Travel mailbag: What is the gold standard golf bag travel cover?

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What is the gold standard golf bag travel cover? — scottypsu via Instagram

Traveling opens up a world of choices. So does shopping for golf travel bags.

The options span the spectrum from soft canvas covers to hardshell cases that could almost pass for coffins on wheels. How to pick? As with so much else, you get what you pay for. What you save up front might cost you later in, say, a torn strap, a faulty wheel or a broken club. Do aesthetics matter? Sure. But looks are a matter of personal taste.

For most golfers, the decision comes down to two key factors: price and pragmatics. They want a product that protects their clubs and doesn’t hold them back as they’re trying to get around.

A number of brands check those boxes. By almost any measure, it’s tough to top Club Glove.

Club Glove Last Bag Collegiate

$289

Available in 23 colors, the premium-fitted collapsible Last Bag Collegiate has two outside pockets and exterior dimensions are: 51″ H x 15″ W x 14″ D.

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The company makes its bags in the United States, and it makes them well, using waterproof, industrial-strength nylon, reinforced by equally resilient straps and fabrics. The bags come in more than a dozen colors with all the bells and whistles: pockets for your shoes and assorted extras, and in-line skate wheels built into a sturdy base that roll smoothly and quietly.

Three sizes are available (for stand bags, cart bags and Tour bags), designed to fit snugly around your clubs and to fold up snugly when they’re empty. The list of Tour pros who use Club Glove includes Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka. Those guys all fly private. Starting at $289, the Club Glove is a luxury many of the rest of us can afford.