Budget Beater: Skip The Cart And Carry Your Clubs When You Can

The health benefits of walking a round of golf are one thing, but when your bigger concern is your bottom line, carrying your bag while you play can be a huge money saver. When I say huge money saver, I’m probably not doing justice to the amount of money per year that you will save when you walk a course, but I’ll try and make it easier to understand. For example, if I play an early bird round at Riverbend Golf Course in Kent, it costs me $32. If I miss that pre-7:00 AM start, my rate goes to $42. If I add a cart to that, it climbs another $14 per person. That means by walking and teeing off with my early bird rate, I get a virtual 2 for 1 deal at my local course.

Continuing to The Golf Club at Echo Falls in Snohomish, their weekend Prime Time rate is $61 for 18 holes. Add another $15 for a cart (though it’s almost worth it for the hill leading to #12) it takes it up to $76 for 18 holes. That’s 25% more per round that I take a cart there, rather than getting every 4th round free, just for taking a cart. Continuing on to another local favorite, Auburn Golf Course in Auburn. Their weekend rate comes in at $43 a round and their power cart will cost an additional $14. Again, Just three rounds of paying for that cart will net the full cost of another prime weekend round.

When you are trying to save some cash on playing, a power cart becomes a luxury item. Of course, when you look at how much better you can play without that cart, you might just want to think about walking more often anyways. I’ve played three cart rounds this year and have yet to break 80. In the 6 walking rounds I’ve had, I’ve done it three times. By walking to my shots, rather than having someone drop me off at them, I can concentrate on my game and my scoring, not someone else’s. I can change clubs without the irritation of calling the cart back to me when I am waiting to hit. It’s just a more relaxed and easy way to play the game.

I’ll cover more of this side of the walk instead of ride scenario in an upcoming stroke saver, but for now, just think about how much you can save by getting some exercise and walking your favorite course instead of riding. Can you imaging getting a free round of golf every 2-3 months? That’s the savings you’ll see when you walk instead of ride.