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Decisions decisions...

A while back I was putting together a birthday wishlist at the request of friends and family, and on that list were two golf bags. Two, because both appeared to be excellent bags, but I couldn't decide which one I'd rather have. I thought that perhaps I might get lucky and get one, and the decision would be made for me.

But no, I'm in the fortunate situation of receiving both golf bags, and now the ball is back in my court. :-P

(fwiw, I'm looking for a cart bag because I use golfnow.com for most of my golf, and all of those courses include carts. I'll keep my current bag for any time I know I'll walk.)

First up is the Titleist SC75 cart bag. This one is nearly perfect in every way - lots of big pockets, a big lined valuables pocket, a big insulated drink pocket, and it's just a good-looking bag. The biggest downside for me is the 14-way club divider, which apparently is a standard feature now on every cart bag.

Second up is the . Proper 6-way club divider, four big pockets on the ends, looks great, and I've been liking Bridgestone's stuff lately. The downside here is that until the bag showed up at my door, I had never actually seen one in person, so it was really an unknown.

First I did what any good golf nerd would do, and put my clubs in each bag to see how they'd fit and look.


This is where I noticed that the Bridgestone was just a bit shorter than the Titleist. It's certainly easier to throw clubs in the Bridgestone, but I think they're actually displayed a little better in the Titleist. Two big downsides to the Titleist showed up though, that I didn't expect. Due to the narrow slot for each club, the shaft protector on the 3-wood's headcover either has to be tucked in to the slot, or it bunches up at the top. Also, the bag is actually so tall that my putter doesn't touch the bottom, which just feels weird to me. :-P

In operation, just due to the material and design, the Bridgestone feels a lot more solid. Comparing the handles, for example:


The Bridgestone is big and solid, while the Titleist is smaller and has some give to it. I'm sure this is just due to the fact that they were shooting for lightweight cart bag, perhaps one that could be carried occasionally. Honestly, the S74 is a more comparable bag to the Bridgestone, but I didn't really like the way that one looked. :-P

One feature on the Titleist bothered me a big more than expected, and that's the shoulder strap.

For a bag that will only be used on carts, it makes perfect sense to have it there, and it even tucks away nicely in its own pouch. When you do have to carry the bag though, it's upside-down and feels kind of weird. So I can't really get over the non-traditional placement.

Pocket-wise, it's pretty much a wash between the two. The Titleist has big accessible pockets on each side of the bag, plus the previously-mentioned larger valuables/insulated pockets. The Bridgestone has fairly worthless pockets on two sides (the sides with the big Bridgestone name), as they're pretty tight and flat. The pockets on the ends though are gigantic. The biggest one can easily hold a pair of shoes and probably two jackets, without even looking full. The valuables pocket is on the same end, and it's pretty big as well. On the other end are two more really big pockets for balls, tees, whatever. I think the pockets will work out better than I initially expected.

All that said, I'm going to go with the Bridgestone bag, and probably return the other one for a 585.H. :-D