Many of the (golf) hardos out there will have a strong take on this.  They will say no, and you are a sally if you use a push cart.  They will tell you you should carry your bag like a boss, or just spend the money and get a cart.  Well I’m here to tell you if you think using a push cart is dumb, or is only for women or old people, then you need to rethink that.

Let me give you my side of the story and why I am a strong proponent of getting a push cart.  Five years ago I joined a local golf club that had a great deal for young adults.  I wasn’t really thinking about joining a club except I was growing tired of finding poor tee times on weekends, or leagues taking up all the tee sheets during the week.  Also there aren’t too many nice public courses in the immediate greater Boston area.  You need to drive 30-60 minutes to play a nice public track.  I just had a kid and if I was going to get out and golf, I didn’t want to spend extra time driving to these courses, or having a hard time getting a tee time, or deciding where to play.  So I joined this club that was 14 minutes door to door from my house to the putting green.

Before I joined the club, I thought push carts (let me stop for a second since push carts and pull carts are seemingly used interchangeably.  They are different.  A push cart is exactly that – you PUSH it in front of you, whereas a pull cart is one that you PULL) were for old people.  I never thought I’d use one because I would always ride a cart when I golfed.  If I ever played 9 holes (hardly ever), I would also ride a cart.

Fast forward to golf at a country club.  While I would love to always play 18 holes, the reality is you will play 9 holes quite frequently when you’re a member somewhere, whether it’s on a Tuesday afternoon or Thursday morning before work – whenever you could squeeze 9 holes in you would.

So I joined a 9 hole league that was on Tuesday afternoons after work.  Great, I thought, I could play 9 during the week and then hopefully 18 on the weekend.  First night in the league I got a cart.  Pretty normal to me, I figured.  Well, the other 3 guys I was paired up with all walked or used a push cart themselves so I was riding alone, not engaging in conversation with them, or slowly driving along while chatting with them while they walked.  Yeah, it was pretty awkward.  It also cost me $10 to rent the cart (yeah, not expensive but still, pretty pointless) so the following week I would carry my bag.  The problem with carrying a bag is, you have no place to put all your stuff.  I would bring a drink, snacks, whatever.  I had no place to put them, and every time I’d go hit a shot it would be a huge pain in the ass.  But there was something I realized while carrying my bag: I liked the exercise and thought it was a nice way to focus and think about my next shot, as opposed to driving around in a cart.  It also eliminated the “worst part of golf” – cleaning out the golf cart of all your belongings when you’re done playing.

So I caved and got a push cart.

At first, it was a bit weird and I was a little embarrassed, especially around the younger golfers.  But then I quickly got over it, as my bad boy had ample storage (places for snacks and extra balls!, scorecard and umbrella holders, drink holder and a bonus pouch/net-thingy for anything else.  I mean, look at this thing:

clicgear-35-push-cart_1

Not a bad specimen at all.

It got to the point where I would walk whenever I played 18, not just 9 holes.  I started to dislike riding in a cart – preferring to push my clicgear 3.5 around the track.  The benefits of using a push cart FAR outweighed walking or riding:

  1. Exercise
  2. Ability to focus in on your game and your next shot more easily
  3. No cleaning out the cart after your round (again, worst part of golf)

There is one important note here.  If you are a regular, weekend golfer, there is no need to use a push cart.  Most public tracks will make you take a cart and it’s included in your fee.  It’s a no brainer to ride for those instances.  BUT, if you belong to a club, or if you routinely only play 9 holes during the week, don’t be a hardo, getting a push cart is the way to go.