We Tried It: The Stewart Nero Cart Bag

What We Tried:

The Stewart Nero cart bag, a golf bag designed for use with the company’s remote carts like the Q Follow and VERTX Remote.

Who Tried It:

John Kennedy, who does not own one of those fancy remote carts and did his best with what he does have (arms).

Quick Facts

• Price: $299
• Material: Synthetic leather
• Weight: 7.5 pounds 
• Dividers: 14
• Pockets: 9 to 12, depending on what you consider a pocket

Brief Overview

Stewart’s Nero cart bag will likely be more appealing if you already have—or are planning to buy—one of Stewart’s remote carts. Their overall aesthetics complement each other and the company’s product page suggests they are a “perfect” match.

If you don’t have one, you’ll have to decide how it matches up with the best cart bags currently available. Compared to the ones on our list, it’s in the middle of the pack for price and weight.

What I Liked

Materials and Construction

The Nero bag’s exterior is primarily all-black “tour-grade” synthetic leather. You, like me, are probably familiar with the implication that this means it’s the same kind of stuff a pro would use on the PGA Tour. But it turns out there’s no standard definition for the term and the actual quality of “tour-grade” material can vary widely across brands.

That said, the synthetic leather Stewart used for this bag feels nice to the touch, looks sleek and is easy to wipe clean. I even scratched it with my thumbnail (in an out-of-sight spot) and it took a fair amount of force to mar the surface. Regardless, the bag’s color means any stains, scars or other hallmarks of regular use won’t be easy to see unless you really mess it up.

Overall, the bag seems well-made and durable. Tt should be for $299.

Balance

Cart bags are meant to be strapped into, well, a cart of some kind, so you may not care if they can stand on their own. I don’t have a cart, though, so I did care.

The hard plastic base with silicone footpads is a solid platform and, when fully loaded, I had to bump it quite deliberately to tip it over. It had no issues standing tall and unsecured on a 30-minute subway ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Honestly, it fared better than the guy who tried to stand on the train without holding onto anything.

No problem with flat or slightly sloped turf, either, but it will fall if it leans at an angle more than 10 degrees to one side or about eight degrees to the front or back. (Yes, I broke out my speed square to measure this.)

Magnets

A good number of modern bags have pockets that stay closed with the mystical power of magnetism but that doesn’t make them any less fun or useful. The Nero bag has one pocket that uses magnets and they’re strong enough to keep it from opening for no reason. The vast majority of the time, the elastic webbing on each side of this pocket pulls it closed after opening, and the magnets will snap shut as long as they’re about an inch apart. There’s still a small chance that the pocket will stay open but I had to try really hard to make that happen.

Little Details

It’s easy to make a golf bag, or really any product, that just does what it’s supposed to do, so I always appreciate the little things that show the designers were using their brains.

On the Nero bag, the umbrella sheath, the pencil pocket and a hidden zipper that lets you access the interior of the club storage area stood out to me. The sheath has a small hole at the bottom so the water dripping off your umbrella won’t pool inside the bag and the pencil pocket is marked by a bright red embroidered circle which makes it incredibly easy to spot on the all-black bag.

And if you’ve ever owned a bag where the only way to get your keys back after you accidentally drop them in with your clubs is to turn the entire thing upside down, you’ll also like the 11-inch zipper inside one of the largest side pockets. It opens up more than enough space for you to reach in and rummage around for whatever you’ve lost in the abyss.

What’s Fine

Storage

A golf bag should have ample storage and the Nero does. There are nine zippered pockets with easily grabbable rubber zipper pulls, plus the aforementioned magnetic pocket, umbrella sheath and pencil pocket. One pocket is insulated and can hold at least six cans of whatever you want to put in there. Two small drains at the bottom of this space prevent it from filling up with meltwater or condensation. You can also entirely unzip and remove the very front pocket if you’d like.

Most of the pockets are lined with vinyl or synthetic leather but the magnetic pocket and two smaller side pockets contain velour. On the opposite end of the softness spectrum, there’s a polished black aluminum clip near the pencil pocket for anything you want to slap onto it.

As for club storage, Stewart’s bag has 14 full-length dividers, plus an extra-large putter well. The dividers are covered by velour or a similar velvety material and the putter well is sturdy rubber.

What Could Be Better

Off-Cart Portability

When the Nero bag is strapped into a cart, you shouldn’t have any issues getting it from place to place. And if you do, it’s probably the cart’s fault, not the bag’s. The only potential complication here is that the upper cart strap could block the snaps for the rain cover. There’s enough space for the strap to sit without blocking anything but it could slide up and over the hood’s attachment points. This is an extremely minor concern.

A larger concern, though, especially for me, a cartless pleb, is how difficult it was to carry on my own for more than a few minutes. Even if you have a cart, you may still have to hand-carry the bag at times so please consider that before hitting me with, “You idiot! It’s a cart bag. It’s not meant to be carried!”

The shoulder strap, although padded and comfortable on its own, is too small to be worn cross-body so you have to hang it off one shoulder. There is a nice synthetic leather handle where your hand naturally rests when carrying a bag like this but you have to actively commit to this. The moment you let go and move your hand off the bag, it will go horizontal and likely slide off your shoulder.

There’s also a second, moderately cushioned, handle for holding the bag as you would, say, a briefcase, but unless you’ve really been practicing suitcase carries, your arm is going to get tired.

I will say, though, I liked the firm rubber handles near the club dividers—you can lift and move the bag vertically with ease.

One Zipper

For the most part, the zippers were easy to grab, open and close with one hand. However, I found it impossible to close the velour pocket under the aluminum clip with one hand. It always got stuck and I needed to hold the zipper taut with my other hand to get it shut.

The Bottom Line

The Nero cart bag is a well-made bag with plenty of storage and it might be a must-have if you own one of Stewart’s carts. Otherwise, competing cart bags may have more storage, more features you like, fewer features you don’t need or weigh less. This is a $299 bag and you may be able to get more for more, or just enough, for less. But if you do decide the Nero is the cart bag for you, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I just wouldn’t buy this bag if you need to carry it for more than a couple minutes or use both hands while it’s hanging off your shoulder.