again, I played a round when I wasn’t in particularly good form. That was probably a better test than playing brilliantly would have been.
My conclusion afterwards was that even at my worst, they were a good choice.
That is exactly what I wanted from the replacement irons.
Predictable Carry Is More Useful Than Impressive Carry
The MP-18 SC experiment also changed how I think about iron distance.
I have always thought in terms of carry distances, but I haven’t always been disciplined enough about how I use them.
On very firm ground I have sometimes tried to use enormous amounts of rollout. I can remember having around 200 yards and hitting an 8-iron with the intention of using the ground.
Some of those shots finished around 40 yards short.
Others ran 20 yards through.
The problem wasn’t necessarily the strike. I had introduced a huge variable I couldn’t control.
On very firm ground, the first bounce can change everything. Landing angle, spin, slope, firmness and the precise spot where the ball lands all influence what happens next.
I can estimate those things.
I can’t control them.
I can control carry much more reliably.
I now want predictable stock carry numbers and to make my golf-course decisions from there. I can still account for wind, firmness, temperature and elevation, but I don’t want a shot to depend on receiving the perfect bounce.
If my 6-iron carries 163 yards rather than 170, I don’t care nearly as much as I once might have.
What matters is whether it carries roughly 163 when I make my normal swing.
What I Learned About Golf Shaft Flex and Profile
The shaft turned out to be an important part of the iron decision.
I have a smooth transition and the Modus 105 Stiff seems to suit the way I load the golf club. It feels stable without making me feel as though I have to attack it to make the shaft work.
I don’t think the lesson is that Modus 105 is some universally perfect shaft.
It clearly isn’t.
The lesson for me was that the way a shaft loads matters considerably more than the letter printed on it.
A Stiff shaft can feel smooth and natural.
Another Stiff shaft can feel as though I need to work hard throughout the swing.
The MP-18 SC and Modus 105 combination gives me the former.
That experience would become useful again when I started looking at drivers.
Checking Loft and Lie Angles on Used Golf Clubs
Because I had bought used forged irons, I wanted to know exactly what specifications I had ended up with.
I had the lofts and lies checked professionally. I also asked for the irons to be set 1 degree upright relative to Mizuno’s standard lie specifications.
| Club | Model | Manufacturer loft | Measured loft | Manufacturer lie | Measured lie | Adjusted lie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 iron | MP-18 SC | 42° | 41.5° | 62.5° | 63.1° | 63.5° |
| 8 iron | MP-18 SC | 38° | 37.4° | 62° | 62.3° | 63° |
| 7 iron | MP-18 SC | 34° | 34° | 61.5° | 61.9° | 62.5° |
| 6 iron | MP-18 SC | 30° | 29.9° | 61° | 61.6° | 62° |
| 5 iron | MP-18 SC | 27° | 27° | 60.5° | 60.3° | 61.5° |
| 4 iron | MP-18 SC | 24° | 23.7° | 60° | 60.7° | 61° |
| 3 iron | MP-20 HMB | 18° | 18° | – | 59.9° | 60.5° |
My MP-18 SCs are approximately a quarter of an inch shorter than standard, so having the lie angles checked rather than making assumptions was particularly worthwhile.
The lofts were already remarkably close to Mizuno’s specifications. My 7-iron and 5-iron were exactly on specification, while none of the other MP-18 SC irons was even a full degree away.
That was useful information because it gave me a known baseline. If the Mizunos don’t travel as far as my old Callaway XR Pros, I know I don’t need to start wondering whether a previous owner had weakened the lofts. They are simply different irons with different specifications.
If a distance gap appears now, I can investigate the golf rather than wondering whether one of the clubs has been bent strong or weak.
With second-hand forged irons, I think that is money well spent.
Adding a Mizuno MP-20 HMB 3-Iron
I have always been comfortable with long irons and generally prefer them to hybrids.
That doesn’t mean I need a traditional blade 3-iron simply to prove that I can hit one.
I still want some help where it makes sense.
I therefore bought a Mizuno MP-20 HMB 3-iron, fitted with the same Modus 105 Stiff shaft as the MP-18 SCs.
It cost £81.69.
The HMB gives me a more forgiving long-iron construction while retaining the iron-like appearance I prefer. Having the same shaft as the MP-18 SCs should also make the transition into the 4-iron relatively natural.
I haven’t assigned the club an imaginary distance before it has earned one.
I will establish its real carry through playing and then decide exactly what role it has.
That is another lesson from this process.
I no longer want to decide what a club ought to do before I have actually used it.
