I'll admit, I had a rougher time than expected getting rid of my old golf bag. There was nothing wrong with it other than it just looked old, beat up, and sorry after about 10 years of use. I liked it because it matched the brand of my clubs. But I knew it was time to say goodbye, when the previously mostly white bag is more brown than white. Anyways, I was pretty happy to see this Izzo Heritage Golf Stand bag for review.
Packaging/Presentation: It arrived about as you'd expect, in a big ol' basic but branded cardboard box. Inside was this golf bag in a plastic bag to protect it.
Look/Feel: After having a lighter color bag for many years, I decided it was time to switch it up and I went with the Dark Grey color. I figured maybe it won't get so brown after 10 years, or rather if it does it will be less noticeable! The bag looks the part and I like the different "extra" little Easter egg features with the pockets, etc that I'll get into in a minute. The bag has 5 club dividers which is probably my favorite way to divide the bag, but I'm sure some opinions may differ there. Compared to my older bag it felt a bit smaller and more compact, but still felt like a smaller full-size bag. It was noticeably lighter weight when I picked it up which was a nice surprise. Walking with the bag, it has shoulder straps that are nicely padded, much better so than my older bag and it felt like a better experience with the weight being well distributed, even after an 18 hole play through with no cart on a warm summer day I think I would be okay walking with this bag (note I am a mid 30s guy, if I was in my 70s I might think different!)
Pockets/Features: This is where this bag shines relative to my old one, as it's got what you'd expect with a couple nifty extras. It has 5 pockets in total:
Left side (from behind): : If you're standing the back up and standing behind it, on the left side there is a medium sized zip up pocket and an open ended cooler pocket. The cooler pocket feels like it's lined with similar material to what you'd find in a portable beverage cooler, which is nice and might keep your drink cooler for a bit longer on a warm day.
Back: The very back of the bag if it's standing up is feature packed – from top to bottom it's got a plastic grip at the very top of the bag, then a padded carrying handle, a pen pocket, and the niftiest of them in my humble opinion, a smaller magnetic pocket that simply opens and magnet closes shut! It took me forever to figure it out when I just could've looked at the product page here… silly/dumb me! And a more traditional double zipper smaller storage pocket towards the bottom. The pocket does velcro open on the bottom for a "smart grip" as the bag says… don't think I'll use it much but it's there.
Right side (from behind):On the right side we have the traditional, but very much loved big zip up pocket that goes down pretty much the whole right side, as well as a smaller nicely lined storage/glove zip pocket adjacent to it that would be great for your phone, for example.
Stand: This is my one minor complaint about this bag, though it's not too bad. Call me spoiled or sheltered, but my old bag's stand would engage almost effortlessly when I would just tilt my bag down. This one took me longer than I want to admit to figure out. At first I thought I got a defective bag, but alas you need to apply a little bit of force/pressure on the bag for the stand to engage. Once you do that, it works fine. There is a small velcro strap towards the bottom of the bag to keep the stand in place when the bag is not in use, or if you don't want to use the stand. Price wise, based on my quick 1 min search of competitors on this site (always do your own research as price is subject to change), this bag seems competitively priced in about the lower middle range, especially for a name brand bag. You can find lower priced bags, and you can certainly find higher priced ones but if you're looking for an ideal compromise between price and features/quality, this may be pretty close to the sweet spot. I'll consider it a neutral factor in this review, as I believe this is pretty fairly priced.
Conclusion: I really like this bag. It seems lighter weight than my older one, yet feels like a smaller full-sized bag. It has all of the features I'd expect in a golf bag including the bigger zip up pocket, and the medium size pocket on the opposite site. Additionally, I really like the cooler pocket and the magnetic pocket, and the small but nice addition or the pen holder. The carrying/shoulder straps on this bag are the nicest I've ever used and are quite well padded and comfortable. The stand works, and my only minor complaint that it isn't quite as effortless as my old bag stand was. If half stars were allowed I'd probably give this bag a 4.5/5, but I really have no major complaints so I'm going with a 5 star rating. I am very glad that I got this Izzo Heritage Golf bag, and I would highly recommend it!
Summary:
Likes:
✔ Lightweight, looks nice.
✔ The cooler pocket and the magnetic pocket add some nice littler "extras" not found with all golf bags.
✔ Great shoulder straps for carrying, very well padded and made it easier to carry the bag.
Dislikes:
❌Have to apply a small bit of pressure to engage the stand, which was not the case with my old golf bag where it engaged near effortlessly.