The Best Golf Clubs for Intermediate Players: Upgrading Your Gear for the Next Level

If you are beyond the beginner golf stage and looking to continue to elevate your game, congratulations, you are an intermediate golfer. You’re someone who hasn’t mastered the game, but you know more than a beginner and want to start to invest more into your equipment and invest more time in the sport.

That can be a tricky stage of golf, because you’re trying to find what clubs fit you, what the right price point is and how new technology will impact your performance. Fear not, we are here to help you find the best golf clubs for the intermediate golfer and make it as easy as possible to make the best choice for the current situation that you’re in.

It’s important to upgrade your equipment if you have moved out of the beginner stage, because beginner golf clubs are typically going to feature less technology and fewer premium aspects that will impact your game.

You’re probably looking to lower your scores, hit cleaner shots, maybe create more spin around the greens, more distance off the tee or just to lower your handicap. Graduating from beginner status means that you should probably look into graduating from pure forgiveness clubs to a balance of control, feel and distance.

A beginner set is typically built to give you the most forgiveness a manufacturer can get, which means you will sacrifice in performance and feel. With all of that being said, let’s take a look at some options for you as an intermediate golfer.

What is an Intermediate Golfer?

If you’re not sure if you fall into the intermediate golfer category, let’s try to identify some characteristics that will help you figure out where you fall.

The profile

You have developed more consistent contact, but still don’t hit the center of the face as much as you would like. You are still looking for some distance and forgiveness out of your clubs, but also want to explore options that bring better performance and feel. The intermediate golfer that we are thinking about has a handicap between 12 and 20, and has aspirations of playing more golf and learning how to get better.

The equipment need

You are ready to upgrade from your beginner set or the hand-me-downs that you’ve been using as an early golfer. You are looking for irons that aren’t as chunky, have less offset and better feedback in the feel department. This doesn’t mean you are looking to play blades, and you still need forgiveness on mis-hits, but you’re ready for a step up than what you’re currently playing.

Complete Sets vs. Individual Clubs: Which Path Should You Take?

If you’re at an intermediate stage, you are probably moving out of the package set realm. If price point is a concern, then a package set can still work, but the individual irons are typically going to offer more options and variety.

The Package Set Option

That most package sets are for beginners, it doesn’t mean there aren’t price friendly options for the intermediate golfer. Callaway has its XR complete golf package set that is the company’s most premium complete set. It shares some technologies from the flagship clubs and are engineered to maximize distance and forgiveness. You shouldn’t rule out the package set option if you’re looking to keep a lower price point and are still closer to the 22 side of the handicap scale.

Individual Golf Clubs

For an intermediate golfer, it is probably time to start looking at individual clubs and possibly custom clubs. We highly recommend that you get fitted, because not every club is for every golfer. Getting fitted takes the guess work out of it for you to figure out which clubs are right for you.

You might need to lengthen your shafts, or shorten them, go flat or upright in your irons, you might need a draw biased driver or a low spin driver. It doesn’t make sense to guess, so go get fitted.

While package sets are a good option in some cases, they are assuming that one brand makes the right club for you in every category. After you get fitted, you might find yourself in one brand for wedges, another for irons, a different brand for driver and metals and another company for putter. The options are out there, so why not get the clubs that fit your game and continue to help you achieve your golf goals.

By looking at each club individually, you can build out the perfect set for you. Starting with driver, you can figure out if you need more forgiveness, more distance, less or more spin, help with a slice or a more stable driver.

The same is true for irons, where you can test whether you like the look of a smaller iron, or are ok with a bigger, more forgiving model. If you want more offset or less, if you want a players distance iron to get more distance, or if you want a game improvement iron to minimize your misses.

Ultimately, this will be your preference, but we recommend that you get fitted for clubs and test out as many as possible to find the perfect fit. The most expensive club isn’t always the best option and the hottest model isn’t always going to fit you.

Off the Tee: Finding the Best Intermediate Driver

If you consider yourself an intermediate golfer, you should probably be looking at an upgrade for driver. As your abilities improve, you want to give yourself the best opportunity to perform at your highest level.

Upgrade doesn’t have to be more expensive; it might just be a different driver or different settings. Beginners are typically looking for more launch and more forgiveness. They could be in a higher lofted driver to help get the ball in the air or a maximum forgiveness driver that might sacrifice speed and distance.

For someone who considers themselves an intermediate golfer, a high lofted driver might not perform as well for you. If you have a 12-degree driver, you could be losing out on distance if you’re hitting the ball too high.

