STOP Making These BRUTALLY EXPENSIVE Mistakes BUYING GOLF CLUBS!

In The Golf Bag HUGE MISTAKES Golfers Keep Making! The BIGGEST Mistakes Golfers Make with Their Golf Bags & Club Purchases (PGA Pros Reveal!)
Whether you’re a beginner golfer or a weekend warrior chasing single digits, there’s one area you’re probably leaving strokes on the table — and it starts with what’s in your golf bag.
In this video, we’re breaking down the most common mistakes we see golfers make when it comes to their golf equipment — straight from the perspective of PGA Professionals. From outdated gear to poor club fitting decisions, we’ve seen it all… and we’re here to help you avoid those costly errors.

👀 What You’ll Learn:
How to build a more functional, balanced golf bag
Why most golfers are carrying clubs they never use effectively
The importance of gapping and how to fix it
The one club most mid-handicappers are missing
How marketing hype is ruining your equipment decisions
When it’s actually time to upgrade your clubs (and when it’s not)
💬 We Want to Hear From You!
What’s the biggest mistake you think golfers make with their equipment? Drop it in the comments — we’re replying to as many as we can!
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Golf clubs have never been more expensive, but golfers around the world keep making the same silly mistakes when spending their money. Hi everyone, my name is James and welcome back to the channel. Today we’re going to discuss the biggest mistakes we see as PGA pros. Guys, how are you mate? I’m good, thanks. that golfers make around the world when buying golf clubs. We’re going to talk through putters, wedges, irons, woods, and of course drivers. Hopefully save you guys some money and hopefully help you guys start playing better golf. We’re going to start with putters because there’s a really interesting I’d call it a fad, but I think it’s beyond that. There’s a really interesting momentum with putters at the moment with forgiveness and with obviously line goal balance and zero torque and low torque. But I want to kick things off with make sure, and this goes for the whole bag that we’re talking about. Make sure you’re buying genuine products to kick off with. So, I’ve got a couple of putters here. And as you can see, I actually got scammed with one of these a couple of years ago. And I hold my hands up. This was off eBay. And this is one Gaz has got off Teeu. Make sure you’re buying something genuine. This isn’t just for putters. This is just for everything. But generally, you can start, especially with putters, to think, “Oh, it’s a good deal. Like, I’m saving some money, so I’m going to go with it.” You’re right, Bob. I think I think yours especially. I mean, that’s gone past my eyes. I’m a PGA pro and I genuinely thought that were a real product. Yeah. And like I did for a while and then you start luckily enough people in the comments actually informed me said, “James, that’s like the fakest thing you’ll ever see.” Obviously, I think yours looks a lot worse. Yours looks horrendous. But that’s just a real quick snippet of some of the problems you can see. One of the big things I want to talk to you about putters is making sure you buy on performance as well. So obviously we’ve been looking at lab putters for quite some time now. I’m a huge fan of what they’re doing. I actually went out to visit the guys at Lab in Oregon just a couple of weeks ago. So lucky to spend time with Sam Horn, with Liam the club fitter, and with Carter and all the guys there. And so many people will just go and buy a Scotty Cameron or an Odyssey or anything because maybe it fits their bag. That’s one of the big problems I see. I see people who have titleist irons all of a sudden want a Scotty Cameron and putter all of a sudden want Roku wedges. You’re not buying the best thing for your game. For me, I think especially with the online fitting, I’m not saying go and buy a lab, but I’m saying think about what will work for your game the most. Like I’m absolutely loving life with a low torque putter now. And I know you’re the same, aren’t you? You’ve tried loads of different putters and it has really helped. So, if you are wanting to really improve your putting and improve your scores, that leaf’s absolutely done me in there, doesn’t it? But it could really start to help you hone those scores a little bit. When we start talking about drivers, we start talking about shafts, we start talking about grips, there’s so many mistakes you can make and you can start wasting your money. And I think it’s such a shame because people work hard for the money, especially nowadays more than ever, you don’t have as much kind of expendable income. So, if you are going to spend money, let’s think about, right, well, can we get the club that’s going to help my game the most and can we get the club that’s essentially going to help us lower our scores? What what’s the issues you’ve seen with putters? Well, I I think the biggest myth in putters is that it’s not the putter, it’s the person. And I think that’s a load of rubbish. Honestly, I don’t know where that’s come from because there’s so much technology in putters now to help people. And I’m fed up of hearing it. Yeah. because you know you cannot get the same performance with you know a putter that Jack Nicholas used a blade than you can with like you know a proper customuilt line balance putter and I’m I’m dead certain on that and one of the things I’ve seen as well is people so I know so many people who’ve been fitted for a driver most golfers we’ve played with at one time have had either a loose fitting or a proper full professional fitting of a driver and their irons putters I can count