Alternative uses for golf’s go-to vehicle

The Washington Yacht and Country Club’s armada of cream-colored golf carts exist solely to transport golfers around its 18-hole, par 72 golf course. For more than 60 years, golf carts have primarily served that purpose, but recently, people are leaving the carts on the fairways and purchasing these vehicles for other activities.

“Most of our customers don’t play golf,” said Wendy Harvey, office manager at H&H Golf Cart, Inc. in Chocowinity. “They use it around farms, campgrounds and around their house.”

And in order for these vehicles to brave new terrain, companies like EZ-GO and Bad Boy Buggies are sending the 12-inch wheel carts to the private courses and filling their locally owned stores with more functional, all-terrain vehicles, capable of traversing the average owner’s backyard.

Most golf courses, including Cypress Landing Golf Club and WYCC, do not allow patrons to bring their own personal carts, an attribute companies like EZ-GO have picked up on.

The Express L4, one of EZ-GO’s most popular personal models, comes equipped with leaf springs with hydraulic shock absorbers and grooved, all-terrain tires. Not your average golf-bag toting golf cart. One-half of H&H’s showroom is dedicated to this model.

“People use them a lot to put their boats in the water too, to put their jet skis in, pull trailers around, that kind of thing,” Harvey said. “They’re also pretty nice in small communities where a lot of people talk to each other. Why would you get in your car and go talk to them when you can just hop in your golf cart?”

The other half or the showroom features another stock vehicle — this one from Bad Boy Buggies — that comes with a camouflage paint job, clearly appealing to the hunter’s eye. Like EZ-GO’s Terrain 250 model, the Bad Boy Buggies at H&H are a hybrid between golf cart and all-terrain vehicle.

If that’s not adventurous enough, EZ-GO’s Web site even gives its customers the ability to customize their vehicle of choice.

Harvey says that while the carts she sells are top notch, she regularly receives requests to modify them even more.

“We get weird requests all the time,” Harvey said. “This guy bought a golf cart that was pink. He did it as a joke because the guys at the campground were giving him a fit because he didn’t like pink.”

H&H has even fitted vehicles for handicap clients, making it easier for them to get from point A to point B.

“We have the customer that doesn’t care how it looks, as long as it gets them from here to there,” Harvey said.

Even with the factory standard modifications, most carts sold on the open market are still electric.

As technology continues to advance, the cream-colored golf cart of old will become nothing more than a memory, as these vehicles have taken on new purpose.