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Bill McKinley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Let me say that I am not a fan of experiencing a golf course while taking a cart (or golf car to be PGA correct  ;D). But I am not opposed to riding especially if I'm trying to play as many holes as I can before, during, or after work. Or if it makes sense for the group from a timing standpoint or someone may actually need to ride in order to play.

All that being said, most of my best golf experiences have come while walking. And I'm curious if this holds true for most of you all?

Here's mine: Mountain Lake. I played as a solo in the afternoon and they sent me off the back 9, which is very far away from the clubhouse and 1st tee. I didn't see very many players and I had a relaxing time on a beautiful afternoon/ evening in late January in Florida. I played 23 holes in just over 2 1/2 hours and didn't feel rushed at all. I took a bunch of pictures, hit some chips and putts from around the greens and just really enjoyed myself. Without a cart, I would've felt rushed and not as relaxed. It was great fun and experience while riding a cart. 

Runner up: Crystal Downs. Great golf course, and I liked it better than Mtn Lake, but I feel my EXPERIENCE was better at Mtn Lake and I probably would've enjoyed CD more if I was walking.
2016 Highlights:  Streamsong Blue (3/17); Streamsong Red (3/17); Charles River Club (5/16); The Country Club - Brookline (5/17); Myopia Hunt Club (5/17); Fishers Island Club (5/18); Aronomink GC (10/16); Pine Valley GC (10/17); Somerset Hills CC (10/18)

Bob_Garvelink

  • Karma: +0/-0
My best day while using a cart would have to be the 63 holes that our foursome completed at Treetops in Gaylord Michigan.  We golfed from dusk till dawn and it was one of our first trips to Northern Michigan.  I witnessed my friend shoot his best round of his life on the Masterpiece and I was able to card my first round in the 70s with a 45 foot double snake putt to seal the deal.  It's a trip we all still talk about as many years have passed.  What a great game!!!!
"Pure Michigan"

Bill Seitz

  • Karma: +0/-0
Greywalls.  It's walkable, but it's a heck of a long walk TO the first tee, and 36 would have been a tall order without a cart.  Awesome golf course where the cart certainly didn't ruin the experience.

Bill_McBride

  • Karma: +0/-0
A toss up between Sagebrush in British Columbia and Ballyhack in Roanoke, VA.   Neither is an easy walk, both are great fun even in a cart.  Really a lot of fun. 

Alex Miller

  • Karma: +0/-0
Stone Eagle

Carl Rogers

  • Karma: +0/-0
Ballyhack (not really walkable)
Tobacco Road (quasi walkable)
I decline to accept the end of man. ... William Faulkner

Connor Dougherty

  • Karma: +0/-0
On many occasions it has been playing Coyote Moon in Truckee, CA late in the afternoon. I've teed off there at 5:30 and consistently gotten around in a little over an hour. It's a beautiful place and a golf course which has some serious elevation change. I've walked it, but walking 18 there is like walking 36.
"The website is just one great post away from changing the world of golf architecture.  Make it." --Bart Bradley

BHoover

  • Karma: +0/-0
For me, the best experience was at Canterbury because I had the chance to (a) play the course for the first time ever and (b) meet two great guys--Bill McKinley and Jonathan Becker--for the first time (I wish I could play like they do). Canterbury would have been more fun walking, but carts definitely did not take away from the fun.

The other experience was at Longaberger for my bachelor party. My friends and I played literally from dawn to dark and had the course basically to ourselves. I think we played 45+ holes and even managed to run around in an 8-some for most of the afternoon and evening.

Bill_McBride

  • Karma: +0/-0
Stone Eagle

Make my duo a threesome:  Sagebrush, Ballyhack, Stone Eagle.  Great modern unwalkable courses except for a few athletes. 