on probably one hand how hand had a proper putter fitting and can’t even do it online now with the guys. And I were laughing in your introduction because you were saying about, you know, mistakes that golfers make. And we’re we are we’ve made the same mistakes, haven’t we? Buying putters. I mean, I went through a craze of buying Scotty Camerons just because they look nice. Exactly the same. I’ve still got five of them at home. Terilliums and, you know, fancy, you know, putters, circle TE’s and stuff just cuz they look nice. And now obviously we’re a bit more educated. We’re buying putters that are actually fitted to us and actually look to me these days is not the biggest appeal of the include some of we’ve just had a match literally a few moments ago will include some of the putts that we’ve hold because without holding those putts golf isn’t as enjoyable isn’t as exciting is it? So obviously your scores aren’t going to be as good either. I think you’ve got to like the feel of it. You got to be able to get the weight of the putts but most importantly line up to the line. That’s my first ever time trying that putter actually. And you see the really interesting thing here is so that putter is designed specifically for me. Liam from Lab fitted before it and I like to stand over it. I like to get more upright. You can see the toes up in the air because that’s not how Gaz stands. So that specific putter wouldn’t suit him. So if you are going to go and buy a secondhand putter, make sure it’s not specifically fitted for somebody else. Gaz would be better off with Bobb’s putter. And if you want to see those videos, they’re either online now or coming very, very soon where it’s a little bit flatter, a little bit longer and it rotates more. But just make sure guys if you are spending big money on putters nowadays that you’re not going to waste your money and just go and get something because it’s pretty. Shall we move on? Yeah, definitely. I think value it as much as you would a driver because you’re going to use it more than a driver. Sorry, mate. Never again. So, wedges is a really interesting phenomenon that people waste so much money on and get totally wrong. Also, people probably don’t change the wedges as often as maybe they should. The amount of people that would come for a short game lesson and start looking at the wedges they have in they have the first ever voke in and you think well that the grooves are gone they had you’re all right sorry sorry mate but basically some of the problems I see with wedges first of all I think the most important thing is the gapping because you have so many shots within that 120 yards make sure the gapping is correct don’t just go for a generic 60 54 58 or 60 56 52 make sure that you know how far you’re hitting in them. And also make sure you get the right kind of grind on there as well because you can see here we have actually some quite difficult location. There’s something in the box I’m going to show you. So there I haven’t just brought the box for no reason. But you can see we have some different grinds here. These are what I think the best wedges of the year so far. The new mil grind MG5s. Fantastic wedges. Lots of different options. Not too many options though. You can see this SX bounds here. Really just allows you to open that face a little bit more on the 60. So, if you are kind of a little bit unstuck when it comes to grinds, speak to your local pro, speak to somebody who would fit you for them, and you’ll make sure that you get the right clubs for you. You can see how I can kind of nip that off the surface there, get a little bit of spin, and play it in nicely to that shot. That’s a lot more difficult with the wrong bounce. But there’s actually, I think, a problem here. You don’t have to have three matching wedges or two matching wedges. You can have, did you, did you know this right? You can have two different wedges from different manufacturers. I believe like and this is something again guys, we’re saying this because we’ve made these mistakes all our lives. If you look here, these are the brand new Cleveland wedges. Let me try and find the perfect one cuz I’ve got these to review are perfect. 58 CBZ. Look at that. So that’s got a full face. It’s got huge cavity back versatility and it’s perfect for like all conditions as well. You could blend that, couldn’t you? Exactly. Like if you just struggle with a certain couple of shots, then that could be the absolute perfect wedge for you just for either a certain distance or a certain shot. We’ve got this in 10 degrees of bounce. There’s plenty of bounce on here. So, we should really be able to just play nice kind of similar shots with it. I’ve nipped that absolutely beautifully. Come down the slope maybe. Come on. Oh, it is. This might go in this, you know. Go on then. But that is absolutely beautiful and you don’t have to have all the same same wedges. I’ve seen it so many times where people’s jump from like a full cavity like a G series iron or big cavity into a blade like this when really if they blended it with something like that. That’s probably because Ping didn’t do a blended sort of wedge. So they’ve just got Ping bladed wedges. Get yourself a couple of Cleveland because wedges aren’t cheap anymore. Like a How much is a new Vokei Bob in the shop? 200 180. So you get three wedges, you’re 550 quid, 560 quid in. But I think what you said is a great point is just you don’t have to match the wedges into your irons. Yeah. Have you got anything to add with that? So I know I’ve kind of took that. I think distance gapping is important. I think you know a lot of people just go 50 54 58 is and I know you mentioned this already but