Right now, as I write this, I’m sitting in the Chase Sapphire Lounge in San Diego.
I’m on the tail end of a six-day family trip to Disneyland and the Hotel del Coronado.
There were no golf clubs on this trip.
But there was one golf-adjacent product that came along with me: the Club Glove Tour Check-In.
This was my sixth trip using it.
And apparently I like this suitcase enough that I’m now sitting in an airport lounge writing an entire dedicated review about it.
Which I definitely didn’t expect to happen.
You see, I typically try to review products on Breaking Eighty that represent a good value.
Sometimes that means inexpensive products that perform way above their price.
Other times, the products I recommend are objectively expensive, but you get enough additional quality, performance, or features to make the price relatively easy to justify.
It costs $800.
For a suitcase.
You can walk into TJ Maxx and get a perfectly decent Samsonite for less than $100.
So how on Earth could an $800 suitcase possibly be worth buying?
Well, I’m going to try to tell you.
Fully understanding that this is absolutely not going to be for everyone.
In fact, chances are you read “$800 suitcase” and had exactly the same reaction I did when I first saw the price.
No chance.
But if you’re the type of person who has actually Googled something along the lines of “Is the Club Glove Tour Check-In worth it?” because you’re considering buying one?
Then this review is for you.
It's pricey, but man is it nice. If your budget can support it and you're already buying a Club Glove travel bag, I'd give this serious consideration. The TRS system that links the bags together, makes walking through airports so easy.
What Is the Club Glove Tour Check-In?
The Tour Check-In is Club Glove’s premium soft-sided checked suitcase.
And when I say premium, they don’t hold much back.
The exterior is made from 1680D Cordura ballistic nylon, there are full-grain leather accents, heavy-duty YKK zippers, a built-in TSA combination lock, all-terrain urethane wheels, and Club Glove’s shock-absorbing wheelbase.
It measures 27.6 x 13.9 x 11.1 inches and weighs 13.5 pounds empty.
That last number is worth remembering, because it was one of my biggest concerns with the bag.
It also includes three packing cubes and an interior divider that separates the bag into different packing zones.
But arguably the most important feature is Club Glove’s TRS, or Train Reaction System.
More on that in a minute.
Because before we talk about hauling multiple bags through an airport with one hand, we should talk about what surprised me most about the Tour Check-In itself.
It’s Much Bigger Than I Expected
When I first received the Tour Check-In, I had two immediate concerns.
It was going to be too heavy.
And it was going to be too small.
The first concern is somewhat valid. At 13.5 pounds empty, this is a heavy suitcase.
But in practice, it hasn’t been nearly as much of an issue as I expected. Fully loaded for my most recent six-day trip, it weighed just 32 pounds at the airport.
A golf trip with a couple of pairs of heavier golf shoes, rain gear, and more gear could certainly push that higher, but so far I’ve always been comfortably under the standard 50-pound checked-bag limit.
As for the size?
That’s been almost the exact opposite of what I expected.
On this trip to Southern California, I packed a week’s worth of clothes, at least three pairs of shoes, a toiletry kit, and all the random other stuff I inevitably bring along.
And I had plenty of room left over.
I Didn’t Expect to Like the Way It Packs This Much
Most modern suitcases use some variation of a clamshell design.
You unzip the suitcase down the middle, unfold the whole thing, and pack one side and then the other.
The Tour Check-In doesn’t work that way.
Instead, it essentially loads from the top.
And I love it.
There’s a lower section that’s perfect for shoes and other heavier items. An interior divider clips into place over that, and then you can layer your clothes and packing cubes above it.
Club Glove includes three packing cubes with the bag, and I’ve found myself using them far more than I expected.
Historically, I haven’t exactly been the world’s most organized packer.
But between the cubes, divider, and overall layout of the suitcase, I’ve found it incredibly easy to keep everything organized.
More importantly, unpacking is easy.
I can take one cube out and put it directly into a drawer.
Shoes remain separated from clothes.
Smaller items don’t disappear into some random corner of the suitcase.
And unlike a big clamshell suitcase, I don’t have to completely unfold the thing and watch everything spill everywhere every time I want to grab something.
Will everyone prefer this layout?
Probably not.
But after six trips with it, I’ve found I significantly prefer this style of packing.
This Thing Feels Bulletproof
Obviously, when you’re talking about an $800 suitcase, it had better feel expensive.
The Tour Check-In does.
Club Glove uses 1680D Cordura ballistic nylon for the exterior, along with seatbelt webbing, reinforced rivets, heavy-duty buckles, and robust zippers.
The entire thing just feels overbuilt.
Initially, I assumed a soft-sided suitcase wouldn’t feel as protective or durable as one with a hard plastic shell.
I’ve come away feeling the opposite.
My relatively inexpensive Samsonite hard-shell suitcase had a noticeable dent in it within three trips.
Six trips into using the Tour Check-In?
It basically still looks like it did when I received it.
I’m sure eventually I’ll get some scuffs and marks on it. That’s what checked luggage does.
But there’s nothing about this bag that makes me feel like I’m going to need to replace it in two or three years.
And perhaps more importantly, the internal structure and padding give me far more confidence in what’s actually inside the suitcase than I expected.
