None of this wins you the medal, but the right small kit keeps your hands dry, your clubs clean and your bag tidy — the cheapest way to feel sorted on the first tee. The towel that actually scrubs a groove, the divot tool, the tees that don't snap, the markers and the waterproof pouch for your phone and keys. Unglamorous, genuinely useful, and most of it under £20.
It's Titleist's premium tour-style bag towel, sold in two flavours: a plush terry version for max absorption and a hub-pattern microfiber version for club cleaning. Aimed at players who want proper kit, not a freebie towel off a charity day.
What's great
The terry one is a genuinely thirsty towel, soaks up morning dew and rain, dries clubs in one wipe and shrugs off a winter loop. The microfiber version is the better club-scrubber, the textured hub pattern actually shifts mud and grass without smearing it about. Both run a big 16x32 (terry goes up to 20x40), so you get real coverage, and there's a centre slit that drops neatly over a clubhead to sit on the bag cuff. Build is tidy and the logo is understated rather than shouty. Owners on Golf Galaxy rate it highly and most say they wouldn't go back to a cheap towel.
Worth knowing
Here's the honest bit: there's NO clip or carabiner. It's a centre slit and a self-fabric loop, so it sits over a club on the cuff rather than clipping to a ring, and that confuses a lot of buyers (it's a recurring "what do I attach it to?" thread on GolfWRX). On a windy day or a rough cart path it can flap loose. You're also paying a Titleist premium for what is, fundamentally, a towel. The microfiber can shed a bit of lint when new, and the plush terry takes a while to dry out if you stuff it in the bag wet.
The verdict
A proper, well-made towel that does the job and feels the part, just know you're paying for the brand and there's no clip to attach it. I'd grab the terry for soaking up dew and the microfiber for scrubbing clubs. Buy a separate carabiner and you're sorted.
It's the Callaway 4-in-1 divot tool, a zinc-alloy fork with a magnetic ball marker and a built-in groove brush, aimed at golfers who want one tidy, brand-stamped bit of kit instead of a drawer of freebies.
What's great
For a few quid this thing is properly built. The zinc alloy feels solid, shrugs off a damp bag, and the prongs are tapered enough to actually coax turf back rather than just stabbing at it. The magnet on the ball marker is judged well: strong enough that the marker doesn't ping off in your pocket, but not so clingy you're wrestling it free on the green. The groove brush is a genuinely handy bonus for clearing muck out of your wedges, and it all looks the part with the chevron on it. As an everyday divot fixer that won't bend or rust on you, I rate it.
Worth knowing
It's a chunky lump. Several owners moan it sits in the pocket like a boat anchor, and there's no clip for your hat or belt, so you're always digging for it. The prongs are on the wide side, and if you don't know the proper pinch-and-twist technique you can end up leaving holes rather than healing them, which defeats the point. The brush bristles also wear down and flatten with heavy use, so treat that as a consumable, not forever.
The verdict
A solid, honest bit of kit that does the core job well and feels far from cheap. Just know it's a pocket-carry tool, not a clip-on, and learn the proper repair technique so those fat prongs help the green instead of wrecking it.
The Pride PTS (Professional Tee System) is the world's best-selling tee range, sold in colour-coded wood and tougher ABS plastic versions across five heights. It's aimed at anyone who wants to stop guessing their tee height every drive.
What's great
The colour-coded height bands are the real selling point, and they genuinely work. You jam the tee in to the same colour every time and your strike height stops wandering, which tightened up my dispersion off the tee more than I expected from a few pence of wood. The wood ones are properly straight and consistent batch to batch, and the plastic version is borderline indestructible (testers got 70-odd full driver swings out of one tee). The low-resistance four-prong head does feel like it gets out of the way at impact too.
Worth knowing
The colour-coding is half a gimmick once you push the tee into the ground, because the band disappears and you're back to eyeballing it, so it only helps on firm turf. The plastic ones fly miles and never snap, which sounds great until you're hunting for them in the rough, and a fair few owners report they go brittle and crack in cold weather or leave a faint scuff on a matte driver sole. Wood ones still snap on rock-hard tee boxes. Not for occasional players who'll never recoup the plastic premium.
The verdict
A genuinely good tee that earns its reputation. I rate the wood PTS for most blokes for the consistency alone, and the plastic if you hate buying tees, just don't expect the colour trick to do much once it's in soft ground.
A set of magnetic enamel ball markers in rude or funny designs, sat on a hat clip, aimed at the golfer who likes a bit of banter on the green and treats their kit as part of the joke. Classic stocking-filler and impulse buy.
What's great
For what it is, it does the job a plain marker does with a lot more personality. The hat clip is the genuinely useful bit, the marker lives on your cap peak and snaps off when you need it, so no patting your pockets on the green. They get a laugh off the first tee, they photograph well, and the rude designs are exactly the sort most polite club shops won't stock. As a cheap gift that actually gets used rather than shoved in a drawer, it's hard to fault.
Worth knowing
This is a generic import, so quality is a lottery and the magnet is where it bites. Owner reviews repeatedly flag weak magnets that drop the marker mid-round, sometimes after one wear, so look for a set with a chunkier (12mm) magnet. The enamel can chip if it rattles loose in a pocket, and the hat clip doesn't grip every cap brim equally well, thinner peaks can let it slide. Buy it for the gag and the convenience, not as a precision bit of kit.