A beginner golfer might have a draw bias driver that helps fight a slice, where an intermediate golfer might hook the ball with that same driver.

It will vary from golfer to golfer, but there are plenty of options for intermediate golfers depending on the need.

If you want maximum forgiveness, but don’t want to sacrifice speed, you could look at the PING G440 K driver. PING’s G440 model is the core driver that also offers forgiveness and speed and will likely fit a wide variety of golfers. It offers high MOI, but PING was able to strategically move mass and keep speed high, as well.

Titleist’s GTS2 is a very stable option with a ton of speed built in with a proprietary material that has seen a lot of success. Callaway’s Quantum Max is a great option that would provide speed and forgiveness, as are the Qi4D and Qi4D Max from TaylorMade.

On the forgiving models, you will see manufacturers talk about MOI, which stands for Moment of Inertia. When a driver has high MOI, it is built in a weight to help reduce twisting at the moment of impact. If a ball hits on the toe or the heel, the golf club is going to want to twist, which will cause spin that will make the ball go offline.

Having high MOI helps reduce that twisting and keep the ball straighter and more online.

Outside of the actual driver model, an intermediate golfer will also want to start to pay attention to what shaft they’re using. Depending on your swing speed, your spin and launch conditions, you could be in a regular, stiff or extra stiff shaft. Different model shafts will help with different aspects of your swing, so it’s important to look at a variety of shafts, as well.

It’s important to match up the shaft with your swing, because an improper shaft fitting can make a difference in the performance of your shot and where the ball ends up. For instance, a Fujikura Ventus driver shaft can be blue, red or black. The red shafts are for golfers looking for mid to high launch and spin, while the blue shaft is for mid-launch and low spin and the black shaft is for penetrating ball flight and increased speeds.

Precision Play: Selecting the Best Intermediate Golf Irons

Similar to drivers, iron sets have a ton of options and variety that cater to different golfers. When picking out irons, you’ll first want to figure out what you’re looking for out of your irons.

Do you need more distance, do you need more forgiveness, do you want more feel and workability. Each manufacturer will have those options within their lines and have different models to fit your needs.

If you’re looking for more forgiveness, you’ll want to check out game improvement irons. Those models are typically equipped with more perimeter weighting and will be slightly thicker from the top down to add more forgiveness.

More perimeter weighting distributes weight on the edges of the iron head to reduce twisting on impact and improve MOI. With a game improvement iron, you will also likely see more offset, which pushes the clubface back from the hosel, which ultimately helps you get the clubface closed at impact.

These designs are typically cast, as well, which means the club head was created by pouring liquid metal into a mold. A forged iron is created from a solid billet of steel that is shaped into the club head. Typically, a forged iron is going to have a softer feel, provide more feedback to the golfer and are generally more consistent in composition.

The clubs will then be built into either cavity back irons, muscle backs or blades. A cavity back has a cavity or hole in the back of the club head that allows the manufacturer to push mass lower in the head and around the perimeter, which makes cavity backs a forgiving option.

It will typically have a thicker sole and less feel, but will have more stability on mis-hits.

A blade is for very skilled golfers who want a smaller looking iron with control and feel. It will be less forgiving than the cavity back and will be much more difficult for a high-handicapper to hit consistently.

A muscle back is somewhat in between the blade and cavity back with a slimmer appearance, but more forgiveness than the blade. You will still get a good deal of feel out of muscle backs, but these are typically for better players.

For an intermediate golfer, you will typically fall into the game improvement or players distance irons. The players distance irons are built with stronger lofts, added forgiveness, but will have a smaller footprint for better visual appeal.

A few examples of players distance irons would include Titleist’s T250 irons, TaylorMade’s P790, PING i540 irons, Mizuno M15, Srixon ZXi5, Callaway Apex Ai200, and the PXG 0311P Gen8 irons would all fall under that category.

For game improvement irons, you could look at the PING G440 irons, TaylorMade Qi, Titleist T350, Callaway Quantum Max, Mizuno JPX925 Hot Metal, Srixon ZXiR, and the Wilson DYNAPWR irons among others.

Best Ladies Golf Clubs for Intermediate Players

If you’re a woman and have moved up from a beginner set, it can be a good idea to look into new clubs. The beginner sets will come standard in shorter shafts and very lightweight.

You might still want that in your new clubs, but if you swing with some speed and want more distance, you could look at some different options.

There are a few manufacturers who make premium package sets that fit well for better golfers. That includes the XXIO Womens 14 sets. XXIO creates its clubs specifically for seniors and women with a lightweight configuration, but also uses premium materials.