is probably find out what distance you like, what you’re comfortable with. If everyone’s got a I’m rubbish when it comes to 50 60 yards. I like to play you know either 100 yards or 70 yards. So, I’ve got lofts to, you know, marry into what I enjoy playing and then I try and leave them distances. You You can’t buy a wedge to cover every distance, can you? No, absolutely not. And even to the point of if short game is your nemesis, think about something like maybe one of the 11 hybrids where they do a 47 degree. We’ll put that on screen. We were filming with them just the other day. A fantastic option for somebody who just doesn’t like short game and it can really help you or thinking about chipping with a sevenwood again that’s got loads of bounce on it. The bunkers is a totally different profession. Bunkers are a very difficult place for a lot of people and a wedge can help you. Something with lots of bounce can help you, but certainly if you struggle inside that 100 yards, think about what makes it better for you, not necessarily what looks better in the bag. Can I just try that? Yeah, just one. How much easier does that make it just easier to nip into off that surface? You don’t see many cavity back wedges anymore. And that’s certainly something which I think people should start to look at in 2025 and a huge mistake that so many of you guys are making. Let’s move on to ions because that’s where people spend a lot of money like a lot. So when it comes to irons, this is where it can be a minefield. You can buy online, you can go DC, you can get fitted with your local PJ Pro, you can walk into Costco and buy some toilet roll and then a set of irons. So you do have to be careful. And the first thing I want to talk about is head design, set makeup, do you want blade? Do you want cavity back? Do you even maybe want a hollowbodied iron to throw in there just to make it a little bit easier? And how far do you go? Do you go pitching wedge to four iron? Do you go pitching wedge to three iron? Do you get a hybrid? Do you get two hybrids? Do you go graphite shafts? One of the things I wanted to mention in the wedge section is don’t be scared to get some graphite shafts in your wedges because it can really help you release the club and start striking it better. What are some of the big things you see, guys? cuz I’m a big fan of the irons I’ve got. I’ve got a set of Como irons here. They are obviously online, but I did go and get them retrofitted at the guys at SGT. So, you can see I’ve got some really nice LA golf shafts in there. Now, for me, it’s a really nice combo set because I’ve got CBS up to 7 iron or down to 7 iron and then 8 N wedge. I’ve actually got some blades as well, so I have a nice kind of mish mash. And you can see that I can just hit some really nice shots there. These are fitted for me, so they should be absolutely perfect. And that one’s gone pretty close to be fair. I’m really, really happy with that one. But also, you start to see about kind of shaft weight, shaft flex, shaft torque. What is the thing that that you see most? Um, I think with irons, I think people sometimes don’t realize that every brand has its own standard in terms of lie. So, you know, that’s huge. There’s no industry standard whatsoever. Loft and lie. So, if you’re buying off the internet, if you’re not going for a custom fit is maybe think about getting a retrofit afterwards, you know, and having the lies measured and and married up to the ball flight you’re trying to create because it’s not as simple as just me measuring your wrist to flow and obviously how tall you are. Uh you can really obviously produce, you know, draw or fade with the help of the light. It doesn’t have to be sat. How do you feel about people still using loft and lie boards? You’re like just a board. I’m dead against it. absolutely against it because you know obviously you’ve got to relate to how the ball flies not you know how it impacts on the ground so much there’s a bit of tolerance with that but obviously yeah I think that and I think for me is getting the right profile iron I think we all rush into getting that next profile if you get to like 16 handicap you start thinking of midsize irons and when you get to eight handicap you start thinking of blades you know I think I think that don’t rush into that next level yeah and I think Even even now, I think I could be guilty of this because I have this combination set. Like I said, I like it. I think it just goes down nicely. There are times to be honest where I with a par three at 135, 140 yards, I hit nine iron, I don’t quite catch it and I come up short and I think if I had CBS in the full set that would have got to the green, it would have been fine. So, there’s still times, but then there’s times when I’m playing really well and I think, oh, I love this blade of N. I can really do what I want with it. It looks fantastic and I love everything about it. So I guess the big the big error is don’t misjudge your ability. Yeah. But then if you are going to get blades in any kind of set of the bag. I think you just need to be getting the reps in. You need to be hitting shots. You need to be going to the range. You can’t just unless you’re very very skilled and talented like our friend Nathan. You can’t just run down to the first te with a bladed three iron and hit it 230 yards. You’re so right. I think we buy clubs based on as best performance, don’t we? We know thinker as worst performance when we’re buying clubs. And actually how often are we playing as best golf? And when it comes to how much money you should spend with irons as well, let’s think about that. Should you go brand new? Should you go secondhand? Should you