We ask a lot of a golf travel cover. It needs to be robust enough to protect our clubs, but also easy to manoeuvre through airports as we travel to our destination. They also need to carry more than just our clubs, too. Golf shoes, towels and toiletries often find their way into these bags, so they need to have extra space too. Ogio's new Renegade travel cover was built to try and fulfil all these criteria, all while offering a stylish solution to travelling with your golf clubs.
Though only available in black and green (a more subdued colour palette for a company that prides itself in louder styles and patterns), I love the way the Renegade looks. It looks rugged and ready to travel. The exterior is made from a recycled, but ultra-rugged, 1680D ballistic polyester. Though hopefully you won't have to dodge any ballistic fire on your way to play golf, I can assure you this material is ultra-durable and no amount of bashing as it makes its way through baggage claim will cause it to perish.
On the interior, 600D abrasion panels keep your golf bag from absorbing too much shock, while extra padding on the top half of the bag offers protection for the most prone area of your golf bag. On the bottom of the bag is what Ogio calls SLED, basically a large plastic area that increases durability on the lower part of the bag when it is dragged about. This is a really good feature to include, as I've seen plenty of travel covers start to perish on the bottom half after a few too many trips dragged across harsh surfaces. This bag is as rugged as it looks, and is certainly built for as much abuse as baggage handles can throw at it!
The protection is bolstered by some pretty heavy-duty strapping inside and outside. Interior compression straps allow you to strap your bag down to avoid as much movement as possible, while two outer straps support this as well as offer two places to grab the bag from as you take it from the baggage carousel, alongside two dedicated grab handles at either end of the cover.
One of the more unique elements of the Renegade is its large wheels. I love the way they have been designed to look like the alloy wheel of a pickup truck or other off-road vehicle, but they serve a genuine purpose, too. The large surface area of both wheels means there is very little resistance, and it pulls along the ground a lot easier than the smaller wheels on the Sun Mountain Kube and Big Max Traveller I've tested in recent years. Nothing will ever beat the Sun Mountain Club Glider for ease of use, but the Renegade is certainly one of the best travel covers that isn't the Glider to pull along.
While it lacks much in the way of interior zip pockets, there are two exterior zipped pockets that can hold a pair of shoes each, and they can be padlocked if you want to put anything more valuable in there. My journey with the Renegade was a very pleasant one. I left it at baggage check-in with every confidence that my clubs and belongings would be protected, and I returned home confident that the Renegade could be used trip after trip. Add to this the useful features like grab handles and extra strapping, and this is one of the best golf travel covers I've tested.
