Pull/Push golf carts may be what have driven so many golfers away from walking the course to the semi-sedentary motorized golf cart. Common sense dictates that walking 18 holes is better for the golfer, and all those carts wrecking the fairways and bunkers aren’t good for the course; so how can a remote golf cart -- as opposed to a driven two-passenger cart -- get you off your duff and back on your feet?
First, wrestling that barrel bag on wheels up and down hilly terrain can be rough on the back. Your rig could weigh 35 pounds, and you need to save your energy and strength for your golf swing. The motorized golf cart, like your self-propelled lawn mower, rolls on its own and you can operate it with the push of a button. You save your stamina for those late-hole comebacks, catch-ups and money shots.
Why Come Back to Walking?
You left the foot-trodden path down the fairway in started riding in a cart because lugging your gear around the course on a pull/push cart was killing your back and wearing you out by the 15th hole. So think about the benefits if getting back on foot without the impediment of a pull/push golf cart:
- When you ride in a driven cart for 9 holes, you walk the equivalent of a half-mile. Walk that same 9 holes and get five times the distance (2 and a half miles).
- Avid 36-hole-per-week golfers who walk will burn 3,000 calories, the equivalent of about one case of beer. The cardiovascular and cholesterol benefits (good vs. bad) are undeniable.
- Four hours of a walking round of golf equates to 45 minutes of an exhausting, high-impact fitness class. Sure, the fitness class is finished sooner, but golf is about the duration of the experience. Ask golfers about the anticipatory thrill on the first tee, and the next shot, and the next...
- A round of golf walked is faster. Yes, using golf carts gets everyone off the first tee quickly, because the driven carts get to the first shot faster than on foot. For the rest of the round, though, players in carts spend lots of extra time wheeling between the players’ balls and chatting in the cart when they should be contemplating their next shot. A player walking proceeds in a straight line, and the better players are even faster, because they hit straighter.
- Walking the course keeps the player in tune and in rhythm. Golf is about focus and staying alert to the design and nuances of the course. During times when carts must stay on the parallel fairway paths, the game becomes more of a shuttle between perpendicular short walks.
Again, all the above is just common sense, and there may have been other reasons you abandoned the pull/push cart. However, golf was intended as a country walk, and riding carts has some significant disadvantages. Consider the following:
- People are injured and die in golf cart accidents. The latest information on golf course accidents dates back to 2006, when 13,411 people went to the emergency room. Golf carts typically don’t have seat belts, so falls cause the most injuries. OSHA keeps the most current records on golf cart accidents involving golf course employees. They tell a sobering tale of the dangers involved with driving golf carts.
- Driven golf carts damage the turf. Ask any course manager about how just about every single hole on the course has some kind of cart damage -- from soil compaction to turf injury. In the days where many course fairways were dried Bermuda hardscrabble, this didn’t matter too much. Modern horticultural techniques, however, have resulted in lusher, softer fairways.
- Golf carts generate big money for golf courses, and golfers pay the fare. Second only to greens fees, golf cart rentals can add anywhere from $30-$50 to the cost of a round of golf.
So, the bottom line here is that our remote golf cart line is:
- The next best thing to a caddy
- Your next step in hitting getting your golf game back to its grass roots.
- One way you’ll stay with your ground game and save your arms and shoulders for that sweet 3-iron shot that rolls up to the green into birdie territory.