Tag: Golf Bag

  • 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

    2023 Holiday Gift Guide

    Treat the golfer in your life this holiday season with the best golf gifts! The holidays are a perfect time to show the golfers in your life that you care. With these unique golf gifts, you can help take their game to the next level or simply make their time on the course more enjoyable. Consider these excellent gift ideas:

    Listen and Track with the Bushnell Wingman View GPS Speaker

    The Bushnell Wingman View combines two essential golf technologies – GPS distances and a Bluetooth speaker – into one sleek, lightweight device that attaches to your cart or bag. The GPS provides precise front, center and back distances to the green, both visually and spoken, so you’ll know exactly which club to use. The built-in speaker lets you listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks from your phone wirelessly while you play. This is the ultimate golfer’s gadget and one of the best golf accessories for men and women.

    Give the Gift of Comfort with VKTRY Insoles

    Help your favorite golfer put their best foot forward with VKTRY insoles. These revolutionary carbon fiber insoles feature a patented technology that redistributes weight away from common foot pain points, providing all-day comfort and support. VKTRY insoles reduce fatigue and ensure proper alignment and weight distribution throughout the swing. VKTRY insoles can also increase ground forces during the golf swing, which helps you swing faster and hit the ball further. Give the gift of pain-free walking and an improved game. Mens and womens models available around $99.

    Upgrade Their Irons with Takomo Forged Irons

    Treat your special golfer to the innovative and incredibly affordable Takomo forged irons this holiday season. The S20 Japanese forged steel heads of the Takomo 301irons provide unmatched feel and feedback through the turf, while the hollow body design of the Takomo 101 irons shifts weight to the perimeter for more forgiveness on mishits. Takomo’s sleek, playability-enhancing irons come with premium KBS Tour steel shafts and start and only $489 for a 7-club set (4-PW)!!

    I have a set of the Takomo 301 MB irons, and while I was apprehensive going back to a forged blade at 49 years old, my fears quickly went away as I rediscovered my love for these forged butter knives. Paradoxically, switching from a cavity back to a blade gave me my confidence back and has immediately improved my iron play. I love these irons, and knowing they are available for less than half the price of most premium Japanese forged irons makes it feel that much sweeter.

    Carry in Style with Big Max Golf Bags and Carts

    Make it easy for your golfer to get from hole to hole with top-quality golf bags and push carts from Big Max Golf – The most popular golf bags and push carts in Europe. The lightweight but durable bags come in stylish designs and provide ample storage. The push carts fold up small but hold all their gear securely while gliding smoothly across the course. Big Max bags, like the popular Dri Lite Hybrid Tour Stand Bag, start at $159.00 and push carts at $99.00.

    Rapsodo MLM2PRO Launch Monitor

    Personal launch monitors are one of the hottest segments of the vast golf accessory market, and the great thing for consumers is that as the technology gets better and better, so do the prices! A few years ago the cheapest effective launch monitor would set you back over $10,000, but now there are several very good products available for a fraction of that price. One of the best bang-for-the-buck launch monitors is the new Rapsodo MLM2Pro which sells for only $699 on Amazon and gives you 13 metrics like spin rate and spin axis and can be used indoors or out. For more info, go to www.rapsodo.com

    With these wonderful gift ideas, you can make any golfer’s wish come true this holiday season! From smart tech to performance equipment upgrades, comfort essentials to carrying convenience, these products will bring a smile to any golf lovers face. Happy holiday shopping!

  • Walkers Rejoice! Sun Mountain Has Your Back

    4.5LS & Micro-Cart GT Side ViewI won’t get into the debate on economics of golf cart rentals and health benefits of walking, but it’s estimated that roughly 70% of golf rounds in the USA are played in golf carts, and that number seems to be growing. Part of the reason is that many courses are forcing people to rent a cart when they play. This is simply a way to generate more revenue and is the unfortunate reality of golf in places like Florida where I live. But walking is not dead!

    If you prefer to walk when you play golf, then Sun Mountain is a company you’ll probably be familiar with. The innovators from Missoula, Montana make some of the best stand & carry bags, push carts and related accessories available anywhere. Why wouldn’t they? They only invented the stand bag back in 1986… A great example of this innovation is present in the new 4.5 LS carry bag and the Micro-Cart GT push cart.

    Sun Mountain 4.5LS RightThe Sun Mountain 4.5 LS stand/carry bag has one of the best combinations of features and light weight I’ve seen in a carry bag. It’s one of the bigger bags in their line and has room for everything you’ll need to walk 18. It has eight pockets (one of which is a full length pocket for clothes or rain gear), several accessory pockets including a water resistant pocket and a velour-lined pocket for valuables. The carry straps are very well cushioned and adjustable for a perfect fit. The 4.5 LS is also golf cart friendly, because they understand that even walkers sometimes ride. For example, the bag has a cart strap pass through to allow for unhindered access to the pockets on a cart, and the bottom is designed to fit on a golf cart without popping the legs out like many carry bags do.

