Point/Counterpoint:Golf Cars

[Andy Hodson]

Jeff
Good issue. Although the revenues from golf cars cannot be overlooked, what is overlooked is the increased expense in course maintenance incurred from their wear and tear. Has anybody seen or heard of a ballpark $$ figure placed on what that expense might be?

JakaB
Now you've introduced a second, and ancillary, moral dilemma into this debate. Can we now deduce that all married cart riders are just taking the easy way out and not risking bringing any undo harm into their marraige? I have heard of a ballpark $$ figure on marriages gone wrong, though.

[Mike_Cirba]

Lou mentioned "walkbacks" as aggrevious to good routing.  It got me thinking that perhaps Tom Fazio is such a proponent of carts because it permits him to do little things like this number at Pine Hill...

After playing a downhill par four on the back nine, with a beautiful view of the Philadelphia skyline (no, that's NOT a misprint ), he carts you straight back up to the top of the same hill again so that you can play a par three paralleling the same direction and view. (That sentence intentionally and symbollically redundant)  

Stellar stuff.  

[Lou_Duran]

JakaB,

Are you calling me a cheap ass?  The only caddy that I've ever had worth a damn was at CP, and I am not sure that he was worth the $160 he made carrying double.  Hell, he told me early on that he and I were not going to get along if he had to chase my divots all day (tanslation- he had to attend to two golfers- so fix your own divots)!  Good thing he could read greens; his customer relations was surely lacking.

Seriously, those of you with the fat wallets and Rolex's shouldn't mind supporting a small group of caddies.  But isn't your (Barney) stance just as pernicious as those of the Cart Nazis?  Personally, I prefer hauling my own bag (though I would consider a pull-cart if allowed), and depending on my own wits to get me around.  I don't need a Bobby Jones shirt, leather FJ Classics. the status, and a romantic notion of turn-of-the-century golf to enjoy myself on the course.  For those of you who like to play with caddies and can afford to finance the program, all the more power to you.  But for me, tight ass as I might be, it is not my thing.  BTW, I do not owe child support payments nor have any other financial responsibilities that I haven't fulfilled.  And my wife would much prefer that I buy her roses than spend my money to have someone else do what I am totally capable of doing myself with little marginal effort.

[Andy Hodson]

Could it be, then, that golf cars allow both player and architect to be lazy?

[JakaB]

Lou,

Sorry...you are the consumate walker and gentleman as exhibited by our round at Barona where we were forced into chasing a cart riding duo and being chased by semi sober cart riding purists who left their walking ethics in the stool.  

[WilliamWang]

why can't golf courses offer auto kaddy/electronic caddy carts instead of golf carts?  is there a cost issue having to deal with more maintenance and units or an issue with wear and tear on the course?

certainly, they promote walking and are quite a bit lighter than a fully loaded golf cart.

here's a photo of our fearless leader and dr. g. childs using such a device at beechtree...

[THuckaby2]

hey, I resemble that remark!

I am such a hypocrite sometimes.  I love to walk.  Yet, if everyone else is riding, I won't rock the boat, and will ride.  I'd rather carry my own, but I always feel the pressure to ride.  Have any of you ever come up with a good way to deal with this dilemna?

Nope.  I'm with you 100%, Dave.  When conftonted with young Todd E. and Josh T. in a cart at Barona, hell no, I sure wasn't gonna be the only one to walk, given I'm 10 years older and 50 pounds fatter and had 8 hours less sleep the previous night than each of them.  I have principles and then I have principles.  Bring me the cart!

Seriously though, I'm with you and feel that walking when others are in carts is just not worth it - the stand isn't worth the anti-social feeling.  That's just me though and when others have done it I have nothing against them.

TH

[Dave_Miller]

Carts are the bane of golf.  

A good caddie program is terrific and think how many young people benefit from the scholarship programs, etc not to mention the money they can earn.

Carts do beat up a golf course and it takes a very well thought out, disciplined and maintained cart traffic management plan to minimize the damage.  

At CRCC we spend close to $20,000 per year on cart traffic management and we are successful in keeping beat up areas to a minimum and also hiding these areas from view.  We have also tried to the extent possible to hide the paths in the tree lines etc and well away from the play areas.

