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Your swing speed is slow due to inexperience with proper swing mechanics (although you younger, athletic beginners may be the exception). For you women and juniors, clubhead speed is slow due to lack of strength. This causes difficulty getting the ball up in the air as well as lack of distance.
As beginner you may also have trouble getting the clubhead back to the ball in a square position. Your clubhead generally approaches the ball from outside of the target line (out-to-in) and at a steep angle. That usually means your typical shot shape is a slice - a shot that curves right.
You often feel that it's difficult to get the ball up in the air. This can be due to your slow swing speed or just from poor contact. Beginners tend to want to help the ball up by scooping under the ball, so you frequently hit fat shots particularly with your irons. You haven't learned that hitting down on the ball makes it go up. This is also caused by that out-to-in, steep swing path.
In the sand you are clueless. You don't understand yet that to get out of the sand you don't hit the ball, you hit the sand and the ball rides out on the sand.
The Beginners Ideal Set
The ideal set for a beginner would be one that takes into account these swing issues. Maximum forgiveness is the goal.
To help with inconsistent contact an oversized clubhead will help. An oversized club has a larger hitting area so there will be fewer mishits. For irons, perimeter weighting will help make those mishits go a little straighter. Shots off the heel and toe will be more solid. A wide sole will slide through the turf easier and get the ball up higher. Slightly shorter clubs will make accurate club-ball contact a better possibility.
To help with that out-to-in swing path, an offset clubhead will get the clubface back to the ball a little later. That means the clubface will be squarer to the target and not open. This will also keep the hands a little bit in front of the clubhead which will help with those fat shots.
For long shots from the fairway or rough a beginner wants to choose woods and hybrid clubs with the most loft possible and a low center of gravity. More loft means it will be easier to get the ball in the air and it should go a little farther. It will also create more backspin which will counteract the side spin of shots and keep them from curving as much. The result is shots should be a little bit straighter.
A beginner's driver should have a larger head (over 430cc) to increase the size of the hitting area. Additional loft (12-15 degrees) will get the ball in the air. Added loft once again will increase backspin and make those left to right curves less pronounced.
Putting is something that, with practice, could be better. It doesn't take great athletic ability to be a decent putter. It's still hard for a beginner to judge distances so 3 putts are still common. Alignment is an issue because you haven't learned that you want to keep your head directly over the ball.