Steve Salmen

  • Karma: +0/-0
That's easy.  August 3, 2013.  I was driving home from work and my friend called and invited me to golf with he and his friends at Calumet Country Club.  I turned around (big surprise, I had my clubs with me) and drove to the club wearing shorts and a T shirt.  When I arrived, there was no time to change into a golf shirt, let alone hit practice balls or putts.  My friend introduced me to his two friends, who he played college golf with.  As a guest at a private club, I felt I was  in no position to object to riding.

In 28 years of golf, I shot the best round of my life by four shots with respect to par.  Usually when going low, you start to question your ability.  You ask, am I really good enough to post this or that number?  On 18, I hit a four iron that possibly lipped out for double eagle, finishing roughly 6 inches behind the hole.

Having played roughly three hundred rounds (all walking) in Scotland, I feel like a whore and sell out every time I ride in a cart.  I feel in a way that I am betraying my wife because she has walked many of the rounds in Scotland with me.  All that being said, I seriously question if I'm capable of playing my best golf while walking.

« Last Edit: March 06, 2014, 08:23:06 PM by Steve Salmen »

Jason Thurman

  • Karma: +1/-0
Easy one. I got to take my mother to Pinehurst a few years ago, and on our first day we played Tobacco Road in the morning and Pine Needles in the afternoon. We took a cart at both courses, played fast, got perfect weather, and had a great time.

Playing a skins game with a sixsome of GCAers after the Midwest Mashie a few years ago was a good runner up, and a lot of my favorite rounds are cart golf with a group of buddies who are newer to the game and love it no matter how they play. I don't really think the cart detracts from the experience all that much for me, though I do prefer walking.
"There will always be haters. That’s just the way it is. Hating dudes marry hating women and have hating ass kids." - Evan Turner

Some of y'all have never been called out in bold green font and it really shows.

Kevin Lynch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Sensing a theme here, but I'll add my vote for Ballyhack.  Each hole is so memorable and fun that riding in a cart doesn't detract from the experience. Besides, the headlights came in handy a few times when we pushed for "one more hole."   I walked BH once with my hickories, which was memorable, but definitely not a preferred option.

Beyond the course, the carts are fun for riding between the cottages and clubhouse (and illuminating the 18th green for midnight putting contests).

Ryan Hillenbrand

  • Karma: +0/-0
The Broadmoor East. Got a twilight rate for $75, played 18 holes in 2 hours, and got back to the hotel before the kids woke up from naps and my wife got p*ssed at me.

Bruce Katona

  • Karma: +0/-0
Twilight rate at Kapalua Plantation for my wife and I.  We finished to the setting sun and went up on the veranda of the clubhouse for the best mai tai ever made.

Life doesn't get much better than that.

Matthew Petersen

  • Karma: +0/-0
36 holes on the courses of Lanai. Neither course is walkable, but what a day. Boat ride across from Maui in the morning, Koele in the morning, lunch at the lodge, Manele in the afternoon and then some time at the resort until our boat ride back. All in a cart with my wife alongside, enjoying the day and the scenery.

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
After 18 holes and a few beers on a beautiful February day, a friend and I teed off for a bonus round at the Golf Club of Texas outside of San Antonio.  The course appeared largely empty except for a group of 6 carrying beer coolers, one cowboy hat, a muscle shit and plenty of chewing tobacco.  We figured we would play through these guys and enjoy a fast circuit around a mediocre course. 

We arrived at the second tee and the group of 6 was waiting for us.  Instead of inviting us the play through, they asked us to join them.  We thought, "when in Rome" and hit our tee shots.  My drive was a good one and a shout of "BOOM!" made me think Mexico had just attacked. The rest of the round was a haze of beer, bad shots, carts wizzing around like Shriners in a parade and more yelling than I have ever encountered on a golf course.

We finished as the sun was setting.  The brain was a bit fuzzy but the mood jovial as we enjoyed a fat and protein laced dinner and attempted to sober up for our drive back to San Antonio.

The Minnesota winter seemed far away.

