Golfing Noob: A note on equipment

My golf clubs get a bad rap.

Not by me, of course. Of the many, many faults of my golf game, I think "bad clubs" falls somewhere below "bat hallucinations" among things that should worry me.

Two weeks ago I played 18 holes for the first time in about seven years. One of my friends, "Chris" (actual name: Chris), insisted I need to buy a whole new set of clubs if I'm going to play this game. Chris may have gotten the idea from the fact that my driver and 3-wood, both steel-shafted Stan Thompson "Ginty" clubs I found on eBay about a decade ago -- are each held together with duct tape.

Apparently the miracle adhesive can fix anything but a golfer's reputation.

I admitted that I need to get the clubs repaired; it's just a matter of rewrapping the thingy around the hosel (hosel??) where the club head meets the shaft (hee!).

His response? "You don't need to fix it, you just need to replace it."

Sigh.

Here's the thing about golf clubs, though: They're expensive. A new set of even the cheapest, no-name golf clubs runs more than $150. Whereas my clubs, for which I paid between $1 and $2 at thrift stores in the late 1990s (save the Gintys), are already paid for.

Now, if I should find a roll of $20s hiding behind a bush some day or become a rich and famous blogger, I might change my mind. But blowing hundreds of dollars on new golf clubs is hardly worth it for a lousy golfer. I'm keeping my $30 set of clubs. Until they break.

I did shelve the Gintys, for now at least. During my thrift-store buying spree, I snatched every lefty club I could find. So I have three sets of woods I can throw in my bag whenever I hit the golf course.

As I pursue my goal of breaking 100, here are the accessories to my crimes against golf:

Woods