Like most golfers (or maybe not), I find it difficult to find a GOOD golf bag. I've had the golf bag that comes with a package set of clubs. I've had a golf bag of my favorite team. I've had a golf bag from two major golf brands. One thing I've learned with the four different bags I've had - NOT ALL GOLF BAGS ARE CREATED EQUAL.
I'm not going to go into too much detail on the bag that came with the package set of clubs I got when I first started playing. I will talk about my next 3 bags (team bag, Callaway bag and Ping bag).
First, the team bag. If you don't know me, I'm a big Florida Gators fan. I decided to show my team spirit by grabbing a Florida Gators stand back from Dick's Sporting Goods. The design of the bag is really nice, the colors are great and, most importantly, the colors didn't fade in the Arizona sun. The Gators bag had a 14 club divider (only on the top of the bag) which I thought I would love…I didn't. Since the dividers didn't go all the way down the bag, the clubs just kept getting tangled up in the bag. Which leads me to my next and what ended up being the final straw. Because of the clubs getting tangled, when I would pull a club out the black lining of the bag would get ripped…and ripped…and ripped. This bag didn't last long due to the lining of the bag getting shredded. Dick's did end up giving me a refund, so great customer service from them, but I won't buy a bag like that again.
The next bag I bought (with my refund from Dick's) was the Callaway Fairway C Stand Bag. This bag looked super sleek (I got the white and black bag with yellow accents). It has the four-way divided, so I didn't think my clubs would get tangled in this bag…I was wrong. The same thing happened with this bag that happened with the Gators bag - the divider didn't go all through the bag, so the clubs got tangled, lining got ripped, etc. I got SUPER annoyed, since the was a Callaway bag. They should know all of these things. Apparently not.
I did a TON of research for my next golf bag (I got tired of having the lining slowly rip completely out of the Callaway bag. In that research, I looked at TaylorMade, Titleist, Sun Mountain, Ping, etc. Pretty much every brand out there…other than Callaway. Thanks My Golf Spy for the testing you all do :)
I ended up going with the Ping Hoofer Lite bag. The main reason I went with this bag was that the 4 club divider went the full length of the bag. There might be other reasons for everyone to buy a bag, but this was a big deal for me. The full length dividers on this bag are great. Do clubs still get tangled? Slightly, but only if they're in the same section of the bag, so that limits the number of clubs that get tangles. Another bonus - rangefinder pocket! It's really nice to not have to dig though a big pocket to grab my rangefinder, so this was a nice feature.
The straps for the Ping bag are super padded, so it's actually really nice to carry the bag, with a full set of clubs - I don't feel the straps digging into my shoulders. The rain hood works really well, especially in an Arizona monsoon and the bag also has a pocket for an umbrella - another bonus!
The accessories pocket is really good because it has a divider in that pocket, so I can put my wallet and keys in the pocket on one side of the divider and tees and ball markers in the other side, without risker my wallet or keys falling out. Another great pocket is the drink pocket. It can fit a water bottle (or another type of bottle, if you like). I use a 16oz metal water bottle and it fits perfectly in this pocket.
On the rare occasion I use a cart, this Hoofer Lite also has a cart strap pass through to help keep your bag sturdy on the cart. I didn't think this would be something I would use very much, but I'm actually able to use this with my push cart as well, so another bones.
All-in-all, I'm super happy with this bag and it will be tough to go away from Ping…if I ever need to replace this bag.
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