One of the most important aspects of junior golf is well-fitting equipment. Ensuring proper fit while introducing a young player to the game is crucial in avoiding potentially detrimental swing tendencies and even injury.
Shorties Golf decided that there was a lack of good options when it came to clubs for young junior players and set about designing a range of junior sets to plug that gap and hopefully sit amongst the best golf club sets for kids. Coming in four sizes, Tiny, Tot, Mini, and Junior, the sets cater for children from 34 inches in height all the way up to 51 inches. Myself and my two young daughters took them out for a thorough test…
The first thing that struck us when pulling the Junior set from the box was the bold, bright colors. Shorties Golf were kind enough to provide two sets, one in red and the other in blue, and both went down extremely well with their respective new owners. The quality of the bag was a real plus point too. Other junior bags I have picked up in the past have felt a touch flimsy, but despite being nice and light, there was a really robust feel to the bag, emphasized by a very high quality and strong stand. Plenty of storage space for balls, tees, drinks, and extra layers made our trips to the driving range and nearby short course a lot easier from a parental logistics standpoint too. It even comes with a handy rain cover.
The set make-up was spot on for me. Not too many clubs to confuse the younger player, but just enough to make the kids feel like “real professionals”. There is a driver, hybrid, 7 iron, pitching wedge, and putter which covers all requirements at this stage. The clubs themselves look great and the construction is more than adequate to cope with the swing speeds that will likely be imparted upon them.
The woods made a very satisfying high-pitched impact sound which both my kids enjoyed and the generous lofts really helped them get the ball airborne which is crucial to their enjoyment at this stage of their development.
As a PGA Professional, it was very reassuring to see my two children in comfortable posture and not struggling to hoist a heavy cut-down adult club into a backswing position, and the well-thought-out weighting was central to that. It is not just the length of clubs for kids that is important, the static weight and swing weight of their equipment are arguably even more important in encouraging good technique and Shorties has most certainly considered this.
My one gripe would be that the hybrid and putter didn’t come with headcovers, and knowing the slightly clumsy disposition of my offspring, I would imagine that both of these clubs will mark up pretty quickly.
Overall, I think that the Shorties Golf Junior package set is a fantastic product. The fun and exciting aesthetics massively appealed to the kids, while the technical specs and functionality ticked all my boxes as a parent. The prices range between $169 and $199 depending on the size you require and Shorties also runs an excellent program that enables previous purchasers to donate sets they have grown out of to their foundation in exchange for a healthy 20% discount on the next size up.
