Our extended family decided to book a trip out to California. We had a number of in-laws, nieces, and nephews totalling about 18 people who would all be staying in one large VRBO.
Do You Want To Go Golfing?
My brother in law who is usually my weekend golfing partner made mention about bringing his golf clubs to California. The next thing out of his mouth was that his son needed to spend more time with his family so he wouldn’t be able to golf with us but for me to take note… His son took a trip out to Tennessee and came home to a broken driver.
You don’t have to ask me twice about golfing but I wanted to protect my equipment. It is one thing to pack your clubs in your golf bag and drive a couple hundred miles with them and something entirely different when you are travelling by plane. Ever had missing luggage? Luggage itself which was damaged by the air carrier? Been there done that. This was a brand new case.
The next thing I had to do and research was a golf travel bag. Luckily between friends, in-laws, and once a year golf outings, I knew a number of acquaintances who had/have a golf travel bag and a few phone calls later I was inundated with suggestions as well as make sure to get this as well as don’t get this.
One make sure to get this was in regards to getting a hard case for the golf clubs. That recommendation came along with an approximately $350 price tag. Ummmmmm this is the first golf trip I’ve taken in decades so at the present time I won’t be doing that.
So in my quick research along with recommendations coming from friends, I was going to get a soft travel bag with a high denier fabric rating. Basically, if you think about something like jeans, it would be the difference between getting very thin jeans up to very thick jeans. I was told the thicker the better. One added recommendation was to get a travel support arm which would extend past the driver, thus helping/hoping to protect the driver head and possibly keeping the golf travel bag a little more stable.
I Purchased A Golf Travel Bag
So I headed off to Amazon and purchased the CaddyDaddy Constrictor 2.
My main concern once I purchased the CaddyDaddy golf travel bag was how floppy it was. I thought of my nephew and his broken driver. My wife was telling me that maybe I should leave my clubs at home. But this was a chance to golf in California at what I heard was a pretty decent golf course.
You can watch the video but I’ll tell you what I learned and decided to do when placing my golf clubs in the CaddyDaddy. It has an added benefit.
I purchased some bubble wrap. The last thing I wanted was for my clubs to be damaged. The purpose of the bubble wrap was to go over the head of my irons as well as putter. The hybrids, wood, and driver all had fairly decent headcovers. I just made a bubble wrap cover and taped it together with packing tape on each iron as well as my putter. I also took two large pieces of bubble wrap and put them around all of my golf clubs.
Here is the benefit part. Want to take along an extra dozen shirts and pants? This golf travel bag is perfect for that and in my mind it was also going to help protect the bag and golf clubs from flopping around in the CaddyDaddy. The only caveat is keeping the golf travel bag under the checked bag weight which for Southwest Airlines I believe was 50 lbs. Heck my wife’s checked bag weighed more than a full CaddyDaddy so I knew I was going to be ok. I was also able to include my golf shoes in the golf travel bag. One word of caution. Take out your rangefinder, golf watch, or any device which may contain lithium batteries.
I still found the CaddyDaddy Constrictor 2 quite floppy and unless balanced, the bag had a tough time standing by itself. The nice thing though is there is a strap inside the bag which can go around your golf bag, helping to hold things in place. Then there are a couple of straps on the outside of the bag which helps to cinch things up. To further protect the driver I purchased a CaddyDaddy Travel Support Arm. I suppose I wanted to stick with the same company. It is adjustable and I made it to the height which would nicely hit the top of the golf travel bag.
My brother in law and I enjoyed a nice time out at Paso Robles Golf Club. Maybe not shooting the best but the course was fun (I enjoyed the front nine while my brother in law enjoyed the back nine) and the greens were tremendous to putt on. My brother in law had a nice birdie while I thinned a shot from off the green and instead of ending up 10 yards off the green on the opposite side of my shot, the ball hit the flag dead on and the ball dropped into the cup for a par. Woohoo.
So if you watch the video above, you will see my clubs arrived perfectly fine back home. Happy as heck I purchased both the CaddyDaddy Constrictor 2 as well as the travel support arm. Do I have any gripes? Not with the way clubs arrived either at the airport in California or back home. No damage whatsoever. My one and only grip is that I wish I would have played another round of golf while on vacation. Next time.