Few things are more important to a golfer than a good bag. First off, bags come in many styles and a wide variety of colors. You can choose a bag for style, features or pick a color to match your mood.
Some have legs that fold out when they are placed on the ground and stand upright so the golfer doesn't have to bend down and pick it up. That's a nice feature in bags, especially if the golfer tends to walk the course, as many do. There is plenty of bending to be done when a golfer is trying to remove an obstacle from around his or her ball, or to get the ball out of the cup, so any way to avoid bending over is more than appreciated.
All bags have compartments where the clubs are to be placed. Each golfer has his or her own way of doing this and putting clubs where he or she wants them. Some golfers, though, are lazy and just stick their clubs in the compartments, grabbing whichever one they want when a particular club is needed. But, some bags have tubes to protect the club grips. These are nice to have. With the tubes, a golfer can get his or her
clubs out easier. The clubs are never tangled up, and the grips last a lot longer.
Another important factor in choosing a bag is the number of pockets it has. Frankly, there's no such thing as too many pockets in a bag. First, one of the pockets will be used to hold the bag's hood. The hood is used to keep the clubs and bag from getting drenched when it rains. Another pocket will be used to keep extra towels (believe it or not, extra towels are important in the summer to keep the sweat off the brow and out of the eyes, along with keeping the hands relatively dry. Then, there is the pocket used for keeping the extra tees and possibly the divot tool. Finally, a pocket is needed for the balls themselves, and it doesn't hurt to have a pocket to carry another dozen balls in, just in case.
Some courses are so difficult it is easy to lose a lot of balls during 18-holes of play. This makes having an extra box of balls around a good thing, but there has to be somewhere in the bag to keep them, which means another pocket.
Imagine trying to play without a bag. The golfer would be constantly stooping over picking up clubs, tees, balls, towels and the divot tool. Then he or she would have to walk to the ball, drop all of the clubs and stuff, select a club, hit the ball, and start the process all over again. It would be a major pain in the neck, and would make it nearly impossible to finish playing a round of golf. So, bags are an essential part of the game of golf.
