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3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Be Playing the Same Golf Equipment as the Pros

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Be Playing the Same Golf Equipment as the Pros

Club Fitting

PGA Tour golfers are an extraordinary talent. They spend hundreds of hours practicing their craft each week in the hopes the time spent will pay off in form of a victory and big paycheck. To get there, they must have the best golf equipment accompanying them every step of the way all tuned to the precise specifications for every shot.

It’s hard to resist the urge to go out and buy the latest driver to hit the market just because your favorite player put it in his bag and picked up 15 yards of distance. If you’re a regular reader of online golf publications such as Golf.com and Golf Digest, you’ve surely noticed the featured content highlighting the next greatest driver being played on Tour.

But just because PGA Tour golfers are playing the latest and greatest golf equipment, doesn’t mean you, as an amateur weekend golfer, should run out to get the same equipment.

Here are three specific reasons why you shouldn’t be playing the same equipment as the pros.

PGA Tour Pros Have Precise Tools to Measure Every Aspect of Their Swing

PGA Tour pros have the best technology available at their fingertips to measure every inch of their golf swing. Everything from ball speed to spin rate to launch angle is constantly monitored and these pros know when something isn’t accurate with their equipment.

When they find something off, they can walk into one of the many 18-wheeler equipment trailers brought to each tournament and get it fixed immediately. Inside these trucks you’ll find every measuring device and computer program available to make sure the pros are precisely fit and fine-tuned to their exact specifications.

For us amateur golfers, unless you have all the tools in your garage, have to rely on the friendly folks at Edwin Watts to rush you through a fitting session so they can move onto the next customer. Yes, you should always get fit for your golf equipment, but the same driver head and shaft combination being played by Jason Day is not the same combination that will make you a better golfer.

PGA Tour Pros Don’t Pay For Their Equipment

The Titleist Equipment Trailer

You know that large 18-wheeler I mentioned above? Yeah, that truck contains every golf club head, golf shaft and golf grip needed to make sure any golfer can walk through that door and get a new club in their hands within hours.

Golfers on the PGA Tour don’t pay for their equipment. They have the luxury of receiving golf equipment at no charge from any equipment manufacturer looking to get their equipment in the hands of pros. If one guy doesn’t like his wedge anymore, all he has to do is walk into the equipment truck and ask to have another model. It’s as simple as that.

For amateur golfers, we don’t have that luxury. We’re paying top dollar for our golf equipment at retail stores like Golfsmith. The cost of golf equipment has gotten ridiculously expensive over the years and for most regular golfers we can’t afford to run out and buy the latest driver to hit the market.

PGA Tour Pros Have Specific Clubs For Each Event

Pro golfers sometimes change out golf clubs based on the course conditions they will be playing for that week. One player might take a 5-wood out of their bag in favor of a 3-iron for The Open Championship for instance, because they can hit lower and more penetrating shots better with the iron.

Weekend amateur golfers will most likely be playing the same golf courses over-and-over. On top of that, we’re not good enough to need a different golf club for every situation we’re playing in. The same 14 clubs should be fine for every course throughout the year.

Conclusion

Sure this article may not apply to everyone. Maybe you’re a low-handicap competitive amateur player and you need to change out wedges because a higher bounce might be better for a tournament. This article is mostly geared towards the folks who feel they need to go out and buy the newest driver just because Jordan Spieth picked up 18 yards on his drive and you feel it will do the same for you.

Golf is hard and yes, and the equipment on the market today has come a long way in terms of helping you play better golf. But remember this. Most likely it’s your golf mechanics that are not allowing you to get better. Invest that $400 you were going to spend on a new driver on some lessons with a local PGA pro. Your return on investment might end up being fewer bogeys!

Ryan Young of Front9Back9.comFront9Back9 – Ryan Young – Front9Back9.com
Blogger, Golf Fanatic

Have you ever met a real life golf nut?  Meet Ryan.  He blogs about golf, has a podcast about golf, watches a lot of golf and reads a lot about golf.  If he’s not playing golf, he’s likely thinking about the next time he will play golf.  He hails from the great state of Texas and has a unrealistic goal of playing all 800+ golf courses in the state.