LPGA Goes Cartin'

by Mulligan Stu on Mar 9, 2007 1:22 PM EST

I wrote yesterday about the new trend of pimped-out golf carts and offroadin'.

Well, today it's the LPGA that's going cartin', but at the golf course.

LPGA players are riding in carts this week during the MasterCard Classic in Mexico City. I read this recently in the tour diary Charlotte Mayorkas is writing for About.com:

In Hawaii, players had warned me about how hilly and long the Bosque Real Country Club course is. The distance between the putting green and the next tee box is great, so for this week each player and caddie will be using a golf cart for the entire round.

I assumed that meant the carts would ferry golfers and caddies from greenside to the next tee box. That sounds find, especially considering it helps keeps everyone on a good pace.

But is Bosque Real Country Club so hilly that professional golfers can't handle walking even areas through the green? Today, all over America, college golf tournaments are going on in which the golfers are not only walking, but carrying their own bags. But at Bosque Real, where much of the tee-to-green elevation change is downhill, the pros are riding in carts.

It shouldn't be happening.

Poll

Should golf carts be allowed in Tour events?

Only for special-needs players

3 votes

No, never

6 votes

Yes, at extremely hilly courses

6 votes

15 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

pros-n-carts

i work at a very upscale course in fayetteville, ark. it is on the side of a very big hill, and from the tips it like 7400 yards, and getting longer. i played on my college team and never road a cart, but the team that uses this course never walks. maybe they could if they were navy seals, or a highly trained covert marine group.
many changes will have to be made to this course for there to be any "pro" event to be held here under the current rules. we would have to provide carts to them to play the back nine just to avoid the risk of injury.

by rando on Mar 10, 2007 6:31 AM EST reply actions

thanks

Rando, thanks for your thoughts. I'm not opposed to the use of carts in ANY circumstance; in extreme cases, such as the one you described - and obviously if there are safety issues involved - then carts for the pros make sense.

It's just the Bosque Real course, from what I saw of it on TV, doesn't strike me as that type of course. Very hilly to be sure, a tough, strenuous walk, and using carts betweens the green and the next tee makes sense, but it didn't appear to be a course that would be just too hard to walk.

by Mulligan Stu on Mar 10, 2007 9:35 AM EST reply actions