Finding a Second-Hand 3-Wood I Immediately Trusted
The 3-wood purchase was much more straightforward.
I bought a Cobra King F9 3-wood with a UST Mamiya Helium F4 59g Stiff shaft for £68.95 including Vinted Buyer Protection.
I increased the loft slightly after it arrived.
It was immediately good.
The most important word I used after playing it was confidence.
I didn’t need time to persuade myself that I liked it.
I simply wanted to hit it.
That reaction became particularly useful because I was simultaneously struggling to find a driver that gave me the same feeling.
Why I Replaced My Cleveland CG Black Driver
My long-term driver had been a Cleveland CG Black 10.5-degree fixed-head driver with a 39g Stiff shaft.
That is an extremely light driver setup, and I had become thoroughly accustomed to it.
With what felt like a smooth 70 percent swing, I could hit excellent drives. My normal ball flight was high and straight, and when everything came together there was certainly no shortage of distance.
The problem came when I wanted to hit one harder.
The dispersion could become enormous. I could hit a big slice or a hook, and on one recent round I hit two drives out of bounds from swings that had actually felt pretty good.
Being three off the tee twice is potentially four shots gone.
That matters far more to my score than gaining another ten yards on the drives that work.
I didn’t want to lose the effortless quality of the Cleveland.
I wanted a driver that allowed me to make a fuller version of the same smooth swing without feeling that the club became unstable.
I haven’t sold the CG Black.
It is too good a driver to sell simply because something else suits me better today. The extremely light setup may actually suit me again as my swing changes with age.
I can quite easily imagine putting it back in the bag in ten years.
For now, it has left the active bag rather than left my ownership.
Why the TaylorMade M2 Driver Didn’t Work for Me
My first serious replacement experiment was a 2017 TaylorMade M2 with a Fujikura Pro 60 Stiff shaft.
I paid £130.08.
It was longer than the Cleveland.
It was also wrong for me.
The first thing I noticed was the feel from the face. It felt dull, almost as though there were a piece of cloth over it.
That wouldn’t necessarily have mattered if the performance had been excellent, but I also found it less consistent than the Cleveland.
Perhaps two or three shots out of ten were good. Too many of the others were push-slices, starting right and then moving farther right.
The most revealing part wasn’t the shape of the misses.
I noticed that I was already reaching for my 3-wood or 3-iron rather than wanting to hit the driver.
That is a terrible sign for a driver.
The purpose of carrying it is to use it.
I subsequently sold the M2 on Vinted and received £130.
So the entire experiment cost me eight pence.
For eight pence, I learned something quite important about what I did and didn’t want from a driver.
Stiff vs Regular Was the Wrong Question
The M2 made me question whether I should be using a Stiff driver shaft at all.
I had spent years with the 39g Cleveland shaft, and the 60g Fujikura felt considerably harder to swing. I started wondering whether something around 50 to 55 grams in Regular flex might suit me better.
Then I looked at the 3-wood I already loved.
The Cobra F9 had a UST Mamiya Helium F4 59g Stiff shaft.
That was useful evidence.
Clearly I wasn’t automatically uncomfortable with a 59 or 60g Stiff shaft.
I was uncomfortable with that particular 60g Stiff shaft in that particular driver.
That led me back to the way the Modus 105 behaves in my irons. I seem to respond well to shafts that load smoothly during my transition while remaining stable through impact.
The answer wasn’t necessarily to move from Stiff to Regular.
It was to find the right type of Stiff.
How I Chose My Second-Hand Cobra Speedzone Driver
Once I knew how much I liked the Helium in the F9 3-wood, looking for the same shaft family in a driver became an obvious experiment.
Eventually I found a Cobra King Speedzone 10.5-degree driver fitted with a UST Mamiya Helium 5F4 Stiff shaft in the 50g class.
It cost £149.
This purchase had much more evidence behind it than the M2.
I already knew I liked the Cobra F9 fairway wood.
I already knew I liked the way the Helium shaft loaded.
The 50g driver shaft also created a sensible progression from my old 39g Cleveland without immediately putting me back into a heavier driver that felt difficult to swing.
There was only one way to know whether the theory was correct.
I bought it.
What I Learned From Using a Shorter Driver
When the Speedzone arrived, I discovered that it was only 44.5 inches long, approximately an inch shorter than the driver length I had become accustomed to.
I could have immediately started worrying about lost clubhead speed.
Instead, I hit it.
My reaction was almost immediate.
This is the correct driver for me.
