Equipment
The great divider debate: What’s your perfect number?
Golf is full of endlessly interesting and debatable topics. From course design to golf grips, everyone has a preference and a reason behind it.
One of the most polarizing debates among golfers revolves around golf bags and their top divider systems—especially when it comes to stand and carry bag.
Carry bags can range from simple stand-less Sunday bags with only two slots, to elaborate geometric shapes to prevent chatter, all the way to the full 14-way top—ne for each club in the bag.
The most common number of dividers found in the market is four, and we see that in bags from Ping, Mizuno, Ogio, TaylorMade, and many more.
The purpose of any golf bag divider system is to keep your clubs organized and easy to access, they are also designed to hopefully prevent your clubs from banging against each other and reduce chatter. Years ago Mizuno even went as far as creating what they called the kabuki top to help irons gather and not click and ding—because nobody wants to ding up their new forged irons!
Ogio, took it a step further with the original Woodé System to keep longer clubs with covers to one side, so it’s easy to see what iron or wedge you are reaching for in your bag. This was a big selling feature for those that carried multiple clubs with covers.
In my opinion, as a walker 90 percent of the time, I will only use a bag with 4 or fewer dividers. I believe a putter doesn’t need its own personal slot, and with larger openings, it’s easier to get clubs in and out and move them around a bit to find the club you are looking for—it’s seriously not that difficult.
To take it a step further to say when carrying less than 14 clubs, the unstructuredness of a Sunday bag keeps clubs sitting together because they don’t really have another option. It’s the moving van principle; if everything is all packed tightly together, it means less rattling and less risk for damage.
Whatever happens, to be your favorite we all have our reasons. So when you’re shopping for your next bag, worry about the top just as much as the pocket designs, because it’s just as important.
GolfWRXers: This was hotly debated on my Twitter, and we want to bring that discussion here. Let us know where you stand in the poll below.
Poll
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- Pavon’s WITB accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Ping G430 Max (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X
3-wood: Ping G430 LST (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X
Hybrid: Ping G430 (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 10 X
Irons: Ping i230 (3-PW)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 X
Wedges: Ping Si59 (52-12S, 58-8B)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 X
Putter: Ping Cadence TR Tomcat C
Grip: SuperStroke Claw 1.0P
Grips: Golf Pride MCC Align
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Check out more in-hand photos of Pavon’s gear here.
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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.
This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.
Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.
The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.
Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
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We enter week 4 of Thursday night men’s league feeling a little more confident in the game. BK is hoping to go a little lower and reduce the mistakes out there with these clubs in the bag. Watch the video for the full breakdown of why these clubs are getting the starting nod this week!
Driver: Titleist TSR2 (10 degrees, neutral setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 63 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Lin-Q M40X TSPX Blue 7F5
7-wood: Ping G430 Max (-1 degree, flat Ssetting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 S
Iron: Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi 4
Shaft: Aerotech Steelfiber hls880 S
Irons: PXG 0317 Tour (5-PW)
Shaft: LA Golf A-Series 105 Low (4)
Wedge: Titleist Vokey SM10 (50-08F)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Dart V 105 F4 Wedge
Wedge: Ping S159 (56-10H)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115
Wedge: Ping S159 (60-08B)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115
Putter: PXG Battle Ready II Brandon
Shaft: BGT Stability Tour Spec One
Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour X
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Matt
Jul 27, 2020 at 11:13 am
What is an actual argument *against* a 14-way bag? As long as they are full length dividers I can’t see any benefit to not having them.
Now if we’re talking some ultra light bag or a Sunday bag for a less than full set, ok. But if you’re carrying 14…why would you not want 14?
JD
Apr 29, 2020 at 2:12 am
Hmm..14 dividers means 15 compartments, right? Never mind.
I have 4 bags and depending on how many clubs I want to play with that, I chose the bag (I didn’t buy 4 bags so i could do that, it kind of just happened). I hate having to search for the club, must be quick to see and grab, so never use the covers:
1. pencil bag (1 compartment, 0 dividers..): 3 clubs and putter.
2. 4 compartment bag, not used yet, good for 5 or 6 clubs max.
3. 6 compartment bag, got 8 clubs in it at the moment, never more.
4. 14 compartment bag: for my “full” set of 12 clubs. Woods on the left so they cover the irons.
Curb
Apr 27, 2020 at 12:07 pm
Not 14! I like my clubs a easy to get out and put back in. That said I do like a putter hull as that’s my one club that gets most respect.
MikeB
Apr 27, 2020 at 11:07 am
14 works best for me, have Gripmaster grips on all clubs, grips are very sticky, need to keep them separated. Now that I use the Sun Mountain C-130s, light enough to carry if needed, although I wouldn’t say it’s lightweight, just tolerable, cart bag with legs… perfect!
