Walking Only Courses?

[davep043]

That first bit isn't entirely true, buggies are available at many courses, and in my experience are becoming more and more available. Still, buggy-riders are a very small minority at the few courses that I've played.

But as a business decision for a new course in the US, to choose to require walking is to limit the size of your customer base, which makes financial success a lot tougher.

[az2au]

The heat excuse is weak and nonsense for the most part. 60%+ of rounds at one of the clubs I belong to in AZ are walking. I play with 70+ year olds regularly who walk every day and there’s ~100’ elevation change in the course. Some of those guys commonly walk 36/day.

Do I just know people who are freaks of nature or do people just think they can’t do it when they really can?

I walk 95%+ of the time but I doubt it would work in most places unfortunately. I do think it is a different game when you walk and much more enjoyable.

[duffer987]

Your first sentence is simply false.

High-end resorts courses with loads of people taking caddies, isn't your run of the mill $50 public course.

 

Edit: Dave beat me to it :-)

[SNIPERBBB]

Big difference between regulars walking and the once a month guy walking. Unless you've done a lot of conditioning, the heat, or cold for that matter, be hard on people that do a lot of strenuous outdoor activity routinely. Plus most courses water on the course availability is woefully inadequate

[david.c.w]

I enjoy both walking and riding. Right now it is about 50/50 for me. Overall there is no way a "regular" course could survive if you took the carts away.

1) It is a very important revenue stream and profit center. Only about 15% of the cart fee goes to cover the lease/maintenance costs. So the remaining is all profit. Assume $20/cart and 25,000 rounds/year it adds up to $400k+. To make that up you would have to increase green fees or get it some other way.

2) Walking only will cut out tons of seniors or the generally less mobile. With courses either hilly or long distances, those who are not "officially disabled" and can get a cart will simply stop or play less.

3) It is too damn hot in a lot of areas. I exercise 5+ days a week and if I walk our course in GA in the summer, even in the evening when I walk up 9 I look like i just jumped in a pool. Couple this with being older or in less than perfect health and it is downright dangerous.

Outside of the $$$$ resort/destination courses who require walking, they just account for the revenue difference in the overall fee structure (green fees, room rate, restaurants, etc)

People have already mentioned, but for those saying, "Over here in Scotland where it is 55 and cloudy every day...", come play a round in the Georgia foothills in August.

[teejaywhy]

What's draconian about it? Simply a free market business choice. You may choose to patronize or not.

 

[TerrapinGolfer]

I love walking most of my rounds, but sometimes I want to get to the course on a workday morning and play 9 in 45min, I cant do that walking. Also I want to be able to have a few rounds where I dont have to walk and just have a few drinks and smoke a cigar. My course is dead after 11am so this is something I can do.

[Chanceman]

I always walk if possible but totally understand why many courses particularly in the US have a default to carts. Carts facilitate close interaction with the two occupants whch historically has been good for corporate relationships. Carts enable the less mobile to play golf, which is great. It provides employment around the bag drop area. And carts all need maintenance ie staff. So I guess there would not be so many golf courses in the US were it nor for the cart culture. It underpins the whole shebang. But give me a walk at Bandon any day of the week.

 

[tiderider]

if i won the lottery and built a course, it would be walking only ... couple of carts for the medically needy ...

 

alabama doesn't sell lottery tickets, so i won't have a walking only course any time soon ...

[MaxBuck]

I recommend you get another doctor. It's senseless to delay surgery that can significantly improve your quality of life.

[darpar1]

I don't think anyone would want to walk say Wolfcreek in the summer when it's 110°, and some holes are as much as a couple hundred yards from a green to the next tee....up some pretty steep hills.

[BIG STU]

Well stated-- a lot of folks simply do not have any idea about the heat and humidity down South during the summer.

[Phreddy]

While limited I am seeing more and more courses that either rent or allow "electric trolleys." You still walk, but you don't carry your bag. It encourages walking while still providing a rental source of revenue for the course. We had a very wet spring at my home course in 2019. Lots and lots of days of walking only and I think it was a meaningful boost to course conditions in the early more fragile part of the year.

 

Phred

[Golfingfanatic]

As much as my heart and the purist in me loves a walking-only course, I can understand how that might not be financially viable for a course that depends on green fees as a source of income. That being said, walking a little more would benefit us, as a society, greatly.

[Argonne69]

'Just finished snowbirding in Phoenix. I played 72 rounds, and walked over 50 of them. The courses I rode mandated carts, and I could have walked all of them. Yeah, a few courses were tougher than the others, but none of them were crazy. I managed to lose 25 lbs over the winter. For the most part I felt like a pariah out here, as 99% of the golfers ride. I'm sure a walk in the summer would be tough, but still doable. Oh, and all but 3 courses had the cart fee baked into the greens fee, i.e. no discount for walking. The courses were getting their money one way or another.

A few courses didn't have enough water on the course, but if the majority of players walked, that would quickly be addressed.

As for pace of play, the only slow rounds I encountered, i.e. 4.5+ hours, were at courses that mandated carts. I had no issues keeping up. In fact, I was usually the first on the green, and the first on the next teebox.

