RevCore golf bag has that Cadillac look, feel

Gary Van Sickle test drove CaddyDaddy Golf's stand bag and came away thinking it had all any golfer could want — except for maybe a milkshake maker.

"Life is short. Get air conditioning."

I never forgot that advice even though I stupidly ignored it when I bought a two-seat sports car in 1980 without air conditioning. Air was another $750 so, being thrifty (certainly not cheap), I skipped the option … and regretted it that summer. And the next summer. And the next.

RevCore’s new stand bag reminded me of that incident. Once I tried RevCore’s stand bag ($279, CaddyDaddy.com), I realized the lightweight carry bag I’m using is a nice little Toyota Corolla. But why am I not driving the Cadillac Escalade of golf bags — the RevCore? Life is short and now, so are my tee shots.

Hey, I like Toyotas. I’ve bought a number of Camrys over the years and there’s one in my garage right now. But it’s no Escalade. That’s why I like the RevCore bag. It has every luxury touch I can think of, not including a milkshake machine.

Let’s start with the look.

RevCore stand bag. | Photo: CaddyDaddy Golf

The RevCore bag has an expensive-looking sheen. The outer shell is premium foam-backed synthetic leather that looks like real leather. It comes in two classic-car colors — black and navy blue. Hmm, I may not be worthy. My current carry bag is lime green (but made from recycled plastic bottles) and my personal car is a lively shade of purple that Dodge calls Plum Crazy. (My friends think that name fits me.)

Though the RevCore has two very sturdy leg stands and can be used as a carry bag, it is a little heavier than what I’d prefer for hoofing. Its classy shell means it could almost pass for a smaller tour-player staff bag.

“It is more of a hybrid design,” says Rod Dunlap, founder of CaddyDaddy Golf, which has been making bags and travel luggage and golf gloves for more than two decades. “It’s not designed for the everyday walker, you’d use this mostly on a cart or a push cart. We are working on a lightweight walker version, though.”

Using the RevCore is like getting a luxury car at the rental counter when you reserved a mid-size. When I unpacked the bag from the shipping box it arrived in, I was puzzled by all the shoulder straps and clips. I counted three padded straps. Who carries this, I wondered, an octopus? Nope. Those were two separate straps. One was the standard two-shoulder strap most commonly used. The second was a single strap like caddies who double-bag it at a swank club or resort prefer. You get to choose which option you prefer. Just unhook one of them before play.

Another new twist, at least for a lowly commoner such as myself, was the neoprene sleeve. I immediately knew what that was, I thought — a cooler sleeve to keep five beverage cans cold when stashed in the main zipper pocket. Beer me, Marge.

Nope, I was plum-crazy wrong. The sleeve actually goes around the strap that locks the RevCore onto the back of the riding cart or pushcart. Its function is to protect the sleek, expensive looking bag from scratches and marks. If only something similar was available to keep shopping carts from dinging my car in the supermarket parking lot.

There’s more.

The shoulder straps are thick and plush and soft. The bag’s dividers are velvet. The RevCore comes with options for a six-way divider or a 14-way divider. I like the six. They are roomier than my current tinier carry/stand bag. The main full-length pocket on the bag’s right side has just as much space as you’d expect, plenty of room for a rainsuit and more. The left side has a smaller vertical pocket, presumably for gloves. Each side has an open horizontal pocket that could hold a drink. The right side has a smaller upper pocket for tees, pencils, markers, the usual.

The ballroom, if I may refer to the larger pocket near the bottom typically reserved for golf balls, is big. It can hold two dozen balls, like a mini-shipping container. If I was a caddie, I’d shoot anyone who came to the course with two dozen orbs. Or shoot myself if I knew the hacker needed that many to finish 18 holes.

Just above the ballroom is a semi-circular pouch with a magnetic closure, perfect for quick access to a rangefinder. It, too, is velvet-lined. Is it just me or does this bag sound seductive?

That’s still not all. Perhaps the most important part of this luxury vehicle is the hardware — the clips, the bolts, the zippers, the pieces that hold it all together. There is no plastic. They’re all metal, black nickel. Which means they’re built to last. You probably already know that the first thing to break on any bag — golf bag or suitcase — is the zipper. Once it breaks, the bag is useless.

“Our experience is, plastics don’t hold up,” Dunlap says. “When you’re dealing with airlines, plastic hooks just don’t last forever. It’s all about durability for us. Our supplier is very high-end and the cost differential between plastic and metal is almost nothing so we went to all-metal hardware.”

Last call: The RevCore comes with a matching, heavily padded synthetic leather rain cover. I don’t remember the last time I actually used the rain cover during a round. If I needed it, that cover’s whereabouts were already unknown. I would use this one, not just because it snaps on so easily. The padding on this cover is so tensile that it gives me total confidence I can fly with my bag in a soft-cover travel cover and not worry about the airlines’ trained gorillas breaking any clubs.

I consider the RevCore best in class because it’s not in the luxury $400-and-over category of golf bags. It just looks as if it should be.

“We incorporated features we wanted within the price point we targeted and did a nice without making many sacrifices,” Dunlap says. “I’m really happy the way they turned out. The feedback has been awesome. That’s probably why we’ve been in business so long.

“Our first product was our nine-pack golf cooler in 2002. From there we went into the travel bag business. We’ve done different golf bags but never went after the premium market. This is new for us. We’ve mainly been a travel bag company until we got into golf with our Claw glove a few years ago. We always try to produce high quality products with the best bang for the buck.”

The RevCore is long on bang, short on bucks. You know what else is short?

Life. Live it well. And stay cool.

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