Purist Packin'

by Victor Williams

Bags
Mackenzie Walker Golf Bag
$595-$645 | www.themackenziegolfbagcompany.com

A Good Walk, Period: Golf is a walking game. Always has been, always will be, and no monster fleet of decked out, air-conditioned motor carts can change that. In fact, at a place like Bandon Dunes, you’ve gotta be in a world of hurt to do anything but walk its three classic tracks. Only a handful of carts are available, which is why it’s such a wonderful golf experience, weather be damned. Walkers are royalty.

Which is why you’ll need a gold-plated budget to shell out for one of MacKenzie’s Walker bags, headquartered not far from Bandon in Portland, Ore. In a world populated with bells-and-whistles bags made out of superlight nylon, these leather beauties stand out and stand up to years of battle. They’re handmade to the buyer’s specs in two main models — the Original Walker, 8 inches in diameter with two large pockets for balls, tees, accessories, a wind shirt and rain pants; and the smaller Sunday Walker, 7 inches wide with one pocket. Throw one of these beauties over your shoulder, and you’ll not only feel like a purist, you’ll be recognized as one.

“It has a real appeal to people who always walk, who carry and often take caddies,” says owner Todd Rohrer, who rescued the company from oblivion last summer. “There’s no insulated water bottle pocket or separate velour pocket for your wristwatch and car keys. It’s a very small niche, but people who buy our bag want our bag.”

Love at First Swing: Rohrer was managing a golf club in Portland that hosted Peter Jacobsen’s Fred Meyer Challenge when he first caught a whiff of MacKenzie magic. “Peter played an integral part in getting this company going in 1985, and for quite a while it was the Peter Jacobsen model,” he says. “One day I saw him wandering across our practice ground, carrying the coolest black leather Sunday bag. That’s the first time I had ever seen the MacKenzie Walker. He told me the whole story, and ever since then I’ve been rather enamored of it.”

Family Affair: Most people want some kind of customization — even if it’s as simple as their initials on the handle. Delivery usually takes about a month from the time you order, depending on the intricacy of the embroidery and the type of leather selected. “I have had several people buy them with one express purpose,” Rohrer says. “They want their son or daughter to carry the bag. I’ve got one guy who bought two, and put his initials on them a bit differently, and he expects his two boys to carry them years from now.”

Quality First: “The components we use — the leather, the stainless steel hardware — are the very best we can find. Would I recommend going to the beach and soaking it in salt water? Of course not. There are some guys who only take their bags out when it’s perfect outside, and other guys … we have one bag we’re repairing now that’s 18 years old, and you can tell it’s been out there for hundreds and hundreds of rounds.”

And you can bet every one of them was on foot. As it should be in the MacKenzie universe. FG