When do you upgrade equipment?

[Crow]

The Pro 225 is hollow headed with thin reactive face for extra distance.

Like nearly all clubs today they're to make the game easier. Why not just play off the front tees and save money?

 

[Voyager EMH]

The Pro 225 is hollow headed with thin reactive face for extra distance.

Like nearly all clubs today they're to make the game easier. Why not just play off the front tees and save money?

When I think I need "extra distance" from my 7-iron, I hit my 6-iron.

Any set of irons might have "extra distance" from another set of irons. So any set of irons can claim to have "extra distance".

- Over to you, @Backsticks.

 

[Backsticks]

When I think I need "extra distance" from my 7-iron, I hit my 6-iron.

Any set of irons might have "extra distance" from another set of irons. So any set of irons can claim to have "extra distance".

- Over to you, @Backsticks.

Yes. It takes years of research, and huge investment, to be able to cast a 27 deg iron head with a 7 instead of a 5. But as you note, the beauty is the extra length that you then unleash from that new 7 iron.

 

[Orikoru]

It varies greatly for me. If it works, it stays, but you never know when you're going to go off something. I'd had my driver 3 and a half years, woods for 2 and a half to 3 years. I kept my old irons for 5 years before changing them, old putter was also 5 years. On the flipside, my previous hybrid I used for only 6 months, decided it wasn't really working for me and changed it.

Tempted to upgrade the driver later this year, but the problem is if I want it fitted the prices are absolutely insane now. So maybe I won't bother.

 

[Imurg]

It varies greatly for me. If it works, it stays, but you never know when you're going to go off something. I'd had my driver 3 and a half years, woods for 2 and a half to 3 years. I kept my old irons for 5 years before changing them, old putter was also 5 years. On the flipside, my previous hybrid I used for only 6 months, decided it wasn't really working for me and changed it.

Tempted to upgrade the driver later this year, but the problem is if I want it fitted the prices are absolutely insane now. So maybe I won't bother.

You could go for a fitting, may cost a few quid, and then scour the 2nd hand market for the same spec...

 

[Voyager EMH]

The OP focusses on the driver, woods and hybrids.
But the thread title states "equipment", so I thought I would describe my sets of irons over the years.

In 1973 I "upgraded" from a couple of hickory shafted irons that my dad had cut down to my size some years earlier to Dunlop Blue Flash junior sized irons 3, 5, 7 & 9.


The rubber grips and steel shafts were definitely an upgrade. The longer shafts that I needed produced shots of longer length. But I was not able to compare these with longer shafted hickories to make a truer comparison of upgrading.
All the subsequent changes I consider to be "updating" rather than "upgrading", because there was no noticeable improvement to my playing of the game of golf. I made improvements that were nothing to do with switching sets.
When I was growing too tall for the junior sized clubs, my dad was suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis and struggling to play. This gave me the chance to play with his Slazenger Ambassador clubs that he had bought in 1969.



Of course, the longer shafts gave more length to my shots, but these were older clubs than my junior sized ones - neither upgrading or updating.

In 1977 I acquired my first set of full-sized brand new irons.
Dunlop Maxfli International 2-SW.



No real discernible difference to my golf play. I was already down to 5 handicap with the Slazenger Ambassadors that were 8 years old, but very good clubs.
Any further improvements would be down to me rather than the iron, but I felt that brand new clubs might also give the push to do so.
I won my first club championship with them in 1991, fourteen years after acquiring them.

The following year, I thought I needed another push and got some Ram Laser Fx forged perimeter weighted irons 1-SW.


Played with these from 1992 to 2008 and won two club scratch knockouts and a few other comps. Well into my 40s, I got my handicap to its lowest 2.7.
Together with a TM R360 driver, this was a great period.
In 2008 I updated to Ping G10 and i10 irons. I won't include a picture of these - but find your own if necessary .
Won the club championship with them in 2019 - only 11 years after acquiring them that time!

Last year I was lucky to get hold of some Reid Lockhart bladed irons 3-SW. These are more than 10 years old, not certain of the date, but fantastic condition.



Now I have a choice of irons, depending on course/weather conditions.
So it is 15 years since I had brand new irons.
I see no need to buy brand new anymore, because the availability of good clubs that are only 3 to 4 years old has much improved thanks to the internet and so many more people being so easily convinced to buy new irons very frequently.
Updating rather than upgrading is my experience of acquiring brand new irons.
Unless you've bought some unsuitable crocks, improvement/upgrading is mostly down to the player.

That is my story - thank you for reading.