Have you ever asked the question, “What is a Golf Stand Bag?” Or “What is a Golf Carry Bag?” Cart Bag? Sunday Bag? Or Hybrid Bag?
These descriptive titles can be a little confusing, but they do not need to be. Each of these types of bags has a relatively distinct purpose and set of features.
The best place to start on this question is to take us back to elementary school math and use a Venn diagram. As shown in the diagram, there are two main categories of bags: Carry Bags and Cart Bags.
Stand Bags and Sunday Bags are subsets of Carry Bags, with Sunday Bags being a tiny niche.
Hybrid Bags represent a crossover between Carry Bags and Cart Bags, having features from both categories.
With the diagram as a road map, let’s explore each type of bag.
Golf Cart Bags
The golf cart bag is the royalty of modern golf bags. In size, features, storage capacity, and weight, they reign supreme. These bags are designed to be strapped onto a motorized golf cart or pushcart. The Sun Mountain C-130 is an excellent example of a cart bag.
They commonly have up to a 14-slot top with full-length dividers, a large number of specialized and spacious pockets, including a multi beverage cooler pocket, and an external putting well.
These bags also tend to be designed to fit securely onto a cart. These cart-friendly design points include specially designed bottoms and strap channels or pocket placements that allow the cart to be strapped to a cart without decreasing access to the pockets.
Golf Carry Bags
The golf carry bag category is a wide range of bags designed to be carried by the golfer, typically using a single strap or a backpack style harness. As a group, these bags are lightweight and have fewer features than the cart bags.
The carry bags exhibit features that make them comfortable to carry over eighteen holes or to the range. Compared with cart bags, the fuller featured carry bags typically have:
- Ergonomically designed, padded shoulder strap systems to improve load balance and enhance comfort
- A smaller size profile and fewer features to reduce weight. Some of these bags weigh under three pounds
- A reduced number and size of pockets and club openings/dividers
- Been constructed of advanced lightweight materials. As an example, you will not find much leather in this category of bag. Instead, the “cloth” siding is commonly made of highly durable nylon and other synthetics.
Golf Stand Bags
The golf stand bag is the most popular type of carry bag dominating the category in terms
of the number of models. As a testament to their dominance, our top carry bags are all stand bags (see our reviews here). To the left is the 2022 Sun Mountain 3.5 LS.
The distinguishing feature of these bags is that they have an extending and retractable stand to allow golfers to lean their bags forward upon their outstretched legs.Before this innovation, golfers would either lie their bags flat on the ground or precariously stand their bags on their bottoms.
The stands allow for easier access to the clubs, less backache in hoisting the bag for carry and finally fewer bags falling onto the ground from an upright position.
Sunday Golf Bags
Sunday golf bags or pencil bags are meant to hold a limited number of clubs, accessories, and gear to the course or driving range.
These bags have minimal features and pockets (although recently, more and more options have been added). And Sunday bags do not usually have a mechanized stand.
These bags are small, lightweight, and offer the bare essentials.The CHAMPKEY Professional Golf Sunday Bag (shown to the right) is a highly rated version of this type of bag.
Check out our recent post on why golfers buy Sunday Golf Bags.
Golf Hybrid Bags
Golf Hybrid bags are stand bags that have some of the fuller features of the cart bags. They are designed for golfers who want one bag they can seamlessly use, whether they are walking, pushing a cart, or using a motorized golf cart.
These bags tend to weigh a couple of pounds more than stand bags, and they boast some cart friendly design aspects that enable them to sit more securely in golf carts. The hybrid bag will also, typically, have a 14-way top.
In some ways, the hybrid bag designation is pretty vague in terms of its exact specifications.These bags blur the lines between cart and carry bags.
Although there are a significant number of bags that could be called” hybrid,” very few manufacturers have adopted this model description into their bag names.
If you are interested in this type of bag, we suggest you examine full-featured stand bags regardless of whether they are called hybrid by name. A great example of this hybrid-style bag would be the Titleist14 Hybrid Stand Bag.
In Conclusion
It’s not difficult to answer: “What is a golf stand bag?” They are a type of carry bag with a mechanized stand for better access to your clubs while creating a stable stance.They are our favorite type of bag, as you can probably tell by reading through our site.
We hope thisinformation has helped clarify the mostcommon types of bags.