In my review of Columbia’s Straight Shooter Polo I gave you a quick introduction to the company’s new Titanium Performance Golf Gear lineup.  I don’t want to rehash that too much here except to say that Columbia, a company better known for its hiking and outdoor gear, has entered the golf game.  I’ve also talked a lot about the weather of the Pacific Northwest being the impetus for the golf gear.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Pacific Northwest patterns, let me put it like this…

Have you ever left your house on a beautiful sunny day only to realize 2 minutes later that you forgot something.  So you turn around, go back to the house, and run in to grab whatever you forgot (with my wife, it’s always her water bottle for the gym).  So you’re inside for all of 15 seconds, head back outside and discover that your beautiful sunny day has been replaced by rain and 30 MPH winds.  What can you do?  You simply have to suck it up and adapt to the changing conditions, and that’s exactly what Columbia’s Titanium Golf Gear is designed to do.

Before I share my thoughts, let’s see what Columbia says about the Windcheater (again, shamelessly lifted from the Columbia web site)

Features

• Shell: 100% Water Beater™ polyester ripstop
• Super water and wind resistant
• Zip closed pockets Titanium™ Skin Cancer Foundation UPF 50 +

Titanium™
Columbia Sportswear’s premier product line, Titanium, offers advanced fabrics and technologies for all-weather performance and protection during demanding outdoor action.

Skin Cancer Foundation
The Skin Cancer Foundation has endorsed our sun protection products with a minimum UPF 30 rating, making Columbia Sportswear the first global clothing company to earn their coveted seal of recommendation.

UPF 50
Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) is a measure of the percentage of ultraviolet sunlight that reaches your skin. Omni-Shade clothing protects you by blocking harmful sun exposure. Your safety increases with the UPF. The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends a rating of UPF 30 or higher. Columbia Sportswear was the first global apparel producer to earn the organization’s seal of recommendation.

First Impressions

When I unboxed (unbagged actually) the Windcheater, my first thought was “damn!  this is lightweight”.    I own a few different pieces of rain gear; including one of those popular pullover style rain jackets.  The Columbia is far and away the lightest of them all.  A closer inspection leads me to believe that most of that weight is tied up in thread.  Although it’s not something I would probably check if I was buying off the rack, as a reviewer I figured it might make some sense to check out the stitching.  Seams are double, if not triple-stitched in places.  It’s very clear that Columbia has put a ton of effort into making the Windcheater durable.  I’m fairly certain it’s not the kind of jacket that’s going to tear on you if you happen to have a little too much of it hanging past your butt when you plop yourself into the golf cart.

Esthetically, we’re basically talking about a black jacket (although it’s also available in Navy and Hot Pepper (Orange)).  There’s very little flair, and not a trace of bling.  With the exception of Columbia Logos on the chest and back, and the Titanium logo on the left sleeve, there’s absolutely nothing to visually distinguish the Windcheater from 500 or so other jackets on the market today.  Truthfully, this suites me just fine.  Once it starts raining, I’m really only concerned with staying dry.  That’s not to say the Windcheater is ugly.  It’s not.  I’m simply saying that it’s a jacket, a relatively ordinary looking jacket.  If you want to stay dry…well, more on that in a bit, but if you’re looking to make a fashion statement, this probably isn’t the right way to go.

Getting back to the weight…while I was fairly certain the Columbia Windcheater wouldn’t be the least bit cumbersome on the golf course, the ultra-lightweight design did raise some immediate concerns about the jacket’s ability to displace wind, and more importantly water. I actually emailed my contact at Columbia and basically told him that I didn’t think it could possibly do what Columbia says it does.

The Fit

Based on the information on the Columbia web site, I ordered my Windcheater in large (I’m about 5′ 11″ and weight somewhere between 205 and 210).  I find the fit to be just about perfect.  It’s big enough to not restrict movement in the least, but small enough – and has enough shaping built into the design – that it doesn’t fit like a hefty bag.  By comparison, the rain jacket I’ve been carrying for the past several seasons, has a much boxier cut, and at times feels like it hangs off the body more than I would like.  The Columbia is definitely the more functionally comfortable of the two.  What I mean by that is that if I’m hanging out eating a slice of pizza I don’t much care if my jacket is a little baggy – baggy is comfortable, but if that same jacket is dangling while I’m trying to swing a golf club, then it’s not so comfortable.

I was actually on the fence about wearing a lightweight, sleeved rain jacket.  My current rain jacket is sleeveless; a decision I made largely because of concerns that sleeves might impact my ability to shank hit the golf ball consistently.  In that respect, I’ve been very happy with my sleeveless jacket.  My arms have never felt restricted.   Of course, my arms have never stayed dry when it rains either, so let’s call it mixed feelings about not having sleeves.

With the Windcheater, Columbia has done an excellent job of providing enough room in the sleeves so that my arms don’t feel restricted, but again, they’re not so roomy as to be flapping all over the place while I’m trying to swing a golf club.  It should go without saying that my arms also stay dryer in the rain.

