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As defined under the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374), golf cart is a &#;village vehicle&#;. Village vehicles are governed by the Road Traffic (Village Vehicles) Regulations (Cap. 374N). The major regulations in relation to golf carts are:
Basically drivers of golf carts shall comply with all traffic regulations as if they are drivers of motor vehicles.
Hold the , you mean to tell me you&#;re actually shopping for a golf cart to golf with!?
I joke because golf carts are used for far more than just golf nowadays and with the radical growth and development of the golf cart industry, it can be overwhelming shopping for a cart to golf with. Fortunately I find myself in a unique position because not only do I build and sell golf carts for a living, I also golf, and have used various models of custom golf carts to golf with over the years.
So based on my experience, this is what YOU need to know when shopping for a golf cart to golf with!
So once you know what make, model, color, and tires you&#;re allowed to have, make sure your pro shop doesn&#;t have stipulations against accessories like sound systems, backseats, etc. This might be obvious to most of you, but it never hurts to doublecheck. The last thing you want to do is buy a golf cart that meets the courses standards but then you figure out that the rippin sound system you had installed in your cart is against the course&#;s rules.
You might already know your course only approves certain makes and models, but hearing that they require certain tires might have you scratching your head. Some golf courses don&#;t allow all-terrain tires on their property since they can tear up the course due to their aggressive tread. Typically turf or street tires are required which have an unaggressive tread. Your course could just tell you &#;no all terrains allowed&#; or they could go as far as having a list of approved tires (I&#;ve seen that many times).
Many times over the years I&#;ve heard of golf courses requiring certain OEMs, colors, tires, either gas or electric, while also banning features like aftermarket bodies, sound systems and backseats.
Does the golf cart you&#;re purchasing come with the bare golfing necessities?
Just because you&#;re buying a golf cart doesn&#;t necessarily mean it&#;s ready for the golf course. One popular necessity shoppers typically forget to look for is the score card holder. There are many examples but two examples would be the Club Car Onward and Evolution. Scorecard holders are an option for both models but not a standard option. Not saying both of those carts aren&#;t great for golfing, because they are, I&#;ve used both, but you just need to look out for those small details while shopping and make sure you have those specific options added.
Some bigger necessities that could be forgotten is the golf bag attachments (specifically on 4 passenger models). If you&#;re buying a 4 passenger golf cart, there&#;s a good chance you&#;ll need to add a golf bag attachment for the backseat to hold your bags. Another prime example would be dash storage for your golf balls, tees, as some dash kits are made for road use and not golfing. I&#;m a big fan of DoubleTake&#;s Sentry Dash as it has excellent storage options, but it doesn&#;t have holes for your golf balls or tees, so the sentry dash might not be your best choice.
DO YOU WANT A NON-LIFTED OR LIFTED GOLF CART?
This is one question I would have never though of had I not golfed with a lifted golf cart all summer.
The main reason customers like lifted golf carts is because they think they look better and I agree with that for the most part. But I don&#;t think it&#;s worth it when it comes to golfing. I golfed with a 4 inch lifted golf cart all summer and it was annoying having to jump in and jump out of it instead of easily sliding in and out of it like I can a standard course&#;s golf cart. The drive by the golf ball and scoop it up with my hand trick was fairly difficult to pull off since I was so much higher off the ground. My golf bag was mounted on the backseat footrest so the top of my bag was nearly eye level with me and I had pull my clubs way up in the air to get them out of my bag. And last but not least, I regularly caught tree branches with the roof since the cart was so much taller (I&#;m also not the best golfer out there so I play around trees to often).
Now I don&#;t mean to totally discourage you from buying a lifted golf cart, as they are sweet looking, and having a lifted golf cart means you can run larger tires which means a better top speed. But if you think you&#;ll find the aspects annoying that I found annoying, you might want to go the non-lifted route, which is what I intend to do next summer.
IS BEING ABLE TO DRIVE LONG RANGES IMPORTANT TO YOU?
No, I don&#;t mean driving long ranges with your driver, I mean driving long ranges on your golf cart. I shouldn&#;t have to tell you how to hit long range bombs with your driver because you should know that the only way to do that is by ignoring your swing form and by buying the newest, most expensive driver out there. Right?
Jokes aside, having a golf cart that can be driven many miles all within the same day might be very important to you and here&#;s why.
If you plan on golfing 18 holes in the morning, then you, the spouse, and/or the kids want to take the golf cart all around town in the afternoon, you might want to consider going gas or a large lithium ion battery because you&#;ll need long range capability.
Smaller lithium ion batteries and lead acid batteries can only push your golf cart around 20 miles per charge (it&#;d be far less if you have a high powered motor/controller), so they&#;re not a great option if your golf cart will be used on the course and around town on a regular basis. Now you might be thinking &#;Sloan, My golf cart will never be driven 20 miles within one day&#; and that&#;s fine, but the real problem you&#;ll run into is when the golf cart is NOT charged after use. Picture yourself waking up on a beautiful Saturday morning, you have a tee time at 9am for 18 holes with the fellas, you hop in your golf cart, turn it on, and you see that it only has 25% charge left because your kids forgot to plug it in last night. You&#;re not going to be very happy because your cart is not going to make it to the course, 18 holes, and back.
Now picture having a gas golf cart that will go 150 miles per tank, or a large lithium ion battery that&#;ll go 70 miles per charge, you hop in your cart and you see you have a quarter of a tank of gas, or you&#;re at 25% charge. You&#;re not going to be concerned because your cart will easily outlast those 18 holes and them some.
