Golf is a Walking Game

Because of injury, I haven't walked a round of golf for almost a year--until yesterday.  It was great to be out there with just a few clubs in a Sunday bag, walking the fairways again.  For me, golf is definitely not a good walk spoiled.  It was so nice to walk from shot to shot, taking the time to shake off any bad shots, and to size up the next one.

Golf is meant to be a walking game.  I can't imagine it was ever supposed to be a game where you jumped in a cart to race from shot to shot.  The golf cart is a wonderful invention for those who really need it because of mobility problems, but I have to believe golf courses that have a mandatory cart rule, like the majority of the courses in Myrtle Beach, are doing this for only one reason--money.  Golf carts don't, in my estimation, speed up play.  They also often do damage to the course, especially in wet weather.  And then, as if to add insult to injury, you sometimes get told you must play cartpath-only golf.  That's when you might be better off staying home. 

The unfortunate thing is that so many new courses are being designed as much to sell real estate as to promote the game of golf.  The end result is you have route marches between holes that make some courses damned near impossible to walk, even if you wanted to.

That was one of the things I loved about St Andrews in particular, and Scotland in general.  While I think they will make exceptions on most of the courses for those who have a disability and must use a cart, generally-speaking, if you want to play, you walk, laddie.  

I suppose, if you want to use a cart, that's your prerogative on most courses now, and so maybe it should be.  If the extra revenue helps keep courses going, and if it keeps more people playing the game, that's all good too.  All I know is, when you can't walk the course, you sure miss it.  I just hope I can get back to being healthy enough to walk again most of the time.  Heck, I don't know if it was because I was walking yesterday, but I even played better.