Everything feels secure.
Everything stays where I put it.
Nothing feels like it’s rattling around inside a thin plastic shell while baggage handlers do their thing.
Considering my old Club Glove golf travel bag is still structurally going strong more than a decade after I bought it, that doesn’t exactly surprise me.
But it’s still nice to see that same emphasis on durability carry over to the luggage.
The TRS System Is Probably Why You’re Considering It
Realistically, if you’ve made it this far into a review of an $800 Club Glove suitcase, there’s a decent chance you already own, or are considering buying, one of Club Glove’s golf travel bags.
Because that’s where the Tour Check-In becomes significantly more interesting.
Club Glove’s patented Train Reaction System allows you to connect compatible pieces of luggage together.
You can daisy-chain up to three pieces and pull the whole thing through the airport with one hand.
Carry-on.
All connected.
The first time you use it, it isn’t necessarily intuitive.
There’s a little bit of figuring out which clips go where, how much tension you want, and the best order to connect everything.
Give it a trip or two, though, and it starts to make sense.
And once you get it?
It’s legitimately convenient.
On one recent trip, I had what felt like the longest walk imaginable from my car to the gate at PDX.
I had my golf clubs connected to the Tour Check-In and pulled the entire setup behind me with one hand while holding my coffee in the other.
There’s enough flexibility in the connection that you can roll the setup onto an escalator with the suitcase sitting on one step and the golf bag on the step behind it without the whole thing fighting against you.
It’s one of those systems that sounds a little gimmicky until you’ve actually traveled with it.
Then you get why people like it.
But There’s One Problem With the Club Glove System
Here’s where my situation gets a little complicated.
As much as I like Club Glove’s TRS system, I still think the Sun Mountain ClubGlider is the easiest golf travel bag to physically move through an airport.
Its retractable leg system is just ridiculously convenient.
And for most golfers looking specifically for the easiest golf travel bag to wheel around, that’s still probably my top recommendation.
The problem is that when I use the ClubGlider with my Tour Check-In, I lose the biggest benefit of the Club Glove ecosystem:
I’m back to pulling one bag with each hand.
It’s still easy.
But it’s not quite as convenient as rolling an entire Club Glove setup with one hand.
So I’m constantly caught between the two.
Do I want the easiest individual golf travel bag?
ClubGlider.
Do I want the easiest overall luggage system?
Club Glove.
Not exactly the worst problem to have.
I Do Wish It Had Four Wheels
If I’m looking for things to complain about, there is one other relatively obvious one.
The Tour Check-In only has two wheels.
They’re excellent wheels. They’re smooth, substantial, and I have no concerns about durability.
But there are plenty of situations where I’d love to simply stand the bag vertically and push it alongside me like you can with a four-wheel spinner suitcase.
You can’t do that here.
Considering the whole Club Glove ecosystem is designed around pulling luggage behind you, I understand the decision – and it’s honestly a pretty minor critique.
But on the trips where I’m using the Tour Check-In without golf clubs, there have definitely been moments where I wished it had four wheels.
So…Is the Club Glove Tour Check-In Actually Worth $800?
I don’t think I could ever make a rational argument that anyone needs an $800 suitcase.
You don’t.
There are plenty of perfectly functional pieces of luggage for $100-$300.
And at $800, the Tour Check-In costs considerably more than most people will ever want to spend on checked luggage.
So if you looked at the price and immediately thought it was ridiculous?
I get it.
I basically did too.
But after six trips, the Tour Check-In has become one of my favorite products I’ve reviewed over the last few years.
Not just one of my favorite pieces of golf luggage.
One of my favorite products.
Period.
I enjoy packing it.
I stay more organized when I use it.
It holds significantly more than I expected.
It protects everything inside extremely well.
It works beautifully as part of Club Glove’s TRS ecosystem.
And it feels like the type of suitcase I could still be traveling with a decade from now.
Every trip I’ve taken with it, I’ve liked it a little bit more.
And that is why I’m now sitting in an airport lounge writing a dedicated review about a product I never expected to revisit on the blog, after my initial post 4 months ago.
When I received the Tour Check-In, I never would have considered spending $800 of my own money on it.
If mine disappeared tomorrow?
I’d buy another one.
At $800.
I think that says everything you need to know.
It's pricey, but man is it nice. If your budget can support it and you're already buying a Club Glove travel bag, I'd give this serious consideration. The TRS system that links the bags together, makes walking through airports so easy.
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I thought this was an absurd product at an absurd price, and six trips later I’d replace it with my own money.
No one needs an $800 suitcase. In fact, most people should not buy this luggage. But after half a dozen trips with the Club Glove Tour Check In - it has won me over, and is hands down one of my favorite products I've reviewed over the past couple years. And if you pair it with a Club Glove travel bag,it gets even better. But $800 is still an abusrd price to spend on a piece of luggage.
The Good
- Extremely well built and durable
- Divider and included compression bags make organization extremely easy
- TRS system works really well with compatible travel bags once you know how it works
The Bad
- $800 is a ton of money for a suitcase
- There's only two wheels, rather than 4 spinner wheels which could add to convenience in some cases
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Presentation
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Performance
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Price
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Personal Affinity
