The Nike Sport Carry Lite can be summarized fairly easily: lightweight and inexpensive. At a mere 3.7 pounds and $130, it would be hard to say that this bag shouldn’t be on the short list for most players to consider. As with any bag that is light or inexpensive, there are tradeoffs. Nike’s marketing touts the “ultra-lightweight” materials on the Sport Carry Lite, which might be more aptly described as “thin” (although the nylon does seem to be relatively durable). The Nike Sport Carry Lite also saves on weight by foregoing a handle at the top and reducing padding on the shoulders and hips.

Even so, don’t expect a stripped-down “Sunday bag” – the Nike Sport Carry Lite still offers six pockets and additional accessories. It didn’t turn our heads, but our wallet and backs appreciated every bit of it.

Retail price: $130.00
Amazon.com: Check price now


SCORE
93
GRADE
A-
Club Storage
92
Pockets/Storage
89
Carrying Impressions
91
Rain Hood
95
Cost/Value
98

The Nike Sport Carry Lite has an oval 8.5 top and a 1-1-2-1 well pattern, with a dedicated putter well taking the top position. It is a bit unorthodox, but worked fine on the course. We do note that we’ve never really understood the need for a dedicated putter well (even less so on the Sport Carry Lite since there is no full-length divider separating it from the next section), and usually cluster the putter with other woods and hybrids at the top of the bag. In any event, the Nike Sport Carry Lite has two full-length dividers, between the 2nd and 3rd sectors and the 3rd and 4th sectors.

There are seven pockets, made up of five zippered pockets, one with a mesh pocket inside, plus an open beverage sleeve.

Not included in the count is the pen/pencil holder located at the base of the bag on the spine.

Nike Sport Carry Lite 2015

Click for images

The right side of the Nike Sport Carry Lite features an adjustable strap, sleeve, and bottom loop to secure an umbrella, a nylon strap for attaching a GPS or laser rangefinder, a plastic towel loop (which could be used for to attach any number of things with carabiner), and a Velcro glove patch in case you don’t want to go the old school glove-in-the-back-pocket route.

Other key features include:

The matching rain hood was easily attached to protect clubs from the rain. Four buttons surround the oval top, two on each side, and there are cutouts of the hood for the shoulder strap clips, keeping good coverage around most of the top. Lastly, there is a Velcro strap goes around the points where the legs attach to the bag.

We can’t say we were big fans of some of the aesthetic design choices on the Sport Carry Lite – the pixelated shading at the edges of the apparel pocket looked more like an ode to yesteryear than something fresh. The Sport Carry Lite comes in four different color combinations: White/”University” Red; Fireberry (pink)/Volt (yellow)/Dark Fireberry; Silver/Photo Blue/Dark Grey; and Black/Silver/Anthracite. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder.

But we’re confident that you’ll find that at its retail price of only $130, the Nike Sport Carry Lite offers exceptional value in a carry bag. The Sport Carry Lite is the least expensive bag in our tests, and yet its ultra-lightweight materials still proved durable, holding up fine during use. You’ll give up some padding for your shoulders and back, and we would have preferred to have a top handle for the bag, but all in all, these are reasonable tradeoffs for an otherwise very solid choice in a carry bag.

Retail price: $130.00
Amazon.com: Check price now


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.