Why Cart Rules & Restrictions?

Throughout the year there is nothing more frustrating to see traffic control stakes driven over, see people completely ignore the cart-path only rules or not follow the cart signs on the course. 

I know cart rules can be an inconvenience to both the members and their guests but we sometimes have to make a compromise to ensure the course is protected while any inconvenience is minimized. In order to ensure the course is in the best possible condition all the times it is necessary to restrict carts to protect it from suffering damage from the traffic after it rains. The easiest way to do this would be to close the entire course to carts, which becomes a major inconvenience for everyone so the best compromise to get carts out is to create rules to minimize the potential for damage.

I have four main sets of cart rules:

1. Worst case, cart path only; I use this when we have excessive rain and the course has had no time to dry out, or in the winter when the grass is not growing and therefore most susceptible to damage as recovery is at its slowest.
2. Cart path only with some open fairways for traffic; I use this when the course has started to dry out and certain fairways are dry enough for carts while others are still too wet and damage can occur. The worst fairways being 7, 8, 11, 13 tee side & 15-18. Usually when this rule is in place I will recheck the course during the day, opening up more areas as they dry out.
3. Follow signs and traffic stakes; At this point the course is dry enough to let carts scatter but there are still some areas that are too saturated and where damage can occur.
4. Best case: Scatter!

I set the rules by driving the entire course in each morning after a rainfall and seeing how just how wet areas are. Now that we have three seasons behind us it is pretty easy to set the course up for carts as I know the main areas that I need to keep carts out of. However, at times, it is still necessary to close the entire course as it is not practical to let carts out due to the fairways (and/or roughs) being just too wet. Some of the fairways drain quicker than others and therefore carts can be let out on them sooner than others. I often get the argument that “it’s just me and one cart, I won’t do that much damage”, however, while that may be the case, if someone else turns up, then we would have to let them out also and suddenly it’s not just one cart. The following is a picture of the damage carts leave when driven through areas that are too wet.

I have also been asked if it’s “is it ok if we just stay in the rough” and again there are other factors to consider. The first is that some of our roughs are very steep (and besides the safety implications) when the carts ride in these areas they slide, tearing the turf and causing damage, secondly when cart traffic is concentrated in many areas of the roughs it causes compaction, wear and thin turf usually along the edge of the fairways which as most will agree is the worst place to have thin turf and a bad lie.

Here is a couple of pictures from alone 7 fairway bunker. There was a lot of traffic in the rough between the bunker and the fairway and it caused the turf to thin out. I added stakes to prevent carts from driving there and the results were striking (although notice the wear then moved onto the fairway....)

Another issue, especially in the winter, is recovery time and I need to factor that into the equation also. Therefore some of the damage that can be tolerated during the summer cannot be tolerated during the winter because the grass is not growing and therefore cannot recover as quickly as it would when actively growing, hence the rules may change a little from season to season.

My goal is to ensure that everyone can get out to enjoy the course with the minimum amount of inconvenience as possible, while also ensuring there is minimal damage to the course.