Encouraging walking

[Ed Oden]

One of the things I like best about the school my kids attend is the concerted effort to promote physical activity.  While many schools are cutting back on PE programs, they believe that a student's health is an integral part of their physical, mental and social growth, maturation and well-being and that our kids, our families, our community and our society as a whole benefit from producing healthier students.  I see an analogy to golf clubs.  While I don't believe in telling others how to play golf and have no moral objection to those that choose to ride, couldn't an argument be made that golfers, their clubs and the golfing community as a whole benefit from healthier people?  If so, should clubs promote walking?  What suggestions do you have to encourage or incenvitize walking?  Other than lost cart revenue, is there a downside?

[Garland Bayley]

I've been ridiculing the young guys with comments like "do you play wheelchair basketball too?" Some of the guys I have ridden have given up their carts. Maybe works only if you are old and fat and out-walking most.

[Garland Bayley]

Another trend I have noticed that allows giving some guys the needle. Their wives have dropped out of the cart and are now walking for the health benefits when playing with their husbands. Easy one to challenge their manhood on.

[Ed Oden]

Garland, I'm not really interested in giving people crap.  Rather, I am wondering whether there are positive ways to encourage walking.  Tee times reserved for walkers?  Walking only events?  Financial incentives?  Has anyone been a part of a club that has tried to promote walking?  Should clubs even attempt to do so?

[Garland Bayley]

Ed, the moment I "catch" them walking and playing I start the praise. They become "keepers" then.

Maybe, the positive way is to invite them to play walking with you and your buddies, and then give them the positive feedback.

[JMEvensky]

Garland, I'm not really interested in giving people crap.  Rather, I am wondering whether there are positive ways to encourage walking.  Tee times reserved for walkers?  Walking only events?  Financial incentives?  Has anyone been a part of a club that has tried to promote walking?  Should clubs even attempt to do so?

My guess is that most clubs encourage riding for the cart revenue.So,you'd need to change the entire mindset--the financial incentives are on the anti-walking side.

The reserved tee times might work--with a small twist. A club could relatively easily allow walkers to play off # 10 early on weekends. If no riders were allowed from say 8 to 9,there wouldn't be much disruption. If enough guys started showing up to walk,the club might have to re-think their cart policy.

It would take a Green Chairman and/or Board who were true believers.

[Nigel Islam]

I think to walk you have to love playing golf. By that I mean my friends at work that I play with would never even think about walking. The friends I have that I go out of my way to make arrangements to play love golf as much as I do, and are usually cool walking.

[John Kavanaugh]

Don't mandatory caddies encourage walking?  I pay a yearly fee to be able to use a cart anytime I want.  I would like to see that fee extended to allow the use of push carts.  I know a lot of us cart riders would walk more often if we could use a push cart.  Just charge everyone at the club the same fee and let them play however they want.

note:  It has been proven time and time again that nobody walks just because they are cheap.

[PCCraig]

The best way to encourage walking I can think of would be to get rid of carts. No carts = no riding. You could keep a few on hand for people that are medically unable to walk a golf course, but otherwise just get rid of them all together. If they are leased (usually a percentage of new carts are rented every year) let the leases run out over time, slowly waning the membership off using carts ("sorry sir, we're all out of carts.") If carts are needed for a Monday outing, rent them and push the cost onto the group outing.

Sure, you'll loose members. But you'll gain a bunch too. Plus, the golf course would be in significantly better shape.

[David Stewart]

My club charges $16 a round to ride. I have very conservatively played 3 days a week since spring. Let's say that is about 20 weeks. 20x16x3 = $960. Aside from the health benefits, it is an easy choice to walk when it has saved me about $1k this summer.

[Terry Lavin]

The horse is out of the cart barn on this issue, Ed.  What you're talking about here is trying to change a cultural habit.  That, my friend, is exceptionally hard to do.  Banning carts, as some might suggest, will just result in far less play.  Encouraging walking by having caddies available would alienate those who have no interest in having a caddie around, whether he/she is carrying the bag or chasing the cart.  Let's face it: some clubs are walking only, some are mostly walking with caddies and the rest are all carts or overwhelmingly carts.  Even at Beverly CC, where we have as many caddies as we do members, I would estimate that half of the players regularly ride.  If the course is closed to carts, they stay home.  If you want a significant percentage of your members/players to stay home, ban carts and then get ready to subsidize the operations of the club.

