Golf Essentials
What belongs in the bag
Golf Essentials
Most golf bags hold the kit you use every round, and a layer at the bottom you have not touched since 2019. This is the first list.
The essentials, in order of how often you reach for them
- Golf ballsMore than you think. A mid-handicapper loses two or three a round on an unfamiliar course. Six is optimism; a dozen is realistic.
- A gloveOne in play, one spare. Gloves die faster in the wet, and a wet glove that has dried hard is worse than no glove.
- Tees70mm for a driver, shorter for irons and par threes. Buy far more than seems sensible; they snap and they vanish.
- A ball markerMost golfers use a coin. A proper marker costs almost nothing and does not disappear into a pocket.
- A pitch repair toolFixing your pitch mark is basic etiquette and takes ten seconds.
- A towelClean grooves are worth roughly a club of spin. The most underrated item on the list.
- HeadwearCap in summer, beanie in winter. Four hours outdoors is four hours outdoors.
The ones people forget
Rain arrives, the glove goes, and you play the back nine gripping with no confidence.
Trivial until you are marking a card in the wind with a snapped one.
A surprising number of back-nine collapses are just low blood sugar.
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
Nobody enjoys buying essentials. They are the golf equivalent of socks: needed constantly, bought reluctantly, 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. The Presidential Box covers every item above.
Restock the whole bag at once
Buying for yourself? Start with graded golf balls, where pre-owned saves the most. Buying a gift? A box covers the lot.
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