Keep repeating this: "FIT IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN PRICE". A $3000 set of sticks that doesn't fit you will be a $3000 piece of junk. A $300 set that fits you will allow you to play at your maximum potential.
The price of the individual pieces has VERY little to do with anything. The #1 iron shaft on the PGA tour costs about $9 a pop retail and the #1 grip about $2. The survey of the top 100 players in the world driver shafts shows a HUGE number of guys hitting shafts that cost less than $50. And remember, those guys get their clubs free and can use any shaft on earth. They're not hitting $50 shafts in their drivers to save money, they're using them because that's what fits them best.
The big thing to remember is that the best players in the world are not using off the rack clubs. Yes, they're hitting Taylormade and Callaway and Titleist because that's what they're paid to play. But before they put a stick into play they go through extensive fitting and testing. The might start with an off the rack model, but then it's totally customized to fit them. The lofts are adjusted perfectly. The lie angles are adjusted to what they need. The shafts are changed to their favorite model, hand selected, spined and FLO-ed, frequency checked and installed correctly. The swingweights are set to their preference. The grips are selected by style, then size and weight. They're built up with tape to get a custom feel. EVERY aspect of the club is checked and rechecked until it fits them EXACTLY right. You should expect the same. Golf clubs DO NOT FIT off the rack. It's that simple. How do 5'5" 65 year olds and 6'5" teenage linebackers swing the same clubs? They can't. But if you walk into a pro shop all you see is one size fits all. The only difference will be in the shaft flex and maybe material. There won't be options for lie angle, grip choice and size, loft gapping, trajectory adjustment through shaft kickpoint, etc. They just sell clubs without caring that they fit. If they don't work, you'll just toss them in a closet and buy another set. That's great for them, so why should they care? Check out ebay, there are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of barely used clubs for sale constantly. Why? Because a lot of morona bought by brand rather than fit, so they didn't work. That's why they're for sale, nobody sells clubs that they hit well. The stuff up for sale is stuff that flat out failed to perform as expected.
You absolutely need to get custom fit if you want to play your best. The very simple reality is that I've never seen a player who got custom fit and failed to improve immediately. However, I know hundreds of guys who buy expensive new off the rack clubs every year and who still never get any better. But do you need to be fit with high end expensive clubs or can you survive with clubs made of less expensive pieces? You can almost certainly be fit perfectly by clubs that are made up of pieces that cost very little. Let's go back to the #1 iron shaft and grip on the PGA tour. That grip works well for many people and you won't save a bundle by using something cheaper, so lets use that in our math. As for the shaft, the model the pros prefer, the TT Dynamic Gold, is actually a poor fit for most amateurs unless they're very good players. It's a low hitting, very tip stiff model that has the right characteristics for very good players, but exactly the wrong characteristics to help most amateurs. It costs about $9 each while most weekenders would be better fit by something with a softer tip, a higher trajectory and less weight and there are many of those in the $5 range. Still, lets use the good one and its $9 price tag. If you do the math on that you come up with $88 ($9+$2 x 8 clubs) for a set of irons 3-PW. Good component heads can cost anywhere from $5 to $35 a pop and most are at the bottom end of that scale. Figure $10-12 each for a normal, non-forged head. That's another 80-$90. So you're looking at well under $200 for the pieces alone and that's for parts that will work, that will fit and that will perform every bit as well as $1000 pro shop sets. A Callaway Big Bertha with a TT DG shaft that sells for $100 per club will not hit the ball higher, straighter or better than a good component with the same style head and the same shaft that can be built for $25 a club. Over 8 clubs in a normal iron set $100 instead of $25 is the difference between $800 for the pro shop set and $200 for the custom set.
So, can you buy a set of custom irons for $200? Nope, not even close. The big difference between the custom set and the off the rack set is the skill and labor of the fitter. The off the rack set is assembled in China by barely trained workers who simply glue pieces together. That's why the sets are not sets and why they only come in one size. That's also why they're complete crap. Making them match and making it fit perfectly is a lot of work that takes special skilss and special tools. You will pay a lot for fitting and labor. That set of irons that's $200-$250 in parts might cost $500 out the door. It's the same principle as auto repair. A $200 part might cost $300 in labor to install because the mechanic has the skill, knowledge and tools to do the job properly while you don't. So you can't get a good set of clubs built dirt cheap. Talent is expensive and it's the talent of the fitter/builder that's the difference between clubs that will be a closet in 3 months because they don't work and clubs that will be in the bag for many years because they do.
That being said, DO NOT just walk into a fitter and say "hook me up". There are a lot of great fitters who would sell you exactly what you need and nothing more. Like in every other business, there are plenty who would take advantage of that trust and set you up with whatever they could make the most money on. If a $700 set fits you perfectly and suits your game perfectly a $1700 set or a $2700 set will offer no improvement. A $50 iron head will probably not outperform a good quality $12 iron head. A $300 driver head will not outperform a good $70 driver head and a $300 driver shaft will not necessarily outperform a quality $50 shaft. You can shop around for fitters just like you do for anything else. Walk in and ask them questions. See what brands they carry, a good shop will have a wide variety and will not steer you towards one particular brand. Ask for referrals. Ask them about the fitting process. Talk about prices up front. See if they would be willing to rebuild your current set to meet your needs rather than selling you expensive new gear. Sometimes a loft/lie adjustment and a new set of grips can be the difference between night and day. Sometimes a new $30 shaft in your existing driver head can turn a dog that you can't hit at all into a wonderstick that you love more than life itself. Make sure they're PCS and CGA certified.
Most importantly, don't take advice from people on forums who steer you towards Callaway or Taylormade or whatever brand they like without knowing anything about your game. That's where all the crap that didn't work and got put on e-bay comes from.
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