The Top 10 Tips to Pack For a Golf Trip

By: Golfshake Editor | Wed 09 Nov 2022

What to know as you get everything ready for your next golf adventure!

One of the most important parts of a golf trip can actually take place before you leave the house – that being, the packing of your luggage! With many of us having spent plenty of our hard-earned cash on our golfing equipment, the last thing you need to worry about is anything happening to it en-route to your destination. Check out some of our best tips below for packing ahead of your next golfing getaway.

1. Invest in a Good Travel Cover

We’ll keep this simple – you should invest in a good travel cover. Regardless of whether you’re going away once a year, or every month, it really is worth finding something that’ll keep your clubs and luggage safe. Brands like OGIO specialise in making travel covers that will protect your clubs wherever you may be taking them – and even offer some different colours too so that yours isn’t one of the many many plain back bags gathered on the conveyor belt. There’s very few worse feelings than arriving to a golf trip to see your clubs bent and broken, and this just isn’t the area of your golf equipment that you want to do by halves. Find a good, strong, durable cover that suits your needs, and it’ll be a loyal companion for years to come.

OGIO Skull Cover Travel Bag

BUY ONLINE WITH GOLFONLINE

2. Consider Your Other Luggage Too

Whilst your thinking about your travel bag, make sure to give some consideration to your other bags too. The likelihood is that you’ll be able to get a week’s worth of clothes within a travel cover and one-piece of hand luggage, as long as you don’t take a flimsy backpack along with you. Many golf companies will offer specialist luggage and backpacks, but it’s worth considering those that aren’t exclusively associated with the sport too – particularly brands that exist within the wider outdoor and adventure space.

3. Lose Your Head(s)

One of our favourite tips, and something that has only been around for the last decade or so. If you’ve got adjustable metalwoods, remove the heads, and pop them into their headcovers inside the bag. Driver and Fairway heads in particular are the most likely things to get snagged up, which may even result in a broken shaft. Removing the heads will lessen this possibility, and even offers you the chance to tweak your settings if heading to a track which demands a different ball flight from your home course.

4. Save Space with Socks

A slightly more obvious one, but stick all of your socks within your golf shoes. If you’re playing multiple rounds, as well as heading out in an evening, and perhaps even going exploring on a day trip, you could be taking as many as 3 pairs per day. These will soon sap space within your bag. Stick them inside your shoes, as this will not only save you a bit of room, but prevent your shoes from getting crushed and misshapen if they get stuck in an awkward position on the journey.

Ogio Travel Bag

5. Some Additional Padding

Despite modern golf travel bags offering excellent padding and support, you can never be too careful! One of our top tips for packing a travel cover is to use smaller tote-bags to pack your clothes into, and then place these around your bag within the travel cover (particularly around the heads). It’ll offer an extra bit of comfort that your clubs should arrive in one-piece, and if you pack these smaller bags sensibly (i.e., t-shirts together, underwear together, trousers together), it can make unpacking at the other end a quick and easy endeavour.

6. Don’t Make a Balls-Up

Buying golf balls on-site at a resort golf course can be an expensive business. Make sure you pack enough for your trip, so you’re not forced to fork over your on-course winnings for a fresh sleeve of logo’d balls at 15€ a sleeve. However, golf balls can also add weight to a travel bag, and so we’d suggest splitting a couple of sleeves into your hand luggage, helping to keep the weight down to avoid excess charges.

Golf Bag Packing

7. Consider a Half Set

Dependent on whether you’re looking to walk or ride on your golf trip, you might want to consider dropping a club or two. There’s nothing worse than lugging a heavy bag around a hot golf course, the morning after a heavy evening – and let’s be honest, most of us aren’t there to take our golf super seriously anyhow! Not only will taking a half-set make things easier when you get to the course, it’ll also lighten up your travel bag for the journey; perhaps even leaving some extra room inside to fill with a few new holiday purchases!

8. Something Old?

Many of us understandably head to warmer climes on a golfing getaway, but with this can often be terrain with which we’re unfamiliar. One of the prettiest, yet toughest tests of golf can be found on the desert layouts of the UAE, Southern Spain, USA, and beyond. We hate the idea of you ruining your shiny new clubs as you are forced to play from these native areas (which are often littered with stones and coarse sand) on your holiday rounds, so why not chuck in an old 7-iron which you can use with reckless abandon to get you back into the fairway.

9. Lock It Up & Track It

Small padlocks have been around for years, and can be a godsend when it comes to protecting your clubs from would-be thieves. Get one with a code, so you’re not having to locate that tiny key as you’re rushing to get the bats out for your opening round.

However, another addition we’d recommend adding to your travel plans is some sort of portable tracker. Apple’s AirTags are a fantastic way to know where your clubs are at all time. Stick it in the pocket of your golf bag (not travel bag), so that even if the worst happens and your clubs go walkabouts, you should at least have a decent idea where they are.

10. Expect The Unexpected

We’re cheating slightly, as this should be a general rule of thumb when travelling anyway. However, we’d STRONGLY recommend ensuring that you have at least one golf outfit with you within your hand luggage. Everything from fresh underwear and socks to your on-course kicks – particularly with most of us having a spikeless option to take along. We’ve seen some huge disruption to travel in the post-covid years, and so the last thing you need to be doing is buying a full outfit before your first round, as your bag still languishes somewhere in the bowels of an airport. You can always rent a set of clubs – but asking the pro shop if they sell Y-fronts is slightly less dignified!