3 golf equipment mistakes amateurs make — and how to avoid them

Setting up your golf bag for success on tough days is just as important as it is on your best days, which is why it’s crucial to avoid certain gear mistakes in your bag and during a fitting.

You may have a club that you love, but it turns out it’s not really the best thing for you. That also means the club or clubs you hit the farthest may also be the ones keeping you from shooting your best scores.

That’s why it’s important to check your ego at the door when you go into a club fitting or when you’re setting up your golf bag if you truly want to lower your scores.

Here are three of the most common equipment mistakes we see and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Prioritizing distance over control with irons

As many players have noticed, iron lofts have been getting stronger and stronger over the years. Whereas Tiger Woods still plays a 49-degree pitching wedge — a more common configuration from the 80s, 90s and earlier — many players’ distance and game improvement come with pitching wedges between 42 and 45 degrees.

Irons

That may be great for some players, given the high-launching tech in some of those irons. But it doesn’t work for everyone and there’s a reason many pros use weaker lofted irons.

“The majority of consumers, if they get fit, they’re getting fit in an indoor environment, hitting into a screen and the primary parameters that they are looking at is ball speed and total distance,” said GOLF’s Head of ClubTest and Gear Data Kris McCormack, a formerly the VP Tour and Education at TrueSpec Golf. “We know that’s achieved by stronger lofts, and typically, that results in lower spin, shallower Apex height, shallower landing angles. So you’re picking up distance but you’re sacrificing control coming into the green.”

What’s the point of being able to hit a 180-yard 7-iron if you can’t stop the ball on the green?

McCormack said you should look for a set of irons that allows you to get the ball high enough (at least 80 feet in the air for an 80 mph 7-iron speed) with a landing angle above 45 degrees so you can land the ball at your target and get it to stay there.

2. Sacrificing yardage with your driver

There’s a similar effect that happens with your driver.

If you want the fastest ball speeds, well then simply drop the loft of your driver. That might produce the longest shots if you’re playing on dried-out links land conditions where the ball can run forever, but as McCormack points out, the conditions where our ball lands are always changing.

Drivers

You might have a 9-degree driver head that gets you to 150 mph ball speed. But if your peak height is only 70 feet, that’s not going to optimize your carry distance, which would lead to more distance on average.

However, if you get a more lofted driver that gets the ball higher in the air — even if it costs you 1 to 2 mph of ball speed — you’re going to carry it farther and hit longer drives more often.

3. Having multiple clubs that go the same yardage

Many amateurs are better off with a 4-wood or a 5-wood as their longest club after the driver simply because, at slower swing speeds, they can hit a 3-wood farther.

Fairway Woods

“If they drive the ball 220 yards in the air and the average clubhead speed hangs out in the mid-90s, a 3-wood off of the deck carries 210 yards, but when you look at a 5-wood now all of a sudden the five wood carries 212,” McCormack said. “Why? Because it hits the ball higher with more spin.”

The 3-wood might still end up going farther because it rolls farther, but that won’t apply if the ball lands in the rough or into a hill.

This is why it’s good to go through a proper fitting and ensure you have 5 mph of ball speed separation with every club.

That goes throughout the bag. If you can’t hit a 4-iron at least 5 mph faster than the 5-iron, then it’s time to get rid of the 4-iron and consider options like a 4-hybrid or even a 9-wood to fill the gap properly.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2025? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.