Stand your child against a wall in the shoes they'd normally wear (not golf shoes — spikes add height and will push you a size too long). Measure from floor to the top of the head. That number is what you shop with.

A useful cross-check is wrist-to-floor: have them stand relaxed, arms hanging, and measure from the wrist crease to the floor. Two kids of the same height with different arm lengths can need different club lengths, and this catches it.

These are the standard junior driver lengths used across the industry. Irons and wedges in a matched set scale down from the driver, so if the driver is right the rest of the set follows.

Past about 168 cm most juniors move into petite or standard adult lengths, and at that point a proper fitting is worth more than a size chart.

A quick in-store test: have your child take their normal address position with the club soled flat on the ground. The butt of the grip should sit roughly two finger-widths from the top of their thighs, with arms hanging naturally and only a slight bend at the elbow. If they have to reach out or stand up tall, the club is too long. If they're hunched over it, it's too short.

Too long is the more damaging error. Kids compensate by standing up through impact and gripping down, which builds a habit that takes years to unlearn.

Not fourteen. A junior playing casual rounds is well served by five or six: a driver or fairway wood, a hybrid, two irons (something like a 7 and a 9), a wedge and a putter. Fewer clubs means a lighter bag they can actually carry, and fewer decisions while they're still learning to make contact.

Add clubs as the gaps become obvious, not before.

Here's the arithmetic that catches parents out. A decent junior set runs a few hundred dollars. A child between 8 and 14 typically outgrows a set every 12 to 18 months. Buy three times through those years and you've spent more than an adult set costs, on clubs that were the right size for about half the time you owned them.

That's the reason we built our Junior Club Rental: $79 a year (or $25 a month) with a $250 fully refundable deposit, and one free size exchange each year as they grow. When they outgrow the set, you swap it — you don't buy another one. Members also get 5% off everything in store and on lessons.

Junior feet grow just as fast, and a golf shoe that's half a size too big slides at the heel through the downswing. We list junior golf shoes in both EU and US sizing so you can order without guessing, and our sizing guides cover the conversions.