What are the economics of golf carts?

[0ldblu3]

Hi, I've looked around on some threads and I see that it is a pretty consistent cart charge of $10 to $20. So what is the course making on this? I take it that few of them actually own the carts, they rent them from a company that provides maintenance and insurance (??). Anyone know the breakdown on costs and profits?

[Fatphil]

I guess it's a major source of income for a glorified bag, beer and cel phone carrier.

Sure would rather give $20 to a high school kid and get some exercise.

Caddies have gone the way of the fax machine.

[MSchott]

It's hard to know for sure but it looks like a basic Club Car electric cart is $6-7K. Lets say each gets used on average 2X/day (more on a weekend) in foursomes with a cost of $40.00/round (each rider pays the $20.00 fee). That's $80.00/day. In Michigan where I live golf is played basically from May to October so 5 months or 150 days. Conservatively that's cart income of $12K/year. Of course these figures may be way off and there are the costs of electricity and maintenance. I don't know the life of an electric cart but it's probably a long time and we'll sat conservatively 5 years. You can see, even if my numbers are way off, an electric cart is a great investment for a golf course.