How To Ship Golf ClubsThere are many situations that may prompt you to ship golf clubs. You may be a passionate golfer relocating to a new city, or you may prefer to travel with your golf gear instead of renting it, or you may just want to sell a golf club to long-distance customers.
Whatever your reason, it’s crucial to learn how to pack your golf clubs properly and ship them at a good price with a courier that can ensure the safety of your golf gear.
How to Prepare Golf Clubs for Shipping
Whether you’re sending the clubs individually or as a complete set, you need to understand how to package them properly with ease.
Get the Appropriate Packing Materials
To pack your clubs adequately, you’ll need to have these packing and shipping supplies below:
- Packaging tape
- Cardboard box
- Bubble wrap
- Scissors
- 1 plastic bag
- Packaging chips
- Head protectors
- Blankets, towels, and socks
- Newsprint or pieces of clothing.
- A stiff arm or support rod
Pack Golf Clubs in Soft Bags
Soft-sided bags are inexpensive, take up less space, and aren’t too heavy. These three things should be enough to convince you to use one on your next trip. They do provide an optimal and reasonable level of padding protection and have additional compartments for your golf accessories.
Still, their general protection is less than hard cases. However, the bags can be placed in a double-walled corrugated box for extra protection. You can follow these steps to pack them efficiently:
- Take off the club heads from the shafts (if necessary) and mark the settings.
- Wrap up the head and shafts with bubble wrap and secure them with artist’s tape.
- Cover the heads using head protectors or thick socks and towels.
- For extra protection, place a stiff arm in the center of the bag and make it longer than the longest club — the driver. A stiff arm absorbs the force of impacts.
- Bundle the clubs together in additional bubble wrap and place them in a soft bag.
- Fill the gaps in the bag with crumpled paper, socks, towels, and other soft clothing. Well-padded clubs will not move around in the bag.
- Zip it up and, if possible, place it in a box. Fill the box with bubble wraps, crumpled paper, or air cushioning to reduce movement on transit.
- Seal the box firmly with packing tape.
- Use a shipping luggage tag to attach a label to the upper side of the box. If you are shipping it in just the bag, avoid placing labels on the canvas area.
Pack Your Golf Clubs in a Hard Case Bag
Hard cases provide the best protection for your valuable golf equipment and will calm your nerves when shipping the clubs.
Even though the price is higher (the best ones can cost around $250), hard-shell travel cases for golf clubs are usually a good investment, especially if you are a golfer that travels frequently to various golf destinations.
As expected, they are larger and heavier too. Here are the steps for packing your clubs in hard case bags:
- Remove the club heads from the shafts (if necessary ) and mark the settings.
- Wrap up the head and shafts with bubble wraps and secure them with artist’s tape.
- Cover the heads using head protectors or thick socks and towels.
- For extra protection, place a stiff arm in the center of the bag and make it longer than the longest club — the driver. A stiff arm absorbs the force of impacts.
- Bundle the clubs together in additional bubble wrap and place them in a freight-approved hard case bag.
- Close the latch shut.
- Attach shipping labels to the upper area of the hard case
- Run a zip-tie across the face of the shipping luggage tag and close it.
Bonus Tips:
- You can pack your golf clubs directly into a double-wall cardboard box by following the same process.
- Individual and small numbers of clubs can be shipped in a narrower tube-style box.
Select the Courier and Shipping Service that Suits Your Need
When traveling for a tournament or relocating to a new city, you may be tempted to haul your clubs onto the airplane. Doing this may increase your spending way above the fee charged by a courier or special golf shipping service. Additionally, you have to pay an extra fee to move the clubs in taxis.
Flying with your clubs may make sense, but it depends on the airline and the number of bags you’re checking. Most airlines only allow two free checked bags. Others charge around $150 for luggage weighing more than 51 pounds.
USPS, FedEx, DHL, and UPS are the top couriers available to ship your clubs to the best greens. These couriers can ship your gear anywhere in the world at affordable rates.
However, it is important to keep in mind that specialty golf club shipping services charge less than most couriers. This is mainly because golf shipping services ship thousands of gold packages, so they tend to get volume discounts from shipping companies.
Here are some specialty golf clubs and options from top couriers.
1. Ship Sticks
Shipsticks is a simple solution for shipping your clubs anywhere around the globe. Their services come with $1000 worth of insurance coverage and a delivery guarantee. They also offer an excellent tracking service to give you a real-time view of your shipment’s journey.
With a starting cost of $44.99 for ground shipping, Ship Sticks is a very affordable option for shipping golf clubs. They offer different services, and the fastest is Next-Day Express which costs about $164.99. Additionally, they can ship to 220 countries worldwide.
2. Luggage Forward
Luggage forward is a highly-rated, specialty golf shipping option. The company works with top carriers to ship luggage and sports equipment to over 200 countries. You can book and ship your clubs from the comfort of your home. They can even package the clubs for you if you can’t do it yourself.
Luggage Forward provides flat rates that make you worry less about the weight and dimensions of your package. The fee is usually 50% less than the courier fee. Additionally, the company refunds 100% of your shipping fee, if the clubs arrive late.
3. USPS Options
You can ship your clubs using USPS Retail Ground, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express. If you’re shipping a small number of clubs, you can use Priority Mail to be delivered within 1-3 days and Priority Mail Express to be delivered within 1-2 days.
Retail Ground is the cheapest, with delivery within 2–8 days. You can send packages that weigh up to 70lbs and measure up to 130 inches. The cost of their services ranges from $60 to $250, depending on the size and weight of boxes, distance, and speed of travel. The USPS provides free Priority Mail Cardboard Mailing Tubes.
4. UPS Options
UPS Ground is a competitive alternative to consider. You’ll pay less than $100 to ship items locally. However, if you want your clubs delivered fast, the cost can run above $300.
UPS can deliver your clubs to their offices worldwide. They also give you the option of shipping your golf gear from the comfort of your home at an extra fee.
5. FedEx Options
Similar to UPS, FedEx Ground ships clubs within the U.S. for less than $100 each way. You pay an additional $11 in handling fees if you’re shipping your clubs without a box. FedEx Ground has a four-day delivery timeframe, while it takes up to 5 days for FedEx International Economy.
FedEx provides special boxes for golfers without travel bags and can deliver packages to over 215 countries.
Bottom Line
The cost of shipping depends on how far you are sending your golf clubs, how speedily you want them to reach the destination, and which courier or shipping service you are using.
The shipping cost of golf clubs to the same destination differs from one carrier to another. Most carriers have a calculator on their website to enable you to calculate the cost before you opt for their service.
Regardless of the courier or shipping service you choose, you need to pack your items properly if you are doing it yourself.
