Golf bags have come a long way since your grandfather’s all-leather MacGregor tour bag that you used to lug around for him. Now they’re made with lightweight nylon, waterproof, and come with as many as 14 club dividers.
More dividers seem like a great idea until you’re staring down the barrels of 14 slots, not knowing what goes where. You may defeat the purpose of getting a 14-slot golf bag if you don’t utilize them appropriately.
Here’s how to organize a 14-divider golf bag:
- Start with your wedges and putter in the closest slots. These are the clubs you’re most likely to lose on a green.
- Fill in your irons in a descending order moving away from you.
- Use the remaining slots for your woods with your driver in the back left or right.
This detailed guide will demonstrate the most efficient way to store your clubs in a 14-slot golf bag. Once you have it done correctly, your regular Saturday foursome will probably ask you to organize their 14-slot golf bag for them.
How To Setup A 14-Slot Golf Bag: Carrying Vs. Pushing Vs. Riding
This makes a huge difference. If you walk the course and carry your bag, it probably has legs you use to rest your bag on while taking your shot. You should use this position to organize your 14 slot golf bag.
If you choose to ride, you may have to rearrange your clubs for maximum efficiency.
If you normally use a push cart or ride on a power cart, your club placement in the golf bag will be the same. There are two styles of 14 slot golf bags; Stand bags and cart bags. Be sure you have the one that suits your preference.
How To Organize A 14-Divider Golf Bag Efficiently
Use this method to show you how to organize a 14 divider cart golf bag and 14 slot stand bags. There are only minor differences which are outlined below.
1. Empty Your Bag
Start from scratch, a clean slate, a blank canvas, if you will. This makes it easy to get your clubs in the exact spot you want. It also allows you to clean out any debris that may have been collected in the bottomless pit of your club’s storage area.
2. Start With Your Wedges
Most people will tell you to start with the driver, but they haven’t organized as many bags as I have. You use your wedges a lot; they are most likely to be left behind on a green. Few people have to run back to the tee to retrieve their driver, am I right?
- For cart bags: Place your wedges next to each other in the first three or four slots closest to you on the back of a power cart.
- For carry bags: Place your wedges in the slots closest to the legs.
Having them in this spot protects them from banging against other clubs. This is important since wedges and their faces can be dented easily. This can cause great havoc when trying to hit dialed-in pitch shots from within 100 yards.
3. Align Your Irons
Now that your wedges are safe and secure, you can add the rest of your irons in ascending order. For example, if you have your lob wedge in the front left slot, then place your 9-iron in the slot directly behind it.
Continue to the right with your 8-iron and so on. This ensures you have the shortest iron over your shortest wedge to reduce impact while in transit. This is especially important for stand bags.
4. Display Your Woods Proudly
Use the remaining slots to arrange your woods. The back left slot is typically reserved for the driver, but some like to place it in the middle and surround it with their three and five-wood.
Similar to the way a chessboard is set up with the king in the middle surrounded by his subjects.
This may seem weird at first if you’re using a carry bag because the longer clubs hang over the shorter ones making it difficult to reach for your irons and wedges. But convenience should be sacrificed for protection.
If you reverse the order, all your irons will be in contact with the fragile graphite shafts of your woods.
5. Treat Your Putter Like A VIP
At this point, you will have one empty slot. Hopefully, it’s near the back where your woods are, but this is where opinions differ.
Many 14-slot golf bags now have a dedicated putter slot. It can be on the side of cart bags, so it’s easy to access. Carry bags may have it along the spine to not interfere with the rest of your set.
Try to use this dedicated slot if you can, especially if you have an oversized grip on your putter. Bag makers take this into account these days and have allowed for more space.
Wherever you put your putter, be sure to always use a head cover. Your putter is made with a softer metal than the rest of your set and can get damaged easily. Due to its length, it will come into contact with some of your clubs no matter what. Prepare for this by always using a head cover, even between holes.
6. Minimize Your Accessories
Of course, you need to be prepared out there. Having balls, tees, markers, repair tools, etc., are all necessary, but you don’t need a thousand of each.
Part of golf is keeping calm and staying at an even keel. If you don’t know where everything is in your bag, then it can add to your stress levels.
Keep your balls separate and in an easily accessible lower pocket. Many bags have small pockets for items like ball markers and tees. Use them for that but be sure to store your sunglasses in a different pocket.
You should try to only carry what you need for that day, not what you need for a whole season.
Read more: The Best Minimalist Golf Bag
Pros Of A 14 Way Golf Bag Setup
- Keeps them safe from damage
- Much easier to notice when a club is missing
- Easy to make your selection
- Better for travel
- Not as noisy in the cart
Cons Of A 14 Club Golf Bag Setup
- Usually bulkier than other bags
- Not all 14-slot golf bags have dividers that go all the way to the bottom
Must be precise when returning clubs to their respective slots
Top Rated 14 Slot Golf Bags
Founders Club Premium Cart Bag with 14-Way Organizer Divider Top—Best For Carts
Everyone knows how to put golf clubs in bags, but to do it safely and in a manner that continuously protects your clubs? This is where a quality golf bag can help. Some think knowing how to organize a 14 slot Titleist golf bag is important but for us, at the top of the pile is this bag from Founders Club.
Although not a household name, they have thought of everything for this golf bag. The slots have locking mechanisms that will keep each club secure in its slot; this acts as a “travel mode” for your clubs.
During play, you simply remove them from the locking slits, and they are loose within their slot for easy removal and return.
The putter slot is short and wide to accommodate putters with oversized grips and those that are shorter than the standard length.
PowerBilt Powerbilt TPS Dunes 14-Way—Best For Carrying
This bag is great because of its versatility. There are two acceptable slots for your putter, so you can choose whether to have it at the front with your wedges or at the back with your woods.
The oversized handle makes it easy to move this bag from your trunk to the bag drop. Although not a household name either, the quality and price combine to make this one of the best golf bags that no one knows about.
The bag uses a unique zig-zag pattern with slots so you can choose how to organize all your clubs. Just be sure to follow the rules above to keep your clubs safe from damage.
Lastly, a carry bag, has tons of storage. There are plenty of pockets to keep all your accessories organized and separate from each other. There’s even a padded pocket to keep your phone and/or watch safe.
Final Word
There’s no point in getting a 14 slot bag if you don’t know how to organize a 14 divider golf bag.
They were invented for a reason: to keep your clubs safe and easily accessible. We’ve all struggled to either retrieve or return a club to our bag, only to be met with the tense resistance that our rubber grips produce.
Avoid this pitfall with a 14 slot golf bag and keep your stress levels to a minimum. Or at least you can save your stress for the other million things that golf will have you stressing over.
Clint is PGA-certified and was a Head Teaching Professional at one of Toronto's busiest golf academies. He was also featured on Canada's National Golf TV program, "Score Golf Canada," twice. He graduated with a degree in Golf Management from the College of the Desert in California and studied under Callaway's co-founder, Tony Manzoni.
He has a handicap index of 6.2 and spends the winters near Oaxaca, Mexico, where he plays twice a month at the Club de Golf Vista Hermosa. He's written over 100 articles at GolfSpan since 2021. You can connect with Clint at LinkedIn, FB, his website, or Clintcpga@gmail.com.
- Best score: 68
- Favorite club: Odyssey White Hot Two-Ball Center-Shafted Putter
- Favorite ball: Titleist Pro V1x
- Favorite food at the turn: Hot dog
