If you’re a huge golfer, you probably don’t carry your golf clubs around in your hand. You probably have a caddie lugging around your heavy golf clubs for you in a bag, or you might carry the bag yourself. However, for those that don’t have a golf bag, you should probably know how large it is.
The typical size of a golf bag is 36 inches tall and 10 inches in diameter. However, after filling the golf bag with your clubs, the overall height of the bag might be around 50 inches.
Today, I’ll explain everything you need to know about golf bags, from their dimensions down to their features.
A Brief History of Golf Bags
The golf bag didn’t become a thing until the 19th century. For the majority of golf’s history, people would whack pebbles with crude sticks, which they would tie together as a method of carrying them around. It wasn’t until the 1700s that golf clubs made of metal came into fashion.
The first golf bags were made of canvas and leather, and it was reinforced with a metal frame. When golf courses with more than 9 holes became more popular, serious golfers needed a way to reliably carry around multiple types of golf clubs. This led to innovations in the classic golf bag that included lighter materials, padded straps, and a wider mouth to receive more golf clubs.
Today, golf bags come in numerous shapes and sizes. They also come with a wide assortment of features and multiple pockets to keep your golfing supplies with you at all times. As such, the dimensions and weight of a golf bag can vary drastically between models.
Dimensions of a Golf Bag
There are two measurements to look for when sizing a golf bag—its height (before and after inserting your golf clubs) and its diameter.
A golf bag will usually stand 36 inches tall without golf clubs and around 50 inches with them. The diameter of a golf bag ranges from 9 to 12 inches, with the most common being 10 inches.
Does Golf Bag Size Matter?
Absolutely! One of the first things you should figure out before buying a golf bag is how large it should be.
The primary reason to be mindful of your golf bag’s size is that it should be large enough to house all of your clubs. After all, a golf bag’s main duty is to protect your valuable clubs from the harshness of the elements.
The standard golf club will measure about 34 inches. However, there are long clubs, such as drivers and 5-wood clubs, that measure over 60 inches. A golf bag doesn’t need to cover your clubs from top to bottom; it just has to protect most of their shafts and handles when they’re not in use. So, the height of the bag should be dependent on what sort of clubs you’re packing.
As for the diameter of the bag, it will mostly be affected by how many club slots it has. There are 4-way, 6-way, and even 14-way bags with varying widths. The fewer club slots there are, the narrower the golf bag is.
Finally, the size of the bag will determine how heavy it will be. Larger bags with more club slots and filled pockets will weigh considerably more than smaller bags with fewer storage compartments. Unless you have the luxury of driving around in a golf cart, you should try and keep your golf bag as light as possible.
Types of Golf Bags
Overall, there are 3 main golf bag types to choose from—tour bags, pencil bags, and travel bags.
Tour Bags
A tour bag is the largest golf bag you can get, and it just happens to be the most high-end golf bag of them all. It comes with numerous pockets and slots for all of your golfing supplies, which is a must-have if you participate in golf tournaments.
With a tare weight of around 10 pounds, they’re also the heaviest of the bunch, but they come with reinforced frames to keep the high-quality materials from tearing apart at the seams.
Pencil Bags
A pencil bag is nearly the complete opposite of a tour bag. As its name suggests, it’s an ultra-thin bag that comes with as few slots as possible for holding onto a limited number of clubs. They usually measure 6 inches in diameter, but with proper arrangement, you can fill a pencil bag with over a dozen golf clubs at the same time.
Travel Bags
A travel bag is used almost exclusively for checking in your golf clubs at an airport. It should fit within the airline’s maximum luggage size restrictions. However, when full, some of the larger travel bags can exceed minimum weight allowances, and you’ll have to pay extra to check in the large bag. Travel bags cannot be brought on flights as carry-on luggage.
Golf Bag Features
As I said earlier in this guide, there have been plenty of innovations to the golf bag. They are no longer ordinary canvas sacks with steel frames, but some of them can make transporting heavy clubs and golf supplies incredibly easy on your back and shoulders.
Here are some of the features of a golf bag you should know about.
Carts
If you don’t have a golf cart or don’t want to rent one, you can always fasten a cart attachment to your golf bag. The attachment consists of a wheeled cart with a long handle and straps to keep your bag in place while you tow it from green to green.
In case you wonder what size a typical golf cart is, there are some varieties of golf carts from 2 seats to 6 seats. The standard 2-seat golf cart is around 92 inches long, 48 inches in width, and 75 inches in height.
Stands
Don’t have a caddie to keep your bag in place while you work on your swing? Consider picking up stands for your bag. They have straps that wrap around your golf bag and long legs to prop it up at a 45-ish-degree angle, keeping your clubs from falling onto the ground.
Straps
Pay close attention to how many straps the golf bag comes with, especially if you’re going to carry it on your back. A single-strap bag can be thrown over your shoulder, while dual-strap systems distribute the weight to both your shoulders and allow you to wear it like a backpack.
Pockets
There’s no such thing as too many pockets. The more pockets the golf bag has, the more stuff you can take with you on long golfing trips. Just make sure you don’t overfill the pockets with unnecessary golfing supplies since their weight adds up.
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