Do these statements come to mind before your golf trip? Me neither. Until my trip to South Carolina for the Myrtle Beach World Amateur, when I decided to try Ship Sticks. These guys have it dialed in!

I've seen Ship Sticks boxes many times, typically at Bandon Dunes or other golf resorts where AmateurGolf.com runs tournaments. But I have had great luck checking bags with Southwest and United Airlines, and my status on United provides me with a free checked bag, which is nice (Southwest still allows a free checked bag for everyone). Still, I always wonder - what if? What if my clubs don't arrive, or they get broken? You hear it happen to your friends all the time, and you even hear stories of Tour players arriving "sans clubs" and posting it on social media. But I've been lucky.

For my Myrtle Beach trip, I was forced to use two airlines, and the second one, Spirit Air, is notorious for allowing no carry-ons of any size, and charging for checked bags. Facing the possibility of having to leave the secure area of the Chicago airport, collect my bag, recheck it, and go through security again, I knew I had no choice. I had to find a way to ship my bags. That's when I remembered Ship Sticks, and all those savvy travelers who go to Bandon Dunes, only to find their clubs safely awaiting their arrival.

I booked the trip through the Ship Sticks mobile- friendly website from my phone. It's simple. Enter the pickup location and date, destination location and date, and shipping options, and you're home free. I'm guessing many people do it the way I did - pay a bit extra for a two-day shipping to the resort, (around $99 for golf bag only) so I can practice as long as possible, and choose the basic return ($59) because after a week of golf I'm not going to be playing much when I return, and even if I do I've got a backup set at home.

And that's when I started relaxing. Knowing I had a pickup for Wednesday meant that not only would my clubs precede me, I would be "forced" to take care of something I always wait until the last minute to do -- pack my travel bag. Ship Sticks accepts boxed golf bags, hard cases, or soft cases like the Club Glove that have hard bottoms. (They don't recommend you ship a soft case without a box unless it has a hard plastic bottom.)

When I booked, I received an email with links to my shipping and return labels. And if I ever lost the return labels I could easily login and reprint them. I also got an email the next day reminding me that "hey, this is it, please make sure your clubs are ready for pickup in the morning."

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Now, here's where it gets pretty amazing. It's the part of the story where my expectations were greatly exceeded.

The day before my clubs were set to be picked up, I got a friendly email reminder from Ship Sticks asking me to click to confirm my clubs would be ready. I did that, and made sure they were in my office packed and ready in the morning. About 9:00am on pick-up day, my cell phone rings and on the other end is a representative from Ship Sticks, confirming I'm all set. Now, I'm sure this call serves them as well, because the whole service breaks down if a client forgets or is late packing the clubs. UPS or FedEx is going to show up, and nothing's ready. But still. That follow up was awesome, and in a busy world a lot of us need reminders.

The next day, my clubs were at my destination. How did I know? An email from Ship Sticks of course.

When I arrived, with just a small carry-on in hand, my clubs and clothes were promptly delivered to my room in perfect condition. I kept packing materials ready in the corner of my room, and after an awesome week of golf in Myrtle Beach, I packed up everything to return to Carlsbad. But there was a small change to my trip. My clubs would be ready a day sooner than planned, so I emailed Ship Sticks to ask them to take care of this. Not only did they respond promptly, they told me that I could use the same labels I had pre-printed. They would simply adjust the date.

Ship Sticks sends emails every step of the way

A few days later, completely tired out from the road trip (and needing to catch up at the office) I hardly missed my clubs when they arrived in time for an end-of-week practice session and weekend game. I'm completely impressed with Ship Sticks, and will use them again. I don't think you pay any more than if you brought your clubs to UPS or FedEx yourself, and their extra service is so good that it would be certainly worth it if it did cost more.

National Car Rental may have coined the phrase "Go Like a Pro" but when it comes to taking your clubs on the road, Ship Sticks is the "Hassle Free Way to Go" -- give them a try and let us know what you think!

Visit Ship Sticks's website at www.shipsticks.com.