My Beef with Cartpaths

After putting down 600 ton of asphalt in 21 hours this week, I believe I have the right to gripe out cartpaths, the arch-nemesis of the traditionalist. (not that I am one)

JUST WALK

Golf is a walking game, and there is no doubt about it. And in general I dont disagree with people who choose a golf cart, but I dont want 13 miles of cartpath around my golf course.

Its expensive. Its an eye soar. They will need to be replaced overtime. They create high traffic areas and poor grass conditions near curbs.

Its obvious that all golf courses need roads. Big trucks are always coming in and out of maintenance facilities with materials, and they need a way to get there and to the dump. And when road happens to be adjacent to a hole, absolutely use it as your carpath, but in general, I think we can do a better job of keeping the mileage down with the pavement.

Making a turn around a green, in out of play areas, wet spots, tees, absolutely is it acceptable to have cartpaths if your course gets heavy cart play. But I have to believe scattered carts through rough and fairways would be more than acceptable in terms of the balance between turf care and aesthetics/construction cost. And maybe it will even promote walking!

Picture: One of the articulating dump trucks used during the paving process.