Ship Sticks? Golf luggage?

We’re planning on taking our clubs to California next summer. We haven’t bought golf luggage yet; I welcome suggestions. I expect that we will do more golf vacations eventually but not more than one per year for the next 4-5 years.

I looked into shipping clubs and found basically the only advantage is convenience. Quite expensive (about the cost of a top of the line travel bag) and many will only deliver to a golf club or hotel.

I have had my club glove bag for nearly 15 years and it has worked very well. Is finally starting to show some wear and tear and I am thinking about replacing it with the same.

Fly with Southwest where two bags fly free.

Same here. I have the bag with the hard bottom and wheels. Only way to go.

If I’m just traveling for a few days I’ll throw all my clothes and stuff in the bag too.

Do not get a hard case. Bad luck with them getting destroyed.

I recently found myself doing a combination of the two - had a round that was on the front end of a business trip, and didn’t want to take my clubs with me the rest of the way. I used my soft-side, hard bottom case to get the clubs there on the plane, and Ship Sticks to mail them back.

It was $50 1-way and they just send you a UPS or Fedex Shipping label to print out and attach to your bag. You can either leave them at the course for pickup, or you can drop off at a UPS/FedEx store (which is what I did) and that was it. Well worth the $ for convenience!

While I do not travel with golf clubs, I have traveled with my bikes a number of times. While clubs may be a little easier to tote than a bike box or bag, I think it is much easier to ship large items than to carry them with you. Plus, if they are damaged in transit, you have more luck getting UPS/FEDEX insurance to pay than the airplane.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We’ve booked our lodging; It will be (mostly) one location. I am allowed two pieces of checked luggage for free so I am contemplating whether to carry our clubs or to ship them to the resort.

Hard to destroy an SKB hard case. Scored a gently used one for $50 off of Craigslist. Don’t have to worry about damage to clubs/bags/shoes/most anything I pack in there.

If you get a softer covered bag, get something like this. https://www.golfgalaxy.com/p/club-glove-stiff-arm-papmicednfgpboak/papmicednfgpboak I once had the shaft of my driver break on an airplane. These types of things prevent that from happening.

We use the same type of SKB case for our clubs whenever we travel. Yes, they are heavy and big and yes, they could be very difficult to fit into taxis and rental cars, but they work extremely well both for checking clubs and for shipping clubs. However, planning is necessary because they don’t fold like softer bags do for ease of transport in cars with smaller trunks or narrower back seats.

Airlines treatment of the cases over time really shows and has reinforced my continued use of these hard cases. Over time on the first SKB case that I had, the handle on the side and two of the latches ended up getting damaged/broken. Takes a lot of force to do that and I’m pretty sure that in those few instances of bad treatment, use of a softer case would have resulted in broken clubs.

I should add that one benefit of using Ship Sticks is their on time guarantee. Twice over the years, once with Fedex and once with UPS, we have had a shipment of our clubs arrive 1-3 days late which created a lot of issues, particularly on a short trip.

Regarding the hard case, my latches were constantly getting mangled. Finally ended up needing to strap it closed. Then a hinge was tweeted and I said enough.

Agreed that the SKB cases do require you to get something a bit larger than a compact car rental, or taxi. Hasn’t yet delayed me in getting to and from a golf destination.

And it’s worth its weight in gold for the looks from other golfers waiting in the same baggage claim area when our bags get unloaded. Plenty of “travel case envy”…

Travel case envy??? You have to be kidding. I can see 1st growth envy, DRC envy, or even PXG envy, but travel case envy?

I’ve been using Ship Sticks lately. They often run promotions and have coupon codes that really bring the price down. Cost me $29 to ship NJ to Florida a couple weeks ago and they arrived a day early.

Sherri - where are you seeing the coupons?

See further up re: golfers who’ve gotten their beloved drivers, or what have you, damaged in transit. I’ve personally witnessed baggage handlers on multiple separate occasions just chuck cases along the floor when unloading them into the claim area. The expressions on the golfers retrieving said bags is grimly unintentional comedy…

Using something like this https://www.golfgalaxy.com/p/club-glove-stiff-arm-papmicednfgpboak/papmicednfgpboak protects the clubs and allows me to get my clubs into a lot of rental cars.

If I was going to get a new carrying bag, something like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F2P6584/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i2?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=B00F2P6584&pd_rd_r=640df3f6-c889-11e7-b7d1-efea25c04d71&pd_rd_w=WyUrj&pd_rd_wg=xjPaO&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=C0A3451HV5TEPEDVBFK3&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=1cf9d009-399c-49e1-901a-7b8786e59436&pf_rd_i=desktop which would make it easier to roll the clubs would be of interest.

The first time I used them, I believe there was a promo code on their site. Since then, they email them to me regularly. If you google “ship sticks promo code November 2017” and I imagine something will pop up!