It’s hard to know for sure just how many golfers in the U.S. walk when they play. You’ve likely seen a few, and you might be an occasional walker yourself. But our own eyes tell us that carts are almost as big a part of the game as putting and cursing.
There are a number of strong arguments in favor of walking, starting with it’s better for your health. A recent study published in the European Journal of Sports Science reported that walking the course—whether carrying your bag or wheeling either a manual or electric “trolley” as the Brits call them—burns between 650 and 750 calories.
There’s also evidence that walking on grass, rather than driving on cart paths, sharpens your senses and appreciation for your surroundings as well as your skills. You just have to watch the PGA and LPGA Tour pros to understand how trodding the turf and using the experience to “feel” the conditions and prepare for the next shot is beneficial. Throw in the quiet, the energy, and the communing with nature and it’s no wonder playing the game on foot helps you play it better.
And yet, still we ride.
So how about we offer another reason to walk that’s rarely mentioned, but fits the growing appreciation for golf, notably by the millions of new golfers who’ve recently come to the game.
Done right, walking is more fun.
Not shlepping the bag, picking it up, throwing it over one or both shoulders, trudging to the ball, putting the bag down, and repeating that process 50, 60, or 100 times a round. If you want to have more fun, play golf with an electric trolley. Not one you have to push, but one that follows you like an obedient pet.
“Follow caddies” are three- or four-wheeled, battery-powered machines that carry your bag (and often other paraphernalia), and stay with you step by step thanks to a little remote control in your pocket or on your belt. The best of them, like the three models from Stewart Golf—a leading electric-caddie manufacturer based in the UK, where walking is the rule, not the exception—have no problem going up and down hills, have more than enough power for a round or two, can safely roll on greens, and, most importantly follow the cardinal rules for human caddies: “Show up, keep up, and shut up.”
Other features of Stewart’s VERTX, X10, and Q Follow trolleys include small size and light weight. The top-of-the-line Q Follow series easily folds so compactly it fits in the front of a Porsche. The “MyGolfSpy” website called it the “easiest to fold and carry,” while declaring its follow operation “flawless.” It’s made from a microcellular composite material that is not only light but incredibly strong. And the Q Carbon Series comes in a choice of three stunning finishes—Red, Blue, and Raw—liquid-ceramic coatings as used in the aerospace, military, and automotive industries.
But what’s really cool about any Stewart Golf follow caddie is you get to walk unencumbered and unworried, knowing your sticks are as close as you want them. No zig-zagging across fairways, no running back for the wrong club, no face-full of your cart partner’s stinky stogie.
True, you won’t be able to blame a caddie for mis-clubbing you! And you’ll still burn all those calories.
