Quick Take: Callaway Ion Stand Bag

Andrew Penner

Posted 2003-05-01

When golf first started to be played, a golf bag wasn’t really a necessity. A bottle of Scotch, maybe. But a bag? Why use a bag when playing a game that only required one hickory-shafted ginty and a ball stuffed with feathers? But, obviously, as the game morphed, so did the equipment. We began playing the game with a plethora of sticks and needed additional accessories like tees, pencils, scorecards, and cigars. Enter the golf bag.

While scraping out a cow stomach, drying it, and cutting a hole in the top sufficed for early golf bags, these days a golfer generally expects a bit more for his money. This year Callaway has introduced a new bag, the Ion Stand Bag with the Woode Top System, which goes way beyond a dried sack of cow innards.

The Ion Stand Bag is a lightweight carry bag that comes in two high-tech color combinations: Black/Green and Black/Silver. This “charged” looking satchel also comes complete with a easy-access 5-ball storage tube and the futuristic, but entirely practical, Woode Top System – the bag’s most unique feature.

The Woode Top offers a brand new way to organize your clubs. The payoff lies in the three distinct holding compartments for your putter, wood, and – why doesn’t every bag-maker do this - your irons.

While some of us persist on taking our slobbery with us onto the golf course (I don’t know about you, but my bag usually resembles a dog’s breakfast after a round), those who prefer to practice some manners when it comes to club storage will likely get the tingles when trying this device. And some slobs will no doubt get converted.

I’ve been using the bag for a couple of weeks now and, golly gee, it does make reaching for a club an easy task. Now, instead of dumping my entire bag out onto the fairway to find me my 8-iron, I can politely and effortlessly slide my magic wand out of its holster and hit the shot. Bravo! I say, to Woode – and the Ion Stand Bag.

Andrew Penner is a 12-year member of the Canadian PGA. He has won five professional golf tournaments in Canada and narrowly, I mean narrowly, missed qualifying for the US Open last year. Well, OK, it was a few shots. Andrew writes for a number of golf magazines in Canada, the US, and Europe. His new book, titled "One Flew Over The Caddyshack," can be ordered at www.falconpress.ca. He can be reached at andpenner@shaw.ca.