New Rule? Golf Carts & Championship Courses
 

So there was a posted rumor on FaceBook last week, regarding golf cart use at Championship Courses.

The Poster said, "As of November 1, 2023, no more than (2) Carts per foursome. Has anyone heard anything about this change?

Palmer Legends has a similar rule, in that they require if a group has more than 2 carts, 1 cart must be designated "Cart Path Only" on each hole. [The simple way to accomplish this goal, is to just split it up: Front 9/Back 9 or 1-6, etc.)

I can understand the logic, but not the liability and aggravation.

I don't want to ride in a gasoline powered golf cart. I wouldn't do it at a $20/Muni, I'm surely not going to do it at a course I'm paying $75 to play.

I'm surely not going to play golf in someone else's "Street Rod Golf Cart" or Atomic Car.

What about the liability? How is a course going to require someone, to trust someone else to drive them around a golf course, with hills, water, & sand hazards, in a 15 year old golf cart?

To say nothing of the fact, having to ride with some unknown stranger, takes all the fun and convenience out of having your own cart, set up exactly as you want to be.

& I suppose it's going to be revenue negative, as no one will ever rent a golf cart again.

So put your clubs on that other cart and walk the course.

All the championship courses have that rule but few (if any) enforce it. Worse on the executive courses where you might see four players, each in a separate cart. Yes, most holes are par 3 but not all. I agree with the OP and won't ride with a smokers, or in some uncomfortable funny cart. Most of the time when three carts are used, the players will take turns keeping the cart in the rough or on the path.

Everybody on the executive courses stay on the concrete path. The only ones that stray have the handicap placard on their cart allowing them to go on the grass.

Then walk, carry you’re bag, and get some real exercise :D

Most of the Championship courses have the 2 cart rule but at most some allow three. It would be curious what the liability is if you were forced to ride in a stranger's cart and he did something stupid and got you hurt. The executive courses shouldn't be a problem since most are all par three's and there is no reason to deviate from the cart path even the boneheads that drive around a puddle on the cart path creating ruts in the mud. During the Covid period using 4 carts on average spread up our round by 8 to 10 minutes which cut down the jack jawing of double occupied carts.

I’de prefer that. I walk 18 holes, 5 times a week now.

Unfortunately, that’s not practical in TV, other than maybe TDS.

There’s simply no way to maintain pace with people on Golf Carts, when it could be a mile or more walk, between 9’s, to say nothing of the walk from some Greens to the next Tee Box.

The reason I'm guessing to limit to two carts maybe because of the knuckleheads that can't seem to grasp the 90 degree rule and run down the length of the fairways and rutting the wet areas.

Such third world problems we have to put up here in The Villages

I plan to eventually walk the executive courses again after I get my second knee replacement done and leg strength back.

Exactly. Up north we always walked the 18 hole courses, but these (championship) courses are just not set up for walking. I'm sure the reason they want less carts is less wear and tear on the course, but I agree with people over the liability issues, and just the question of comfort. You don't know what you're getting into riding with strangers.

I wasn't feeling good the other day and the starter at Palmer let me take a 3rd cart, with the proviso that we only had 2 in the fairway at a time, which we pretty much followed. We might have slipped up a couple of times, just not paying attention.
I wonder if 4 people in 4 carts really put that much more wear and tear on the grass than 4 people in 2 carts, when you consider all of the back and forth that happens when one player hits it left, and the cart partner hits it right, and the cart is going back and forth across the fairway, as opposed to using two different carts, and each player heading straight for his own ball, hopefully staying on the cart path and rough as long as possible.

So what did you do prior to Covid, ride in a gas cart, or walk, either way go back to that. No worries about the change, unless you will be pleading with starter, and hope to get your way.

What does Covid have to do with it?

& I haven't ridden in a gas cart, since the 90's and not planning to start again.

& Starters don't make policy. They implement.

The wear and tear is most evident where 4 carts leave the cart paths wether they stay in the rough or proceed to the fairway.