Golf Essentials
Most golf bags contain two things: the kit you use every round, and a layer of stuff at the bottom you have not touched since 2019.
This is the first list. What actually earns its place, how much of it you need, and the bits people only remember when they are standing on the first tee without them.
The essentials, in order of how often you will reach for them
- Golf balls. More than you think. A mid-handicapper loses two or three a round on an unfamiliar course. Six is optimism; a dozen is realistic.
- A glove. One in play, one spare. Gloves die faster in the wet, and a wet glove that has dried hard is worse than no glove.
- Tees. 70mm for a driver, shorter for irons and par threes. Buy far more than seems sensible — they snap and they vanish.
- A ball marker. Most golfers use a coin. A proper marker costs almost nothing and does not disappear into a pocket.
- A pitch repair tool. Fixing your pitch mark is basic etiquette and takes ten seconds.
- A towel. Clean grooves are worth roughly a club of spin. This is the most underrated item on the list.
- Headwear. Cap in summer, beanie in winter. Four hours outdoors is four hours outdoors.
The ones people forget
A spare glove in a sealed bag. Rain arrives, the glove goes, and you play the back nine gripping with no confidence.
A pencil that works. Trivial until you are marking a card in the wind with a snapped one.
Something to eat at the turn. A surprising number of collapses on the back nine are just low blood sugar.
Sun cream. Four hours, no shade, and British golfers are famously bad at this.
How much to carry
| Item | Sensible quantity |
|---|---|
| Golf balls | 12 if you are honest with yourself, 6 if you are playing well |
| Gloves | 1 in play, 1 spare and dry |
| Tees | 20+. They cost pennies and you will lose them. |
| Ball markers | 2. You will lose one. |
| Towels | 1 wet, 1 dry if you can manage it |
Restocking the lot
Here is the thing about essentials: nobody enjoys buying them. They are the golf equivalent of socks — needed constantly, bought reluctantly, and never the thing you get excited about at the counter.
Which is exactly why they make a good present. Everything on this list goes into our golf gift boxes, so a golfer gets the whole lot restocked at once without having to think about it. The Presidential Box covers every item above.
Buying for yourself rather than as a gift? Start with the graded golf balls — that is where the money goes, and where graded pre-owned saves the most.