I strongly believe that golf equipment has been pushed too far. The game of golf has been dumbed down significantly by trying to offer people large headed 'woods' and large perimeter weighted clubs and plastic balls that don't sidespin.
The best thing we can all do to make our golf game better is to at least practice with (and hopefully play with also) older smaller heavier golf clubs such as blade irons and persimmon woods.
FEEDBACK of the golf swing is necessary for improvement to take place
If you make a poor swing and miss hit the shot you NEED to know about it so you can work on improving your technique. Today's modern clubs allow for NO FEEDBACK as all shots basically feel the same no matter where they are hit on the club face. Without the brain receiving any knowledge about a mis-struck shot poor habits will only become farther entrenched in your swing.
The modern golf club is too upright in it's lie angle which prompts golfers to slap at the ball with their hands instead of using their body to power and rotate the club through impact to a full strong finish.
Club fitters are even doing it wrong by attempting to fit clubs for you based on the few swings they watch you hit into a net or on the range. You would be much better of getting correct instruction and then setting up your clubs to how you WANT TO SWING in the future and build your swing action around your clubs...NOT the other way around.
Clubs are also made too light again initiating the brain and body to swing wildly with the hands to create speed bringing all kinds of problems to the swing such as casting, acceleration too soon in the downswing and flipping the clubface through the impact area making accuracy a hit or miss proposition based on luck.
All club advertisements we see on television and in magazines point to distance and length by offering clubs lighter and lighter each year in head weight, shaft weight and now even grip weight. The companies promote this for revenue to themselves and their share holders but it comes at a huge cost to the golf swing.
You are MUCH better advised to swing a club with some weight and mass to it. It will help with promoting speed in your swing in the correct area and from the correct inside path. This will in turn impart the mass to the ball with increasing velocity and you will still hit long shots but with much more accuracy. The new technology is rewarding the ego of players and who can hit their pitching wedge 150 yards but it is slowly disintegrating whatever decent swing mechanics they had in their system with every passing round or practice session.
Every day I give lessons I hear this common complaint from my students.
"I got this new driver and I can hit it far when I connect but most of the time I have absolutely no control over the ball and my game is getting worse and worse"....well now you know why.
Your shots may go shorter with the older equipment but it is all relative. Today's 6 iron is really a 4 iron based on the lofts and length. The golf industry is obsessed with distance and will do anything to market it...ALL AT THE EXPENSE of better more controlled golf.
Iron lofts have been tweaked stronger so everyone thinks they are hitting the ball father than they actually are. This has made long irons obsolete...so now they have to sell you a hybrid club....cha-ching.. more $$$...and with the modern wedge loft being that of an old 8 or 9 iron, they now have a space that has to be filled between your 47 degree wedge and your 56 degree sand iron...so invest some more $$$in a gap wedge and added even more expense to your game.
It is all brilliantly marketed to attract you to buy a game but the concept places long lasting deterioration to your swing at the same time. Now you have less money in your pocket and a finger scratching your head wondering "What just happened?"
A new latest greatest driver is put on the market every 6 months or so making new claims to be the longest and the farthest and the best. We now see white headed drivers and 'woods' because they have run out of ideas to get people to part with their hard earned cash....so make something in white and call it different.
YET THE AVERAGE HANDICAP of golfers is stagnant.
Ponder that.....and then really assess...
The golf ball doesn't lie...it does what it is told...so in my belief that makes the person holding the club more important than the implement striking the ball.
Improve your swing and you will improve your game. The lightweight, upright lie angled clubs that are marketed today will NOT do it for you.
Here's a great article I found talking about this very thing:(click link)
http://www.startribune.com/yourvoices/51781722.html