[CMCSGolf]

I think there could potentially be a market for this in a big city. The course would have to charge a premium (like $75-100 to walk) and be kept in good condition all the time with a very good pace of play. If it developed a reputation as a walkers club with fast pace and good conditions it might be able to survive. Something like Ravisloe in Chicago could have been a course to try it. I agree it would be very tough an a long shot, but creating a course that had a Bandon like atmosphere local to you might be able to draw in enough people to justify charging the higher price. A guy can dream...

[Roadking2003]

This is true. More than half of the golfers I play with would not be playing golf without a cart regardless of the course layout.

 

Golf carts are one of the greatest additions to the sport we have ever seen. They enable millions more peple to play golf most of which would be sitting at home otherwise.

[Roadking2003]

Exactly. People in the UK have no idea what playing golf in the Texas heat is like. I prefer to walk, but in our summers I would risk heat exhaustion if I walked 18 holes. So I walk nine and ride nine. I drink a water bottle every other hole in the Summer.

[davep043]

While I agree that golf carts are a blessing in many cases, they are also a curse on some ways. The worst thing, in my mind, is that some golfers will spend their entire life without walking a round of golf, and that's sad. And while they enable more people to play who otherwise wouldn't, they also enable fit healthy young people to play while completely avoiding exercise, not a good thing in my book. Very much a mixed blessing.

[teejaywhy]

Hahaha. I gotta give it to you RK. You are a master troll. Almost got me with this one. Well done.

 

[hollabachgt]

But even in Texas you get 8 months a year where walking is perfectly doable. Talk to the people in the north about a potential 8 month golf season, they've never heard of such a thing. There is a reason not many people in the south ski and play hockey. sometimes the environment isn't conducive to all activities all the time.

[LeoLeo99]

As a walker, I dislike this idea. The courses will have to increase green fees to compensate for lost cart profits. I don't want to pay more for the same thing.

Let people do what they want. I'm shocked there are so many that ride at my local cow pasture with it's total lack of elevation change and such an easy course to walk. But it helps keeps the greens fees down.

[ArmchairAviator]

As someone who is pretty new to the walking game (my only resolution this year is to walk more courses than I ride), most courses around here without carts would be miserable. Sure there are some courses that are definitely walkable, but most public courses seem like they would be a bear. Walked one last week. After 9, my brother and I both agreed that we wouldn't be playing there without a cart again. Granted, I'm not the most in-shape guy, but I'm still only 25, so I feel like I hold up pretty well.

When local courses are walking only or cart path only, there is a lot less traffic. I would bet that if a course was walking only in SW Pennsylvania, it would not last very long.

 

I will be golfing in DC in a few weeks though, and the courses I have picked don't look too bad, so I'm excited to walk those!

[skmcclure]

My opinion of a course that wanted to allow walking only would be ABSOLUTELY. There are a lot of posts about who can and cannot walk and where, etc. Since it is simply a hypothetical question without any boundaries, I'm making these assumptions about that course: 1) that the weather is always nice, 2) it isn't too hilly, 3) the greens are close to the tees, 4) there are bridges over creeks and valleys, etc. Sure not every course is a good walking course but I have three that I play all the time by walking, here in the south, even in August, so it probably possible to to do, and I would play there with enthusiasm. As most have pointed out, while courses will generally tout carts as helping to speed play, they are really there for income. It isn't any faster for a foursome to ride than it is to walk. But to me it is much more enjoyable, most of the time, to walk.

[Roadking2003]

" It isn't any faster for a foursome to ride than it is to walk. "

 

Total bunk. I walk with some riders. They are always waiting for me to catch up.

[strug'-a-ling]

I could be 100% wrong on this, but with most of the walkers I know, the cost of riding is at least somewhat of a factor.

I could have the wrong impression...I don't know.

Anyway, at my club I ride as a senior, but there was a beautiful little executive course in Middleton, Massachusetts that I loved to walk at least a couple or three times each summer.

Sadly, it closed and the land was sold to developers.

I really felt bad about it.

[Argonne69]

You must be the slowest walker on the planet. I just walked over 60 rounds in Phoenix, and not once was the group(s) riding waiting for me. I was generally on the teebox teeing off first, and waiting on the green waiting for them to grab their putters/wedges.

Have you heard of ready golf? Do you hang around the green waiting for the entire group to hole out, are do you head to the next tee? I was not in a single money game, so I'd generally hang around near the edge of the green until the last player holed out, and then headed straight to the next tee. By the time the players walked to their carts, but away their clubs, and drove to the next tee, I was already there ready to tee off.

It's total bullsh-t that a walker can't keep up with riders, unless perhaps you're playing with three players each in their own carts. In 60 rounds this winter I experienced that one time.

 

[Argonne69]

Depends on the area of the country. In the Phoenix area, 95+% of the courses do not offer a discount for walking. The cart fee is baked into the greens fee. Walking was strictly a personal choice.

 

[Gdane]

In high school and college I caddied at a walking-only club, Conway Farms. The members took pride in being part of a walking club that supported a robust caddie program. That said, aside from the nation's elite publics that attract purists/golf-nuts, I'd imagine the economics of golf just don't support your local muni turning into a walking-only course and alienating a large population of their potential base.

I would be curious to hear from a couple public club pros to hear what the split of walking/riding they see from their weekend trunk slammers.

[Roadking2003]

I am a very fast walker and player. You must have the slowest carts on the planet if they are slower than a walker. People walk at about 3 - 4 MPH. Golf carts go 15 MPH. Do the math.