A bag for life

GOLF RETAILING teamed up with JS International to offer six lucky readers the chance to test a Bagboy Lite Rider Cart Bag, one of the lightest bags on the market.

Charles Le Sueur, Head Professional, Alderley Edge Golf Club

A great looking bag with some nice colour options. Considering the number of additional features this bag has it is still very light and, despite the weight, still feels extremely robust. The most noticeable difference to a lot of other bags on the market is the size of the putter holder. This is big enough for any putter grip, which can be an issue with the majority of other bags on the market.

Some of the extra benefits of this bag include a Velcro patch to hold a glove, pen and tee holders, cool pocket and a fleece lined valuables pocket. All of these help to make this bag great value for money. On top of this, the seven different pockets provide plenty of space to store valuables.

I have fairly big hands and I found the lift assist handles on the top of the bag quite uncomfortable to use; in my opinion they could have been a little bigger. All things considered though I think this bag is a viable option for any golf shop to stock and, despite being priced higher than some of the other lightweight trolley bags on the market, the additional features and benefits make up for this.

Steph Hall, Assistant Pro, Sitwell Park Golf Club

This bag is sleek and stylish; it contains multiple pockets but does not make it look crowded. The handles and putter holder at the top of the bag add to the lovely design, making the bag flow together as one. I particularly liked the individual attachments on the front of the bag allowing for tees to be slotted in for easy use when needing to grab a tee quickly on your way to a hole. The bag is extremely practical – its large cooler pouch can easily hold multiple bottles of water to keep hydrated whilst on the course.

There is a fantastic amount of large spacious pockets within the bag which help to store everything you could need with two large side pockets perfect for waterproofs and sweaters. Moving to the top of the bag, the spacious 14-way divider with a separate area for the putter is great as it helps to keep all the clubs uniform and easily accessible. The towel loop is a great addition to the outside of the bag.

The bag sits really well on the trolley and doesn’t move about like I have found other bags do and the pockets are easy to use and easily accessible. Overall this is one of the easiest bags to I have used whilst playing and the large handles on either side of the bag help with lifting on and off the trolley.

Paul Gaylor, Hartley Wintney Golf Club

I have used the bag three times now, and my first impressions are how light it is for a cart bag and how understated the appearance is – I am more used to heavily branded bags. The Lite Rider Cart Bag looks pretty smart in black.

The bag sat nicely on a Motocaddy trolley and remained stable throughout all of the golf that I played. The different sections for clubs were very organised, with individual full length dividers and I personally always find it preferable to have the separate section as provided for the putter.

For me the two biggest plusses were the amount of different pockets and the capacity for clothing and so on. It was also a good touch that the insulated drinks pocket was zipped which stops the drinks falling out when putting the bag in and out of car, something I have experienced before.

Michael Brooks, PGA Professional, Malton & Norton GC

Having unpacked the Bagboy Lite Rider bag I was pleased to see a simplistic, functional design. The black with grey trim colour gives it a very strong look. Slotting my clubs into the bag, which incorporates IDS (individual divider system) was very easy. There are 14 dividers plus a putting well so remember not to fill them all when taking part in a competition or there could be trouble!

There are seven pockets on this model offering acres of space for all your extra clothing and equipment and a huge cool pocket for those hot summer day drinks. The Lite Rider has two grab handles on top of the bag to make it easier to manoeuvre to and from the trolley and has a solid grab handle on the base to help you transfer from car boot to trolley and vice versa.

The hood of the bag can easily be located in one of the large side pockets and was quickly and without effort attached with studs and removed again. There is plenty of space to remove and replace your clubs, this is a very good feature. There are neat little touches too; the pen holder and tee holders and the fact that there is now a bag on the market where the bag strap stays in place. Overall I’m very impressed with this bag, the diamond detail on the material coupled with contrasting zips make the bag look classy.

However, there is no slot on the base unit to fit snugly on the trolley and while it is secure, it does wriggle a little on the trolley even on a level fairway and, because of this, the clubs will rattle. While I love the design and look of the bag, the brolly holder is in the wrong place, it was a bit of a faff getting the brolly to sit where it needed to and place trolley brackets around the bag. Nevertheless, it’s a great bag and I would happily use it on a day to day basis. It does give me everything I need from a golf bag: large pockets, great dividers and classy looks.

Fraser Kelley, PGA Professional, Scarborough North Cliff Golf Club

The BagBoy Lite Rider I reviewed was all black with small undiminishing logos, the bag is also available in seven other colour combinations. The bag weighs only 4.7lbs which is incredibly light for a bag this size.

It offers all the usual pockets, including a large insulated one and two large clothing pockets at either side which are easily accessible. The bag fitted really well on both an electric trolley and on a ride on buggy and the 14 way dividers allowed clubs to be put in and out without a struggle. There was also the benefit of an oversized putter well allowing for the bigger putter grips to fit in.

My main impression is that I was very impressed with the bag. It is certainly something that I will consider stocking in the future, mainly due to the good-looking design and quality finish.

Andrew Coleman, Head Professional, The Millbrook GC

I’ve been out with the Bagboy cart bag this week. This cart bag came with the IDS system (individual divider system) which made it easy getting the clubs in and out, however I’d be careful if using mid-size grips. The putter well stood out giving space for some of the oversize putter grips on the market. The bag fitted on my Motocaddy holding the clubs in an uncomplicated way.

The side grab handles are a bit tight, possibly suiting a lady’s finger shape rather than a man’s, but using these does help in getting the bag in and out of the car. It comes with a number of pockets in good locations for all your balls and extra golfing paraphernalia. The bottom pocket is lined for cool drinks. A pen and tee holder add to the features that make the bag appealing.

This is a good bag that would be suitable for many golfers and comes in a range of colours which helps satisfy even the most fussy player match it with their golfing outfits.