50 Words or Less
The Wilson Staff neXus Cart Bag is light, spacious, and well-made. The top is innovative but likely polarizing. One of the few cart bags that’s legitimately different from the rest.
Introduction
Last year, out of nowhere, Wilson Staff delivered the neXus Stand Bag which blew away the competition and claimed a spot on the shoulder of tons of walking golfers. This year, they’re hoping to similarly impress golf cart riders with the neXus Cart Bag. This bag boasts an innovative top, ample storage, and rugged construction.
Style
The only possible criticism of the neXus Stand Bag was that the initial batch of color schemes weren’t the best. Wilson Staff has stepped their game up with the neXus Cart Bag. There are three traditional color combos – black/grey, navy/silver, and white/red – and three modern combos – black/yellow, black/lime, and royal/citron (shown here). Each combination does a good job with the balance of primary and highlight colors, and, just as with the neXus Stand Bag, Wilson Staff has kept the branding toned down.
Quality
The best word to describe the Wilson Staff neXus Cart Bag is sturdy. I attribute this to the external rods that form the bag’s “chassis”. My major gripe with my old cart bag was that it felt flimsy – the top handles felt totally disconnected from the base of the bag leaving it to twist around anytime I picked it up. No matter how I grab the neXus, however, it feels solid.
The quality of the neXus extends beyond the overall feel into the little details. The zippers are solid and operate freely without catching on anything. There are no loose pieces of fabric hanging loose here or there. The straps are well padded and well connected.
From top to bottom, the neXus Cart Bag is simply a well built bag that will be able to ride for many, many rounds.
Design & Performance
There are three major categories I look at when evaluating a cart bag’s design: pockets, handles, and the top.
The neXus Cart Bag has loads of storage, and, more importantly, it’s all easily accessible when it’s on the cart. It has three pockets on the front of the bag including an insulated pocket. Additionally, each side has two large pockets and a small valuables pocket. The quality of the design here is not in the number of pockets – lots of bags have as many – but in the sizing. The front pockets are big enough to hold a variety of things – rangefinder, GPS, wallet, tees, keys, balls – but they’re not so big that you have to dig around to find things. This is the heart of good design: the pockets are as big as they need to be, not bigger.
When it comes to handles, the neXus is decidedly old school. It has a shoulder strap and a handle on the back side, and that’s it. It would be nice if it had a handle on the top for putting it onto a cart, but that’s not a deal breaker for me. The handles it does have are well-padded and solid.
What will make or break this bag for you is your opinion of the top. The neXus Cart Bag has one of the most unusual tops you’ll find: 10 sections, 4 full-length dividers, 14 S-Locks, and a putter well designed to accommodate large grips. The S-Locks are designed to keep your clubs from banging into each other, and they do a pretty good job of it. It’s easy to slide clubs in and out of the locks, though you will notice that your shorter clubs may not stay put as well as the longer ones. One other issue is that the S-Locks don’t get along well with long headcovers: the “sock” portion needs to be held out of the way to snap the shaft in. Overall, I like that the S-Locks keep the bag organized and minimize the bag chatter on my clubs. I also give kudos to Wilson Staff for creating a bag without 14 full-length dividers where the grips don’t tangle. I thought this was impossible, but they’ve done it. Even my mid-sized grips slide easily in and out.
Overall, the bag is a well-designed, solid performer. If you don’t like the top, the great pockets probably won’t save it for you, but after taking a minute to figure out how my clubs should go into it, I was all-in on the neXus Cart Bag.
Conclusion
The neXus Cart Bag has all the things you need – ample storage, good design – plus smart new features like the S-Lock top. Additionally the aluminum rods on the exterior do make the bag feel much sturdier than other cart bags. Between the neXus Stand Bag and neXus Cart Bag, if you see me on course, you will see my clubs in a Wilson Staff bag.
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Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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I agree that the bag is extremely well laid out for storage, however whereas the stand bag has the normal top layout for the clubs the cart bag has a new design supposedly to stop the clubs banging against each other. When the bag is on the cart this is not the case and if you have fairway and rescue clubs in the bag it is annoyingly difficult to find the club required and the clubs still twist in the locking slots and bang against each other. The Wilson ‘i-lock cart bag is a much better design although more expensive.
This bag is decent, but not great. My club grips still get hung up in the bag, and the holder slots don’t hold the clubs all that well, only ok. I do love the Velcro on the outside for your glove and putter cover. I also really like the pen and ball mark repair pouches. There are also many great pockets, and the cart strap slot works well because you can easily get to the pockets. The tee holders are suspect, and don’t work all that well. Overall, the bag is well-constructed, but I’d prefer the top to have 14 separate club slots. Hence, the Nexus 3. I wish I would have bought the 3 instead…