Conveyance Systems

[Bret Lawrence]

Mike,


In college I got to play Bel-Air CC in LA a handful of times.  It was about 20 years ago, but I still remember getting around the course was sometimes as interesting as playing it.  They have underground tunnels to get you from one canyon to another.  They also have an elevator that brings you up from the ninth green to the tenth tee or the 18th green back to the club house, or both ( I can't remember the specifics).  Finally, they have the beautiful swinging bridge stretching across the ravine carrying you from the tenth tee to the the tenth green.  I feel like all three were very effective, but if I could choose where I would rather be during a Southern California earthquake, I would take my chances on the swinging bridge every time!


Here is a picture from my 1990's scorecard I saved:



Bret

[MCirba]

Pretty cool stuff folks.  Thanks!

[Matt Frey, PGA]

A result of a pretty severe routing glitch across marshy land, the Links at Lighthouse Sound in Ocean City, Maryland, boasts "the country's longest golf car bridge." Not sure that's a bragging point, but there you have it.

[Dean DiBerardino]

There is a conveyance system at Allegheny Country Club to help the walking golfer ascend the path from the back of the third green up to the fourth tee. Just turn on the conveyor, grab the rope and walk up the hill with the assistance of the conveyor rope!

[BHoover]

Is there a course out there that uses a zip line to get to the next hole? That's what I'd like to see!

[David_Tepper]

Bret Lawrence -

Thanks for the Bel-Air post and swinging bridge pic. That course could be the ultimate in conveyance systems.

It is also worth mentioning that the swinging bridge crosses over the 18th green, which sits in the canyon below it.

DT 

[BCowan]

Is there a course out there that uses a zip line to get to the next hole? That's what I'd like to see!

A zip line off the 10th tee at Kirtland would be bad ass.  Sign a wavier at the shack, and off you go.  An advantage in having a caddie. 

[Kalen Braley]

Why not just hire a kid to run a golf cart shuttle up and back.....way cheaper to implement in the short term 

You'd need a big cart or multiple carts.  Even more if a club with caddies.

Assuming its just one hole with groups coming thru every 10 minutes why couldn't 1 kid on an oversized cart handle this?


Something like this..

[David_Tepper]

Kalen -

That is the kind of cart they use at Mayacama to move golfers & caddies from a green up a steep hill to the next tee.

DT

[Joe Bausch]

You did a pretty good job of carrying me on the back nine at Sandhill Crane this past summer.   

[Bill_McBride]

Jeez Cirba,

#14 at Rolling Green isn't even the best in the Philadelphia area.

The funicular tram at Manufacturers' has to take the cake. We, very briefly, discussed using one for Blue #1 at Streamsong.

The course where I learned to play, Indian Valley GC in Marin County, California, has a funicular from 13 green to 14 tee, thank god.  The hike straight up or along the winding service road were both grueling.  If the jackasses in the group ahead didn't close the door and send the thing back down, that could happen...

[Dave Givnish]

Bret -


The tunnels at Bel-Air have an interesting story attached to them. My host told me that an early golf cart maker came to the club to trial the carts. The club wouldn't try or buy unless the carts fit. And, supposedly, that is why carts are the width they are today. Good story for which my only confirmation is that our cart barely fit through with the caddie crouched down behind the clubs.

[Ed Homsey]

The Lookout Point CC lift that you take from the 18th to the top of the hill and clubhouse.

[Pete_Pittock]

Coos CC (now Watson Ranch), which is one score and four miles from Bandon Dunes, used to have a powered towrope,
but it's been decades so I can't remember which hole, which is bad because it was only a nine-holer, Maybe from 6 to 7.

[Dave McCollum]

Not sure what you’re after, but am sure this contribution doesn’t matter.  Back when I was a cold war kid and people built bomb shelters in their basements and didn’t have golf carts, there was funicular railroad, a platform on a cable and rails, really, at the 9-hole country club where my family had a membership (Blue Lakes).  It ran folks up the hill from the 6th green to 7th tee.  My friends and I didn’t golf, but we wasted our youth exploring all of the wild areas around the course, so, of course, when we ended up at the base of hill where it was, we happily caught a lift.  We didn’t worry about safety.  If it broke, we’d just jump off, as we jumped on and off it many times because we could.  It’s long gone now.  Yet, every time I see where it was, I remember it fondly and vividly.  I have a vague memory of getting in trouble over it, but the details escape me now.  Hell, we got in trouble over everything.  The game began when somebody told us we couldn’t do something.  And outside of the maintained areas we were the Masters of the Universe.  Nobody could find us if we wanted to hide.

[Duncan Cheslett]

There is a conveyance system at Allegheny Country Club to help the walking golfer ascend the path from the back of the third green up to the fourth tee. Just turn on the conveyor, grab the rope and walk up the hill with the assistance of the conveyor rope!

Now THAT is what we need at Reddish Vale!   

[Matt Dawson]

There is a conveyance system at Allegheny Country Club to help the walking golfer ascend the path from the back of the third green up to the fourth tee. Just turn on the conveyor, grab the rope and walk up the hill with the assistance of the conveyor rope!


Now THAT is what we need at Reddish Vale!   

Personally I find having an enthusiastic cocker spaniel on a lead, who has just caught sight of a squirrel in the trees, will achieve roughly the same effect in a much more cost-effective way...
 

He's much in demand as you ascend the path from the 18th green up to the clubhouse at my home course. In the absence of a squirrel, a well-done sausage from the halfway hut will inspire a similar burst of enthusiasm, at very reasonable rates

[Bill_McBride]

There is a conveyance system at Allegheny Country Club to help the walking golfer ascend the path from the back of the third green up to the fourth tee. Just turn on the conveyor, grab the rope and walk up the hill with the assistance of the conveyor rope!

LaCumbre in Santa Barbara has one of those to help the walking golfer from the 18th green to the clubhouse up a steep hill.  I also saw one alongside a steep fairway at Baguio in the Filipines. .

[MCirba]

The conveyor rope thingamagig looks to be a low-cost option.   Is it really effective or is it a rope burn waiting to happen?   

[Bill_McBride]

The conveyor rope thingamagig looks to be a low-cost option.   Is it really effective or is it a rope burn waiting to happen?   

Ive been using the one in Santa Babara for over 50 years, it's a lifesaver.  Nary a rope burn to date.

[Joe Hancock]

The conveyor rope thingamagig looks to be a low-cost option.   Is it really effective or is it a rope burn waiting to happen?   

Works great if you just grab on, but, trust me, you don't want to straddle it in a foolish attempt at riding...