I feel confident standing over it. I don’t have to try too hard, and the shorter length gives me the feeling that I can simply make my normal swing and find the middle of the face.
That is exactly what I had been looking for.
I haven’t suddenly decided driver distance doesn’t matter. The purpose of the driver is to hit the ball a long way, and I still enjoy occasionally letting one go when the hole and conditions allow it.
What I want now is to make the useful drives happen more often.
If a better-fitting driver gives me more good drives and reduces the penalty balls, that is far more useful than finding another five yards at the top end.
The occasional bomb can remain part of the game.
I just don’t want to build the entire driver setup around it.
How My Wedge Setup Became Simpler
I originally expected to finish with a four-wedge setup of 46, 50, 54 and 58 degrees.
My MP-18 SC set finishes at the 9-iron, so the 46-degree Vokey SM10 I already owned effectively performs the pitching-wedge role.
I use my lower-lofted wedges for a wide range of controlled shots. From 50 or 60 yards, I might choose a lower-flighted wedge depending on the lie, obstacles and landing area.
I generally prefer controlling trajectory and choosing the club that gives me the highest-percentage strike rather than automatically reaching for maximum loft.
Then the wedge setup changed without me needing to buy anything.
The head professional gave me a pair of Srixon wedges as a gift because I caddie for him.
The 46-degree Vokey stayed in the bag, while my Vokey SM10 54° 10S and Vokey SM8 60° came out. Both are currently with a friend who wanted to try them.
I now have:
- Vokey SM10 46°
- Srixon 52° Mid Bounce
- Srixon 58° Mid Bounce
That gives me a very simple 46-52-58 progression.
I’m going to play them rather than immediately trying to redesign something that may already work perfectly well.
What’s In My Golf Bag Now?
After all the buying, testing, changing and occasionally deciding that the club I already owned was better than the one I’d just bought, this is where my golf bag has ended up.
I’ve filmed a complete look through the bag, going through each of the clubs I’m currently playing and explaining why they’ve earned their place.
The video shows the bag as it stands now. Below is the complete setup, while the article covers how I got there, including the clubs that didn’t make it and what I learned along the way.
My Current Golf Bag
At the time of writing, the core of the bag is essentially settled.
Driver: Cobra King Speedzone 10.5°, UST Mamiya Helium 50 F4 Stiff, 44.5″
3-wood: Cobra King F9, UST Mamiya Helium F4 59g Stiff
3-iron: Mizuno MP-20 HMB, N.S. Pro Modus 105 Stiff
4-9 irons: Mizuno MP-18 SC, N.S. Pro Modus 105 Stiff, manufacturer lofts and 1° upright lies
46° wedge: Vokey SM10
52° wedge: Srixon Mid Bounce
58° wedge: Srixon Mid Bounce
The clubs displaced from the old bag haven’t all been sold.
As well as the Cleveland driver and two Vokey wedges, my Cobra F Speed 5-wood, F Speed 7-wood and Cobra Baffler hybrid are currently with the same friend to try. – he didn’t make time to test them properly so after about four weeks I got them back and placed most of them in Emma’s Bag.
I have sold the Vokey 60 Degree on Vinted for £70
I’m not counting any imaginary resale values for those clubs. Until something is actually sold, I still own it.
The important point is that the active bag now makes sense to me.
How Much My Second-Hand Golf Bag Cost
I wanted to calculate this properly because simply adding up the purchase prices would give a misleading picture.
Some clubs were returned.
Some were sold.
The Callaway irons were part exchanged.
The Srixon wedges were gifts.
One MP-64 experiment actually made money.
So this is the position at the time of writing:
| Club / transaction | Paid | Recovered / credit | Net cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra Speedzone driver | £149.00 | £0 | £149.00 |
| Cobra F9 3-wood | £68.95 | £0 | £68.95 |
| Mizuno MP-20 HMB 3-iron | £81.69 | £0 | £81.69 |
| Mizuno MP-18 SC, first purchase | Returned | Refund less £13.99 return postage | £13.99 |
| Mizuno MP-18 SC, final purchase | £281.98 | £189.60 XR Pro part exchange | £92.38 |
| Mizuno MP-64 4-PW, 1150 Tour | £163.08 | £240.00 Vinted sale | -£76.92 |
| Mizuno MP-64 3-PW, KBS Tour, +1.5″ | £222.99 | Fully refunded | £0 |
| Mizuno MP-60 4-9 | £76.99 | Not yet sold | £76.99 |
| TaylorMade M2 driver | £130.08 | £130.00 Vinted sale | £0.08 |
| Srixon 52° + 58° wedges | Gift | – | £0 |
| Vokey SM10 46° | Already owned | – | £0 rebuild cost |
Current net cost of the rebuild: £406.16.
