Time to Upgrade?

When is the best time to upgrade anything in life? When is it time to upgrade your car? When the old one breaks down, or do it while the old car still has some life left? Same with a TV, should you always go out and buy the newest, biggest, and more expensive model every year? It is no different when it comes to golf clubs. Here is a guide though to help you decide when the best time to upgrade your current sticks.

Now, if you are still playing steelhead metals, Ping Eye 2 irons, and Cleveland Artisan wedges, it is a safe bet to say you are due for an upgrade. Not saying those clubs are not good anymore, but there is a lot of good tech in more modern equipment that can help you not only lower your scores but may feel better on the hands and arms.

Drivers-As a general guideline, most companies make pretty big leaps in driver technology every 3-5 years. During this period, companies will change the name, color, maybe a different location of the weight or sliding track, but that is about it. I look at TaylorMade for example, the M1/M2 drivers were not all that different from the M5/M6 models, almost a four-year difference in release dates. But then the SIM came along and made a big change in the driver space. If you purchased an original M1 driver and waited until the SIM launched, you didn’t really miss much and actually “upgraded” you driver. A hack I learned from a head professional a few years ago was to buy a shaft that I know I liked, and have it come with a certain brand adapter tip. This way when new drivers come available, I can just buy the club head, take the old one off, attach the new, and away I go. I have done this a few times and it is a nice hack to help save some money when upgrading.

Woods-Fairway woods are much trickier to gauge when it is time to replace. Fans of Rick Shiels know that his trusty 3 wood, “Old Bluey” a Cobra King F7 has been a stable in his bag for years. Often times a good recommendation when to upgrade your fairway woods are, when they break, replace them. Once you find a fairway wood that does what you want it to do, there is no real urgency to change.

Irons-I don’t think I am the expert on this topic, because in one year I played at least 5 rounds with 8 different iron sets. I will say that experience did give me some teaching moments. Tech in irons differ greatly on the style of iron you play. Blades and cavity back irons don’t change much from version to version. A set of MP 58’s hold up well against a newer set of MP 20’s. Players and Players Distance irons do see some changes every few years. The 2023 P790s and the 2017 P790s both have speed foam, but the type of foam, amount, and components of the foam are drastically different. The game improvement category see’s greater change from year to year. The Callaway Paradym irons were a massive upgrade from the Rogue ST line, which those were a massive upgrade from the Epic Speed line. So depending on the style of iron you play you could benefit from upgrading your set sooner rather than later.

Wedges-These should be replaced every year, even if you don’t hit them on every approach shot. Sharp, fresh wedge grooves do make a difference in performance, and by still playing Mack Daddy 2 wedges, you could be costing yourself stopping power or control with your wedge game. Speaking honestly tech in wedges does not change a great deal, but just replacing fresh grooves will immediately make a positive impact. Even if you replace your old MG3 wedges with a completely new set of MG3’s, you will notice a difference right away. Now, a good way to extend the life of your wedges are to buy a groove sharpener from amazon, here is the one I bought. Using a sharpener can help keep your groves in good shape and prolong your wedges time in your bag. Just be careful and not damage you wedges, it is easy to get too aggressive with this sharpener.

Putter-The moment you lose confidence in your putting, it is time for a new one. My grandfather has had the same Ping Zing 2 for almost 35 years, but he has never lost confidence in that putter. He almost always have 36 or less puts a round, and I personally saw him have 31 putts on more than I occasion. You could be someone who changed your putting style from an arch to a straight back-and-through style, and a putter change could help you. This is a part of the bag that having 2-3 different styles of putter handy and rotating them around when one becomes less reliable is not a bad idea. During the winter months and the greens tend to be slower I will use a mallet style putter to help get the ball through to the hole. During summer on the other hand when the greens are dried out and fast, I will switch to a blade because I have more distance control with it.

I do encourage each person to give their clubs a good amount of play before switching. It does not help your game if every 2 rounds of golf you have new gear sitting in your bag. I have been down that road and believe me you do not want anything to do with it. I began to make a promise to myself, at the beginning of each year I will replace one section of my bag. This way I can get excited about using something new, yet still hold myself to the clubs I previously committed to. This has been a fair compromise that has actually really helped my golf game, and my bank account.