Pelling
Apr 27, 2020 at 10:01 am
I prefer 16 slots, but then, just to be safe, I put tubes into those! Once I get my iron covers, I’m good to go! 14 clubs, ball retriever, Orange Whip, with giant animal headcovers. The caddies don’t seem to mind, but I make sure to give them an extra $1 for the effort, especially if there’s a chance of rain and I take an umbrella and extra pair of shoes just in case.
Steve
Apr 27, 2020 at 9:43 am
I have a woodie. If I were to replace it a minimum of 4 dividers. More important are that they full length dividers and second would be weight.
Night putter
Apr 27, 2020 at 8:51 am
Regarding pull cart / walking around greens… when in NZ a local muni rented a pull cart with big wide wheels that was
ok to cross greens (not stop) .
MT
Apr 27, 2020 at 2:47 am
15 or 16 dividers so you can have a place for a warm up device like orange whip and extra large opening for putter with oversized grips.
ThisMan
Apr 27, 2020 at 9:37 am
This!
Jbone
Apr 26, 2020 at 2:30 pm
5.
Matt A
Apr 26, 2020 at 2:24 am
I liked the Ogio Woode system, it kept the woods and their covers off to the side where they didn’t cover the irons. And I miss putter wells, it’s nice to get the putter with larger grip out of the way.
steve
Apr 26, 2020 at 1:24 am
Semi-related topic … According to another golf website, push/pull cart sales are through the roof during this social distance conundrum. I, myself, feel it is much easier to carry rather than push/pull. I truly despise having to push/pull a cart around greens. If only my local courses would offer some sort of reduced rate for walkers, Many more players would choose that option.
ChipNRun
Apr 25, 2020 at 11:45 pm
A midsize bag with four dividers will do the trick.
Top divider will handle long clubs (4)… Bottom divider will handle wedges + putter (4)
Two middle dividers will handle 3 irons each.
(Two middle dividers will handle fourth club each if you’re testing things at range, and don’t have to worry about “clean drop” back into bag after each shot.
I did in-store tests with the 14-slot stand bag. General impression: it feels like I have a suitcase slung across my back… just doesn’t ride comfortably.
Realist
Apr 26, 2020 at 8:37 pm
Got fitted for your bag huh??? My gosh
[email protected]
Apr 25, 2020 at 11:13 pm
Do interns run this site ?
Ac
Apr 26, 2020 at 11:41 am
You’re free to read elsewhere man… total douché thing to say Jack
Realist
Apr 26, 2020 at 8:38 pm
You could read elsewhere
karsten's ghost
Apr 25, 2020 at 10:36 pm
15. Ball fetcher and alignment rods get their own place.
Haloha
Apr 25, 2020 at 10:08 pm
always prefer 14 but I just bought a new stand bag with 4 because of the color lol. 14 slots is just less stressful if playing a tournament.
Najeh
Apr 25, 2020 at 9:22 pm
Really reaching for content with this one. This topic would never come up in regular conversation.
dookie
Apr 27, 2020 at 5:34 pm
Better than more Tiger Woods non- news ( and I like Tiger )
Shawn Mulhaney
Apr 25, 2020 at 5:17 pm
I often wonder what the big draw is for the Stich bags like the Sl1
Shallowface
Apr 25, 2020 at 4:54 pm
I still prefer the roominess of an old style staff bag.
Not related to what I personally use, but I remember a discussion I had with a club repairman several years ago. The JumboMax grips were just hitting the market, and the SuperStroke had been out for awhile.
I asked him if he thought one could get 13 clubs with JumboMax plus a SuperStroke putter into a modern golf bag, and he said he hadn’t tried it but thought it was a really good question.
I don’t think those large grips would go into the 14 divider style bags. Not the ones I’ve seen at least.
TacklingDummy
Apr 25, 2020 at 4:50 pm
For me, in a carry stand bag, definitely the 4-way divider. Driver, fairway woods or hybrid, putter in top slot. 4,5,6 irons and 7,8,9 irons in middle slots, and PW, 52,56, 60 in the low slot. 4 clubs upper section, 6 clubs middle two sections, 4 clubs in lower section. Works out well.
Donald Duck
Apr 25, 2020 at 4:35 pm
The Woode system is perfect, although it’s a bit of a tight squeeze in my carry bag with midsize grips and irons getting tangled up.
Your mailman
Apr 25, 2020 at 4:56 pm
My woode is also a tight squeeze, according to your wife!
Dan
Apr 25, 2020 at 5:15 pm
I feel like maybe we all have been cooped up a little too long…
Todd Pitt
Apr 25, 2020 at 11:01 pm
Does the woode still exist? I am in the market for a bag and can’t find obe
AC
Apr 26, 2020 at 11:43 am
Just got one from eBay
Fergie
Apr 25, 2020 at 4:01 pm
If anything, I prefer a (cart) bag with an external tube for carrying the putter, especially when I carry a large, mallet-style putter. A large putter head takes up too much real estate in the top of the bag.