Lightening Your Golf Stand Bag (And How to Make Carrying It Easier)

Pretty much the entire point of a golf stand bag is to enable you to walk the course. Golfers that play from the convenience of a golf cart don’t need stand bags. For them, the extra room of a cart bag just makes more sense.

So, if your golf stand bag is too heavy for you to carry your clubs and equipment comfortably, you’re defeating the whole purpose. Not only will lugging around a needlessly-heavy golf carry bag rob you of enjoyment of the game, but you could also predispose yourself to shoulder and back pain.

Add in the fact that, since golf is played on uneven terrain, there’s already a risk of this happening, and you have a recipe for discomfort.

So, with that said, here are our best suggestions for how to lighten your golf bag and carry it more comfortably.

Ditch the Extra Golf Balls

To be sure, you need at least as many golf balls as there are holes on the course, and everyone needs a few shag balls for practice, but you don’t need to carry a whole case of balls.

Your average golf ball weighs about 1.5 ounces. This means that shedding as few as 10 balls from your bag will lessen the overall weight of your bag by almost a pound.

By the way, when you’re getting rid of the extra golf balls, you might as well get rid of the extra “everything else.” You don’t need two rain jackets, two towels, and so on and so forth. Frankly, you might not even need two bottles of water, and water is heavy.

Clean It Out

You might as well clean out your golf stand bag while you’re lightening it, as this will give you some golden opportunities to get rid of anything at the bottom that’s weighing you down.

Pencil nubs, old score cards, old snacks that have long since gone rancid - get rid of them. Individually, they might each only weigh a scrap of an ounce, but if you’re the type that likes to hang onto things, it won’t take many odds and ends to equal a pound or two, and every pound matters.

Also, we previously published a short guide on how to clean your golf bag. You can check it out via the previous link for a more thorough breakdown of how to do so.

Adjust the Straps

Besides actually shedding weight, the more important thing you can do to make sure you’re not straining yourself is to adjust the straps.

Most modern golf stand bags are made with adjustable straps for this very purpose. You’re already paying for the feature, so if you don’t use it, that’s wasted money.

You need to find a balance between the pressure that’s on both of your shoulders, between your dominant and non-dominant side. What balance looks like for each player will be different and for some golfers, it might be more comfortable for one shoulder to carry more of the weight.

Of course, adjustable straps make it possible to create a perfect weight distribution across your back and shoulders.

Adjustment will take as little as 5 minutes and it is the easiest and cheapest thing you can do to improve your comfort, not to mention the fastest.

Keep to the 20% Rule

No matter how strong you are, or how much you like to carry, the golden rule of comfortably carrying when walking the course is the 20% rule.

It’s simple and straightforward, and goes like this: your stand bag should not weigh more than 20% of your total body weight. That’s that.

If you weigh 200 pounds, then your golf bag, with everything in it, should weigh no more than 40 pounds.

This will make it a little tougher for some smaller-framed golfers to load a bag, but if it means you have to shed a club or two, so be it.

What club is worth the health of your neck, shoulders, and back, anyway?

Look for a Bag with Dual Shoulder Straps and a Padded Hip Pad

Many modern golf stand bags come with a dual shoulder strap configuration and many come with a padded hip pad, too. Both of these features will help with weight distribution and help prevent pressure points and strain.

Models with dual shoulder straps also offer advanced adjustability, and, since there is greater surface area contact between your shoulders and the bag, are more comfortable to use and carry.

Plenty of golf stand bags have them. Opt for a model like the Mizuno BR-D3, 2022 Sun Mountain 4.5 LS, 3.5 LS, and 2.5LS, along with the Sun Mountain Eco-Lite and VX - although there are plenty of other suitable options.

Ditch a Stand Bag, Use a Golf Push Cart

Sometimes, the best option is not to jump through all these hoops, but just to take advantage of a better alternative from the start.

If you have hip, shoulder, neck, or back pain, don’t try to make a stand bag work for you. You’re just asking for trouble.

Get a cart bag and use a golf push cart. We carry plenty of different push carts here at Dallas Golf Company such as BagBoy push carts that are a joy to use and which have tons of storage and other golfer-friendly features.

Check them out via the previous link. They might be just the thing you need to help take a proverbial (and literal) weight off your shoulders.

Is It Time for a New Golf Stand Bag?

If you’re working with a golf stand bag that’s on its proverbial (or again, literal) last legs, maybe what you need more than any of these tips is just to get a new golf bag.

We carry plenty of golf stand bags from the top brands, including Sun Mountain, Mizuno, Wilson, Titleist, and Callaway, many of which feature ultra-lightweight designs and which have dual shoulder straps and padded hip straps that are optimized for comfort.

Find the best golf bag here. Just make sure when you get them you stick to the 20% rule and keep the bag free of clutter that will weigh it down!