go to the Callaway certified premium website, which we did some videos on just last month? There’s some really good deals there. You can get clubs in certain specs as well. Should you go DC? Should you go to the Tacoma website and get a set of 301s because you can get them in different shafts, different shaft lengths, different lie angles, but make sure you know what the lie angle is because Tacoma won’t have um an industry standard just like we said. There also might be some tolerances in there as well. So make sure when the clubs come, this is the biggest thing I think people order a set of clubs at 2° flat, but Tailor Made and Ping and Callaway, I don’t know what they do now, but they used to have tolerance of the two degrees. Yeah. So they could just be flat or they could even be the wrong way. I think that’s the key is there’s nothing wrong with going direct because we’re all buying secondhand but then get a you can go to a master fitter and get all your loss and lies checked and maybe even you know book a fitting and clubot could be a really good thing then yeah couldn’t it just to make sure your clubs are doing what you want them to do right guys let’s move up into the woods because woods are where I think this is the sexy bit I think this is the bit that people have either skipped to or really want to look at so let’s get on that tea let’s talk about drivers and let’s see just how you could maybe improve your game by not making these mistakes takes. So, when it comes to driver, the big thing I think is what shaft and loft do we want? Because when you get those things right, you generally get the best ball flight for you and then how much do you want to spend? Because so many people potentially think that the best driver each year gets better and better and better. And that might happen when it comes to forgiveness. We’re not going to see big ball speed jumps anymore. We’re not going to see big distance jumps anymore. So, you had a really interesting thought, guys, about what people should do when looking at drivers. Yeah. I think for for me personally is it’s quite easy to optimize yourself at perfect launch and spin. But again, we go back to like we irons. How often are we playing as best golf? Yeah. And you know what I’ve found works for me is optimizing my driver that I don’t potentially get the most distance I can. But I’m getting more accuracy by having a bit more launch and a bit more spin. Yeah. And I think that’s quite, you know, if you’re going for a custom fitting, it’s fair to say to the fitter, look, you know, I don’t want you to optimize it because Sam naturally does that for me. He thinks I’m a pro. Yeah. It naturally gets me best ball flight and distance, but then when I’m off with it, I’m I’m off. And it’s interesting because you could optimize something for that one in 10 shot so it goes 5 yards further. It looks better on a launch monitor, or you can optimize it for a round of golf that keeps it in play more and and makes golf more enjoyable. Another thing I want to talk about is the potential of something like this. So, I put a mini driver in play a couple of years ago, and I always kind of play around with them. Like I if I start playing anything like badly, the mini driver is the first thing that that comes in because for me it just makes it so much more enjoyable, so much easier and I can really start to just hit more fairways. I don’t actually even lose that much distance. You can see with this if I can hit a nice knuckle ball shot up the fairway there. That one’s going to bound up and run down that fairway. And I guarantee that’s pitched around kind of one uh 250 260 and releasing up to 280 290. So it does what I want it to do. It’s 11 and a half degrees. It’s got a 3wood shaft in there and it’s really doing everything I want to do. The biggest problem You All right, Bob. The biggest problem I see is when people get the key. Yeah. So, you have your fitting, you get your driver, it’s in the right specs, you’ve got the right shaft in there, you’ve made sure that it’s fitted, and they give you a key with it, and you play one bad round of golf, and you start messing around with it. That for me is a disaster. Yeah, I’d agree with that. I think um sorry, I don’t know what to say now and say, you can quit where I said I can agree with it. I can move on from that with drivers. Nearly impaled me. Oh, I tell you what. I tell you what, the shafts. Yeah. Um I completely agree with that. And I think another big mistake see and I’m guilty. We’re all guilty making these mistakes, not just you guys, is when people start to try to self fit. Yeah. So this they buy shafts, you know, oh, I’m going to get I’m going to try an extra stiff shaft. So they’re trying a different flex. But what you don’t realize is is what that’s doing to the swing weight of the club and it throws it out of balance. And you might have gone and spent 150 pound 200 pound on a really nice exotic shaft, but it doesn’t outperform the old product because it’s not set. It’s not balanced right. Yeah. Guys, some really key thoughts there and some really interesting things of kind of silly mistakes that a lot of golfers make. So hopefully that’ll help you moving forward if you are in the market for new golfers. And remember, you don’t always need to buy new golf clubs. You can go and get lessons. You can just go and enjoy your golf with what you’ve got. As long as you’re enjoying your golf and getting out there and playing, that’s all that matters. Guys, thank you for your time. Really, really good. If you enjoyed that, guys, smash that subscribe button below. Thank you so much for your time as always and we’ll see you all very soon. Goodbye.