The Golf Cart Isn’t A Golf Cart Anymore

The classic golf cart is being displaced by some very fancy upgrades – but where do you carry your clubs now?

Is the golf cart considered golf equipment, or have golf carts become something else?  That may depend on how they’re used.

When you think of golf carts, you are really thinking of what the industry – the E-G-Go and Club Cars of the world – called golf cars. Today, a few communities are actually making the golf cart an accepted mode of transportation, not just to and from the course, but around town.

The Villages in Florida has so many golf carts that there’s a classified section in their newspaper featuring carts for sale.  There’s no shortage of the vehicles around town. There’s even a section in http://thevillagesflorida.com/ devoted to them.

Palm Desert, California, has golf cart lanes painted on designated streets for use by residents who prefer to use their golf course transportation for visiting friends or local businesses. There’s even a Golf Cart Parade every year, originally started in the 1960s and made an annual event in 1983.

It should come as no surprise that companies have popped up to address this alternative transportation need.  And as surely as night follows day, the US DOT has created a special category of low power vehicles or neighborhood electric vehicles designed to be driven in areas where the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less.

Two such companies are Streetrods and Brue & Yin.