Golf bags are one of the most essential things you are going to need if you enjoy golf. The thing is, it is very difficult for people to choose the right golf bags.
Basically, you can distinguish between four broad types of golf bags. There are the small portable pencil bags, the carry bags, the cart bags and the tour bags.
I will now explain the 4 different types of golf bags and the differences between them:
Different Types of Golf Bags
Pencilbag
The Pencilbag is very small and handy, fits great in the trunk and is easy to carry on the course. It is great for a quick 9 hole round where you don’t necessarily need all the clubs.
Because that’s where we come to the minus points of the Pencilbag. Since it is very small, it hardly offers space for 14 clubs plus balls plus whatever else you take with you on the round.
Anyone who has ever put too many clubs in a bag that is too small knows the problems when pulling out the clubs. Something always gets stuck and in the end you accidentally empty half the bag.
Therefore, the Pencilbag is suitable for fast rounds, without large cutlery and luggage.
Carrybag
The carry bags are significantly larger than the pencil bags and offer space for the entire set of clubs and other equipment.
Carrybags usually have small fold-out legs on the bag. At the bottom of the bag is a small mechanism that, when touching the ground, unfolds the legs and you can conveniently put the bag down and choose a club.
In addition, one has carrying straps to strap the bag comfortably on one’s back. The sporty golfer carries his bag over umpteen rounds without any problems.
You get everything in it that you need for a round and it is still relatively handy.
However, if you have umpteen balls and two bottles of water in the bag, the carry bag can become quite heavy in the course of the round and possibly strain the shoulders and back.
I once read an article that said you lose 2-3 strokes per round carrying the bag. Simply because your shoulders and back tire faster and thus affect your swing.
Also, you sometimes have some problems when you want to attach the carry bag to a trolley because the stand mechanism is often in the way.
However, the stand bag is still the all-rounder among golf bags and, in my opinion, no golfer should be without it.
Cart bag
Cartbags are even larger than the Carrybags and offer even more space for clubs and accessories. They fit ideally on the golf trolley and can be fastened there in the best possible way.
Cartbags usually have individual dividers, i.e. compartments for the clubs, whereas carrybags often have larger dividers that can hold several clubs at once.
In addition to the golf equipment, the cart bag can easily hold rain gear and enough provisions for a round or two of golf.
I personally have everything for a 36-hole tournament, as well as a 24-hour golf marathon. Therefore, the storage space is already enormous.
Just don’t try to carry a loaded cart bag for a round. Even if a shoulder strap is included.
That is then really quite heavy. It also no longer fits so loosely in the trunk of the car, although of course that always depends on the car 🙂
Tourbag
The Tourbag is more or less the big brother of the Cartbag and is the top of the line golf bag. Once the same bag as the pros use.
But do you need it? The tour bags certainly offer a tad more space than the cart bags, but you shouldn’t take half your household with you to the golf course.
In terms of design, there are really beautiful tour bags, but without a caddy and advertising contract, it is rather nothing for the normal recreational golfer.
Conclusion
I would take a two-pronged approach and buy both a carry bag and a cart bag. For the beginning, the carrybag is certainly enough, but if you play often and regularly, you will appreciate the advantages of a cartbag.
What should every golfer have in their bag?
The golf bags of professional players more or less resemble an entire suitcase. They are big and heavy and bulging.
But what do you really need in your golf bag on a round of golf apart from the clubs?
First of all, there are the accessories for the round: Let’s start with the most important things.
Golf Glove
Well, strictly speaking, the glove is not in the bag, but on your hand, but a spare glove can also be very useful. For example, if it starts to rain, it’s great to have a rain glove in the bag.
Tees
Next up is the tees. You should always have a bag of tees with you. There are shorter tees and longer tees.
The longer ones are used for the driver and the shorter ones for irons and woods. So depending on which club you prefer to play off the tee, you should also choose your tees.
I would recommend using wooden ones for the short tees. Plastic tees don’t rot on the golf course if they get broken or lost, but wooden tees do.
After all, you should think about the environment a little bit.
However, I have found that green and black wooden tees tend to disappear into the thick green grass. Therefore I advise to use simple white wooden tees.
For the long tees, I usually use plastic. Because the large tees do not get lost so quickly and also last much longer with me than the long wooden teas.
Pitch fork
An attentive ranger checks your pitch fork before every start. With the pitch fork you can remove pitch marks from the greens and prevent annoying dents in your putting line.
Depending on what kind of courses you play, you can either use plastic pitch forks or metal ones.
I often play on a course with hard greens where cheap plastic pitch forks often reach their limits and break. So I always use a metal pitch fork with thin tines to get into the ground better.
Golf balls
Depending on the course and your skill level, you may want to take a few balls with you on your round. I remember a Web.com Tour player who shot an even 32 balls in 2 rounds!
Well, it probably won’t be quite that wild, but I always have 10 balls handy. You can find out which ball suits your playing strength here.
Ball marker and pen
You should always have a ball marker in your bag to mark your ball on the green.
Of course, it’s even more practical to have one in your pocket. By the way, poker chips are very popular as markers!
The ball marker also comes with a waterproof pen, which you can use to mark your ball and possibly draw a line on it. This line can be a great help for alignment when putting.
Towel
You can use the towel in your golf bag for several purposes. You can use it to clean the clubs and the clubface as well as the golf balls.
And if you only use the lower half of the towel for this purpose, you can use the upper half of the towel to dab off sweat, for example.
A little tip: Wet one corner of the towel before the round. This will help you get the dirt off the club face and balls.
Club brush
If you have really stubborn dirt in the grooves of your clubs, a club brush might help. Usually you can get just about anything clean with a towel, but sometimes you need to get rougher.
Club brushes are available with normal plastic bristles, but also with metal bristles. If you don’t want to brush over your clubface to avoid scratches, you can also just use a tee to clean your grooves.
Rangefinder
The rangefinder is already a less in the advanced category. When you start to get something like consistency in your strokes, it makes an incredible amount of sense to know how far you can hit and how far it is to the flag.
There are few things more annoying than hitting a shot that flies right to the flag and then is suddenly 15m too short because you took the wrong iron.
There are two nice little helpers to remedy this. The GPS rangefinder as a watch or voice buddy and the laser rangefinder.
The GPS watch
If you wear a watch anyway, GPS watches are super practical. A quick glance at the wrist and you have the right distance to the green. They’re great for getting started, but they have some pros and cons.
The laser rangefinder
With the laser you can easily measure all obstacles and objects on the course. Yes, even the flight in front of you on the course can be lasered. The golf laser usually costs a little more than a watch and it takes longer to measure, but you get accurate readings.
Round food
An 18-hole round can take a couple of hours. It is advisable to pack enough water and some snacks.
By the way, the pros appreciate nut mixes and fruit for the round, since sweets like chocolate bars can raise insulin levels in the short term, and liver loaf rolls can be quite heavy on the stomach. I know what I’m talking about.
Golf umbrella
The umbrella should not be missing in any golf bag. Unfortunately, the weather is not always in the golfer’s favor and can change quickly on the course.
So it’s good to have a good and stable golf umbrella with you to keep yourself and your equipment dry.
Tip from me: Make sure that the umbrella is big enough to protect you and your bag. In addition, you should not be stingy here and buy a robust model.
Because gusts of wind disassemble cheap umbrellas faster than you can say “crack”.
Good golf umbrellas either have a spring at the top that prevents them from flipping over, or they have ventilation slits at the top that let wind through but not rain.
What belongs in the golf bag? Now you know. So you have the most important things with you in any case and nothing can happen to you on the round. I left out the things like drivers because those are obvious.