If long range isn&#;t important to you, and you&#;re trying to spend the least amount upfront, lead acid might be your best bet. But if you&#;re more interested in the long expected lifespan and quick charge capabilities of lithium ion technology, you might want to spend a little more on that smaller lithium ion battery.
IS A 2 OR 4 PASSENGER GOLF CART BETTER FOR YOU?
On the surface, the decision to go with a 2 vs 4 passenger golf cart might seem easy, and though they are both great for golfers, there are pros and cons to both.
2 Passenger: Typically best for the golfer that will only use their golf cart for golfing and nothing else.
1-2 feet shorter than a 4 passenger golf cart which means it takes it up less space in your garage!
Bags will sit at a traditional height (bags typically sit higher in the air if resting on a 4 pass golf cart&#;s backseat footrest)
You lose the extra covered storage that you could have under the flipdown backseat.
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You lose the ability to haul more than 2 people since you only have one seat
4 Passenger: Typically great for a multi purpose cart. Can be used for golfing, to haul the family around, grab groceries, etc.
1-2 feet longer than a 2 passenger golf cart.
If your bag attachment assembly requires your bags to be on the backseat footrest, your bags could sit higher than you&#;d prefer.
If you have an 88&#; extended top to cover the backseat passengers, you could find yourself hitting your roof every time you grab or put your clubs away.
Can haul four people
Can provide covered/hidden storage depending on backseat (Max 5, Mach 3, Genesis 250, many OEM backseats)
Though I listed multiple variables that you should consider when choosing between a 2 or 4 passenger cart to golf with, it essentially comes down to this. Will you need a seat for a 3rd or 4th passenger? If no, is the hidden storage/cooler you might have under your backseat worth it? If no, then a 2 passenger golf cart is probably your best option.
EXTRA THINGS TO CONSIDER
GPS RANGE SCREENS
EZGO, Yamaha, and Club Car, have an option to add a GPS touchscreen so you know your yardage/range on the golf course. And to my knowledge, the newer emerging manufacturers like Evolution, Advanced EV, Icon, do not provide GPS touchscreens yet, so you might want to go the Big 3 route if that option interests you.
However, you want to make certain that your golf course has been mapped, meaning, your GPS screen will actually provide your yardages. I haven&#;t seen this happen a lot, but I have seen where customers opt for the GPS screen and figure out that their course isn&#;t mapped out yet so their screen is useless.
FENDER FLARES
I learned this the hard way. I typically golf early in the morning while there&#;s still plenty of dew on the grass, and when you&#;re driving a golf cart that has a wheel base wider than the golf cart itself, both you and the golf cart are destined to get soaked from your tires throwing that water up in the air.
So if your wheel base is flush or a little wider than your golf cart, I&#;d strongly recommend fender flares because they&#;ll make a huge difference in keeping both you and your golf cart dry.
SQUEAKS AND RATTLES!
One of my biggest pet peeves. Nothing is more annoying than driving your golf cart and hearing something rattle, or squeak, and if you think it&#;s annoying driving down a smooth road, imagine hearing it while driving through bumpy grass on the golf course.
So when shopping for a golf cart, make sure you give it a test drive or maybe a little shake (might want to ask the salesman first) to see if you hear any annoying noises.
At BA Carts we call this the shake test. Not only do we test drive our carts and listen for squeaks/rattles, we also shake the roof and roof struts while parked to hear if there&#;s any squeaks/rattles that you might hear while driving. One popular spot for squeaks is where the roof strut meets the roof because when powder coating is against aluminum, it&#;s a squeak waiting to happen.
POORLY INSTALLED SOUNDBARS OR OTHER ACCESSORIES!
Even the best maintained golf courses are not as smooth as a nice road, so if you have an accessory like a soundbar that&#;s mounted poorly, and you&#;re flying down the bumpy grass along the fairway, don&#;t be surprised if that soundbar ends up smoking you in the head. Yes, I know that might sound extreme but I&#;ve seen examples of that happen many times over the years because a chintzy/weak mount for a heavy accessory is no match for the violent shakes your golf cart will experience on the golf course.
I&#;m not advocating against soundbars, but if you want one or any other heavy bolt accessory, make sure it&#;s mounted well.
SUSPENSION!
Not all golf cart suspensions are made equally and sometimes you might have to sacrifice speed for suspension depending on the make and model. Some golf carts are more so built to handle 4 passengers while driving 25mph down the road while other golf carts are made to feel like they glide through bumpy grass. The best way to decide if you like the suspension is by test driving the cart through grass, watching videos of the cart run through grass, reading about that cart in the forums, etc. In other words, just because it felt nice driving through the parking lot or road by the dealership, doesn&#;t mean it&#;ll feel great while driving on the golf course.
Two important ways to help smoothen your suspension is changing out the heavy duty rear springs and running a larger tire versus a larger rim. Four passenger golf carts typically have heavy duty rear springs to keep the rear end of the cart from sagging while turning and accelerating. These springs can make for a stiff/bumpy ride if it&#;s typically just you and a friend riding on the cart, so you might want to have softer springs installed in the rear. Furthermore, the more sidewall you have on your tires, the more your tires can provide a cushiony ride if you run a lower PSI. So instead of running those 14&#; rims with 22&#; all terrain tires (4&#; sidewall), you might want to opt for the 10&#; rim with 22&#; tire because a 6&#; sidewall can make a huge difference in comfort on the course. (Once you tire is broken in and well beaded to the rim, I&#;d recommend running your PSI as low as 18 which will the ride much softer).
CLOSING:
Of course, there are many more variables to consider when choosing your golf cart to golf with but I just wanted to cover my thoughts and experiences since I&#;ve been both the golfer, and the salesman.
If you are currently shopping for a golfing cart and you have questions, please ask away at the link below.
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