Picking the right golf club set is not as easy as you think. It really isn’t.

A lot of people try to make things easier on themselves by going to a typical review site. Like I said several times on this website, most of those online resource and golf club platforms flat out suck.

The reason they suck is not because they’re not well written. In fact, a lot of professional writers produce such materials.

The reason they suck is not because they don’t have the right pictures. A lot of them have a lot of documentation. In fact, a lot of them have great infographics that enable you to get from Point A to Point B as far as the golf club selection process is concerned.

A lot of them have great information. That’s not what makes them suck. What makes them suck is something worse.

What makes them suck is a factor that will actually burn a hole through your pocket. I am, of course, talking about a conflict of interest.

You see, a lot of these websites talk a good game about having your best interest in mind. In fact, a lot of them even present really touching personal stories and testimonials of people who have used those websites to supposedly take their game to the next level.

What they’re really doing is exploiting a personal weakness of yours. The reason why you’re looking for the right golf club set or even worst, the very best golf club set, is because you are looking to level up your game.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with this, normally speaking. If you are looking to level up your game by practicing, then these golf clubs may help. But if you are looking for some sort of magical or quasi-mystical tool set that would somehow automatically increase your skill set, then you are barking up the wrong tree.

That’s just not going to happen because that’s not how life works. What you’re engaged in is magical thinking. You have somehow, some way, bought into this long standing myth that you only need to buy the right equipment for you to somehow level up your game on the golf course.

That wasn’t true in the past, that’s not true now, and it’s not going to happen in the future. That is a myth. And unfortunately, a lot of these websites exploit that myth and, worse yet, push products that are really not all that helpful because they earn a commission.

So you lose out on two levels. You lose out because you continue to believe that you just need to buy the right set of golf clubs for you to improve your game. You also lose out because you are referred to the wrong set of golf clubs that cost a lot of money, but at the end of the day, produce very little improvements.

Another way you can screw up trying to pick the right golf club set is by simply asking for recommendations from friends and family members. It doesn’t really matter whether you picked up a phone to ask for a direct referral or you used Facebook to do this, it all leads to the same place.

You still end up with the wrong golf club set because these people, as well intentioned as they may be, can only recommend to you a set of solutions that makes sense to them. Unless and until you are in a completely identical situation as them, whatever they recommend simply would be a waste of time for you. Seriously.

Maybe a person has a lower handicap than you. Do you think his or her recommendation would make sense to you? Of course not. You have to keep context in mind. And unfortunately, this is the first thing to go when it comes to asking for referrals.

The reason why people screw up time and time again is because they are looking for shortcuts. You know that you need to slice and dice all the information out there. You know that you have to do some legwork. You know that you have to roll up your sleeves and actually put in some sweat to find out the absolute best answer.

You know that at the back of your head, but somehow, some way, you feel like there is a shortcut. So you ask for a referral.

This is supposed to make things easy, and unfortunately, based on my own personal experience, it does no such thing. Instead, it might even put you in a worse situation.

So do yourself a big favor, don’t go for the shortcut. Don’t go for the easy route. Try to do things yourself. It’s all about trial and error and it’s all about research.

The good news is, the sooner you start, the better off you will be.

The subject of this article might seem pretty straightforward to a lot of people. In fact, a lot of people are under the impression that they only need to be referred to a certain golf course by their friends and family members for them to have a good time. Man, it would be great if it were that easy.

You have to remember that asking for golf course recommendations is not much different from asking for a recommendation for a new hairstylist. If this has happened to you, you know exactly what could go wrong.

Often times, when people refer a particular service provider to you, it’s because they have had a good experience with that service provider. So far so good, right? That’s how things should work.

But the problem is, your friends may have a specific hairstyle in mind. They might have specific tastes. And just because they recommended a particular hairstylist that specializes in that particular look, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the hairstylist would do a good job in the specific look that you are looking for.

In the off chance that your tastes are very different from your friends and family members (which happens all the time), you may be in trouble. Because the person that was referred to you may do a great job in certain contexts, but may actually drop the ball when it comes time to you.

This is why you really need to be very careful when people recommend a golf course to you. They might suck at golf, so any golf course would be awesome to them. Similarly, they may be super awesome at golf and they might recommend to you a course that is all but impossible for people with your skill level.

