What Is A Golf Stand Bag?

Have you ever asked the question, “What is a Golf Stand Bag?” Or “What is a Golf Carry Bag?” Cart Bag? Sunday Bag? Or Hybrid Bag?

These descriptive titles can be confusing but do not need to be. Each of these types of bags has a relatively distinct purpose and set of features.

The best place to start on this question is to take us back to elementary school math and use a Venn diagram. As shown in the diagram, there are two main categories of bags: Carry Bags and Cart Bags.

Stand Bags, and Sunday Bags are subsets of Carry Bags, with Sunday Bags being a tiny niche.

Hybrid Bags represent a crossover between Carry Bags and Cart Bags, having features from both categories.

With the diagram as a road map, let’s explore each type of bag.

Golf Cart Bags

The golf cart bag is the royalty of modern golf bags. They reign supreme in size, features, storage capacity, and weight. These bags are designed to be strapped onto a motorized golf cart or pushcart. The Sun Mountain C-130 is an excellent example of a cart bag.

They commonly have up to a 14-slot top with full-length dividers, many specialized and spacious pockets, including a multi-beverage cooler pocket, and an external putting well.

These bags also tend to be designed to fit securely onto a cart. These cart-friendly design points include specially designed bottoms and strap channels or pocket placements that allow the cart to be strapped to a cart without decreasing access to the pockets.

Golf Carry Bags

The golf carry bag category is a wide range of bags designed to be carried by the golfer, typically using a single strap or a backpack-style harness. As a group, these bags are lightweight and have fewer features than the cart bags.

The carry bags exhibit features that make them comfortable to carry over eighteen holes or to the range. Compared with cart bags, the fuller-featured carry bags typically have the following:

• Ergonomically designed, padded shoulder strap systems to improve load balance and enhance comfort
• A smaller size profile and fewer features to reduce weight. Some of these bags weigh under three pounds
• A reduced number and size of pockets and club openings/dividers
• Been constructed of advanced lightweight materials. For example, you will not find much leather in this bag category. Instead, the “cloth” siding is commonly made of highly durable nylon and other synthetics.

Golf Stand Bags

The golf stand bag is the most popular type of carry bag dominating the category in terms of the number of models. As a testament to their dominance, our top carry bags are all stand bags (see our reviews here).  To the left is the 2023 Sun Mountain 3.5 LS.

The distinguishing feature of these bags is that they have an extending and retractable stand to allow golfers to lean their bags forward upon their outstretched legs. Before this innovation, golfers would either lie their bags flat on the ground or precariously stand their bags on their bottoms.

The stands allow easier access to the clubs, less backache in hoisting the bag for carry, and fewer bags falling onto the ground from an upright position.

Sunday Golf Bags

Sunday golf bags or pencil bags are meant to hold a limited number of clubs, accessories, and gear for the course or driving range.

These bags have minimal features and pockets (although recently, more and more options have been added). And Sunday bags do not usually have a mechanized stand.

These bags are small, lightweight, and offer the bare essentials.  The CHAMPKEY Professional Golf Sunday Bag (shown to the right) is a highly-rated version of this type of bag.

Check out our recent post on why golfers buy Sunday Golf Bags.

Golf Hybrid Bags

Golf Hybrid bags are stand bags with some of the cart bag’s fuller features. They are designed for golfers who want one bag they can seamlessly use, whether walking, pushing a cart, or using a motorized golf cart.

These bags tend to weigh a couple of pounds more than stand bags, and they boast some cart-friendly design aspects that enable them to sit more securely in golf carts.  The hybrid bag will also typically have a 14-way top.

In some ways, the hybrid bag designation is vague regarding its exact specifications.  These bags blur the lines between cart and carry bags.

Although a significant number of bags could be called” hybrid,” very few manufacturers have adopted this model description into their bag names.

If you are interested in this type of bag, we suggest you examine full-featured stand bags regardless of whether they are called hybrid by name. A great example of this hybrid-style bag would be the Titleist14 Hybrid Stand Bag.

In Conclusion

It’s not difficult to answer: “What is a golf stand bag?” They are a type of carry bag with a mechanized stand for better access to your clubs while creating a stable stance.  They are our favorite type of bag, as you can probably tell by reading through our site.

We hope this information has helped clarify the most common types of bags.

If you like The Best Golf Carry Bags, check out our sister sites:

• The Best Golf Training Aids for golfers looking to improve their on-course performance.
• The Aggressive Fade if you are looking for the perfect golf-related gift.