Golf tour pros’ weekly challenge: Packing suitcase

Inside the golf bag of every touring professional is 14 clubs, with choices varying by personal preference and weather conditions for each competitive round.

But that is not the bag that creates the biggest angst during road trips for PGA Tour participants taking part in this week’s Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial Country Club.

Tour golfers typically spend more time strategizing about what to pack in suitcases for multi-week road trips than figuring out whether to go with the hybrid or the 3-iron in windy conditions during a given round.

The travel-related questions are even more pronounced for members of the LPGA Tour, where the circuit includes more international events and those tournaments often are played in consecutive weeks.

On this year’s schedule, the LPGA tourists had events in Australia, Thailand and Singapore during three consecutive weeks in February. After the women compete in the 2016 Olympic Games (Aug. 18-21), the schedule resumes with 10 consecutive international events before the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship, Nov. 17-20 in Naples, Fla.

Among elite golfers in the U.S., female touring pros figure to log more airline miles each season than their male counterparts. But travel-related questions about how many bags to pack for each road trip, and what to place in each of those bags, applies to both genders.

The longer the trip, the greater the debate, particularly if climate changes are involved while changing venues. Allowances also must be made for rainy weather, which proved to be a daily occurrence at last year’s Colonial after multiple years marked by mostly sunny conditions.

“It can definitely be interesting. You’re definitely calling on your apparel company for sweaters if you come to a place and it gets a lot colder than you expected and you don’t have sweaters with you,” said Hunter Mahan, a longtime Colonial competitor and Dallas resident who has a deal with UnderArmour. “It’s definitely difficult to pack for numerous climates. And it’s definitely tougher when you’ve got your kids and your wife on the trip and how much stuff they bring.”

Mahan, 33, is in his 13th season on the PGA Tour. He said he typically packs “eight or nine” golf-related ensembles, plus his casual clothes, for a two-week road trip. For longer trips, he’ll pack more. If sloppy conditions surface, PGA Tour events offer complimentary laundry and dry cleaning services for competitors.

“That helps a lot,” Mahan said. “I try to not pack too many off-the-course clothes because your on-the-course stuff is so important, with all your rain gear and shoes. Things add up pretty quickly. It can be a challenge. I never want to bring too many bags.”

Martin Piller, a Fort Worth resident in his second stint on the PGA Tour, goes with a rules-of-seven approach for his road trips.

“I just keep it simple. I do seven pairs of pants, seven shirts, seven socks. Seven of everything,” Piller said. “That gets me one for each day of the week. Then I just do laundry and start over for a longer trip.”

Having complimentary laundry service at PGA Tour stops, Piller said, beats his experience from days on the Web.com Tour. Competitors on the developmental circuit typically stay in private housing arranged through tournament officials and use the washer and dryer at their house that week. If one is not available, it’s off to a coin-operated, self-serve laundry or dry cleaner in the neighborhood.

For participants on the LPGA Tour, the laundry-related challenges are more pronounced because players take care of it themselves. Some golfers pay pick-up and delivery charges for laundry services on the road. Fort Worth resident Angela Stanford typically does not.

“I usually do it,” said Stanford, a former TCU standout and Saginaw Boswell graduate who has been on the LPGA Tour since 2001. “Either the hotel will have a guest laundry or I’ll go to a local laundromat. It kind of gives me that sense of doing something normal. So I don’t care. I don’t mind doing it on the road.”

The bigger challenge for Stanford and her LPGA peers is deciding how many bags to take, and how much to load in each one, for international travel. A common staple item for all competitors: nonperishable food and snacks that can be consumed in Thailand, Singapore, China, Malaysia and other venues where grocery options and restaurant menus may differ greatly from what U.S. golfers typically consume to fuel their bodies.

“Going to Asia, you definitely have to take another bag for snacks and food. It’s a just-in-case kind of deal,” said Gerina Piller, a Fort Worth golfer who typically loads her suitcase with nuts, almond butter, rice cakes and granola bars for that junket. “I’m not saying that their food is terrible, but it’s something you can’t really take a risk with trying new things and possibly getting sick over there.

“By the end of the season, if I even hear the sound of a granola bar being opened, I just want to punch someone in the face because I’ve eaten so many of those during the year.”

Piller, wife of Martin Piller, said she usually needs “two or three days” to prepare for an extended road trip while her husband typically is packed “in about 10 minutes.”

A typical trip, she said, includes one bag for her clubs and two suitcases packed with eight to 10 changes of golf clothes, casual clothes and at least one dress for a potential evening function hosted by a tournament sponsor. The food bag typically is a carry-on.

A key factor for LPGA travel, said multiple players, is having enough status in an airline’s frequent-flyer program that bag fees are waived and bag capacity can be expanded to 70 pounds, 20 above the typical 50-pound limit.

“At the end of the year, if you don’t make the highest status, you’re better off paying for it. Because it’s just more comfort to know you can bring your colored golf shoes or three more outfits or whatever,” said Brittany Lang, a McKinney resident in her 11th season as an LPGA competitor.

“I pack more than most people. I bring 10 to 15 golf outfits on most trips. I bring a lot of shoes, too. And I like my certain healthy foods when I travel, so I just travel with them as carry-ons. My brother makes fun of me for doing that, but I’m happy.”

Stanford, by comparison, limits herself to two choices of golf shoes, both in neutral colors, because she prefers to have only one large suitcase to drag through airports. But the contents vary depending on the venue.

“When I go international, I take Diet Dr Pepper. You can’t get that over there,” Stanford said. “And if we’re going for two weeks, I make my caddie carry some, too. I’ve learned that, if there’s something you want, you’d just better take it.”

For golfers on both tours, the one thing that cannot be forgotten is the logo apparel provided by sponsors or equipment suppliers. During Colonial week, it will be rare to spot a competitor who does not have a logo on his cap or visor.

Many golfers also have endorsement deals for their clothing, with some sponsors requiring a player to wear a particular outfit during a specified round at high-profile events.

“For the majors, they’ve started to do that because you can build a marketing campaign around it,” Mahan said of his deal with UnderArmour. “People wear the shirt and it’s up on the company’s website and can sell quickly if you play well. It’s marketing. And as players, that’s what you are. You’re marketing tools, and that’s what our job is.”

They’re also experienced travelers who will be racing to get to their next destination after Sunday’s final putt falls in Fort Worth.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Golf tour pros’ weekly challenge: Packing suitcase."