Do you see how this works? So you have to understand that picking the right golf course must involve picking the most perfect course for your handicap. That’s the bottom line.

So you have to look at your expectations, you have to look at your experience level, you have to look at your handicap, you also have to pay attention to the kind of equipment that you’re using. Once you have factored all this in, then you have pretty much the starting data that you need to start sorting out the different golf course options you have available to you.

You have to pay attention to how close or accessible the golf course is. You of course have to pay attention to the fees that they may charge. Also, you have to pay attention to how interesting the layout is.

There are just so many factors to consider, so it doesn’t really make much sense to ask a random friend or family member on Facebook to give you a recommendation. If you do things that way, you probably would have to go through several dozen golf courses until you find yourself at a place that you really like.

It’s not much different from a princess having to kiss many frogs until one of them turns into a prince. It may seem like a good idea, but believe me, you might have to develop a lot of warts before you find the right one. Not exactly a good thing.

It’s much better to come up with a systematic and methodical checklist of factors that you can base a realistic and effective decision on.

You need to do this when starting out. You don’t want to do this after you have screwed up several times because it can definitely be a set of very expensive mistakes.

There are lots of myths surrounding the game of golf. If you are unaware of these myths, chances are, you may become their victim.

These myths are very powerful because they’ve been around for so long. Sadly, the more people repeat these myths, the closer they get to becoming real.

Just because a lie has been told a million times over and over, it doesn’t necessarily means that it becomes true all of a sudden. In fact, lies that are constantly repeated become worse.

People let their guard down, they become part of some sort of official lore, and this makes them more dangerous. Why? Well, when a lie has become so accepted, it’s more likely to be shared.

The more you share a lie, the more toxic it becomes because it casts a wide net. It is in a better position to cause all sorts of harm.

And unfortunately, there are all sorts of myths surrounding golf that really doesn’t do anybody any favors. It really doesn’t. In fact, you would think that some of these myths may benefit golf equipment makers.

You might think that these manufacturers would generate a few extra million dollars every single year because of these pervasive and widely held myths and misconceptions. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Take the case of the idea that you only need to buy the right golf clubs for you to become a better golfer. This has been around for some time. In fact, it’s very big in Japan.

But the problem with this misconception is that a lot of highly tuned golf clubs actually require a very discriminating touch. In other words, they require that you are at the top of your game. Otherwise, you won’t be able to unlock their game boosting capabilities.

Do you see how this works? It actually puts the golfer in a Catch 22. The equipment needs a higher level of skill for it to produce a higher level of skill. In other words, you can’t be a low skilled player to get this snowball effect or chain reaction effect going. It’s just not going to happen.

And unfortunately, people find this out in the worst way possible. They only find out that their game doesn’t really improve after they have sunk in several thousand dollars into expensive golf equipment.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a scam. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this was just a massive and elaborate fraud. But the sad reality is that people are always looking for shortcuts and they end up screwing themselves time and time again.

This is one of those cases because you have to understand that on the golf course, there really are no shortcuts. If you want to truly level up your game, you have to do it the old fashioned way.

That’s right, you have to sweat it out. You have to go to the links again and again and again and do your best. You have to learn from your mistakes and keep trying. And this can take quite a long time.

You are not naturally gifted. This can take months, if not years. Still, golf is so much fun, it has so many things going for it that all that time may seem like a cakewalk.

So don’t think that just because you bought the right equipment that you are somehow, some way, automatically a great golfer. It doesn’t work that way.

It’s like buying some magical clothes that somehow, some way, transforms you into this ultra effective and ultra magnetic person. That may be great for comic books or movies, but that is not real life.

Unfortunately, golf is part of real life. So please understand the kind of myths you are hanging on to. The sooner you get rid of them is the sooner you will get on the road to truly improving your golf game in a meaningful way.

When people play golf, a lot of people are under the impression that people hit the links for sports reasons. They think that they are looking to get a good score, they think that they are looking to win and beat the competition.

While there’s a lot of that going on, there are 5 key non-sports related reasons why people hit the links. Believe it or not, there are many types of people that play golf and not all of them are fixated on competition. Not all of them are fanatical about the sport.

Now, this does not necessarily mean that they are less worthy golf players, but it really would help for you to become fully aware of the wide range of reasons why people hit the greens and play golf. By maybe understanding their motivations, you can play better golf with them.

