Cleveland Golf has developed a new golf bag that actually counts the number of clubs in your bag and lets you know if you’ve left one on the green. The electronic sensors will give off a chirp and an LED light. Just turn it on
It’s not a bad idea, given the number of wedges I find lying around the greens on the course. I don’t personally leave any behind
I’m a little concerned about the “chirp” part, though. Given the number of people with hearing loss (that’d be most baby boomers and retirees), it seems to me that a chirp is probably not the best choice. People (like me) with hearing loss typically lose the upper frequencies first. I, for example, can’t hear the microwave’s beep, or the oven’s timer beep, or phone rings—or even the stupidly designed screech of the fire alarms at work (I’m told that they screech).
Cleveland would be better served if the reminder noise was a low beep.
I also wonder if the technology isn’t there to tell you when you have too many clubs in the bag. That might have saved Ian Woosnam at the 2001 British Open. At that tournament, Woosnam was in the lead in the final round, when his caddy, Miles Byrne discovered on the second tee that he had two drivers. Woosnam had to take a two stroke penalty, and flustered, bogeyed the next two holes. He finished four strokes behind eventual winner David Duval.
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I wonder if you can tell it how many to count. I also wonder do umbrellas, ball retrievers, and speed sticks (the 3 items outside of clubs which could be in my bag) count as a club or not. And I usually carry 15 clubs- as there is a club which I don’t play with but I am usually trying to learn how to play (right now it is a 60 degree).
Funny thing, I am pretty anal about counting my clubs at least a once in the middle of a round, and ALWAYS when the bag is going back in the trunk. In 5 years of play now (the last 2 almost weekly or more)- I have never left a club behind. When I started playing I can attribute this to a regular partner who was good about picking up clubs—but in the last couple years I have played so much that I just am very mindful or at least want to think I am.
But in Sept or October, I was having one of my best rounds ever at my club. Starting Par – Par – Birdie, I got waved into the 4th green by 4 guys I caught up to. 2nd shot onto the fringe, and as the hole was only about 10 feet away, I went to the green with a 9-iron and a putter. I decided I would putt, and after making the 15-footer, I promptly ran of the green in glee leaving behind a 9-iron. Two holes later, the guy in the group I was passing me caught me as he was on the tee box and I was on the next green, and gave me back my club. Then as I got to #18, I has a 95-yard to the green second shot uphill, which I usually use my 9 for on that hole (usually my 9 is ~115 – ~130) – and my 9 was nowhere in my bag. I had lost my 9-iron again, and these new X-20s were only a couple months old. I couldn’t belive it. Anyway, I went with my P, came up short, and ended with a Bogey and then went off to #17 to look for my club. I could not remember hitting it all day. I had passed 3-4 groups, so I was asking everyone – until I got to #15, and the guys I had passed on #4 were there, and the same guy had my 9 again. I had used the 9 again, on the chip of the first green I came to after I had been given it back the first time! So 2 clubs left behind in 5 years, same club, found by the same guy- and I was stone cold sober, and he was just a beer or two past where he should be driving.
Sounds great! I cannot play golf but I think it is quiet troublesome to count the number of clubs, especially when people enjoy their games completely. However, I doubt that the bag will be more heavy than the common one with such a special function.