That figure still includes the £76.99 tied up in a set of Mizuno MP-60 4-9 irons.
I bought those as another test set and as a possible replacement for the Callaway XR Pros if I didn’t find my preferred setup. I no longer need them and they are currently listed on Vinted for £120.
I haven’t deducted £120 from the rebuild because they haven’t sold.
If and when they do sell, I will update the figures using the amount I actually receive.
The numbers reinforce something I hadn’t fully appreciated when I started.
The first MP-64 experiment made £76.92.
The TaylorMade M2 experiment cost eight pence.
The unusual 1.5-inch-long MP-64 experiment resulted in a full refund.
The first MP-18 SC experiment cost me £13.99 in return postage.
And the XR Pros produced £189.60 towards the final MP-18 SC set.
There is still a real cost to experimenting, but careful second-hand buying made this process considerably more accessible than repeatedly buying new equipment.
What I Got Wrong Rebuilding My Golf Bag
Looking back, I think some of my mistakes are more useful than the final equipment list.
The first was assuming that because I had loved an iron previously, it would automatically remain the right iron for me now.
The MP-64 experiments eventually put that idea to bed.
I still admire the club, but admiration and suitability are different things.
I also spent too much time worrying about whether I could retain old iron distances. Once I accepted that knowing the number matters more than the number itself, the MP-18 SC became a much easier decision.
The driver search taught me not to read too much into flex labels.
A 60g Stiff shaft that feels difficult to load isn’t evidence that I need Regular flex. My F9 3-wood is fitted with a 59g Stiff shaft and feels excellent.
The profile, overall build and the way the shaft works with my transition matter far more than the letter on the label.
I also underestimated the potential value of a shorter driver.
My Speedzone at 44.5 inches is shorter than I expected to play, but I immediately feel more confident with it. If I give up a small amount of theoretical clubhead speed but strike the centre more frequently, I’m quite happy with that trade.
Perhaps most importantly, I learned to stop trying to justify a purchase after the golf had already rejected it.
The second MP-64 set went back because it was wrong.
The M2 didn’t stay simply because it is a famous driver.
There is no prize for persevering with equipment that doesn’t suit me.
Early Evidence From the New Golf Bag
The equipment changes have coincided with my move from Westbury to Cumberwell Park.
My first rounds from the Purple tees included level par on the Yellow course and two over par on the Orange course.
I’m still learning the courses and some of the clubs, so I’m not going to pretend two rounds prove that every equipment decision was correct.
They are encouraging, though.
More importantly, I feel relaxed with the equipment.
Once the bag has settled completely, I intend to have a couple of lessons. I’m not looking to rebuild my golf swing. I want to make the swing I already have more repeatable and make better decisions with it.
I have spent enough time thinking about golf clubs.
Now I want to see how well I can play with them.
What I Would Tell Someone Buying Second-Hand Golf Clubs
The biggest lesson from all of this is that I would stop trying to identify the objectively best golf club.
There probably isn’t one.
There are great golf clubs that won’t suit me and unfashionable clubs that might stay in my possession for ten years.
The Cleveland CG Black is a good example. It isn’t currently my best driver, but that doesn’t make it a bad golf club or mean I need to sell it.
Reviews are useful.
Specifications are useful.
Launch-monitor numbers are useful.
Advice from other golfers can be useful too.
None of them gets the final vote.
Eventually I have to put the club behind a golf ball and make a swing.
The MP-64 experiments taught me that a club I wanted to love could still be wrong for me.
The MP-18 SC taught me that easier doesn’t have to mean chunky or uninspiring.
The TaylorMade M2 taught me that extra distance isn’t particularly valuable if I don’t want to hit the driver.
The F9 3-wood helped me identify the shaft feel I actually liked.
The Speedzone brought those lessons together in a driver that immediately gave me confidence.
Every club that left the active bag taught me something, and every club that stayed had to earn its place.
I haven’t ended up with the newest golf clubs.
I haven’t ended up with the most expensive golf clubs.
I’ve ended up with clubs that suit the way I swing and the way I want to play.
For the first time in quite a while, when I stand over an iron shot I’m not thinking about the clubs I used to own or the distance I used to hit the ball.
When I stand on a tee with the driver, I don’t feel as though I need to protect against the golf club.
I can think about the shot.
That was what I was trying to achieve all along.
