Carts in at 7:00

[Rob G 89]

When this message pops up on the cart is it a recommendation or rule? Also if you are abiding by the rule and heading in is it proper etiquette to keep driving while people are swinging?

[st1800e]

It’s not a rule of golf.  It’s a rule or recommendation posted by the golf course operator.  You’d have to ask them. 
 

As to the etiquette of driving by other players, yes be considerate. 

[SNIPERBBB]

Carts in by X means you better be back by then if you need anything inside the pro shop/bar/locker/bathroom because it might be locked./closed.

 

 

We were playing the Pete Dye club in  WV a few years ago and they neglected to inform of us of that, we won a round there and we could only get the last few times of the day .

They had to mail my dad and a few guys they were playing with anythingeft in the guest lockers.

[ChaosTheory]

The last panel says it all when it comes to carts must be in by X.
 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Snowman9000

[MountainKing]

16 hours ago, Rob G 89 said:

When this message pops up on the cart is it a recommendation or rule? Also if you are abiding by the rule and heading in is it proper etiquette to keep driving while people are swinging?

 

Carts in at 7:00 does not sound like a recommendation.  Having worked at a course, it's ridiculous how late some golfers will attempt to stay on a course past sunset, which is at minimum disrespectful to the people who are working and have to wait around for you, and more so not safe.   IMO a better route is to still ask for the carts in at a certain time, but also tell them they'll have rangers pushing pace so if you're within 4 hours of sunset, you will finish.

 

For etiquette - yeah I would do what you would normally do, if somebody is swinging stop for them.

[MountainKing]

35 minutes ago, Snowman9000 said:

The last panel says it all when it comes to carts must be in by X.
 

 

 

Nothing to do with hating customer, but on that line not all customers are worth having....generally those who think they're entitled to play past sunset fall into that category.  Paying money doesn't give you the right to do what you want.

[SNIPERBBB]

2 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

Carts in at 7:00 does not sound like a recommendation.  Having worked at a course, it's ridiculous how late some golfers will attempt to stay on a course past sunset, which is at minimum disrespectful to the people who are working and have to wait around for you, and more so not safe.   IMO a better route is to still ask for the carts in at a certain time, but also tell them they'll have rangers pushing pace so if you're within 4 hours of sunset, you will finish.

 

For etiquette - yeah I would do what you would normally do, if somebody is swinging stop for them.

Our course used to have a rule that says carts couldn't go out past X time. Sometimes they tell us to just leave it beside the cart barn and they'll get it in the morning

[Rob G 89]

Plenty of sunlight yet we the message again this time played till 720 no one got mad

[bcjim]

This was discussed at length in another recent thread.  I agree with snowman, at most we're talking about 30 min. Nobody is tooling around for hours after sunset. At least very rarely.

 

It's fine to tell golfers to please have carts back at before dark but by 7? In early Sept?

 

The proper course of action for a course that wants to implement silly rules so some 15/hr cart boy gets off at 730 instead of 8 is to not allow any carts out after 3.

[mstuewe]

16 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

 

Nothing to do with hating customer, but on that line not all customers are worth having....generally those who think they're entitled to play past sunset fall into that category.  Paying money doesn't give you the right to do what you want.

 

It depends if the course is still charging full price for tee times after 3pm.  If so, yea you're entitled to finish your 18 holes in a reasonable time.

[GoGoErky]

5 minutes ago, bcjim said:

This was discussed at length in another recent thread.  I agree with snowman, at most we're talking about 30 min. Nobody is tooling around for hours after sunset. At least very rarely.

 

It's fine to tell golfers to please have carts back at before dark but by 7? In early Sept?

 

The proper course of action for a course that wants to implement silly rules so some 15/hr cart boy gets off at 730 instead of 8 is to not allow any carts out after 3.

There’s the cost of labor and getting cart boys or whoever else has to hang around waiting is costing the course money on wages. Could be other factors like number of hours that can be worked, other possible state laws.

 

[TheDominator273]

52 minutes ago, bcjim said:

This was discussed at length in another recent thread.  I agree with snowman, at most we're talking about 30 min. Nobody is tooling around for hours after sunset. At least very rarely.

 

It's fine to tell golfers to please have carts back at before dark but by 7? In early Sept?

 

The proper course of action for a course that wants to implement silly rules so some 15/hr cart boy gets off at 730 instead of 8 is to not allow any carts out after 3.