    Sun Mountain 4.5LS TopThe 4.5 LS has a nine inch opening and an 4-way divider system for easy access to your clubs. You won’t have issues with 3 other clubs coming up when you try to retrieve your 8-iron like on some other bags. There is also a 14-way model available for those who prefer each club to have its own individual slot, and yet another model with an adjustable waist strap to help take the load off your shoulders when walking.

    The Sun Mountain 4.5 LS stand/carry bag has all the aforementioned features, yet still comes in at a scant 4.5 pounds.

    Designed to work perfectly with Sun Mountain’s stand bags, the Micro-Cart GT is a light weight, easy to deploy and very stable push cart. Coming in at just under 17 pounds and folding up to a compact 27″ x 17″ x 13″ the Micro-Cart GT is easy to fit in the trunk of almost any car. The redesigned upper bag bracket is shaped to accept stand bags, and this model includes plenty of storage space for a scorecard, tees, balls rangefinders and more.

    Sun Mountain Micro-Cart GT Side ViewThe four wheel design is something new for me, but the lower profile and extra wheel make the cart much more stable than standard 3-wheeled carts. The extendable front axle expands the wheelbase by an extra 2 inches for even more stability and helps accommodate larger golf bags. I upgraded to the Sun Mountain Micro-Cart GT from my first generation Clic Gear cart and love the extra space and stability. I can push around a huge, heavy staff bag on this thing, but paired with the lightweight Sun Mountain 4.5 LS carry bag it’s a breeze to walk the course.

    Suggested retail price for the 4.5 LS stand bag is $209.99 and the MSRP for the Micro-Cart GT is $199.99. I love the combination of these two products to deliver a walking setup that is both light weight and has plenty of useful features and storage room when walking the course. Now, if I could only find a course down here that will let me walk…

  • WITB – November 2015

    WITB Nov 2015Back in September I posted my first “What’s In The Bag” segment that detailed the clubs I play with. WITB posts are pretty popular on other sites when they post pictures of PGA Tour players and their preferred equipment. It’s always interesting to see what the best players in the world play with, and the market for “tour van” or hard to find equipment – especially putters – is huge. Forget that most people couldn’t possibly hit the clubs that tour players use, they still want them for the exclusivity and cool factor. I’ll admit, I’m one of those people that love being unique and having things that nobody else has.

    It’s for good reason that people are curious about the golf bags of PGA Tour players, but not many people care about what a lowly golf blogger plays with. It’s a shame too, because I think my fellow bloggers and golf media people are in a much better position to help others when it comes to getting the right equipment.

    While the average touring pro is well paid to endorse a company’s golf clubs, golf writers and bloggers aren’t. That’s not to say we don’t get our share of sweetheart deals or eek out a tiny profit from online affiliate sales, but nobody I know that runs a golf blog is making much more than enough to keep the site going and pay for the occasional round of golf.

    Golf writers and bloggers do however have access to and get to play with a ton of different clubs, and the ones that go in our golf bags as “gamers” have cut through the marketing hype and passed the test. Just like my buddy Tony from hookedongolfblog.com, in my golf bag on any given weekend sits a who’s who of golf manufacturers you may or may not have heard of. If we’re playing them, you can be pretty confident that they are a good buy.

    Since the end of September all but 3 of the clubs in my bag have changed. No less than 6 different golf equipment companies are represented in my bag.

    What’s in the bag?

    Driver: Ping G30 LS-TEC (9° w/ Ping Tour 80x)
    Fairway: Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour (14° w/ Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana S+ 70x)
    Hybrid: Srixon Z H45 (16° w/ Aerotech hls880 x-flex)
    Utility Irons: Srixon Z U45 (20° & 23° w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i110cw x-flex)
    Irons: Srixon Z745 5-PW (w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i110cw x-flex)
    Wedges: Ben Hogan TK15  50° & 54° (w/ KBS Tour-V 120X)
    Lob Wedge: Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° (Custom channel grind w/ Dynamic Gold X-100)
    Putter: Cure RX3F Putter
    Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

    What’s New?

    The clubs that didn’t change? My Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour three wood, which gets a fresh new grip, my trusty Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° wedge and the ugly-duckling-but-impossible-to-mis-hit Cure RX3F putter.

    The biggest changes are the replacement of my aging Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept irons with the fantastic new Srixon Z745 irons. These irons are currently in play by most of Cleveland/Srixon’s tour staff including Graeme McDowell, Keegan Bradley, Russell Knox and many others. I also replaced the 3 and 4 irons with the Srixon ZU45 utility clubs which are much easier to hit, and the old Cleveland hybrid is replaced by a new Srixon ZH45 hybrid. All the new clubs get Aerotech Steelfiber shafts. The Srixon irons and utilities are made of forged 1020 steel and look as good as they perform.