Carl Nichols

  • Karma: +0/-0
For my 40th birthday, my wife surprised me by having seven of my best friends (and their wives) meet us in Kohler.  Two days in a row, we walked in the morning; had lunch and some adult beverages; and then in the late afternoon--one day on Blackwolf, the other on the Irish-- played as an 8-some in carts, with the match a nassau between two 4-man teams playing a full scramble.  Not necessarily the best golf experience with a cart I've had, but certainly the most fun.  

Jeff Spittel

  • Karma: +0/-0
All summer in Houston. Running loops in 93 degree weather at 8 pm in Memorial Park is more than enough for a duder in his late 30s.
Fare and be well now, let your life proceed by its own design.

Mark Fedeli

  • Karma: +0/-0
A buddies trip to Phoenix/Scottsdale in late August with average temps 105-110. 10 rounds in 5 days. I must thank carts for making that possible.
South Jersey to Brooklyn. @marrrkfedeli

jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
After 18 holes and a few beers on a beautiful February day, a friend and I teed off for a bonus round at the Golf Club of Texas outside of San Antonio.  The course appeared largely empty except for a group of 6 carrying beer coolers, one cowboy hat, a muscle shit and plenty of chewing tobacco.  We figured we would play through these guys and enjoy a fast circuit around a mediocre course. 

We arrived at the second tee and the group of 6 was waiting for us.  Instead of inviting us the play through, they asked us to join them.  We thought, "when in Rome" and hit our tee shots.  My drive was a good one and a shout of "BOOM!" made me think Mexico had just attacked. The rest of the round was a haze of beer, bad shots, carts wizzing around like Shriners in a parade and more yelling than I have ever encountered on a golf course.

We finished as the sun was setting.  The brain was a bit fuzzy but the mood jovial as we enjoyed a fat and protein laced dinner and attempted to sober up for our drive back to San Antonio.

The Minnesota winter seemed far away.

Same exact thing happened at Goat Hill
My assistant and I played up to a herd of carts on the first fairway and we were invited to join them in a 17some an attempt "break the courses record"
Was easily the largest gathering of tatoos, piercings,halter tops, and  cowboy boots ever assembled in a non caddy group in the Hamptons.
Don't know whether our score qualified, but I'm pretty sure Anheuser Busch's stock jumped 2 points the next day..........
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Will MacEwen

Alternate shot at Sagebrush.  Instead of teammates riding together, we split the carts so that the second shot players could zip ahead to the landing zone, and the guys teeing off could leapfrog right ahead to the green. 

Kevin Lynch

  • Karma: +0/-0
For my 40th birthday, my wife surprised me by having seven of my best friends (and their wives) meet us in Kohler.  Two days in a row, we walked in the morning; had lunch and some adult beverages; and then in the late afternoon--one day on Blackwolf, the other on the Irish-- played as an 8-some in carts, with the match a nassau between two 4-man teams playing a full scramble.  Not necessarily the best golf experience with a cart I've had, but certainly the most fun.  

Carl,

The 8-some, match-play, 4-Man Scramble is probably my favorite format in golf.  First played it 15 or so years ago while on weekend trips to Conley Resort in Butler, PA.  After the "routine" 36 holes, the diehards would put in this format while racing the sun.  Lots of camaraderie & heckling in that format. 

One year, the weather gods were against us, and we played this format in 38 degrees and wind.  One cart was enclosed with a portable heater.  As an additional bonus for each hole, "long drive" was given the privilege of riding in the cart (same for closest to the pin).

Terry Lavin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Dismal River or Kapalua
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.  H.L. Mencken

John McCarthy

  • Karma: +0/-0
If anyone has a better cart during rain delay experience than Mucci...
The only way of really finding out a man's true character is to play golf with him. In no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself.
 PG Wodehouse

Jim Tang

  • Karma: +0/-0
2 days and 54 holes at Sand Hills.