Ye Gads! Carts at Macrihanish! What next?

[Mark_F]

I would sooner have believed that there were WMD's before I thought I would see, resplendent on the grass in front of the pro shop, carts at Macrihanish.  

What on earth is going on here?

Is nothing sacred anymore?

Mark Rowlinson - what has happened to Britain?  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Say it aint so Joe, I would believe Cheney and Ashcroft were telling the truth before this. This is a day that will go down is history when "buggies made it to Macrihanish".

[SL_Solow]

I saw a cart at Carnoustie in late July.  When I asked about it I was told that a governmental mandate required the availability of carts for those who needed to use one for medical reasons.  I hope that was the reason for the carts you observed and that the use will not spread.  What next; cartpaths at the Old Course?

[THuckaby2]

beach volleyball in the Olympics?  Oh, nevermind....

noted.  well done.  

As for carts at Machrihanish, well... someone warned me to get there before it's too late... I guess the time has come and gone.
 
TH

[Bill_McBride]

I saw a cart on the Balcomie Links at Crail in May.  

My caddy, the redoutable Mike Allen, was pissed to say the least.  The cart (one of two in their fleet) was to be used by someone with a disability as stated above.  But the two young guys using it were hopping in and out, and possibly had their ball caps on backward.  

Mike wasn't happy  because he knows the carts will eventually cut into caddying income.  Where will this desecration end?

[Darren_Kilfara]

There are exactly four "buggies" available for usage at Machrihanish - the head professional, Ken Campbell, has been allowed that many for this season (as a way of making money himself) after a successful, if you want to call it that, trial period last season in which two were available. I've been told that four is an absolute maximum.

I'm a bit disappointed that a medical certificate (or equivalent) is not required to use the buggies at Machrihanish. But I have to say that if I were playing 36 or (especially) 54 holes in a day at Machrihanish, trying to cram as much golf as I could into a Scottish vacation, I might well take a buggy for at least one round just to save a little strength. I'm as much a traditionalist as anyone, but as long as the vast majority of visitors will still be walking, I don't see why such a fundamentalist traditionalism is necessary on this issue.

Cheers,
Darren

[Buck Wolter]

The position on golf carts is nuanced --Kerry was against golf carts before he was for them.

[Brent Hutto]

I'm as much a traditionalist as anyone, but as long as the vast majority of visitors will still be walking, I don't see why such a fundamentalist traditionalism is necessary on this issue.

You may be right but perhaps you should save this message and look at it in five years. My prediction is there will be far, far more than four carts at the course by then. If so they will be heavily used, especially by American visitors, once a norm is established that says riding is OK.

[Brian_Gracely]

I'm a bit disappointed that a medical certificate (or equivalent) is not required to use the buggies at Machrihanish. But I have to say that if I were playing 36 or (especially) 54 holes in a day at Machrihanish, trying to cram as much golf as I could into a Scottish vacation, I might well take a buggy for at least one round just to save a little strength. I'm as much a traditionalist as anyone, but as long as the vast majority of visitors will still be walking, I don't see why such a fundamentalist traditionalism is necessary on this issue.

Cheers,
Darren

Or you could save that mentality for the trip to Myrtle Beach.    

If it's a law, then it's a law....not that it's a good idea.  But come on, doesn't the membership at Machrihanish have any ability to prevent this?  And isn't Machrihanish remote enough that anyone visiting is going to expect to spend the day there, hence "saving some strength" is not a high priority in exchange for not damaging such a wonderful place?

[pdrake]

Mr Bernhardt, not to make this a political debate, but what has Ashcroft lied about??  I know what your bullseye on Cheney focuses on.........

[Bill Gayne]

Do they require a fore-caddy with the cart? For example, I believe Old Head will allow a cart but you must also take a fore-caddy that rides on the back or drives the cart.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Mark,

I'm flattered!  Elevated to the position of political and social correspondent on matters British to the GCA website!

Seriously, Machrihanish is now on the world golfing map.  Its visitors come from far and wide, many of whom do not even know of the existence of GCA and its conventions of etiquette!  I am not aware of a ruling which says that all clubs must provide carts for those who are unable to walk but nothing would surprise me given our subservience to the bureaucrats of the EU.  As far as the average British club golfer is concerned, he or she tends to walk for the pleasure of it.  Some of us carry our clubs because we are still able to and the rest take trolleys (and I wonder what damage battery operated trolleys of some weight do to a course).  But there are also a lot of golfers who come from the corporate/business sector who play golf for a different reason and in a very different way.  They demand all the trappings of the RTJ/Nicklaus/Fazio/Player courses they've played in Florida, South Africa and the Algarve.  They read the magazines' rankings and if they see Machrihanish there and realise it's a mere hop on an aeroplane from Glasgow Airport they'll be there.  They'll probably be disappointed, but they'll soon be back on The Belfry, East Sussex or Celtic Manor.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Bill,

Was your caddy at Crail pissed or pissed off?  There's a difference!

[Bill Gayne]

Mark,

This was about three years ago and the caddy I was walking with didn't express opinion either way. He just explained to me why a caddy was standing on the back of moving golf cart. I asked the question. I've also seen similar fore-caddying at Sea Island but that behavior didn't seem so odd given the location.

[Marc Haring]

Mark.
I think sobriety is seen as a temporary affliction amongst the Crail caddies.
By the way, I thought you liked Celtic Manor.

[Bill_McBride]

Mark (and Marc):  he was pissed off about the buggy and pissed after a few post-round pints!  Actually he was very well behaved and therefore belied the Crail paradigm!

P Drake and JDB:  no politics!  The reason I spend inordinate amounts of time on GCA is to avoid the current mucky level of politics!  

