So the justification in making caddies mandatory is that otherwise no-one would take one?
I really thought we'd got past that Luddite idea of labour protectionism. It smacks of the states that don't allow self-service gas stations because it protects the outdated jobs of people who really should be employed doing something else.
If there is a demand for caddies - great! If there isn't, artificially creating one via archaic rules is frankly ridiculous and goes against all free market principles.
No on the first. It is not that no one would use them, but that not enough would to sustain a healthy caddie program. And by that I mean that those who do value a good caddie would be assured of having one available when they wished to play. I was told by someone of great substance that some members at a top 5 American club with a mandatory caddie policy wait until the afternoon to play when no caddies are available. A few who want to play earlier start near a small member's practice avoiding the first tee.
SL and I have had this discussion before and I am in agreement with what he writes. He knows his membership infinitely better than I do, but I would still would like to see the results of a secret ballot with no arm twisting on the issue (mandatory vs. optional caddies).
On the second, job protection is hardly a thing of the past. I won't go into details as I don't want to get into a scrum, but in the U.S., not a small part of the current discord has this at its roots.
BTW, I just learned of a wonderful career- tug boat captain. The pay is astronomical I am told (by the son of a 35 year veteran in the field whose uncles and now cousins have followed)- a 28 year-old cousin is making $600k annually, working essentially half of the year. The field is harder to penetrate than going to Harvard or Stanford, with nepotism controlling the gates.
On the third, talk about archaic, free markets that is.
Back on topic, the best I can gather, the biggest resistance to non-motorized carts (I love my ClicGear 3.0!) is simply the loss of revenues either to the club or to its caddie program. We have some members at my club who play 5-6 per week, 200+ rounds each year. Assuming $20 cart fees, that's $4,000k annually; 50% net profit margin, that's an extra $2,000 per member and even more in terms of free cash flow. Even at equity clubs, carts subsidize other activities and it is pretty easy revenue because most members won't play if they had to walk. In fact, on days when riding carts are restricted to the cart paths, maybe as much as half pass on playing.