    I changed drivers this month also. I switched out the Ping G30 driver for the Ping G30 LS-TEC. There’s not much difference between the two as they look identical, but the LS-TEC spins a little less according to Ping.

    I also have some new wedges in the bag. Gone (but not forgotten) are the SCOR 50° and 54° wedges I was so fond of. Fortunately they’ve been upgraded to Ben Hogan TK15 wedges. For those who aren’t familiar with SCOR and Ben Hogan, they are run by the same brilliant golf mind – Terry Koehler. SCOR Golf became Ben Hogan when he resurrected the iconic Ben Hogan brand from the ashes of golf equipment history. His amazing v-sole wedges live on in the Ban Hogan brand however. The new TK15 wedges perform the same as the older SCOR wedges and look fantastic in the new Hogan design. They are also a perfect match for the Hogan Fort Worth 15 irons, which players can customize to their liking. The Ben Hogan TK15 wedges are available from 48° to 63° and every loft in between. The HoganFit fitting process is designed to customize a set of wedges that will compliment your current irons and offer consistent distance gaps to help you score better inside 125 yards, where almost 65% of shots are taken.

    Finally, new in my golf bag this month is the golf bag itself! My special WAGT “Team USA” golf bag recently arrived from Burton and it looks fantastic. The amazing Last Bag travel bag I got from Club Glove is going to be protecting my clubs while traveling. I’m one of the few fortunate souls to be proudly representing the US in the World Amateur Golfers Championship in December in Antalya, Turkey.

    Antalya is one of the ten most frequented tourist destinations in the world, and is in the southwestern part of Turkey in a region called the Turkish Riviera. We’ll be at the all-inclusive Gloria Golf Resort competing over 54 holes in a team format with 40 other countries. I’ll be posting photos and updates on the event when we get there!

  • JStewart Custom Golf Bags

    Intothegrain.com custom golf bag by JStewart GolfAnyone who knows me can tell you that I like to be different. Just like many golf enthusiasts, I want to be unique and love it when I can get equipment that nobody else has. I was recently in the market for a new golf bag when I discovered JStewart Golf. There are so many golf bags out there that it can sometimes be difficult to choose. Some people stay loyal to a brand, buying a staff bag that matches their preferred equipment vendor, but I’ve switched loyalties so many times it would have been too expensive to buy bags for each new company I like. Some people walk more than ride, and there are plenty of good carry bags out there too, but I so often drag 15 to 20 clubs out to the course with me for testing and reviews, that I need more space than a stand bag has to offer.

    What I was looking for was a  lightweight staff bag that was brand neutral while still making a statement, and Jstewart Golf came to the rescue. Based in Hong Kong, JStewart Golf makes one-off custom golf bags. Started by professional golfer James Stewart, he supplies custom staff bags to many touring pros around the world. Not only do they specialize in custom bags, but they also supply custom branded gloves, hats, golf towels, golf pouches, umbrellas & shoe bags. most of the products they make are manufactured in the same factories that most of the major golf brands use for their own products.


    Intothegrain.com custom golf bag by JStewart GolfThe selection of golf bag styles available is extensive. There are eight different staff bag styles available, with different sizes and features. I selected the JS Mini Tour Bag (Shown above). It is a mini-staff bag with a 8.5″ opening, 6 pockets and firm indented side panels. It is smaller than most full size staff bags and weighs only about 11 pounds. I sent my website logo to them in vector (.EPS) format and waited for about a month. The lead time is usually 45 days for a custom bag, so make sure you give them enough time to complete it. You can use the website to design your own bag, or leave it up to them to design it around your logo and color selections. I decided to leave the design and colors up to them since they know their bags better than I do, and it turned out great.

    JS Premium Tour BagThe bag was shipped directly to me and arrived well within the lead time. I was immediately impressed with the quality and finish of the bag. The photos look nice, but to truly appreciate the finished product you have to see it up close in person. The black trip parts are in a faux carbon fiber look which adds a cool texture look to the bag. The embroidery and overall finish is top notch, and every bit as good as any of the best quality golf bags I’ve seen. The website ring that runs around the bottom is a neat touch, and you can even have the shoulder strap embroidered. I’m very happy with this bag. It’s a quality built golf bag that has plenty of space without being too heavy. I can carry extra clubs and other gear in it, and it looks great. People are always coming up to me to ask about it, which almost always leads to questions about the price.

    A custom made, one of a kind golf bag isn’t cheap. Expect to pay about $420 for the JS Mini Tour Bag. If you are going to spend over $300 for a staff bag from a major golf brand, paying an extra hundred or so isn’t a big deal for a custom job. The market for these bags is largely professional golfers, corporate purchases and enthusiasts like me, but anyone that wants to stand out in the crowd of branded golf bags can order one. I’m very happy with mine, and I highly recommend JStewart Golf bags  to anyone in the market for a great, original golf bag!


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