Graham Averill has turned 50 this year and he’s freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he’s decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He is now an 8.1. Welcome to his midlife crisis.

I’m just gonna come out and say it. I don’t like golf carts. I understand these carts have their place. They make the sport a lot more accessible to a variety of people, which is great, and buddy golf trips wouldn’t be the same if we had to lug coolers of beers on our backs for 18 holes. But I like to walk when I play golf. I like the exercise and I like the added challenge it presents. 

I know that makes me weird but I feel good about myself after I finish a walking round regardless of my score. Do I have some deep-seated issues around exercise, effort and work ethic that I should work out with a therapist? Probably. Am I going to seek help? Probably not. 

And I’ll be the first to admit that I’m pretty much smoked at the end of 18 holes if I’m walking. I live in the mountains and walking my home course is a Herculean effort that involves covering seven miles and climbing well over 1,000 feet of elevation gain, all while carrying a 20- to 30-pound bag on my back. It ain’t easy and by the time I hit hole 16, I’m usually out of water and counting down the number of swings I have to complete before I can belly up to the bar in the air-conditioned clubhouse.

A lot of readers have suggested I should stop walking and start taking a cart to help me conserve energy and stay fresh through 18. My own coach suggested I start riding more often than walking so that I could get more reps in.

These are reasonable suggestions and I pride myself on being open-minded so in the last couple months, I’ve been interspersing cart rounds with my typical walking rounds to see if getting off my feet boosts my performance. 

And the results of this experiment? 

Riding in a cart definitely reduces fatigue but it doesn’t help my score. And there’s some science to prove it. A recent study looked at the impact of using golf carts on elite players, analyzing a variety of metrics on the same golfers comparing rounds that they walked with a caddie versus rounds that they rode in a cart. 

Side note: I love the idea of scientists spending hard-earned grant money to study something as silly as golf cart usage. 

What they found was obvious. Walking is more physically demanding in terms of step count and energy expenditure and the player’s core temperature … but the performance metrics that they studied (carry distance, clubhead speed and ball speed) didn’t differ for these golfers whether they were riding or walking. The study suggested that golf cart use would mitigate fatigue and preserve neuromuscular function but the scientists wouldn’t go so far as to claim that riding gives the player a performance advantage. 

Scientists, am I right? 

A separate study performed by the Colorado Center for Heath and Sports Science in 2022 took score and mental focus into consideration when comparing three different modes of transportation: walking with a push cart, walking with an electric trolley and riding in a motorized cart. The study found that the golfers scored best on the mental focus test while walking with an electric push cart. The golfers scored one stroke better on a nine-hole course while walking, regardless of the kind of cart they used. 

Obviously, riding in a cart is a great way to help mitigate fatigue which could impact decision making and the purity of your swing later in the round. I know the swings I make on the 18th hole aren’t as good as the swings I make on the eighth hole. Fatigue is a factor. I can’t deny it. 

But I think, in general, golfers play their best in situations that they’re used to. If you always take a cart, you’re going to play better when you’re using a cart. If you always walk, you’re going to play better when you’re walking. 

I didn’t play exceptionally well during my rounds with a cart. I played some of those rounds solo and some with friends and the results were pretty much the same. I played fine. Low 80s, mostly. But I felt like I was always struggling with focus and tempo while playing from a cart. The whole process seems rushed. Ultimately, I feel like I have a hard time getting into a rhythm if I’m not walking and I am constantly stretching before shots to stay loose. I injured my back when I was a teenager and keeping my lower back loose is a battle whenever I’m sitting. It’s a constant struggle when I’m using a cart but it’s not an issue when I’m walking. Once I get loose during a walking round, I pretty much stay loose unless I have to wait 10 minutes between shots because the course is crowded.

But I definitely wasn’t physically tired at the end of 18 holes like I am when I walk. After 18 holes in a cart, I felt like I could play another 18. I can’t say I’ve ever felt that way while walking. So there might be something to it in terms of increasing my reps like my coach suggested. 

As for how my golf game has been this week …

After a full week off of all golf activities (damn day job!), I jumped back into it with three rounds and a couple of good practice sessions. I’ve been working on hinging properly (not too early, not too late) with a couple of drills and it seems like it adds some pop to my irons. I was worried that a week off would completely destroy my golf game and I definitely had some rust to knock off, especially on the greens. It’s as if I forgot how to putt. I played 18 holes with a buddy over the weekend (in a cart) and I had seven three-putts. Seven. I shot 85 which is not a great score but, holy crap, seven three-putts!

Also, I’m pretty excited to be in a place with my golf game where I can have a bad day and shoot 85. There was a point not that long ago where 85 would have been worth celebrating. 

Ultimately, my handicap didn’t change this week. It dropped to an even 8.0 after a decent nine-hole round but I played 11 holes yesterday at three-over and the handicap jumped back up to 8.1. 

I’m traveling again this weekend but I’m taking my clubs with me and get to play two rounds at a swanky course so I’m excited to report back about how well my game travels next week. 

Dig deeper into one golfer’s struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week’s Scratch By 50 where Graham dishes on a few lessons he’s learned so far.