How can you tell the difference between good golf clubs and bad ones?

I'm looking to by my first set of golf clubs and am trying to find a balance between good and cheap.|||I can tell you for a fact that Spalding clubs are complete junk, so take the first person's response with a grain of salt.





Although this is probably not what you want to here, in general, you get what you pay for with golf clubs. Higher quality clubs are usually the high priced ones. Some brands go a bit over the top with price, but there just aren't many good quality brands under $400 (for irons only).





I suggest you look at some of the equipment guides available at your local bookstore (such as the one put out by Golf Digest), and reputable golf review sites like golfwrx.com. If you're looking at a low cost brand that isn't mentioned in places like this, chances are it's a cheap knock off or low quality brand. The only exception to that would be custom made clubs, which often are not reviewed in such publications, but are usually on par in price with top brands, so you can usually assume they're of good quality.





And stay away from knock off brands. They are made to LOOK like better brands, not perform or hold up like top brands.|||You can find a combination of both. Try Adams GT500s (4-LW). You can get these for under 200.00. You can probably find some Wilsons, or Spauldings for a little cheaper. Basically, you want to go with reputable names in the golf industry. You'll see a lot of knock off brands that might try to trick you, stay away from them. Since this will be your first set of golf clubs, maybe check your paper or internet for some used set of quality clubs. When you are just learning, you could have a 1000.00 set of clubs and still won't hit good. Well good luck!|||There must be a few private golf courses in your area. Go to their golf shop and speak with the pro who may have taken in a set or two as trade-ins. This would be an excellent source for a good set of clubs which are reasonably priced. You could even call so you wouldn't be wasting time.