I chanced upon this interesting little site yesterday;
http://www.thewalkinggolfer.comIt campaigns to get golfers walking again rather than riding round in golf carts - or 'buggies' as we Europeans know them.
As I browsed I becamee more and more incredulous. Is it really true that many courses in the USA prohibit walking and that use of a cart is mandatory?
I can understand that if you are an octagenarian or have just had a hip replacement a golf cart might be rather handy, but what self-respecting reasonably able-bodied golfer would ride in a cart in preference to walking the course?
And what of the effect on the courses? They must be built with blacktop roadways criss-crossing here and there! My club has 4 carts for hire which are rarely used and the damage is bad enough; multiply that by 10 and the consequenses are mind blowing!
Are new courses all built with the assumption that hundreds of carts will be using them every day? What about the old courses?
Surely a bit of excercise is one of the main reasons for playing golf. If this about mandatory cart use is true then it does nothing to diminish the popularly held stereotype this side of the pond of Americans being fat and lazy!
Personally, I think real men carry their clubs too. Even trolleys are for wimps...