And for dessert, let’s talk about golf carts – the only legitimate means of transportation around a huge golf course, from the starting area of one series of holes, to another.
A golf cart is a small vehicle designed to transport golfers and their clubs. It is usually designed for two passengers, more rarely for four. As a rule, it is electrically powered so as not to pollute the environmentally friendly area of the golf course with exhaust and fluids. For example, this car is equipped with six regular car batteries.
When fully charged, they can accelerate the car up to 30 km/h. Operating the car is extremely simple: there is a button which turns on the power, switches the direction, two pedals and a steering wheel. It’s just like a child’s electric car in the park.
There is an opinion that the first motorized means of transport was used on the golf course by an American from Arkansas, who saw a three-wheeled car used in Los Angeles to drive old people to the stores. He bought one for himself, but found it difficult to drive in the field. From the 1930s until the early 1950s, such cars were used mostly by disabled people who had difficulty walking on the course themselves.
The creation of golf cars affected the sport in two ways. First, golf courses had to be rebuilt to prevent cars’ wheels from destroying the grass. Many miles of specially paved roads changed the look and playability of the courses. Second, the advent of cars dramatically reduced the need for caddies, the player’s assistant whose duties included carrying sports equipment and helping with advice, which negatively affected both the quality of the courses (caddies regularly filled potholes left by clubs and smoothed the surface of bunkers) and the popularity of the sport (the caddies’ work attracted young people to golf).
Prices for golf carts on the Russian market start at 600,000 and end around 3.5 million rubles. These cars in the photo are not the most expensive – you can buy them for 600-700 thousand rubles. If the definition “not expensive” is appropriate here at all. But such golf – it is an expensive pleasure, because the construction of golf courses requires huge financial investment. Now this exciting sport is available in general only to members of clubs that pay a lot of fees, which in general does not contribute to the popularity of golf in Russia, which, incidentally, has already appeared in the program of the Summer Olympic Games.
More than a game
Golf is more than a game. It is a way of thinking and living. Curiously, according to statistics, about a third of the members of the world’s golf clubs do not play at all: for them to be in a club is an image and a business communication. It is no secret that most deals in the West are discussed on the golf course, and the golf clubs in the back seat of the car can tell more about the status of their owner than the car brand.