Sun Mountain Kube Travel Cover Review
Modern travel covers now come in all different shapes and sizes, all with the goal of safely transporting your golf clubs on their journey through baggage handling for your golf trip. Much innovation has been seen in this area of the market and the new Sun Mountain Kube travel cover is evidence of that. It is a uniquely designed cover that offers hard shell casing around key areas of the cover, all while folding up to a pint-sized cube shape for easy storage at home and on holiday. I took it on four flights across Europe to test out this system for myself. Most importantly, could it do the basics right and keep my golf clubs protected on my travels?
Folded up, the Kube has dimensions of just 23cm x 33cm x 38cm - barely making a mark wherever you have the space to store your travel bags. I found it especially useful in a hotel room, where standard travel covers can often take up much of the floor space while you're trying to enjoy your trip. The only other travel bag to offer such a fantastic way of storage is the Motocaddy Flightsafe travel cover which is slightly larger and heavier in its execution.
The handy byproduct of this unique system is the extra padding it provides when the bag is in use. The hard-case shell expands to the top and bottom end of the bag, giving robust protection, especially to the top end of the bag where protection is needed the most. There are also two internal and two external compression straps that tightly hold down your bag to stop it from moving around whilst on its travels. On the four flights I've used the Kube on so far, my clubs have come back perfectly intact with everything placed in the bag remaining exactly where I put it before departure.
I think my favorite thing about the Kube aside from the way it folds away is how lightweight it is. Coming in at just 3.08kg (6.8lbs) it leaves you with so much weight to add to the bag. Compared to the Ram Fx travel cover, which weighs in at 4.08kg (9lbs), you'll be able to take more away with you in the Kube. Most airlines will allow a golf bag to be no more than 20kg - it can be up to 23kg on some airlines - and you certainly want to make the most of that booked baggage. The lightweight nature of the Kube allows for this and I was able to pack - alongside a full set of golf clubs - three pairs of golf shoes, my golf clothes for the trip, and a toiletries bag. All told this was exactly 20kg on one flight I took earlier this year, leaving me an extra 3kg on the more generous airline. It negates the need to book an extra checked bag for trips and it'll save you money booking more baggage in the long run. It's worth noting I'm not a light traveler either...
The only thing the Kube was lacking for me was some extra pockets. There are two small internal pockets that I used to carry belts and dirty washing, but in truth, they're not very large. This leaves things like golf shoes, caps, toiletries, or whatever else you pack next to your clubs, freely floating around inside. Some travel covers like the Sun Mountain Club Glider Meridian, Ram FX and Macgregor VIP II travel cover also feature outer pockets for more organized storage, something the Kube lacks. Whether you want to store things in external pockets on a travel cover is another topic entirely.
Overall I really enjoyed my experience of traveling with the Kube. Its unique storage functionality is incredibly useful but, most importantly, it does the basics right by keeping golf clubs well protected. Those who like to travel as close to the weight limit as possible will deeply appreciate the extra weight you can pack into it thanks to the lightweight design and I fully expect to be racking up plenty more air miles with the Kube in tow.
