The difficulty begins in the elevator just after leaving my condominium. Evidently, it is unachievable for contemporary humans to see a golfing-travel bag and not make a comment. You know, like, “I’m jealous! In which are you going?” How dare they? Then the Uber driver glares at me like I’m trying to carry an alligator into his Camry. Chill out, main. If it does not healthy in the trunk, I’ll put it in the entrance seat.
Traveling with the sticks can be a headache, but it’s well worth it as opposed to the alternative: not taking part in golf or, even worse, enjoying with a rental set. There are benefits, albeit smaller kinds. For instance, I’m hardly ever tempted to choose a have-on, and I can pack two pairs of socks for each day rather of one particular.
Once you get there at your vacation spot, you’re each happy and relieved that your golf equipment designed it, but the procedure can be a logistical nightmare.
If there is any kind of line at the baggage drop-off, you’re screwed. Most vacation luggage are not pretty ergonomic. I know mine is not. There is no great way to established it down, and you just cannot relaxation your backpack on best of it like you can with a suitcase. If you stand the clubs up vertically, you threat a person knocking them above with just the slightest nudge. Then you get to the front of the line, and the agent will not let you lay the clubs down on the scale the particular person thinks you’re trying to fudge the numbers and helps make you stand them up straight. Just can’t we all just help you save ourselves the effort? I’m not a tour participant my bag ain’t 50 kilos.
In some airports, such as New York City’s JFK, you’ve gotta provide your golf equipment to the oversize baggage spot. If there’s no attendant there, difficult. Wait right up until there is.
The moment you land, your very first occupation is to figure out regardless of whether your clubs will come out with the regular baggage (which is terrible due to the fact handlers toss suitcases close to if they assume they’re loaded solely with dresses and shoes) or in the oversize segment (good simply because they know if they crack some thing oversize, they’re going to listen to about it).
These days, roughly 80 per cent of airports sequester the golf baggage from the ordinary baggage, but the oversize baggage feel to generally arrive out previous. I could compose a novel with the time I have invested anxiously waiting around for my environmentally friendly travel bag to arrive. It is a specially nervy encounter in the United terminal at Los Angeles Worldwide mainly because the oversize-baggage part is dangerously close to the general public sidewalk. Whilst the location is roped off, the attendants never ever feel specially bothered about who’s grabbing which bag. At the time you lay eyes on yours, you must pounce. Don’t even get me begun about the hurry of adrenaline when examining to make certain your driver didn’t get snapped in 50 %. (Hunting at you, Maui’s Kahului Airport. Also looking at myself, for remaining dumb adequate not to purchase one particular of all those umbrella contraptions for protection).
Subsequent will come the rental car, a system I have come to dread in massive-city airports—Charlotte and Dallas come to mind—because they’re as well unfold out. It is no entertaining to consider to wield that burly sack as a result of a crowded terminal. At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, you are going to in some cases have to wander the equal of 18 holes while constantly hunting for pathways like an NFL operating back again . . . only to head up a going for walks escalator and wait for an annoyingly not-brief tram experience to decide on up your auto. In Denver, you have to ride a tram to the baggage declare and then capture a shuttle to the rental-motor vehicle middle. The Florida airports I frequent—Jacksonville and Orlando—get important kudos for acquiring the rental-auto garage throughout the avenue from the terminal.
As a rule, the more compact the airport, the a lot easier the working experience. My golf equipment ended up waiting around for me in Charleston, S.C., Columbus, Ohio, and The Bahamas, and they undoubtedly know how to tackle a golf bag in Augusta, Ga. But the gold standard of golf-club travel is the Monterey Regional Airport in California. Of course, it ticks all the boxes—small, helpful workers, very easily accessible ground transportation—but the real motive it stands alone is a easy just one: If you’re there, and you’ve brought the sticks, likelihood are you’ve acquired some remarkable golfing in your potential.