The verdict
A proper cheap, cheerful win that earns its place as a gift or impulse buy. Just go for a set with a strong magnet and recent decent reviews, because the weak-magnet versions genuinely do fall off.
A retractable clip-on golf brush from Frogger with a dual-bristle head (nylon plus a bronze/nylon combo) and a flip-out metal groove pick, aimed at anyone who wants caked mud and grass out of their face and grooves without faffing about.
What's great
The actual cleaning is the bit I rate. The bristles shift thick mud, sand and wet grass off the face with a couple of quick scrubs, and the pop-out bronze tine genuinely digs grime out of the grooves rather than just smearing it. The chunky rubberised handle is comfy and easy to grab one-handed, and the 2 and a half foot retractable cord reaches the club and snaps back without snagging your trousers. Reviewers at The Sand Trap both treat it as a cut above the bargain-bin brushes, and plenty of owners report years of service.
Worth knowing
The weak link is the hardware, not the bristles. The retractable cord reel and the plastic clip that fastens to your bag are the most common gripes, with owners reporting the cord coming apart or the mount snapping, especially if you keep unclipping it. A few have had the body split from a knock in the bag. The brush heads also wear and roughly once a year you may be buying a replacement, which adds up on something this small. Not for you if you want a buy-it-once-forever tool.
The verdict
A genuinely good cleaner let down by so-so plastics. Clip it on, leave it on, treat the cord gently and it earns its keep. I rate it, just go in knowing the reel and clip are the bits most likely to give up first.
A small zip pouch that lives in (or clips to) your golf bag and keeps your phone, keys, wallet, watch and rangefinder in one dry-ish spot. Aimed at anyone sick of digging round the bottom of a bag for car keys mid-round.
What's great
Honestly, the appeal is dead simple and it works. One soft-lined home for everything that matters, so your phone is not rattling against your putter and your keys are not lost under a glove. The better ones use coated nylon or polyester with sealed or YKK-style zips, and reviewers (Titleist, Club Glove owners) report stuff staying genuinely dry through a sudden shower. The soft lining also stops your watch face and sunglasses getting scratched, which is a nicer touch than it sounds. If your bag has no dedicated valuables pocket, this fixes that for very little outlay.
Worth knowing
Here is the bit the listings gloss over: most are water RESISTANT, not waterproof. They shrug off drizzle and spray, but the zip is usually the weak point, so a proper sideways downpour or a soaking on a buggy floor can let water creep in. Cheaper ones use plastic zip pulls that snap, and clip-on versions can work loose and drop off the bag if you do not check the fastening. Some have annoyingly small openings, so fishing out a bulky phone is fiddly. And it is just a pouch, not a safe, so it adds zero security against theft.
The verdict
I rate it as a cheap, genuinely useful bit of kit if your bag lacks a valuables pocket. Just buy one with a metal YKK zip and treat it as shower-proof, not submarine-proof.
A bulk pack of roughly 100 biodegradable bamboo tees in mixed lengths, sold by various generic brands at pocket-money prices.
What's great
Bamboo has a tighter grain than the cheap birch tees in pro shop jars, so these survive more driver strikes before snapping, and owners consistently report them outlasting wooden equivalents. The mixed heights cover every club you'd tee up with. They're biodegradable, which matters as more clubs push back on plastic tees littering tee boxes. The economics are silly in a good way: a season of tees for the price of a pint and a packet of crisps. And because they're cheap, you stop caring about losing them, which is its own small quality-of-life upgrade on the course.
Worth knowing
Generic means inconsistent: any given hundred-pack will include a few with rough finishing or weak spots that snap on the first swing. They're still tees, so they will break, just less often. Painted depth markings, where present, wear off. If you want maximum durability or claimed distance gains, plastic castle or low-friction tees do that better, at a cost to the eco angle.
The verdict
An unglamorous essential done right. Buy the big pack, fill your pockets, forget about tees for a year.
A premium microfibre golf towel from Zero Friction with a textured waffle weave on one side. It measures about 16 by 26 inches, which is a useful mid-size that drapes over a bag without dragging on the ground, and it ships in a handful of colours. The waffle texture is the point: it digs grit out of grooves and ball dimples better than a flat terry towel, and the microfibre holds a serious amount of water so a single dampened corner cleans clubs for a full round.
What's great
The absorbency is the standout. It soaks up roughly three times its own weight, so you can dampen one end, keep the other dry, and have both a scrubbing and a buffing surface all day. The waffle weave is genuinely effective on muddy grooves, it stays soft after washing, and it does not shed lint onto wet clubheads. For around GBP 16 from the brand direct, it is honest value next to towels that cost more for less cloth.
Worth knowing
The big one: despite often being searched for as a magnetic towel, this Zero Friction towel is NOT magnetic. It attaches with a hook and grommet, so you clip it to a bag ring or trolley rail rather than slapping it onto a metal cart frame. If a magnet is a hard requirement, this is the wrong towel and you want a dedicated magnetic model from another brand. Beyond that, it is sold in USD on the brand site so UK pricing and shipping vary, and the waffle weave can hold onto sand if you do not rinse it after a beach-bunker day.
The verdict
A very good, fairly priced waffle microfibre towel that cleans clubs better than most flat towels. Buy it for the cloth, not for a magnet, because it does not have one. If you specifically need magnetic attachment, look elsewhere; if you just want an absorbent towel that clips to your bag, this earns its spot.
