I have spent a long time behind the counter at Golf 360, and a lot of the same beliefs come through the door week after week. Some are harmless. Others quietly cost golfers money, or hold their game back for years.
Here are six I hear constantly, and what I actually think about each one. A couple of these are not great for business to say out loud. I would rather be honest than sell you something you do not need.
Myth one: a new driver will give you 20 more metres
This is the big one, and it is the one the marketing works hardest on.
The reality is that driver technology moves slowly. Year to year the gains are small, and they are mostly about forgiveness rather than raw distance. If your driver is one or two years old, a new one is unlikely to change much. If it is five years old or more, there is a genuine case for an upgrade.
Where new drivers do make a real difference is when the one you are playing does not fit you. Wrong loft, wrong shaft, wrong weighting. That is a fitting problem rather than a technology problem, and the gains there can be significant.
If you want to know how much things really have moved, we looked at that in how much golf equipment has changed in the last 30 years.
Myth two: stiff shafts are for strong golfers
I hear this almost every week, usually from a fit bloke in his forties who plays rugby or goes to the gym.
Shaft flex has very little to do with how strong you are. It is about how fast you swing the club and how you load it through the downswing. Plenty of strong golfers swing at a speed that suits a regular flex, and plenty of slighter golfers generate enough speed for stiff.
Playing a shaft that is too stiff usually shows up as a low, weak ball flight and a loss of distance. It is one of the most common things we correct in a fitting bay. If you are not sure where you sit, what shaft flex should I use goes through it properly.
Myth three: club fitting is only worth it once you are good
This one genuinely frustrates me, because it has it backwards.
Better players are more adaptable. A low handicapper can pick up almost any club and manipulate it into working. A beginner or higher handicapper cannot do that, which means ill fitting clubs punish them far more, not less.
You do not need to be able to strike it well to be fitted. A good fitter works with what you do now, not some idealised swing you might have in three years. Starting with clubs that suit you removes a whole layer of difficulty while you are learning.
We covered the honest version of this in is club fitting worth it.
Myth four: premium golf balls are wasted on higher handicappers
This one is half true, which is why it survives.
The half that is true: if you lose six balls a round, playing a premium ball is an expensive habit and the performance benefit is not worth the cost. Play something durable and affordable until you are keeping the ball in play.
The half that is wrong: the idea that a higher handicapper cannot feel or use the difference. Where a premium ball earns its money is on and around the greens, and every golfer chips and putts. A softer cover behaves differently on a short pitch regardless of your handicap.
The better question is not what your handicap is, but how many balls you lose. If it is one or two a round, play the good ball. Our guide to golf balls for high handicappers works through the options, or you can browse the full golf ball range.
Myth five: you need to help the ball into the air
This is the most common technical misunderstanding in golf, and it is completely logical. The ball is on the ground and you want it in the air, so you try to lift it.
With an iron, the opposite is true. You hit down on the ball, the ball is compressed against the turf, and the loft on the clubface does the lifting. The divot happens after the ball, not before it. Trying to scoop it up leads to thin shots and heavy shots, which is why the same golfer often hits both in the same round.
The driver is the exception, because the ball is teed up and you catch it slightly on the way up. That exception is part of why the myth sticks around.
Myth six: hitting driver at the range is the best use of practice time
It is the most fun, certainly. It is rarely the most useful.
Most shots in a round of golf happen from inside 100 metres, and that is where most amateur scores are actually lost. A golfer who spends an hour chipping and putting will usually take more strokes off their handicap than one who spends the same hour hitting drivers.
That does not mean never hit driver. It means the ratio most golfers use is upside down. If you have an hour, spend a decent chunk of it on the short stuff and the rest on full swings with a target and a purpose rather than raking balls.
There is more on this in why most golfers practise the wrong way at the driving range.
The thread running through all six
Look at those six together and a pattern shows up. Five of them push golfers towards spending money on the wrong thing, or spending effort in the wrong place.
The clubs in your bag matter, and getting them right matters a lot. But they matter most when they suit you specifically, and least when you are buying them to solve a problem that equipment was never going to solve.
If you are not sure which side of that line you are on, come and have a chat with us at Golf 360 in Mount Maunganui. We will tell you honestly if a new driver is going to help, or if you would be better off putting that money towards a few lessons instead. Either way you will leave knowing where you stand.
Happy golfing,
Scott Pickett
PGA Professional
Founder – Golf 360
Mount Maunganui