[John Kavanaugh]

My club charges $16 a round to ride. I have very conservatively played 3 days a week since spring. Let's say that is about 20 weeks. 20x16x3 = $960. Aside from the health benefits, it is an easy choice to walk when it has saved me about $1k this summer.

A walking caddie costs me $80 a loop.  I also play 3 times per week so let's say 20x80x3 = $4,800.  I pay a yearly cart fee of $1,200 so riding has saved me $3,600.  Aside from being clinically obese, it is an easy choice to ride when it saves me a years dues at another club.

[Jason Topp]

This is a topic I have thought about quite a bit. 

The health benefits of walking are tremendous.  I have seen estimates ranging from 1,400 to 2,000 calories burned for a 180 pound person walking 18 holes and carrying clubs.  A push cart does not materially change the calculation.  The benefit of golf as exercise is an issue that is commonly considered a problem - it takes so long to play.  As a result, you burn a lot more calories than you do in a half hour on a machine in a gym.

It seems to me there is a market for health club types tired of their regular workout and wanting to be outside for the summer.  I imagine a poster of a person drooping over a treadmill looking outside on a nice dayand an offer to burn twice the calories and have fun. 

The problem of course is revenue for the course.  I could see that addressed through an offer of offer of a health package that includes a healthy meal, 9 or 18 holes of walking golf and some sort of workout.  With the right premiums, you could get the health club crowd to adopt golf as their summer workout/weight loss regimen.

[David Cronheim]

My club charges $16 a round to ride. I have very conservatively played 3 days a week since spring. Let's say that is about 20 weeks. 20x16x3 = $960. Aside from the health benefits, it is an easy choice to walk when it has saved me about $1k this summer.

A walking caddie costs me $80 a loop.  I also play 3 times per week so let's say 20x80x3 = $4,800.  I pay a yearly cart fee of $1,200 so riding has saved me $3,600.  Aside from being clinically obese, it is an easy choice to ride when it saves me a years dues at another club.

John, I agree with you. It also seems to me that the ridiculous increase in caddie fees in the 2000's is a big problem. I'm only 27, but when I started caddying at 14 (so 1999), I was getting $35-40 a bag. Now I'm paying $60-100 a bag. There are plenty of kids out there who are looking for summer jobs who would be more than happy to get $40-50 a bag. A lot more people would take a caddie if the fee wasn't often so astronomically high. I'd rather see 4 14-year old kids get out at $45 a bag than two "A" caddies making $70 a bag.

[Ben Voelker]

Garland, I'm not really interested in giving people crap.  Rather, I am wondering whether there are positive ways to encourage walking.  Tee times reserved for walkers?  Walking only events?  Financial incentives?  Has anyone been a part of a club that has tried to promote walking?  Should clubs even attempt to do so?

Ed,

I think most clubs/courses just are not interested in encouraging walking because there in no incentive for THEM.  I think the reason is twofold.  One is the cart revenue.  Secondly, I think many people in the golf world truly think riding is faster than walking.  I once played a pretty good public course in New Jersey that was hesitant to let me walk, even after paying the cart fee, because they were afraid I could not keep up.  There are no long green to tee walks and I was significantly faster than the guy I played with in a cart.  I really liked the course, but I will not play there again due to their attitude.

There used to be a financial incentive to walk; you didn't pay the cart fee.  Now, pretty much every public course I come across charges the cart fee whether you choose to walk or ride.  With the exception of the incident mentioned above, these courses are usually pretty good about letting me walk if I choose to do so, as long as I paid the cart fee.

As for individual golfers, I think just the act of choosing to walk, and being enthusiastic about it, makes a difference.  I play regularly with a friend who would probably not normally walk, but almost always does when we play together.  Maybe that is small potatoes, but that's the best I can do.

[Tim Leahy]

Golf is a game and it is more fun with a cart for most people. If you want to improve the health of your club members then close the bar and take cheeseburgers and fries off the club house menu. If you want exercise then go for 5 mile run or go to the gym for two hours. Leave my cart alone and go eat a salad.

[Garland Bayley]

My club charges $16 a round to ride. I have very conservatively played 3 days a week since spring. Let's say that is about 20 weeks. 20x16x3 = $960. Aside from the health benefits, it is an easy choice to walk when it has saved me about $1k this summer.

