Organizing your golf bag for spring
Every March throughout the north, has at least one dark, gray, dreary Saturday that brings all the northern golfers together for a ritual of spring, that somehow makes the day brighter and the winter pass faster. And that is the day that we decide to clean out our golf bags, clean our clubs, and prepare the equipment for the upcoming season.
The first step is to remove all your clubs, all your balls, all your tees, gloves, etc. from your bag and spread them out. This year I have a couple of extra chores to do as I have new shafts on my irons, and a new golf bag. (It's a Titleist Sunday bag with a stand.)
So the first thing I’m going to do is to put name labels on the golf club shafts. These club labels can be ordered from your local pro-shop or you’ll see many sources available on the back of your Golf Digest Magazine, or perhaps you can do a simple Google search of Golf Club Name Tags and I’m sure you’ll find the results for what you need.
Now once you have your nametags on your club shafts, the next thing you need to do is prepare a bucket of hot soapy water and place your club heads into the water to soak off all the residue from last year’s golfing battles. ( Don't look now but the sun is peeking out run for the first tee ! Maybe we can get a couple holes in before the rain returns !)
In the meantime, while your clubs are soaking, you can begin the repacking of your bag. As I said, I’m quite excited…I have a new golf bag. It’s an ultra-light Sunday bag with a stand from Titleist. It’s very light, I can tell you that.
The first thing to pack is in the garment pocket, in it you can pack a spare glove, a rain hat, and a club bonnet; ( a rain bonnet for the clubs, usually comes with the bag) You don’t pack anything else in the garment section as you are going to be carrying the bag, and will want to leave the pocket open and available for the windbreaker, or the sweater, or the rain pants you are going to need on that cool rainy June day. So, as little as you can pack into that pocket, the better.
Note the mini-side pocket on the same side as the garment pocket I leave empty and use for carrying my wallet and keys and my TURNED OFF cell phone etc when I play.
The next thing that gets packed is a fresh supply of golf balls. Before packing the golf balls, it is recommended that you take the time to mark the ball with " your mark". Titleist even has an ad going on now “How Do You Mark Your Titleist?” All golfers know it is important that your ball has your identifying mark.
Notice that all the balls are number 3, but each has been marked just a little different in the event that hitting a provisional ball is necessary there is no need to break into another sleeve to positively identify which ball is the original and which is the provisional.
Once the golf balls have your identifying mark, I take one sleeve and repack it and drop the full sleeve into the flat pocket on the side of the bag opposite the garment pocket. Then I take another sleeve of balls, mark that appropriately and drop those balls in that same pocket, only loose; I don’t bother to re-sleeve.
The next thing you want to do is prepare a little emergency kit. In this kit I store 2 pencils, a couple of coins for marking my ball, a couple of Band-Aids, and a half dozen tees. I put this collection of essentials in a poly zip lock bag, and then place that in the same pocket as my golf balls, and God Willing, I don’t open this bag at all during the year.
But, should I find myself in need of Band-Aids, pencils or golf ball markers, I have them. In theory, if you break into this bag, you should replace whatever you’ve taken, but by the Fall, if that poly bag resembles anything you put there in the Spring…that’s pretty amazing.
The next thing to pack is the end pocket. In the end pocket I pack a rules book, (you do have a rules book right ?) a divot repair tool, a supply of tees and a can of mints. As you can see this year’s mints are Goofy Golfing mints from Walt Disney World.
I think that’s pretty appropriate. As I say, they slip into the end pocket on the bag.
By now, your clubs have soaked enough, the water is plenty muddy, and all you need to do is wipe off your irons with a rag or a roll of paper towels, and stick them in the bag. As you can see my new Sunday Stand Up bag, I have two pockets, I’ve used the larger bottom pocket for storing of my irons. I’ve used the smaller pocket for the storing for my metals and my putter.
Couple more attachments that we do to the bag, we put on our bag tags, in this case we put on our club bag tag for club storage at our local pro-shop and our USGA membership tag.
Last but not least for those who are so inclined, you can attach your golf towel. I myself do not use a golf towel. I find it one more thing to carry and by having my clubs cleaned thoroughly after every round I find the need for the towel to be minimal. However, for demonstration purposes, I’ve shown here a Pebble Beach Golf Links towel, a nice fluffy black towel to match my new black golf bag.
There you have it. You’ve spent the better part of a Saturday morning preparing yourself for golf, having your expectations for the upcoming golf season rise, and we wish you well on the links this summer.