Travelling to US with Golf Clubs

LessThanSte

Hello, some advice please.

Il be travelling to Scottsdale at the start of June for a couple of weeks, and wanted to take my golf clubs. We travel with United though who seem to want a fortune to take them in the hold (i think, they dont make their site the easiest to navigate).

So i wondered if anyone had any other suggestions for ways to get my golf clubs to Arizona cheaply and ideally in one piece. I thought maybe i could persuade UPS or something to take them, but they wont even look at them for £150, though they do promise to get them there in a day. Why cant they take them tomorrow and spend a month getting them there by the cheapest shipping route possible, surely they can do it cheaper than that?

Alternatively, cheap rental would be nice. To give you an idea, i begrudge paying more than £15 a round and only then on very good courses. I know i can play in Scottsdale on many courses for less than $20 but to hire clubs for a round i would be looking at more like $60-70, which is way more than im prepared to pay (or, at least, pay more than once).

So in summary; cheap ways to get MY clubs to Scottsdale or cheap ways to rent clubs when im there, either per round or for the entire period.

Of course if anyone is in the area and wants to make me an offer to borrow a set...........

phildo_2

Take a folded up lightweight golf bag, golf shoes, balls etc in your luggage. Buy a second hand set of irons, driver & putter from a golf superstore on arrival and sell them back on departure.

I did this in Florida many years ago now and I got back about €50 less than I paid for the clubs so it worked out very cheap!

neilbond007

Aren't the fees $70 each way (second bag fee) with United?

https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/travel/Pages/CheckedBaggage.aspx#q49

neilbond007

As a matter of interest, what courses are you playing? $20 a round seems very cheap!

i went in September a couple of years ago, booked through "golfnow" and played -
Longbow (in Mesa) - Paid about $25 per person. Immense course. Interesting holes. No houses or roads. Lots of thought required
Talking Stick North - Paid about $30 / person. Disappointed. Played the day after Longbow. Longbow beats it hands down. Just a pull the driver on each hole and give it a whack. No thought required
Vista Verde Golf Club - Paid about $25 / person. Similar to Longbow. Enjoyed the course immensely.

stoneman

neilbond007 wrote: »

Just a pull the driver on each hole and give it a whack. No thought required
.

And what's wrong with that?!:D

LessThanSte

Dragging this thread back up.

IN the end, i wound up not taking my golf clubs. Partly it wasnt helped by no sign on the United website about how i actually paid for the extra bag, whether at the airport or in advance.

I played one round at Starfire Golf Club in Scottsdale who i found to have the cheapest rental clubs (except for one course i played a few years back whose rental clubs were about a tenna, but probably only cost that new). They were actually exceptional clubs, Taylormade something-or-others, i toyed with the idea of making a run for it, when i was expecting some cheap things.

I enquired a few places though and the options were thus;

Golfsmith, in North Scottsdale near the airport sell second hand sets of irons/woods, ranging in price from about $100 to about $700 and quality to match. They offered a 10 day returns policy though, where they would buy them back for 90% of the purchase cost if back within 10 days.

So the cheapest set of clubs they had would have cost about £100 (woods/irons), but youd have to buy a putter and a bag, so add another £75 or so for them, and youd then get £90 for the clubs you return, total somewhere in the region of £100 for 10 days, less if you could sell the bag to someone (might manage it for £50). Lot of faffing required though.

Vans Golf Shops did club hire though one of the large internet based club hire companies with which the value isnt bad if your going to play every day, and particularly for 10+ days. I think at 14 days it worked out at $24 a day or so. Not particularly good value for single day use.

Play It Again Sports were the other option, a store that is essneitally the same as Cash Converters. They would give back half the value when you return the items, there was a set of irons for $40, bag for $20, driver for $15 and putter for $10, so somewhere in the region of $100. The quality was generally not so good though, but you get what you paid for.

Hope this helps

JHawkins

I've never had an issue with taking my golf clubs to the states, just put them in the oversized luggage and collect at the other side. The bag I bought can zip over the top so I could lock mine shut too. Might be worth looking one of these up. Hope this helps!

littlereddevil

my Oh has never had a problem either. Maybe depends which airline you use