Working at a private club it's minimum one day a week our cart staff has to wait until a half hour after you can see a golf ball for the last cart to come in.  It was nearly every day when I worked at a public course.

[596]

I nearly got fired after the GM looked at my time card.  I was clocking out well after dark because people were still out on the course with carts.  I was alone after the pro shop closed and had to wait till everyone was in before I locked up.  That's when they instituted the return time. 

 

It becomes an insurance issue after sunset.  I had to stop people from taking dirty carts from the line to joy ride near dark. Yes, they were golfers. 

[david.c.w]

There is a big difference between carts in by 7:00 and carts in by dark.  One is an arbitrary time to limit access.  The other is a reasonable time for safety and general business practice.

 

Sunset and twilight times are known down to the minute for every day from now until the end of time.   No reason why the return time can't be adjusted every day, or at a minimum every week.

[Warrior42111]

There's a few reasons why courses have these rules.

 

1. Many of the workers in the barn / pro shop are high school kids. Lots of states in the US have total hour and how late these young people can work because during school they need time for homework, sleep etc.

2. Mentioned before, insurance. If someone gets hurt and they didn't follow the rule put in place, fault shifts to them usually.

3. Mentioned before, if you give someone an grey area "dark" they'll push it beyond reason.

[MisterT]

I played a course once that didn't have a set time to return cart. They sent me off as a single behind a heard of foursomes who were playing so slowly that I played the last two holes by watching for the light of their carts' GPS display and then hitting to that spot, once they had cleared the area. For what I paid and how sh*tty they were in not sharing what was in front of me, I wasn't quitting and it seems those in front of me weren't either.

[bcjim]

8 hours ago, TheDominator273 said:

Working at a private club it's minimum one day a week our cart staff has to wait until a half hour after you can see a golf ball for the last cart to come in.  It was nearly every day when I worked at a public course.

Cost of doing business.  7pm is just a solution looking for a problem. 

[Maine Golfer]

yeah i always walk for sunset golf because I respect the workers wanna clock out. My course has no issues , play up to darkness. They even dont mind none members playing for free post 630, just bring the carts back! 

[MountainKing]

12 hours ago, mstuewe said:

 

It depends if the course is still charging full price for tee times after 3pm.  If so, yea you're entitled to finish your 18 holes in a reasonable time.

 

And you just called yourself out as the type of customer most courses don't need, and why courses end up with rules like this.  In general between extra payroll and potential liability for letting you stay out past sunset, it's not worth it.  There's a reason most courses flip the rate to a twilight rate once you're within so many hours of sunset, even if the rate is still a full rate,  it no longer promises you a full round. 

[mstuewe]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

And you just called yourself out as the type of customer most courses don't need, and why courses end up with rules like this.  In general between extra payroll and potential liability for letting you stay out past sunset, it's not worth it.  There's a reason most courses flip the rate to a twilight rate once you're within so many hours of sunset, even if the rate is still a full rate,  it no longer promises you a full round. 

I guess if the course advertises that carts need to be in at 7 at the time of booking the tee time, sure thats fine.  thats disclosure.  if they tell you when you show up, thats bullxxxx.  

 

if the course doesn't need people to play in the evening, they shouldn't offer tee times where a reasonable right might end shortly after sunset.

[MountainKing]

1 hour ago, mstuewe said:

I guess if the course advertises that carts need to be in at 7 at the time of booking the tee time, sure thats fine.  thats disclosure.  if they tell you when you show up, thats bullxxxx.  

 

if the course doesn't need people to play in the evening, they shouldn't offer tee times where a reasonable right might end shortly after sunset.

Shame on them assuming most people would have common sense and not keep playing once the sun has set.

Edited September 6, 2023 by MountainKing

[mstuewe]

7 hours ago, MountainKing said:

Shame on them assuming most people would have common sense and not keep playing once the sun has set.

I’ve never played a course with this rule, not sure how “common” it is.

 

I don’t get why you are ok with this scenario where a course can charge full price and not disclose that you won’t get a full round in.  That’d be like going to a late night showing of a movie and the theater shuts it off halfway through because the workers need to go home.  

[SNIPERBBB]

2 hours ago, mstuewe said:

I’ve never played a course with this rule, not sure how “common” it is.

