Golf Trip Tales: Traveling With Golf Clubs Is Simplified With ShipStix

On the Porch and Ready for Pick-up in Danbury

Several days before our trip, on a chilly Connecticut morning in late March, we packed our golf bags, loaded them into travel bags and deposited them on our back porch. 

And that was that. We didn't give them another thought for nearly a week, when we checked in for our round at Jekyll Island's Pine Lakes Golf Course ... and there they were, safely ensconced in a back room at the pro shop, ready to hit fairways and greens as we traveled up the Georgia coast... and over to Agusta... on a glorious golf road trip. 

We played the final round of our trip at the King & Prince Golf Course on St. Simon's Island and upon winding up, packed our gear back into travel bags and dropped it off at the pro shop. The next two days we dedicated to non-golf explorations before flying home from Orlando. And, like clockwork, a couple of days after we got home our clubs reappeared on our porch, exactly as we'd left them two weeks earlier.  

That, fellow golf travelers, is the ShipStix experience, and it will almost certainly change the way you travel with your clubs. It's definitely changed ours, and we weren't exactly in search of such an option.

Though we both hated lugging those massive extra bags through airports and resented the extra charge most airlines now impose for doing so, we accepted both as par for the course if our golf travel involved a flight. So when I heard about ShipStix I was immediately interested, and upon further investigation and a perusal of their website... well let's just say I was seduced by the simplicity. The site is ultra-easy to use; you simply schedule your shipment, print your labels and pack your bag. That's it, it's then ready to be picked up and sent to wherever you may need. I was sold, seduced by the simplicity.  But then there was Nick. 

Springtime in Pinehurst... with our golf clubs.

Though not exactly what you'd call low handicapper, he has a visceral attachment to his equipment and has always been reluctant to let it out of his sight for any longer than absolutely necessary. I had some convincing to do, but as he read about their customer service, monitoring, tracking, and communication. He began to see the wisdom of shipping one's sticks. It helped that his buddy had his checked golf bag waylaid on by a major airline at around the same time. 

So, a couple of years ago we went for it. That trip involved shipping our clubs to a friend's office in Augusta (thanks again, Ian) as our accommodations were, um, a bit uncertain. Happily, it went without a hitch. Nick was able to track the trajectory of his precious cargo... which he did several dozen times... and thus keep his anxiety at bay. We spent a wonderful week in the Carolinas and finished the trip at Pinehurst Resort, leaving our bags with the concierge at the gracious Carolina Inn. By the time our bags caught up with us a few days later in CT, we needed no further convincing, and when this recent trip came up we didn't hesitate.  Again, as described above, ShipStix worked like a charm. 

The cost varies based on location, bag size/weight, and timing. We chose ground (4 business days) shipping for our standard sized bags and it cost us little more than it would have to bring them along on most flights, about $55.00 each way, little more than we would have paid to lug them along on many airlines. There's a Quick Quote feature on the ShipSticks website that instantly calculates the cost for your particular specifics. 

I'd encourage any golf traveler to give ShipStix a try. Your golf trips will be transformed... in a good way.