This was my first time traveling by plane for a round of golf, and the idea of schlepping my clubs around the airport, subways, and the streets of San Francisco terrified me. The next morning I did a little research in hopes of finding an alternative that didn't involve renting clubs at Pebble Beach. It wasn't long before I stumbled upon the solution...Sports Express by Luggage Forward.
Apparently I wasn't the first golfer to have this same problem, so in 1999 Sports Express began shipping clubs and other sporting equipment for travelers across the globe. Their website had an easy booking engine, which provided the rate, types of service, and the dates of pick-up and delivery. All I had to do was plug in my arrival date at our hotel in Pebble Beach, and they pretty much did the rest.
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| All ready to go... |
About a week before the pick up date, a FedEx package arrived with the shipping labels for my clubs, and a nice sleeve of golf balls which I knew would come in handy. After rigging my hard shell case with some clasps thanks to a key which was lost two decades ago, I slapped on the labels and simply waited for UPS to come for the pick up.
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| They even knew what kind of golf balls I prefer! |
The week that the clubs were in transit might have been the longest of my life. My golf clubs are pretty much my only prized possession, and a few of them could never be replaced if lost or broken. I refreshed the UPS tracking data about once an hour, but eventually breathed a sigh of relief when it was confirmed they arrived at Pebble Beach.
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| Farewell old friends...I'll see you soon. |
After my dream round of golf, the process for getting the clubs back home was just as easy as the first time around. I swapped the return label on my hard case, and waved goodbye once more as the concierge at Pebble Beach took them away. Since I could now die a happy golfer, the wait for their return home wasn't nearly as stressful...I only checked the tracking once or twice a day.
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| Arrived all in one piece... |
The service that Sports Express provided was so easy, it is difficult for me to imagine going through the stress of taking my clubs to California myself. They made all of the arrangements, and more importantly, I didn't have the additional headache of a giant golf bag at the airport. All for a cost that wasn't much higher than a checked bag fee on the airlines. Having my own clubs at Pebble Beach made a dream round of golf that much better, and I'm sure there are many more adventures with them to come.
Oh and the golf balls they gave me...let's just say one of them was lost in a famous place at Pebble Beach and it wasn't the ocean.
Enjoy Your Stay
Special thanks to Sports Express for providing complimentary shipping of my clubs to California. As always, all opinions are my own.
