I took up golf seriously at 52, which means I spent my first few years doing what everyone else did: riding. Cart fee, cart path, cart girl, cart. It took me a while to admit that the riding was half the reason my back felt stiff by the turn and the other half was that I was spending money to sit down. The day I decided to switch was a Tuesday in April, right after my group finished the front nine. I sat in the cart waiting on my buddy to mark his ball and I could not think of a single reason I needed to be sitting. So the next round, I walked. When I finally switched to walking with a Caddytek push cart, I found out what I had been missing. Here are ten reasons I have not gone back to riding, in the order I noticed them.
Walk the course the way I do, with a cart that folds flat in the bed of a pickup
The Caddytek CaddyLite 11.5 V3 is the push cart I have used for three seasons. It folds small, rolls smooth, and has a foot brake that actually holds on a slope.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →You get the exercise without the gym
A round of golf is somewhere between four and six miles of walking, depending on how crooked you hit it. My home course is 6,100 yards from the white tees, and my phone says a round comes to about five and a half miles once you add the walks between greens and tees. That is the whole workout, done before lunch, and it does not feel like a workout because you are chasing a ball and talking trash with your group. One Sunday last July I looked at my step counter when I got back to the truck and it read 14,000. I did not feel like I had done a thing. My Tuesday group has walked every round for three seasons now and we all sleep better that night.
You see the course the way it was designed
From a cart path you see the fairway through a windshield. Walking, you see the slope of the green, the bunker you cannot see from the path, the spot where the fairway tilts. Number 4 at my course is a short par 4 with a front edge you cannot see from the path, and the green slopes away there. Riding, I used to land short and watch my ball roll back toward the fairway. Walking up the left side, I can see the shape of the green and I know to take one more club. I play my home course twice a week and I still notice something new most rounds. It is the difference between watching a ballgame and being in the stands.
Your back will thank you by the 15th hole
Riding, you sit, then you twist, then you sit again. Walking with a push cart keeps you upright and moving, and the cart does the carrying. I used to finish rounds stiff and cranky, and my Tuesday group could tell by the way I stood at the 19th hole. One afternoon last season I walked eighteen, drove home, and puttered in the garage for two hours without a thought about my back. That had never happened after a riding round. Now I finish and I can still bend over to pick up my ball. That alone was worth the switch.
You save the cart fee every single round
I am not going to quote prices because they change, but the cart fee at my course is real money and it adds up fast when you play twice a week. I play somewhere north of thirty rounds a season, which means I used to hand over that fee thirty-plus times a year. One night last winter I sat down with a sticky note and added up the cart fees for the season. The number was bigger than I expected, and it was plain that the Caddytek had paid for itself before the Fourth of July in its first season. Everything since that week is money I keep. A push cart pays for itself over a season, and then it keeps paying. I am a retired shop teacher. I like things that pay for themselves.
You warm up instead of sitting cold
The first tee is a terrible place to be cold and tight. Walking the first few holes gets your blood moving the way a range session does, so by the time you are three holes in, you are loose. I hit better golf on the back nine when I walk, and I think this is why.
You get more time with your group
Riding, you spend half the round driving to your ball and waiting, and a lot of that waiting is spent watching your buddies hit from wherever they are. Walking, you are on the same path as your buddies, talking the whole way. Last fall, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, one of the guys told me on the walk up 15 that his grandson had just started shop class. We talked about it for two holes, about whether the kid would stick with it, and I do not think we would have had that conversation if we were shouting across the fairway from two carts. You do not get that in a cart.
The Caddytek folds small enough for a pickup bed
I drive an older pickup and my bag rides in the bed. The Caddytek CaddyLite 11.5 V3 folds down flat with its quad-fold frame, so it tucks in beside the bag without me having to tie anything down. That was the detail that sold me. A cart that does not fit your vehicle is a cart you will not use.
The foot brake holds on a slope
My home course has a few holes where the green sits above the cart path, and I used to watch my bag roll away while I putted. The foot brake on this Caddytek locks the rear wheel and it holds. I have not chased a runaway bag since I switched.
You carry less and keep what you need close
The Caddytek has a mesh net, a drink holder, and an umbrella holder, so the stuff I used to stuff in my pockets now rides on the cart. Sunscreen, a water bottle, a rain jacket, a few tees. I reach for them without digging through my bag, and I do not carry a thing I do not need.
You will play more golf, not less
This is the one nobody tells you. Walking with a push cart made the round feel like less of a production. I do not have to wait for a cart, I do not have to worry about cart path rules, and I can show up ten minutes before my tee time and still be ready. So I play more. That is the whole point, is it not?
What I'd Skip
I would skip the push cart if you have a serious knee or hip problem and your doctor says walking is a bad idea. I would also skip it if your course is so hilly that the members joke about it, because pushing a cart up a steep grade is work, and there is no shame in riding a cart on a course like that. I played a mountain course on a trip once, the kind where the cart paths all point uphill, and by the back nine I was glad the push cart was back home. My home course is flat enough that the cart does the work, and I would not pretend otherwise. And I would skip the idea that a push cart will fix your swing. It will not. It will just get you out there more, and that is plenty.
A push cart pays for itself over a season, and then it keeps paying. I am a retired shop teacher. I like things that pay for themselves.
If you have been thinking about walking, this is the cart to start with
The Caddytek CaddyLite 11.5 V3 has been in my rotation for three seasons and it still folds flat, rolls straight, and holds on a slope. It is the reason I walk every round now.
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