When playing executive courses, in early morning or late afternoon, we walk and use a pull cart. We always keep up with pace of play, which is an important part of the game.

Enjoy the exercise and beauty of the courses and homes.

If you play Bonita Pass, Tarpon Boil, or Redfish Run, you can park at FishHawk recreation center and be close to all 9th holes. Turtle Mound has parking near the starter shack that is close to their 9th hole. I am not sure, but I think if you play Southern Star or Yankee Clipper you can park at Sterling Heights rec center and be close to your last hole.

If you walk then the last part of your walk to the car is pretty short compared to the rest of the walk. Don't give it much thought.

For the last week I have been carrying a six iron, a putter and a sun mountain sun umbrella that's designed to reflect the sun on the outside. All shots under 150 are a bump and run. My score is about the same as it was with a full set and it's easier and more comfortable.

I'm hoping, after a while, I can enter a one club tourney if they have any down here.

tomwed: There is a guy up in St Paul that played with a 5 iron and putter only. Its been my goal to continue the count down to one iron and a putter

I always walk the executive courses with a Sun Mountain push cart...highly recommended. I've used a pull cart in the past, and I personally much prefer a push cart.

I carried for years, but I'm very tall and it bothers my back a little occasionally to carry, so I've gone to the push cart. I think all of tomweb's advantages of walking can be attained with a push/pull cart except for possibly some short-cuts, but useful short-cuts that I can't use with my push cart are pretty rare.

Sand Bottles
 

When I walk or carry, I use your sand bottle....giggle..

I do carry when I played the championship but I usually only played nine.

Okay, looking for advice...

Does anybody have a good way to carry sand when you push a cart? I really want to fix my divots, and do the best I can without sand...which admittedly isn't much. But I haven't come up with a good way yet.

Input please.

Put it in a big mouth water bottle. Bags always have a place for a water bottle.

I've heard several mentions of sand bottles in this thread. The wife and I were down to TV over Memorial Day weekend closing on our house and I finally let curiosity get the best of me and asked somebody what the heck those oddly topped bottles on golf cars even were. He explained the sand bottle concept to me.

Most of my golfing (which was years ago) was in Michigan and nobody there ever had anything like a sand bottle. If you made a divot, you just grabbed the clump of grass you'd ripped up, put it back in place and tamp it down with your iron. I guess I'm still not 100% clear on the concept of the sand bottle. You make a divot and then fill it with sand? Is this special sand? Do you replace the grass you tore up?

Well, I'm sure the first time I play and make a divot, it'll be explained quite thoroughly to me! And I'm looking forward even to that! I've still got a couple of years of work ahead of me before I retire, but I'm counting down the days before I can become a frog!

I'm no expert. (I'm sure those who are will correct me...heheh.) But in Florida, most of the soil is rather sandy. And Florida divots are rarely a solid piece of turf that can just be placed back in the soil. Even if they are, it would rarely take hold in the sandy soil.

So the common practice is to just put sand in the divot to bring it back up to the original ground level and let nature take its course. The divot then repairs itself fairly quickly.

(By the way, I did get myself a regular plastic water bottle, filled it with sand and put it my bag today as I walked the course. Worked just fine. I feel better now. :) )

I quoted this part of your post because it is important. Just fill the divot and smooth it to ground level. I see many who leave a pile of sand much higher than the grass. The Bermuda will grow over the pile leaving a bump instead of a level surface. The goal is to replace the soil removed with sand.

I have a Clicgear push cart. They make a bottle that hangs on the side.

My speed cart came w/a sand bottle.

Downside
 

No sand bottle is the biggest downside to walking. The second is a bad back. A pull cart can help solve both of these problems as you can find a place for the sand bottle in some of the larger bags. Occasionaly I see someone ("young" and strong) walking on a championship course but not often.