For all the deeply thought-out golf gear we use today, there is one item nearly all of us have that is a complete afterthought.
The piece of equipment lives in your bag, inches away from your putter and driver, but in an entire golf season you may only use it once or twice. Or none at all if you’re really lucky.
Your rain hood.
Not only do you probably never think about your golf bag’s rain hood, I bet you’ve never read a story about one. I hear Allen Iverson’s voice in my head as I write this.
Rain hoods? We talking about rain hoods?
Well, yes. Because there’s one that is finally smart and not an afterthought.
The rain hood that lives in your bag now is likely a sleeve that barely fits over the bag, affixing to the straps or the rim of the bag, with a zipper top. When zipped up, the device does its job of keeping clubs dry, but when you need to hit a shot the dance begins of unzipping and pulling the club out, with perhaps some effort, then returning it to the bag without letting too much water in. The entire exercise can be clunky and after several holes, chances are you’ve lost the fight to keep your clubs fully dry.
But Vessel, in conjunction with rain-gear experts Seaforth, has a rain hood that makes sense for the job. Its Tour Rain Hood ($39 at vesselgolf.com) is designed with a magnetic closure, not a zipper, which makes all the difference for quick access to clubs in rain.
The hood has an elastic base which stretches over the top of the bag, with clips and snaps to attach to any bag. (I have a Vessel stand bag and the elastic is good enough that, if in a hurry, I don’t need to use the snaps.) The hood fully extends to allow access to all clubs, then the magnets close the hood securely and its canopy completely covers the top of the bag. That’s all there is to it.
As the name suggests, the hood is popular on the pro tours, where nothing in and around a golf bag is left to chance. The pros don’t have the luxury to not play in the rain, which is different from amateurs—hence those flimsy hoods found in most bags.
But for players who live in rainy climates or other diehards who don’t run for the clubhouse when the skies open, the Tour Rain Hood is a smart buy—and it costs less than a dozen premium balls.
And when not in use, the hood folds up to about the size of a sleeve of balls for easy stuffing into a bag. Because even the best rain hood is best tucked away unused, isn’t it?
This article was originally published on www.si.com as This New Rain Hood Puts Smart Thinking Into One of Golf’s Afterthoughts .