Callaway has its REVA women’s set that is specifically engineered to optimize launch, distance, forgiveness and playability. The driver has a composite crown material that optimizes weight for distance and forgiveness and is a great option for an intermediate ladies golfer.

TaylorMade’s Kalea Gold package set was designed with feedback from a group of women golfers to optimize each club for their game. Kalea Gold has more of TaylorMade’s flagship technologies than ever before, bringing a premium option for women.

Outside of the package sets, Titleist’s GTS2 and GT1 drivers and fairway woods would be an excellent option for an intermediate golfer looking for distance and stability out of their driver and metals. The Titleist Womens T250 irons are a players distance iron with added forgiveness.

There are plenty of other options, but any women golfers looking for new golf clubs should factor in what shafts are in the clubs, the club head make up, weight and length. Changing those combinations can impact performance and could make it easier or more difficult to hit.

Buying Guide: How to Choose Your Next Club Upgrade

As you move along in your golf journey, you will start to figure out what you need from your clubs and what you do and don’t like.

We can’t recommend getting fitted for new golf clubs enough as it can be very difficult to guess what’s best for you, or buy clubs off the shelf without any customization. At Carl’s Golfland, we offer two forms of fittings.

Our standard fitting is complementary with the purchase of a club and is very effective in helping you figure out the right club for you. If you’re looking for a driver or an iron set, you can demo any of our clubs on our range. Once you narrow down your choices, one of our club specialists will take you into our fitting center and have you hit balls with a launch monitor analyzing your swing.

Our club specialist will then make recommendations to loft, lie, shaft and grip to make sure it’s the best performing option for you.

Our performance fitting requires you to schedule an appointment and can be made for individual clubs or your whole bag. In that fitting, one of our dedicated fitters will walk you through the entire fitting process with a TrackMan launch monitor to provide suggestions based off of the data.

The fitter will exhaust all options with different manufacturers, shafts, loft and lie to get you into the right clubs.

If you’re not able to come in to a Carl’s Golfland store, make sure you research clubs ahead of time and know what you’re looking for. Research shafts and find options that you think will help your performance. Find if you need a regular, stiff or extra stiff shaft and whether you’re looking at steel or graphite shafts, as well.

Another area to pay attention to is your wedges. Most package sets will come with a pitching wedge and a sand wedge, but that likely isn’t the best option for a better player. Look into yardage gapping and ensuring that you have the right wedge for each scenario that you face on the course.

If you need a wedge for full shots, a wedge for the bunker, for high flop shots or versatile shots around the green, getting the right wedges can save you strokes in your short game.

Frequently Asked Questions about Intermediate Clubs

What are the overall best golf clubs for intermediate players?

There isn’t one way to answer that without going through the fitting process. You’ll need to first identify what you’re looking for out of your golf clubs in terms of performance. Do you want more forgiveness, more distance, more feel? Based on that answer, you can start to narrow down your choices and find the right clubs for you. Go through the fitting process to put data to reality and spend your hard-earned money on the perfect set of golf clubs instead of guessing.

What is a highly recommended golf club setup for an intermediate player’s needs?

Each golfer is going to be different in what they need from a setup standpoint, but you’re allowed to have 14 clubs in your bag at a time.

You will need a putter and driver, but from there, you can customize your bag setup as you’d like. If you want to carry more fairway woods or hybrids instead of longer irons, you can work that combination into your bag.

Fairway woods and hybrids are typically easier to hit higher and stop on the green on longer shots than long irons.

You can carry two wedges, three wedges or four wedges, but need to stay under that 14-club threshold.

Should an intermediate golfer get custom fitted for golf clubs?

Being an intermediate golfer can be challenging, because there are a lot of options that could fit your game. It’s crucial that you get fitted, so you know that your clubs are right for your swing. There are so many nuances and details of the golf club that it can be intimidating and difficult to understand.

Fitters will take all the guesswork out of it for you and at Carl’s Golfland, we have an unbiased take on what we fit you into. We just want the best results and that could be a number of brands and clubs.

For example, if you’re hitting the ball to the left, but feel you’re putting a good swing on it, you could need to flatten the lie angle on your irons to get it to straighten out. Or vice versa and put them more upright to go left.

Your grip size could be too small for your hands, or too big for your hands. Your shaft could be too stiff or not stiff enough for your swing. You don’t have to guess at that and our fitters at Carl’s Golfland will walk you through the entire process step-by-step.

Make sure to sign up for your fitting today and check out all the intermediate club options at Carl’s Golfland here.