A walking caddie costs me $80 a loop.  I also play 3 times per week so let's say 20x80x3 = $4,800.  I pay a yearly cart fee of $1,200 so riding has saved me $3,600.  Aside from being clinically obese, it is an easy choice to ride when it saves me a years dues at another club.

Maybe if you walked 18 three times per week you wouldn't be clinically obese.

[Tim Leahy]

My club charges $16 a round to ride. I have very conservatively played 3 days a week since spring. Let's say that is about 20 weeks. 20x16x3 = $960. Aside from the health benefits, it is an easy choice to walk when it has saved me about $1k this summer.

A walking caddie costs me $80 a loop.  I also play 3 times per week so let's say 20x80x3 = $4,800.  I pay a yearly cart fee of $1,200 so riding has saved me $3,600.  Aside from being clinically obese, it is an easy choice to ride when it saves me a years dues at another club.

Maybe if you walked 18 three times per week you wouldn't be clinically obese.

I have two bad knees and couldn't walk 18 if I tried and still beat you at the last Kings Putter I played. What's your excuse?

[Garland Bayley]

My club charges $16 a round to ride. I have very conservatively played 3 days a week since spring. Let's say that is about 20 weeks. 20x16x3 = $960. Aside from the health benefits, it is an easy choice to walk when it has saved me about $1k this summer.

A walking caddie costs me $80 a loop.  I also play 3 times per week so let's say 20x80x3 = $4,800.  I pay a yearly cart fee of $1,200 so riding has saved me $3,600.  Aside from being clinically obese, it is an easy choice to ride when it saves me a years dues at another club.

Maybe if you walked 18 three times per week you wouldn't be clinically obese.

I have two bad knees and couldn't walk 18 if I tried and still beat you at the last Kings Putter I played. What's your excuse?

I'm a lousy golfer. Everybody knows that. Do you feel good about beating lousy golfers?

However, I have a lot of fun playing golf, so my lousiness doesn't inhibit my interest.

I also have two bad knees from years and years of pounding the hardwood.

[Joe Bausch]

Ed, like the thread.  

I wonder if no carts were available, would business for a course go up or down or not really change?  I ask b/c I played a place called Clayton Park in Delaware County, PA two summers ago.  It is so bare bones you probably would not believe it.  And the architecture?  Oh my!  The fifth hole is a dogleg left par 3:



After the first hole I knew the place was basic golf to be charitable.  And it was super hot the day I played, yet the course was reasonably crowded.  It was only later I noticed everyone was walking.  The course simply does not have carts.

[John Foley]

If you want exercise then go for 5 mile run or go to the gym for two hours. Leave my cart alone and go eat a salad.

AMEN - i love how people assume that if you ride a cart your avoiding the benefits of exersize. The fact is that mnay (not all) get their exersize in other ways and use the cart because it allows them to do both.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Last week I played Waconah GC in Dalton, Ma., - a neat course that's been talked about on this site in the past. We (2, in a cart) teed off in front of a group (2, easy to identify as regular walkers) and hit it just right. We only ran into three groups, a husband and wife (cart) toward the end of the front nine, but they let us through, a threesome at the turn who also let us go by, and a deuce on the 18th. We also saw the two walkers that we started ahead of on #1, they were making their way down the 10th fairway as we were driving to our car to unload our bags.
Carts can be much faster than feet.


I don't think it would hurt a club to encourage walkers, on the other hand, I can't think of one club in my area that doesn't already have a solid mix of walkers and cart users.

[Garland Bayley]

...
Carts can be much faster than feet.
...

Yep, and walking can be much faster than carts.

Speed of play is primarily dependent on the habits, sensitivities, and interests of the players. Not the course. Not the transportation methodology. Not the B & I.

People!

[Kalen Braley]

Garland,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are also clinically obese too. Unless you weigh less than 250 lbs...which I highly doubt.

http://www.jodohonline.com/dietpills/obesity_chart.htm

I'm obviously obese, but the question one must ask themselves personally is...do I want to deprive myself of golf just because I have a hard time being on my feet for 4 hours straight combined with a 5 mile walk??

P.S.  I played a round just last weekend in 2:15...no way in hell I come even close to that if I was walking.

[Jim_Kennedy]

...
Carts can be much faster than feet.
...

Yep, and walking can be much faster than carts.

Speed of play is primarily dependent on the habits, sensitivities, and interests of the players. Not the course. Not the transportation methodology. Not the B & I.

People!

I'm just speaking mechanically. No one can play golf faster afoot than they can in a cart.