At my Club in Florida they just blame the carts for everything and say we have to build a continuous cart path system which is horrendous.  Yet they have no traffic management plan.

Shivas:  

The way I handle this is to try and get one other guy to walk and if I can't I try to get a single caddie.  If I can't do that then I give in and ride.

Best,

Dave

[Mike_Cirba]

William Wang;

Could the reason for their scarcity be that people walk them over the aprons, as exhibited above?  

[Andy Hodson]

Or they get their remote control out of control and run 'em into the lakes. I've seen that a few times.

[THuckaby2]

Dave Miller:  is there a more perfect example of this then what I faced in my visit to CRCC?

Walk by myself or ride with Ed Baker.

If there ever was a no-brainer, that was it.  Anyone who's played golf with Mr. Baker knows what I would have missed had I walked along solo.

TH

[JakaB]

Anyone who spends as much time on this site as the regulars should be ambassadors to golf...this includes walking as much as it includes fixing ball marks and replacing divots and carrying only 14 clubs not including nonconforming cheatsticks.   It includes playing the ball down in league when everyone else moves it...It includes taking penalties no matter how mundane or stupid they may seem...It includes taking your hat off in the club house even if everyone else wears theirs.   One reason I can't stomach to post under my own name is because I know I don't show the game or its patrons the respect they deserve and it embarrasses me to the point of anonymity.   As St. Augie said...who will cheat and who will ride is all predetermined so just show up relax and enjoy the game.

[Dave_Miller]

Huckster:

What you didn't know was that even the hulking EH Baker, IV is a closet walker and possibly could have been convinced to walk with you.

On back to back days in 100 + temperatures and humidity hitting the top of the scale the estimable Mr. Baker walked all 18 at Aronimink and the next day all 18 at Merion. As we stood on the 16th tee at Merion the thermometer on the Driving range shack was reading 106.

However, walking or riding, golf with Ed is an experience unlike any other.  I learn this every time we play.  Yesterday was another example, and there is a certain Division I-A football coach who now knows what a cart hummer is complements of Ed Baker.

You're right the experience with Ed would require using the same venue.

Best
Dave

[WilliamWang]

tough sell on augustine as he not only believed in massa damnata but also divine grace...  makes me think that all golfers are damned and we should not even bother showing up as the preordained shank on 12 and sliced drive into the water on 18 will attest  

[THuckaby2]

Dave:  oh yes, I gather Mr. Baker prefers to walk indeed but when he came up in a cart that day, I wasn't asking any questions.  And yes, in any case I learned more new golf terms that day than the last 15 years combined and I would have missed that for sure if I walked and he rode or vice versa.  "TOC" is an entirely new acronym, for example, and it ain't The Old Course, that's for sure!

TH

[Rob Hallford]

OK, I'll bite:  what's a "cart hummer"?

rob (aka, indy)

[Dave_Miller]

Rob Hallford:

You'll have to ask Mr. Edward H. Baker, IV.  Better yet play a round of golf with him and you'll know a whole lot more.

Cheers,

Dave

[Bob_Huntley]

William Wang:

Traipsing a golf cart between bunkers and greens at our place, would result in a letter from the president threatening twenty lashes with a rhinoceros hide whip and bread and water for thirty days.

We have no caddies, I find carrying decidedly unpleasant, pulling a trolley is not much better. The answer, the battery operated Kaddy-Kart.

[Ed_Baker]

It has been confirmed that we now have ladies participating on this site, therefore, any explanation of my peculiar rhetoric will be confined to the golf course or Mens grille. My patrician upbringing rears its ugly head once more!

I can only say that when my time comes, I pray that the lord takes me swiftly. If I am confined in a non ambulatory state for longer than a few days and forced to pay off on the 16,972 coupons "redeemable at a later date" that are currently in circulation, it will be a truly horrible end to a mis-spent life of golf and jocularity!

[BogusTrumper]

For me it is simple.  I play better when I walk.  I enjoy it more.  I get distracted in a golf cart...doesn't matter where I'm playing or with whom.  Heck, I even lost a ball because of this...nothing to do with my brutal hook of the tee.