2005-08-21

Golf Clubs Are Expensive

Somewhat recently, an entire golf bag was stolen from a local country club bag drop area. The member pulled his car up, set his bag of clubs in the bag stand, parked his car, walked up to where his golf clubs were and they were gone! STOLEN! This particular country club even has a camera that pans the parking lot but somehow the timing of the jacked clubs worked out so perfect in the thief?s favor that there was no camera joy. Just bag there, bag gone. The entire club was buzzing about it the morning of the tournament I was in - not a normal occurrence by a long shot. I think the country club ended up replacing the member's bag of clubs just to try and make up for it but still - what a nightmare.

I have been lucky so far in that my clubs have never even been close to stolen (knock on persimmon). And I am not at all one of those paranoid types; I would never even imagine worrying about my clubs getting stolen at a country club. However, I do normally try to keep my bag of clubs in my view at all times and feel a little uncomfortable if my bag is around a corner, or even on a golf cart out of my site - especially at busy public courses. Public courses are a different story, for some reason; perhaps because they are so crowded, club theft crosses my mind if that bag is not on my shoulders. Not sure who, or rather, what type of golfer is out there that would actually steal someone's precious set of clubs, clubs that are chosen, matched, and perhaps even fitted, to the owner's swing - but apparently people like that are out there.

Damn you ebay!

Just like when you leave your wedge on a green somewhere and no one turns it in - or even worse - something like an eight iron left in the rough because you brought a seven and an eight and forgot to pick up the unneeded eight after a great shot (just a guess here - how the heck do you lose an eight iron Darin?). Really though, that is worse than leaving a wedge on the green - see, if you lose a sandwedge it is really not that big of a deal because it doesn't match your iron set anyway. If you lose something like a 5 iron though you are in real trouble.

What does a five iron for your set cost on ebay? - I'll tell you 80 bucks minimum. Minimum. Bummer. And that is if someone even has one for sale with a worn out grip on it.

But learning to leave an unneeded or spare club in-between your shot and your walking path back to your cart is a learned response that you pick up from other golfers. Eventually you get good enough at leaving wedges on the flagstick or long irons on your return walking path that you never lose a club ever again. But rookie mistakes like that happen and they happen to everyone eventually.

Leaving a *club down* behind though is a different topic, this post is about preventing straight up theft.

That said, here are a couple quick tips I've figured out related to preventing golf club theft:

#1 - if you are leaving your bag of clubs unattended for any kind of extended period of time (checking in or ordering a tuna sandwich to go sometimes takes 10 minutes) - unhook the carry strap on your bag and hook it around something else and then reattach it to your bag - preferably hook the straps up to a friend's bag of clubs - that way if someone picks up your bag, the other bag falls and all kinds of crazy things will happen - enough distraction at least to bring attention to the situation by onlookers.

#2 - when you get to the course there are several times when you need to part with your bag momentarily. While at the practice putting green for instance. No real prevention method here so just be smart about it and plan for the worst. The secret here is to leave your car keys, your wallet, and your phone ON YOU until you get to the first tee. Then you can unload all that stuff into your bag. NEVER put that essential stuff into your bag before you are actually on the course. Just imagine if someone grabbed your bag with all that in it - you'd be SOL with no car keys (they might find your car now as well so you can't even leave your car unattended) you would have no money, and no way to call your sugar momma to bail you out on the cell phone. Yikes; it's bad enough leaving your clubs in temptation, don't ever leave your daily livelihood in the bag with them. Better keep that pack of Marlboro Ultra Light 100's in your pocket as well.

#3 Unless one of you knows something I haven't figured out yet, there is nothing to prevent the random walk by driver grab. Other than having a cheapo headcover. You can also do my method and throw all headcovers away - I find them to be not worth the hassle anyway - plus, no one seems to steal worn out looking clubs without the headcovers - another bonus of being lazy / in a hurry... That slick looking Cameron putter cover and Titleist 983 driver cover can be spotted a mile away. Think about that next time you make a restroom run.

Sorry about throwing down a tin-foil hat jinx like that, that was not the intention. As I mentioned at first, I have never ever had any kind of issue or trouble with clubs being stolen.

Normally, the only time I worry about my clubs is when my car is parked downtown - because if the car gets stolen, my clubs in the trunk are worth more than that car is. But that has not happened yet either (at least not to the car with the clubs in it fingers crossed)

I do have a positive experience about all this - one day after some tournament, some kind of something important came up and I left the course in a super big hurry and actually left my entire golf bag sitting in one of those bag racks at the busiest golf course in town. I didn't even realize it until the next morning. It sat in that rack all evening Saturday, and about half the day Sunday. Nobody even touched it! I had money and CC's in the pockets, some new Callaway woods (with headcovers), carphone, etc. That bag sat out there the entire night in the open untouched and who knows how many people walked by it during the golf hours. Enough people to restore one's faith in humanity - at least one's faith in the golfing humanity...

Do you have any other tips about how to keep your clubs safe? I actually do strap my bag to the bag next to mine sometimes and can only imagine the hilarity that would ensue if some jerk tried to pick up and run off with one of the bags..

*** COMMENTS CLOSED ***