In all the years of flying to & from golf destinations I've only ever had one travel bag damaged. Returning from Riyadh to Canada, British Airways ripped the entire side out of my golf travel bag. Spent an hour with their onsite customer service rep at Heathrow & was compensated on the spot with a hefty new travel bag & £50 cash.

Four years ago flying WestJet from YEG to PSP my bag was mistakenly picked up by another customer who had the exact same golf travel bag as myself. With the help of WestJet customer service at PSP, I was able to find out who picked up my clubs. The guy just happened to play out of the Lac La Biche GC in Alberta (a course I play yearly) so a quick phone call to the Lac La Biche golf superintendent & I got the guys cell number. Still made my tee time but played with the other guys clubs & then met up afterwards to exchange bags & clubs.

My upcoming cross border trip to CA next month has me flying with United, the second worst (6.8/1000 rate) offender on your list.

I’m way more concerned about TSA than any airline. Open your bags, rearrange your clubs (often!) and couldn’t care less about your careful protective packing. Take your club heads off, pack as best you can and keep your fingers crossed.

I am a teaching professional in the Northeast and American Airlines is HORRIBLE out of SKY Harbour in Phoenix!!! They dented my staff bag (twice) to the point it would not stand up and I had to stop using it. The base was lopsided so the bag would fall over. They refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing both times!!! # Flyswa

I have travelled round the world with my clubs and did not encounter a problem until travelling back from Dubai when the shaft of my wife's driver was broken. the airline refused compensation.
Emirates’ conditions of carriage say they will refuse to carry fragile items so how can they say a golf club, an item in checked baggage, is a fragile item? In addition, the Montreal Convention governing international air travel which overrides an airline’s conditions and, which is part of UK and UAE law, says an airline is liable to pay compensation for damage to checked baggage unless the damage “resulted from the inherent defect, quality or vice of the baggage”; in the context of our claim “vice “means the unfitness of the goods being carried to withstand the normal incidents of the trip, given the degree of care reasonably expected of the carrier. Given my own experience and that of friends who have flown with golf clubs, which have remained undamaged in transit by air, the fact that airlines willingly carry golf clubs without comment, often charging extra for the privilege, and a golf club shaft is fairly robust and only likely to break if subject to a high degree of force, I am sure damage of the kind which we experienced would not be held by a court to be due to fragility or ”vice”. In law a carrier has to take due care to protect goods which it carries including due care to protect goods from damage arising from their inherent characteristics.

They eventually paid up.

I disagree with Allegiant being one of the best airline for handling golf bags. My friends and I have traveled from Bellingham to Las Vegas once a year for about 7 years to golf. Another group and I have traveled to Las Vegas for the CES Conference using Allegiant from time to time.
On one occasion 3 years ago I had my driver head broken off. I didn't realize it until I got on the course next day. I didn't pursue Allegiant for the damage as I signed a waiver as I was using a soft bag.
Last November, one wheel was ripped out of the bag. The waiver I had signed was for any damage to my clubs inside the bag. I had filed a damage report at the airport with pictures showing that the damage was on the outside of the bag. The report was sent to the "System Baggage Services". A few days later I received an email denying my claim.

Trip to French Lick, Ind. driver head broken on SWA, golf glove with support stiff stick, no recourse, had to buy a new driver. Trip to Bandon,United AL first class, 3 wood head packaged in shoe for protection stolen, United was good paid for new 3 wood and shoes. other wise probably 25 golf trips all over US and Scotland , no issues. Sadly airlines are not very careful with clubs.

I quit flying Southwest. Yes, two bags free. But we went to Jamaica on a December golf trip and although I purchased my flights in May, less than one week before we left on out trip I got an email to get ready for my trip. In small print, I could have missed, it said there was a luggage embargo to Jamaica and we were not allowed to bring our clubs. I called SW and they said there was nothing they could do, it was a government edict. This turned out to be a lie, research shows that SW does this almost every year from before Thanksgiving to after the first of the year. They do it to 4 or 5 destinations. Their suggestion when I asked how I was going to save my golf vacation was to tell me to rent clubs. No offers to help, provide compensation, anything. It cost my wife and I $450 to rent clubs for our golf trip. We flew Delta again in December of 2019 and had no issues. I won't ever fly Southwest again. If you fly them, make sure they are not going to run in to a problem taking your clubs. Much more to this, but suffice to say that no other airline has this embargo to Jamaica or the other destinations. Southwest lied and tried to blame it on the government. They never would say which government. Shame on Southwest. They lost many customers over this.

Checked my clubs RT from SJC to MCI. No problem getting them there but on the return United managed to snap the driver head off the shaft right at the hosel. Initially they were not willing to do anything - but I’ve flown over a 1M miles with them. So they finally comped my 25,000 air miles (= to one RT). But that took about an hour of negotiating.

I go to Cobo twice a year, via Alaska and they do a great job. If you have an Alaska Credit card, clubs fly free. ("they normally arrive before I do since they are in the front cargo area of the p;lane and I'm siting in the back.")