Columbia has provided a couple ways to adjust the fit of the Windcheater to adapt to your current conditions.  First, the Windcheater features Velcro closures at the cuffs.  With a quick little flip of the strap, I can secure the sleeves just above my hands (which keeps the cuffs from creeping over my palms).  When swinging the club isn’t an issue (like when I’m having a beer in the clubhouse, or driving home), it’s just as easy to release them and let the sleeves be sleeves.  Yeah, Columbia could have gone with elastic cuffs (which are fairly common in rain gear), but Veclro is a bit more functional, and oddly enough, makes the jacket a bit more fashionable off the course (who wears elastic?).  Fashionable Velcro?  Yeah, I said it.  We’re not talking about grandpa’s sneakers here.

Second, there are a couple of cinch straps on the bottoms sides of the jacket.  They’re tucked away on the inside, so they’ll never get in the way.  What they do is allow you to tighten the jacket around your waste when the need arises.  Most of the time I let the jacket hang fairly loose around my waist, but when the wind picks up, it’s nice to be able to tighten things up a bit to keep from flapping around.  If only my stomach had a similar feature.

In the Wind

As I’ve already said, the Windcheater is exceptionally lightweight.  With that in mind, it shouldn’t come as any real surprise that it’s not a particularly warm jacket.  If you’re facing a cold wind, expect to be cold.  If you’re looking for a jacket to warmth is your biggest concern, Columbia has other PGG for that.  The Windcheater does do a pretty good job of deflecting the wind, and keeping it off of your skin, and I think that’s what it’s designed to do.  It can’t make the wind stop, but it will certainly make you more comfortable when playing in windy conditions.

In the Rain

I’m actually starting to believe that the Windcheater’s greatest feature is that it can actually prevent it from raining.  Seriously, I’ve been out on the golf course no less than 5 times this year on days when it was supposed to rain.  One of the days I was in Ocean City, the forecast called for an 80% chance of rain – all day long.  I was fully prepared to play in the worst conditions of my life.  Instead, I got nothing, hardly a drop.  The Windcheater is so effective that rain is actually afraid of it.

Now just because I haven’t been able to make it rain on me while on the golf course, I have had a few opportunities to “test” the Windcheater out against actual rain (I’ve also worn it several times on a windy course).  The first of those opportunities came as we were leaving the Ruth’s Chris Steak House at Glen Riddle in Ocean City.  While we didn’t get rained on while on the course that day, during dinner we did get nailed with some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen in my life (the streets of Ocean City were flooded).  None of us wanted to walk across the parking lot to the car, so the decision was made that one of us would have to go get it.  As it turns out, when you’re the guy that’s been running off at the mouth for 3 days about your awesome rain gear; when it comes time to man up, you don’t really draw the short straw so much as it’s handed to you.  And so off I ran, in a monsoon no less, to get the car.

What the Windcheater lacks in warmth it more than makes up for in wet conditions.  What impresses me most about the Windcheater is that it doesn’t so much create a barrier between you and the weather, as it actually repels rain.  With my other rain jacket, what happens when the water hits the jacket is that it disperses into the fabric.  It has never soaked through on me, but the jacket most definitely absorbs some water.  The Windcheater reacts much differently.  When water hits the Windcheater it beads, and then rolls right off.  If rain drops were bullets, the Windcheater would make you Superman.  I’m feeling mighty right about now.

After my mad dash to the car, my torso was completely dry.  Unfortunately, my Old Navy Khakis don’t offer any sort of water resistance, so everything south of the border was completely soaked.

Since I haven’t yet found away to get wet on the golf course, I’ve been wearing the Windcheater to work (it’s been raining all week).  While not quite as dramatic as the conditions I faced on my parking lot dash in Ocean City, the Columbia Windcheater has done its job, albeit less dramatically.

Minor Gripes

I really can’t complain about what the Windcheater is.  I can only whine about what it isn’t.  I suppose it would be nice if it came with a fold away hood, or if it was part of Columbia’s Interchange system, but again, the Windcheater is designed to be an ultra-lightweight jacket (which it absolutely is), so it’s not surprising that some features were left out, presumably to keep the weight down.  Besides, as I’ve said a few times now between my two Columbia reviews; if you’re looking for something interchange compatible and/or that has a hood, Columbia most definitely has a jacket in the PGG lineup to meet your advanced needs.

Final Thoughts

For everything I like about the Windcheater (weight and water resistance being the biggest two features), what I really love about the Windcheater is how easy it is to forget that you’re wearing it.  Yes, it keeps you dry.  Yes, it keeps the wind off of you.  Most importantly to a golfer, however; it doesn’t get in your way.  Apart from securing the cuffs, I haven’t had to hitch, yank, pull, or twist the jacket to get it into a place where it won’t interfere with my golf swing. It fits like it was actually designed to be worn on a golf course.  Go figure.

The ultra-lightweight, wind and water resistant Columbia Men’s Windcheater Full Zip Jacket is available from Altrec Outdoors for $69.99 (which is a lot less than some lesser performing rain jackets).