 

I don’t get why you are ok with this scenario where a course can charge full price and not disclose that you won’t get a full round in.  That’d be like going to a late night showing of a movie and the theater shuts it off halfway through because the workers need to go home.  

Staff usually doesn't know if you're Speedy Gonzalez or Myrtle the Turtle on the course. Our course is more lax with members/regulars.  Random golfers rarely show up to get a last minute quick 9 anyways.

[MountainKing]

5 hours ago, mstuewe said:

I’ve never played a course with this rule, not sure how “common” it is.

 

I don’t get why you are ok with this scenario where a course can charge full price and not disclose that you won’t get a full round in.  That’d be like going to a late night showing of a movie and the theater shuts it off halfway through because the workers need to go home.  

 

I don't know of many courses that don't flip to a twilight rate at a certain point in the day.   It's possible there's exceptions, but I'd be willing to bet every course you play has them.  In general if I'm teeing off within 4 hours of sunset, and the course's pace of play is 4:20, common sense should tell you that you're not playing 18 if it's a packed tee sheet.   This can circle back to pace of play and why 4:20 is a ridiculous standard when a foursome can get through in under 4 hours if they do things right...but since that's viewed as speed golf, here we are.   I will say, 7pm is extreme if sunset isn't until 7:30, IMO Sunset should be the cut off. but their might be outside factors playing into that (we have two forest preserve courses near me that by law have to close by sunset). If you are playing beyond sunset,  at that point if you're still playing it's at minimum selfish by keeping employees late, but it's also not safe given it's hard to see anybody else on the course, hard to see the golf ball, and hard to see what you potentially could be driving a golf cart into.   Having worked at a course for nearly a decade, I've seen all sorts of bad things happen once the sun went down forcing our course to set some rules that should just be common sense.

 

The movie thing is weird - a better analogy would be an employee having to stay an hour later because somebody wanted to hang out in the seat of the theater after the movie was finished, they figure they're entitled to that seat because they paid their money.

[MountainKing]

3 hours ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Staff usually doesn't know if you're Speedy Gonzalez or Myrtle the Turtle on the course. Our course is more lax with members/regulars.  Random golfers rarely show up to get a last minute quick 9 anyways.

 

Yes!  We always would let regulars/members out because we knew they would be respectful of our time.  It's always the random's that were the problem.

[smashdn]

On 9/4/2023 at 1:14 PM, MountainKing said:

 

Carts in at 7:00 does not sound like a recommendation.  Having worked at a course, it's ridiculous how late some golfers will attempt to stay on a course past sunset, which is at minimum disrespectful to the people who are working and have to wait around for you, and more so not safe.   IMO a better route is to still ask for the carts in at a certain time, but also tell them they'll have rangers pushing pace so if you're within 4 hours of sunset, you will finish.

 

For etiquette - yeah I would do what you would normally do, if somebody is swinging stop for them.

 

I'll go with, "We do not issue carts after X o'clock."  Theoretically should get the carts in by the desired time (which I would think changes as the days get shorter and longer with the seasons) and you then have an idea who is taking how long to play the course.  You might accidentally convert someone to walking as well.

[MountainKing]

Just now, smashdn said:

 

I'll go with, "We do not issue carts after X o'clock."  Theoretically should get the carts in by the desired time (which I would think changes as the days get shorter and longer with the seasons) and you then have an idea who is taking how long to play the course.  You might accidentally convert someone to walking as well.

 

Carts are a huge revenue source so that won't happen.  Losing a source of daily revenue might result in other area's of the course suffering and now people would complain about that.

[smashdn]

16 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

 

Carts are a huge revenue source so that won't happen.  Losing a source of daily revenue might result in other area's of the course suffering and now people would complain about that.

 

One of the local publics here does that.  They just don't issue out carts after 5:00 or 6:00.  You can still play, you just can't take a cart out.

[MountainKing]

11 minutes ago, smashdn said:

 

One of the local publics here does that.  They just don't issue out carts after 5:00 or 6:00.  You can still play, you just can't take a cart out.

 

That's reasonable - I thought you were thinking much earlier in the day.

[Soloman1]

And many times the guys taking care of the carts then are young apprentices already working for slave labor wages and won’t be getting overtime. Turning it in doesn’t end there. Someone has to clean out the trash, wash it and either fill it or plug it in at the cart barn.

 

I would wager the same customers consider turn signals and stop signs as suggestions or optional. Me, me, me! It’s all about me!

 

🙂