Purchasing clubs is often a shot in the dark.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: GOLF GUIDE

With numerous styles, types and price ranges varying wildly between hundreds to thousands of dollars, purchasing golf clubs can be a bewildering experience even for the seasoned golfer.

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"Not all clubs are created equal," says Murray Young, owner of Thunder Bay's Paradise Golf, a club customization and repair business.

"As a customer, you need to understand what works for you and what works against you."

The first thing to consider when purchasing clubs, he says, is to understand what your expectations are for your clubs, and how that matches up against how frequently you play.

Recreational golfers who play twice a month and want something to carry them through a round of golf may think about buying the cheapest clubs available, though this would be a mistake, Young says.

"If I pay $199 for a set of clubs, I'm going to get an inferior head, and I'm going to get clubs that aren't matched because quality control on the lower end of clubs isn't there."

However, there are areas in which aspiring duffers can save money.

Clubs with a low loft such as 3- and 4-irons, whose faces are at near right-angles to the ground, give the ball a much lower trajectory and thus additional yardage. However, Young says only those with a swing in excess of 100 miles an hour can gain any real benefit from low-lofted clubs. This makes an investment in such clubs somewhat wasteful for the average person who swings between 75 and 95 miles and hour, he says.

"When you buy them off the rack, you purchase them and they sit in your basement because you can't hit them. The lower the loft is, the tougher it is to hit."

Additionally, cast-iron clubs are offered at a lower cost than forged clubs, which typically feature softer metal as a result of the different processes used in their manufacture.

While newer players are unlikely to be able to tell the difference between the two types, Young says forged clubs rewards mid-level and advanced players with a smoother swing.

Players who wish to improve their game through forged clubs but don't want to replace their entire bag can instead substitute their cast-iron "scoring clubs," or their 7, 8 and 9-irons as well as their wedge, with forged ones. This allows players to save money on...