Titleist Lightweight (2010)
OVERALL RATING: 90. GRADE: A-. The Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag (okay, I want to work in product marketing at Titleist, because I’m pretty sure that even I can come up with a better name than that) is a high-quality basic lightweight bag at a reasonable price. It is actually almost identical to the Sun Mountain Superlight 3.5. The look, the EZ-Fit straps, the integrated handle and the legs are all the same. Our presumption is that they all come off the same manufacturing line and then are branded as either Titleist or Sun Mountain (if not, somebody better get their patent lawyer on the phone). As a result, we’ve borrowed liberally from the text of the other review. Some would call that laziness – we prefer to call it efficiency.
Retail price: $160
CLUB STORAGE
The Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag has a 6-way top that splits the club area into 6 sectors. There are two full-length dividers that run the length of the bag, so the club storage space is divided into three major sectors, with each of those split into two through the 6-way top. In any event, clubs generally don’t run afoul of one another very often. To us, this is pretty close to our ideal club storage setup – not too many sectors, but enough that it’s easy to find clubs.
LEGS
Great legs! These are Stacey Keibler or Elle Macpherson quality gams we’re talking about. Wide rubber feet (the Stacey/Elle analogies have now ended) provide excellent stability, and the legs pop out easily upon setting down the bag. There is an element of independent suspension in the legs, in that they don’t both automatically pop out the same amount, which is helpful when dealing with uneven lies. The Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag also adds a Velcro strap to lock down the legs when you’re using a cart or traveling.
STRAPS
Like most of its competitors, the Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag features 4 adjustment points for the straps. The straps feature plush velour padding, a slight improvement over the Sun Mountain Superlight 3.5 .
POCKETS/STORAGE
The Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag has 6 total pockets.
- 1 large garment pocket runs along the right side of the bag.
- A small velour-lined valuables pocket runs long the outside of the garment pocket. Note that the valuables pocket is NOT waterproof.
- One medium-sized and one small pocket rest on the spine of the bag.
- A medium sized ball pocket is on the left side of the bag, with an additional beverage pouch along the outside of this ball pocket.
The Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag includes traditional straps on the right side of the bag for holding an umbrella and a ring for attaching a towel.
It’s a very standard layout, but one that works well.
RAIN HOOD
The bag stumbles a bit with its rain hood. Securing the hood is a somewhat convoluted process of threading two Velcro straps through anchors on the front of the bag (instead of around the legs, which was our first guess), then snapping two buttons around the straps, and finally threading a final Velcro strap around the handle. We think Titleist went a bit overboard with the security levels – we’re not trying to protect Fort Knox– we just want to keep our clubs from getting drenched.
CARRYING IMPRESSIONS
The Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag performed well through our test rounds.
- Weight. The bag came in at 4.7 pounds (including the rain hood), a touch heavier than its Sun Mountain twin, but still the second lightest bag we tested.
- Balance. The bag rested evenly across our shoulders.
- Padding. We would have appreciated a bit more padding where the bag rests against the user’s lower back, although we recognize that would add weight.
- Handles/Straps. One fantastic feature of the Titleist/Sun Mountain bags is the handle that is integrated into the rim of the bag. The user simply grasps this handle with the right hand to place the bag securely on the ground (and activate the legs) and slide the strap off of the right shoulder in one simple motion. This became such a natural motion for us that we would search in vain for the same handle when testing other bags.
STYLE
It’s a nice-enough looking bag, but where Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag excels is its number of color combinations – a whopping eleven choices (outdoing even the Sun Mountain Superlight 3.5)! Some of the colors are a bit exotic, but hey, different strokes for different folks. The color choices include:
- Black and gold, with white trim
- Black, with white piping
- Navy blue with white piping
- Red, with white piping
- Baby blue and brown, with white trim
- Navy blue and light green, with white trim
- Red and navy blue, with white trim
- Pink and black, with silver trim
- Purple and navy blue, with silver trim
- Denim blue and black, with silver trim
- Grey and black, with red trim
- Royal blue and black, with yellow trim
INNOVATION
Like the other Titleist/Sun Mountain bags, the Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag gets points for the innovative integrated handle at the top of the bag. But other than that, there’s nothing revolutionary about it.
COST/VALUE
The simple design and easy-to-use features (other than the rain hood) made this one of the best bags we tested. Add on the fact that at $160.00, the Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag was one of the least expensive bags in our comparison, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic value.