Sky,
It seems as if the trend here is to go back closer to the 'way it was' with equipment accessibility being related more towards tiers than levels. I'd offer this solution for ya, if interested.
Add more tiers, and have equipment specific to those tiers which is unlocked when the tier level is reached. There needs to be some tier specific equipment available when a new tier is reached, to go with the new tee-box assignments associated with the specific tiers.
Then, use the 'level' rankings to unlock more advanced, yet still tier-specifc clubs as one progresses through the new tier.
in essence, a first set of tier specific clubs opens up as soon as a new tier is reached, and then more advanced tier specific clubs are opened as the levels increase within that tier. . . . . If honest improvement isn't made (sandbagging....) within the tier, only the low-level clubs are available for that particular tier.