[Doug Siebert]

When I was in Ireland a couple months ago I was quite disturbed to see carts were available almost everywhere I played.  Old Head I can understand, but it was pretty jarring to see a sign in the clubhouse at Ballybunion saying something like "effective June 24, buggies will be permitted on the Cashen course".  I talked to the pro briefly after the round and he said it was a test to determine the effect of the buggies on the native grasses, and if it proved to not be a problem, they would be permitted on the Old course as well.  Amazingly, it is not only the tourists who are asking for it, he said some of the members were as well.  Must be too many Americans joining Ballybunion.

[Brent Hutto]

I wasn't aware that the caddies at Crail are infamous. Some friends of mine played there in May and tell the story of asking one of the caddies how far a certain carry across the water was on a certain line. His response? "Pretty far".

[Bill_McBride]

Brent, he could well have said, "That depends!"

[Darren_Kilfara]

Look - the Machrihanish membership (myself included) believes, in general, that walking is part of golf, especially links golf. A lot of people are upset that there are as many as four buggies on the course. I believe they are there for two reasons: one, as a sop to the head professional (extra revenue for him), and two, to provide an option for people who really need to use a buggy to enjoy themselves. Of course, a few people will use buggies who really should be walking. But I strongly doubt that in five years Machrihanish will be overrun the infernal machines. If that should be the case, then this thread (and a GCA crusade to Kintyre) would be fully justified - until then, I think this is a bit of a tempest in a teacup.

Cheers,
Darren

[Mark_F]

Darren,

Some reasonable argument there, but;

If the club wanted the pro to have a bit of extra revenue, how about bumping the green fees up a little and cutting him in on the action?  A round at Macrihanish is pretty darn cheap.  

Even though it's quite a tumbling course, it isn't that much of a hardhsip to play two, or, dare i say it, two and a half, rounds in a day.  It's so exhilirating, and just plain fun, it isn't that much of an effort, surely.

And carts also tend to bring a different, well, type of golfer to the fore, so to speak.  

After my round, i went back a few hours later for a walk around, and lo and behold, came across a couple of dickheads hooning around (burnouts) from the 7th tee onwards.  Surely that's not what Mac, or any other club, want?

[Andy Levett]

I agree with Darren. A couple of other points:
Carts will never take over here because of our climate. Most days you will get cold and stiff if you ride.
At any club in the UK you will find a handful of people on the waiting list for a hip replacement. (That's not a political point, just a fact). It doesn't seem fair to deny them their golf to protect the sensibilities of overseas visitors, many of whom are quite happy to take carts back home.

[Brent Hutto]

At any club in the UK you will find a handful of people on the waiting list for a hip replacement. (That's not a political point, just a fact). It doesn't seem fair to deny them their golf to protect the sensibilities of overseas visitors, many of whom are quite happy to take carts back home.

Let me be clear about my own opinion on the matter. Unless a cart would immediately and seriously damage the course, I think it's a good thing for the club provide a cart option to the player with a geniune infirmity. I am not in the least offended by a person with a bad hip or other condition that limits their walking still enjoying the game by means of a golf cart.

I was simply making the observation that in the presence of a financial incentive on the part of the professional running the course and in the absence of any meaningful restriction of carts to the infirm it is easy to forsee that carts will gradually be used more and more over time. That's how it evolved in the US and I'm quite confident that it will eventually evolve that way in Scotland eventually. There will be all sort of rationalizations at every step along the way but the end result is assured when the incentives are set up that way. The only question is how quickly, which I am sure will be much slower in a country where there's a social norm for walking.

Going beyond golf for a moment...I am always terribly frustrated when a system which was set up for arbitrary and totally senseless reasons results in a perfectly forseeable and undesirable outcomes down the road. In the instance of golf clubs, if they were run rationally with an eye toward the future a distinction between greens fee revenues to the club and golf cart revenues to the professional would never be imposed. It is obvious from the experience in America that the incentives created by that setup will (or at least can) lead to cart-golf overwhelming the traditional game in the long run. Eventually this resulted in courses being designed around carts, courses at which walking is never allowed, social norms for all sorts of activities and distractions during a round of golf and the ridiculous sight of grown men driving aimlessly around in little go-carts instead of moving steadily from tee to green hitting golf shots. Ultimately it has put the cart before the horse, so to speak.

To put it more simply, if the members don't like carts why do they give the guy running the course a strong incentive for the usage of carts? Why assure that in perpetuity the people making day-to-day decisions about cart use are better off when that decision is for the cart be used in any given situation?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Marc,  You are quite correct, I enjoyed myself at Celtic Manor - probably the only person on this site who has done so.  I agree it's a totally impractical course as it currently stands but there is a spectacular quality to the course which is impressive.  It's not the architecture, just the bold sweeps, changes of view, changes of character and scale of the place (Wentwood Hills, that is).  I wouldn't want to play it more than once or twice in a lifetime, but of our recent courses (I've not seen Kingsbarns, Dundonald or Skibo), or at least the ones with which I'm familiar, it struck me as one of the best.  I enjoyed Wisley, too.  Have I said too much?  Do I get hounded off these pages?  

[Marc Haring]

Mark.
Of course you are correct and it is nice to hear of people that find the positives in what at first appears a sea of negatives. If people enjoy Celtic than that is great.
It reminds me of someone I once knew who was infuriatingly nice. Eventually we asked him “What do you think of Adolf Hitler?” “Well” he said, “I think he was the best in his field!”
I recently visited a new high profile course just outside Bristol called the Players Club. It is 7800 yards off the backs with amongst other things 3 blind ponds, numerous blind bunkers and all the par threes are more lake than grass. Whilst waiting for a much needed lager, I overheard a person who had just finished his round. He explained to another of his party that he lost countless golf balls, didn’t score on most of the holes and came in with sub 20 effort. “But the course is terrific” he said to his friend!!!!