Maybe you would be able to see eye to eye. Maybe you will be able to interact with them at a much higher level. Regardless, knowing “why” really enables you to pack a lot more value in the process of knowing what and how to do.

Exercise

One common reason why people play golf is that they get some level of exercise. Keep in mind that the more you walk on the golf course, the more exercise you get.

Now, this is the preferred way of doing things. Ideally speaking, with everything else being equal, this is how you should do things.

Unfortunately, life being what it is, there are all sorts of contingencies out there. Maybe you’re running out of time. Maybe the golf course is so huge that it doesn’t really make much sense to walk.

Still, a lot of people get a tremendous amount of exercise walking, at least part of the way, when they are playing the typical golf course. It really all depends on how big the golf course as well as how it is set up.

Relaxation

Even if you suck as a golf player and you can’t, for the life of you, hit the ball, you can still benefit tremendously from this sport. That’s right. Seriously. True story.

How? Relaxation.

Now, a lot of people are probably rolling their eyes. A lot of people are probably thinking, “Yeah, right, relaxation. Why would somebody adopt a very expensive sport just to relax? After all, you can relax drinking some lemonade in your backyard in your underwear. That’s relaxation.

“You can hit the beach, or you can get some rays at the beach side. Why do you have to spend a few thousand dollars on a set of golf clubs, paying some good money to access the nearest golf course? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Well, it may not make sense for some people, but a lot of people like to relax with a tremendous amount of greenery and with some sort of structure. Even if you suck at golf and you have to swing several times at that ball just to move it, you may get the kind of relaxation and mental release that you need to feel recharged.

The awesome thing about life is that everybody’s solution, at some level or another, is just as valid as everybody else’s. So different strokes, as they say, for different folks.

Connect with Nature

The great thing about hiking is that you’re able to reconnect with nature on so many different levels.

It’s very easy to see nature outside of you. When you look around you and there’s a lot of greenery, you feel fresh. You feel challenged. You feel a deep and profound sense of inner calm.

But, believe it or not, when you are hiking, camping or otherwise communing with nature through physical activity, you are actually reconnecting with nature inside of you.

Usually, people look at this as an inside-out kind of thing. They’re looking out to the world and nature is located around them.

Well, nature is also locked within you. You are, after all, a natural organism, regardless of how seemingly artificial your everyday world may be.

This is the kind of fact that is lost on too many people. They keep thinking that they just need to go to a certain place for them to feel recharged and reconnected. Little do they know that part of the reason why this happens in the first place is because they are reconnecting with an inner natural space.

When you play golf, you trigger both levels of natural interconnectivity. You get recharged when you walk several hundred yards playing around in an endless sea of green.

But you also get recharged internally. Your mind is set at ease when you commune with the part of yourself that is raw, natural, unpolished and, at some level or another, primitive. There is no shame in that game.

By reconnecting with that part of yourself, a lot of the other things in your life actually starts falling into place, and this applies across the board.

Socialization

Golf’s ability to get business deals going is renowned. This is not a secret. In fact, people have known about this for quite some time. In fact, there are many business networking groups that make it a point to set up golf dates among members so people can identify opportunities that they can share and work on business deals.

Believe or not, a lot of the biggest business deals that ever happened in the United States first started as wild ideas on a golf course. It’s not uncommon for companies to be bought and sold because a CEO of one company walked onto the golf game of another CEO. This happens all the time, and at the root of this, of course, is socialization.

Business Networking

The other part of socialization is business networking. Now, you may be thinking that these are one and the same. No, they’re not.

Socialization means people have their guards down. I may be the CEO of a multibillion dollar multinational company, but when I’m on the golf course, I may have my guard down.

So when you come up to me and we shoot the bull, we may be able to open all sorts of business opportunities. It may even include the sale or purchase of a company. This happens all the time. But it all boils down to socialization.

Business networking, on the other hand, is more deliberate. People go to the golf course with the deliberate intent of networking for business purposes.

Believe it or not, the more intentional you are when it comes to business contacts, the less dramatic your results become. I’m not saying that you won’t get any results whatsoever, but often times, you get the name of a low level person.

Because when you’re socializing and you really don’t have anything you’re obviously shooting for, people have their guard down. They’re more likely to cut a bigger deal. That’s just my observation.