Chill Your Meds or Your Lunch, Pack a Beer Sleeve and Get Some Fun in Your Drives

LaCoutts was formed when Corie Laraya-Coutts and her husband Rod saw there was a need to have a way to take a few personal items to the golf course. The cart baskets posed a challenge, never mind the issue of putting necessaries inside something attractive.

Although new to the game of golf at the time, it wasn’t long before Corie came up with a fashionable way to carry her must-haves. Purse-like bags. They named the designs after Rod’s mother, Bella, and father, Duncan.  

Then it occurred to them that there were other very practical reasons to carry bags, such as for those who have to take medication at certain times during the day.  Some people had meds that needed to remain cool, like insulin. And so the thermal bag was born.

Turns out, the thermal bags can carry more than insulin.  It’s good for snacks, lunches, and even keeping makeup and Chapstick from melting while playing golf on hot days. (There’s nothing worse than a melted lipstick. Take it from someone who lived in La Quinta, California, for 10 years where the summers are 100 to 120 degrees every day.)   

These days, LaCoutts bags are flying off the shelves so fast that the black with gold trim and black with silver trim Bella style is sold out!  Of course, the white, gray, and fuschia are still available, and you can certainly request to be notified when the black bags are available again.

New bags in greens, golds, beiges, silvers, and more with different combinations of pockets and flaps debuted at the PGA Show, so be sure to ask LaCoutts about their latest styles. Made from supple and sturdy cowhide, LaCoutts bags are mostly under $300.   

If you’d like to participate in a charitable contribution, each handbag sold on Tuesdays results in a donation of $25 to Diabetes Canada.

Fun Headcovers, Shirts and Ball Markers

Pins & Aces sounds more like a card game than an accessories firm, but don’t let the name fool you.

This is a company with fun and crazy designs for headcovers, shirts, beer sleeves, and ball markers – including one that looks like a Ritz Cracker and another that looks like a rubber duckie. Some markers are fairly rude and others downright offensive, so beware when looking, but plenty are G-rated, too.

There are themed accessories like Bud Light or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle headcovers. There are Donald Trump headcovers and putter covers, complete with stuff that resembles hair. There’s a whole NASA Space Walk series of club covers.

The ones that really bring the fun are Mutant Zombie, Frankenstein, boxing gloves, dancing flamingos, mummy, Yeti, Sasquatch, and sets of covers featuring pimento cheese sandwiches reminiscent of a popular spring golf tournament.           

At the PGA Show, they amped up the pimento cheese sandwich theme. Instead of a small sandwich, they had giant sandwiches with cheese dripping from everywhere.   

If you like presidents, there’s Lincoln, Reagan, and Kennedy. Headcovers are $60 and under. 

Even polo shirts get the silly treatment with patterns like Space Walk, Mallard Shatter (exploded ducks), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dancing flamingos, Margaritaville, and more. 

One called Good Bunny was designed by multi-platinum music artist Bad Bunny.  Sales of the Good Bunny shirts have 20% of the proceeds going to the Good Bunny Foundation and Fundación Rimas in Puerto Rico. Most men’s shirts are under $70.

There are plenty of fun designs for ladies, too.  Sleeveless golf shirts in Spatterpaint, which looks just like it sounds, Daisies, Popsicle, Yeti, Blood Spatter ( with claw marks), Jungle Cat, Cherry Blossoms, Augusta Azaleas, and more. Under $70.

The next article in this series features shady characters and a way to measure swing speed without breaking the bank.