EQUIPMENT REVIEW
A simple idea makes Sun Mountain's Club Glider a leap forward in travel bag technology
By Tim McDonald,
Contributor
The new travel bag from Sun Mountain has fold-out legs that make both moving the bag through airports, as well as loading your golf clubs, convenient and easier than ever.
The Sun Mountain people are at it again, claiming their new Club-Glider is the next evolution in golf travel bags.
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I certainly won't argue with them.
The Club Glider is the easiest travel bag I've ever used, in terms of both loading your clubs and moving the whole kit and caboodle down the airport terminal.
Sun Mountain came up with the first modern, stand bag and has pushed the old envelope with its lightweight bags, as well as taking the old pull-carts and turning them into the push-cart trend.
I don't know that the Club Glider is a distinct category, but I can say unequivocally, it is the easiest on the fragile human back of any travel bag I've ever used, and I've used quite a few.
That's because it has sturdy, steel legs that fold out and take, according to Sun Mountain, 22 pounds of pressure off the back and shoulders. Actually, it feels like 100 percent to me, because once you get the legs loaded - a simple matter of pulling them down, then up - you can trundle this thing along with your pinkie. I know, because I did it. Then I made my wife do it, just in case my manly pinkie skewed the statistics.
The Club Glide literally glides across surfaces, which is why they gave it the name, I assume. I guess the only way they can improve on this thing in the future is to supply a battery and remote control - then you won't even have to touch it. Those travel bags with wheels on the back are so passé.
The other area it saves your back is loading. No longer do you have to lay the travel bag flat on the ground and wrestle your clubs down and into it.
With the Club Glider, you can load your bags erect like modern homo sapiens, instead of squatting and fumbling on the ground like a Neanderthal. With the legs in place, the travel bag supports 100 percent of the golf bag's weight. When you have to check it or store it, the legs fold back into a molded tray and out of the way.
The Club Glider is a boon to any golfer with back problems. If you don't have back problems, the Club Glider will do its part to help you avoid them.
This is a great invention by a man named Gary Sherrell, who signed a licensing agreement with Sun Mountain. So, Sun Mountain didn't invent it, but it recognized a great invention when it saw one.
Sorry if I'm raving, but it's that good.
The rest of the bag is pretty much standard. Pivoting caster wheels provide maneuverability. Heavy-duty, two-way zippers provide entry, and foam padding protects the clubs. The bag has two dual-entry storage pockets accessible from inside or outside the bag, and it has the standard internal cinch straps, lift handles and vinyl-reinforced wear areas.
The Club Glider was one of five finalists on the Golf Channel's "Fore Inventors Only" show.
It measures 52 inches by 14 inches by 12 inches and retails at around $300, much less than paying a chiropractor.
For more information on Sun Mountain's Club Glider golf bag, see www.sunmountain.com.
September 23, 2008
Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management.
