Fewer than you think. The rules let you carry 14 clubs, but a beginner does not need 14. Most starter sets come with 7 to 10, and honestly, even that is plenty for your first season. Some new players I coach do beautifully with just five clubs in the bag. So before you spend a euro, let me take the pressure off: golf is simpler than the shops make it look.
Here is the fact that changes how I want you to think about your bag. On the golf course, putting is around 35 to 40 percent of all your strokes. The driver — the big, exciting club everyone stares at in the shop — is only 15 to 20 percent. A beginner at a higher handicap takes about 32 or 33 putts in a round. So the club that matters most is the quiet one: the putter. We build your bag outward from the hole, not from the tee.
How many clubs does a beginner actually need?
Seven is a lovely number to start with. A PGA colleague once put it simply: newer golfers really only use five to seven clubs in a round anyway. The other clubs just sit in the bag looking important.
Why fewer is better when you are learning:
- Faster, cleaner contact. You hit the same clubs again and again, so your body learns them quickly.
- No overthinking. With a full set, you stand over the ball wondering, “7-iron or 8-iron?” That little doubt travels straight into your swing. With a small set, there is no question — you commit, and commitment is half of a good shot.
- Lighter bag, more fun. You walk the course, not a hardware store.
A lot of new golfers tell me the same thing after a few weeks: the day they simplified their bag was the day their contact got consistent. One beginner started with only five clubs — a forgiving driver, a fairway wood, a 7-iron, a sand wedge, and a putter — and swore it sped up her learning more than anything else. I believe her.
One warning, so nobody is caught out: carrying more than 14 clubs has a real penalty. In stroke play it costs two strokes for every hole the extra club was in the bag, up to four strokes in a round. Beginners almost never hit this — you are going the other way, carrying fewer — but now you know the rule exists.
What does each club type do — explained simply?
Every club is just a different amount of loft, which decides how high and how far the ball goes. That is the whole secret.
- Driver — the longest club, 9 to 12 degrees of loft, for your tee shot on the long holes. For a beginner, choose a higher loft, 10.5 degrees or more. It gets the ball up more easily and forgives a lot.
- Fairway wood or hybrid — for longer shots when you are not on the tee. A hybrid is my favourite gift to a beginner. It sits the weight low and far back, so the ball launches high without needing a fast, powerful swing. Long irons are hard; hybrids are kind.
- Irons (6 through 9) — your workhorses for approach shots. Look for cavity-back irons, where the weight sits around the edge of the head. When you miss the middle — and we all miss the middle — the face twists less, so the ball still flies a fair distance and stays roughly on line. That forgiveness is everything when you are learning.
- Sand wedge — 54 to 58 degrees of loft, and the one wedge I would buy first. Bunkers, high little chips near the green, awkward lies in the rough — this club handles all of it.
- Putter — the club you will use most. Treat it with respect.
How far does each one carry? That is a whole topic on its own, and every golfer’s numbers are different. When you are ready to learn yours, my golf club distance chart walks you through what to expect and how to measure your own gaps.
Which clubs should go in your bag first?
Build from the hole outward. My order:
- Putter — you will use it on nearly every hole.
- Sand wedge — your best friend around the green.
- A middle iron (7-iron) — the easiest iron to learn a swing with.
- A hybrid — for the longer shots, easier than a fairway wood.
- A forgiving driver — for the joy of the big tee shot. Yes, it is fun. I want you to have fun.
From there you fill in the 8- and 9-iron, maybe a 6-iron and a pitching wedge, and you have a friendly 8- to 10-club set that covers every distance a new player meets on the course. A classic half-set built this way — a few irons plus a couple of woods — has taught golfers well for generations.
The ball you tee up matters too, more than most beginners expect. A soft, low-cost ball spins less and flies straighter, which flatters a new swing. I go into it in best golf balls for beginners — worth two minutes before you buy a sleeve of the expensive tour balls the pros use.
Should you buy new or second-hand?
Second-hand is often the smarter first move, and I say that as someone who loves nice equipment.
Your swing will change enormously in your first six months — this is normal and good. Experienced players warn beginners about this all the time: clubs you buy on day one can feel completely wrong a year later, because you changed, not the clubs. So spending a lot early is easy to regret.
A sensible path: pick up used game-improvement irons from a brand you recognise, for a small fraction of the new price. In the Netherlands they are easy to find through sites like golfclubtrader.nl and reswinggolfstore.nl. Play them for a season, let your swing settle, then decide what to buy properly. I compare the two routes in full in new vs used clubs .
There is one clever exception for the driver: some are adjustable, so you can tune the loft as your swing grows instead of replacing the whole club within a year. If you do buy one new item, an adjustable driver earns its place.
Graphite or steel shafts — does it matter for a beginner?
For most beginners, graphite. It is the lighter shaft, so a slower swing still generates good clubhead speed, and it soaks up the sting on a mishit. Women, seniors, and first-time players usually feel the difference straight away.
Steel shafts are heavier, tougher, and cheaper, and they give you more feedback through your hands. They suit faster, stronger swingers who want maximum control — not the typical starting point.
More important than steel-versus-graphite is flex — how much the shaft bends. It should match your swing speed, not a guess. One golfer wrote honestly that they assumed “regular” flex was simply the standard, only to discover much later their swing wanted something stiffer, and the mismatch had been quietly costing them consistency all year. You can avoid that whole story with a short fitting. Even an informal one — where someone watches you swing and measures your height and speed — points you to the right shaft. Another beginner told me the clubs that were actually fitted to her body felt like a different sport compared to the heavy borrowed set she started with.
Where do beginners in the Netherlands buy their first clubs?
Right here near Utrecht, you have good options. A complete beginner starter set from a brand like Wilson, SkyMax, or Decathlon usually runs about €200 to €500 — everything you need to begin. Premium full sets from the big-name brands start well above €1,500, and you simply do not need that yet.
Here is my favourite money-saving truth, and Dutch golf advice agrees with me: you may not need to buy anything at all to start. Many clubs let you borrow or rent clubs during your first lessons. Once you earn your NGF baanpermissie — the course permit that opens up around 110 Dutch courses to new players — you will know your swing well enough to buy the right set instead of the first set.
When you are ready to buy, the pro shops at Chi Chi Golf in Utrecht and Golfschool Hoenderdaal in Driebergen both carry starter equipment and can match you to a set that fits your body. There are good specialist fitters in the region too, like the one near Gorinchem, plus the usual Dutch online shops. One new golfer described buying her first clubs as scarier than her first marathon — the intimidation is real, but you push through it, and then it is just golf.
So spend your first money on lessons, borrow your clubs while you learn, and buy properly once your swing settles. That order saves you money and buys you a better set in the end. If you would like a hand choosing — or simply someone beside you on the tee for your first swings — come and learn with me. You can see how lessons work on my pricing page. Bring nothing but yourself; the clubs can wait.