GOLF CARTS,
THINK
LOW SPEED
VEHICLES
GOLF SCHMARTZ
The history of the golf cart is a story of a product lounging for decades in the shadow of the automo-
bile as a benign niche product that putts around golf courses mostly on weekends.
While the origins of the golf cart appear to be in dispute, the small, motorized caddies that blossomed
in popularity in the 1950s has lounged, historically, as a novelty item just waiting for its chance to hit
the big time.
We won’t dispute the origins here, but we can review the argument. Some say the golf cart originat-
ed as a battery-powered vehicle designed for golf courses in the early 1930s, specifically 1932 “when
the first custom-made golf cart hit a golf course in Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas,” according to Nerds
Magazine. Others point to the 1950s when the game itself and the gas-powered carts began to rise in
popularity.
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Interestingly, it is said that in the 1930s no self-re-
specting golfer would dare to be seen in a loud,
annoying golf cart – giving up the healthy walk
through the course and the human caddy that
went with it. At first, golf carts were relegated to
the disabled golfer, which puts it in the category
of a niche within a niche. Nobody had a use for
them except golfers and no golfers had a use for
them except disabled golfers. That limited the
target audience considerably.
Fast forward to 2018, however, and market anal-
ysis points to a product poised for prime time but
still waiting for the starter’s pistol to send manu-
facturing into a sprint.
Among the more optimistic analysis, Allied Mar-
ket Research claims the golf cart industry will
climb to a value of $2.59 billion by 2023 with
growth clipping along at a CAGR of 7.2 percent
from 2017 to 2023.
IBIS World, on the other hand, has posted one
of the more conservative estimates, pointing to
an expected annual growth rate of 3.1 percent,
starting with revenues of about $1 billion in an
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WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM
industry that currently employs a relatively small
workforce of 2,587 people.
The Game of Golf is Declining
One threat that Ibis World is taking seriously is
the current decline of the game of golf.
At a glance, that decline seems palpable, but it
may also be the case of the boy who cried wolf
– that boy being the National Golf Foundation
itself.
By their numbers, the National Golf Foundation
says there were less than 500 golf courses built
from 2005 to 2015 and that the number of cours-
es closing is now out pacing those being built.
This seems all the more alarming when com-
pared to the decade of 1995 to 2005 when close
to 5,000 golf courses were constructed.
Industry experts now point to “the perfect storm,”
and look for clues that indicate why the game
is in decline and why the golf cart industry will
stumble with it. People don’t have time for golf
anymore and membership prices are too high,