Bermuda golf trip late april - clubs on the plane nightmare?

[IronMike72]

So I'm finally pulling the trigger on a Bermuda trip last week of April, 4 nights, me and my brother. Mid Ocean is the whole reason, Port Royal as the warmup. Flights booked, hotel booked, and now I'm sitting here at 11pm googling golf club travel cases like a lunatic.

Here's my thing. I've flown with clubs maybe three times and every single time it's been a mild panic. Hard case, soft case, ship them ahead, rent at the course? I refuse to rent, by the way. I don't care if it's Mid Ocean and they hand me Scotty Camerons, I want MY sticks, the ones I've spent two years learning to hate properly.

So what's the move. I've got a soft case with the stiff arm thing and honestly I've never fully trusted it. Do I buy a hard case for one trip? Do the shipsticks type services actually work to Bermuda or is that a states-only kind of deal? And does anyone know if the airlines count a golf bag as a checked bag or is it always the extra fee hell?

Also random but if anyone has played Mid Ocean, do I need to be scared? Handicap is a real 14 and has been known to travel.

[FairwayFrank]

The stiff arm thing is fine, honestly. Everyone panics and buys a $250 hard case for one trip, then you're dragging a coffin through LF Wade and praying the taxi driver's trunk closes. Soft case plus stiff arm plus a little common sense has gotten my sticks to Ireland twice and Scotland once with nothing worse than a scuffed 7 iron.

The actual trick nobody tells you: pull the heads off anything adjustable, put the shafts in head-first so the grips are up top, and stuff towels or a couple of golf shirts around the clubheads so they aren't clacking into each other for six hours. Also flip your irons so they're not all facing the same way. Sounds dumb, works.

On Mid Ocean, a real 14 will survive. It's not a beatdown like people make it out to be, it's just windy and the greens are firm. The 5th (the Cape hole) is the one that gets in your head, you've got a carry over water and it's semi-blind from the tee, so pick a line, aim at it, and don't stand there second-guessing. The back nine is where the round actually happens, some really fun holes tucked into those hills.

Shipsticks does go international but the paperwork and timing gets annoying for a 4 night trip. I'd just check the bag.

What time's your Mid Ocean tee time? Afternoon wind there is a completely different golf course than morning.