You’re not alone if you have ever gotten off the plane at your long-awaited golf destination only to learn that your clubs were either en route to a different airport or could not be found. Or worse, your driver shaft was snapped in half by baggage handlers.
Those are just two such scenarios that have ruined many a golf vacation or two over the years. But it doesn’t have to be so stressful.
Florida-based ShipSticks was founded in 2011 and has provided millions of golfer travelers safe, convenient — and hassle-free — bag delivery for more than a decade.
“We like to look at our service like a concierge for your golf shipping needs,” said Stephanie Retcho, the chief marketing officer of Ship&Play, the parent company of ShipSticks. “We have a team of folks who are in Florida to monitor when your pickup happens and where your clubs are en route. They are there to really keep an eye out for your clubs so it’s less stress for you versus taking it on yourself.”
From the beginning ShipSticks used a strategy that leveraged volume with carriers such as FedEx, UPS and DHL to secure more than competitive shipping rates for traveling golfers, who at times can save up to half off what it would cost if they shipped clubs themselves instead of opting for the turnkey service.
The ShipSticks service starts at $49 and increases depending on distance or other factors, such as speed of delivery.
“From the very start of the company the founders really felt like there was an opportunity to create that convenience for the traveling golfer and do it in a way that was competitive,” Retcho says.
ShipSticks model has worked and filled a much-needed niche, considering the company has seen triple-digit growth over the years. ShipSticks is also involved in ski travel and various other aspects of shipping, including regular luggage. A sign that the company is on the uptick, the PGA of America recently named ShipSticks its official golf club shipping partner. As part of the agreement, ShipSticks is offering free shipping for the 312 competing PGA of America Members in the PGA Professional Championship, and access to shipping for PGA of America Associates attending Education Seminars in Frisco, Texas, home of the PGA.
“There really is a notion that we’ve transformed the travel experience,” Retcho says. “The one thing people often overlook is that using ShipSticks can save you time because it doesn’t matter if it’s golf clubs or ski equipment or just the luggage, you’re not spending time at the check-in or spending time at the retrieval.
“I had some fun doing some back-of-the-envelope math. You know over the course of your lifetime how much time an average golf traveler spends on either ends of that spectrum of standing in the baggage line at airports? Some people can save over 600 hours of their life by not engaging in that stuff.”
The owners of ShipSticks realized from the private company’s inception that strategic partnerships with golf resorts across the nation — and now the world — would be key to affordable, consistent, seamless golf bag delivery. The company began with a relationship with Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon and has more than more than 3,500 partners as of 2025.
One of those locations is Pinehurst Resort in the Sandhills of North Carolina.
“You’re entrusting your golf bag to a company that that’s what they do — it is their bread-and-butter for them to take care of your so-called package, right?” says Matt Chriscoe, director of hotel operations at Pinehurst Resort. “So I think there is that comfort of knowing that and then obviously knowing you can track it from point A to point B and see its journey to your destination. That’s another comfort piece, being able to track that journey a little bit better than just hoping it’s on your plane as you travel across the country or the world.”
Chriscoe has used the service himself on golfing vacations to such locations as California and Scotland.
“And if you’re traveling for a week or so you can pack more with ShipSticks because your clubs are typically packed in one of the company’s boxes so you can add shoes or rain jackets or so many other things. It becomes a functional piece as well as a convenience piece.”
Retcho says ShipSticks stresses B2B team training with affiliated partners that also includes ski resorts and hotels.
“We want to make sure there is someone on hand who knows our service. So, for example, you can walk in the pro shop at Pebble Beach and drop off your bags for the trip home and they know exactly what to do,” she says. “Our intention is to work it from both ends of the spectrum, so that you have the ability to have that person on the ground where you are, but you also have the ability to go online at home and book your shipment and have it picked up from your front door.”
Golfers also have the ability to drop off their bags at a local shipping location that offers the ShipSticks service or can use a QR code to print out shipping labels.
“We’re constantly looking at additional new ways where we can make it frictionless for people to use our service,” Retcho says.
And ShipSticks may be getting even busier this summer. In late May, Southwest Airlines — joining the rest of the airline industry standard — will start charging for bags for the first time in its 50 years of flying.
“A lot of folks who don’t fly Southwest are already of the mindset of they would rather ship with us,” Retcho says. “We talk to people at airports all the time and they are very aware of us. Now for travelers of Southwest there is a real sense of the last bastion of ‘free’ being gone. I think those folks will really be interested and receptive to our service. We need to unlock from an awareness perspective for them that there is just quite simply a better way to do this, and this is the way.”
ShipSticks now delivers over one million golf bags a year across the globe, Retcho says.
“The convenience of what ShipSticks does is kind of unmatched,” Chriscoe says. “If you’re doing it yourself you’re at the mercy of the airline, that can be an unsettling feeling.”