Swag Golf, a company known for its eye-catching range of accessories, has unveiled the golf bags that will be used by the US Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black.
US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley was involved in the process of their design, which, in a first for the matches, feature the captain’s name inscribed on each bag via a logo which reads ‘In Keegan We Trust’, paying homage to the ‘In God We Trust’ line that appears below the eagle on the US coat of arms.
The coat of arms, known as The Great Seal, has several golf-centric changes, with the eagle’s talons holding golf clubs instead of olive branches, and the 13 stars represent the original 13 colonies being reduced to 12 stars representing the 12-man Ryder Cup team.
Other fine details include a mantra that Bradley wrote on the inside of the main ball pocket that reads: ‘Play for your country, play for your family, play for your legacy’, signed with his initials. The side panels have Mount Rushmore depicted. Another panel reads ‘Liberty & Justice Fore All’.
Although designed by the team at Swag Golf, the bags are being made by premium golf bag brand Vessel, with cart and stand bag versions being made for general sale. The US team bag is a version of Vessel’s Prime 2.0 Staff bag and the stand bag is its VLS Lux.
“We wanted this bag to be to be clearly patriotric from a distance,” said A.J. Getz, Swag’s executive creative director. “But when you get up close with it, there’s just a rich amount of deep, real depth of storytelling of the American story and just something that tonally matches the energy that Keegan wanted to bring with his captaincy.”
On the bottom of the bags sold at retail – but not for the US Ryder Cup team – is a reproduction of the famous sign that greets players at Bethpage Black’s first tee, which reads ‘WARNING – The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers the players’.
The US Ryder Cup staff bag ($600/£450) and stand bag ($400/£300) are for sale at swaggolf.com.