# How Does You Club Handle Carts?



## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

I'm curious about something. How does your club handle the assignment and recovery of the keys for your electric or gas carts?

At Killian Greens, we give the players a key with a numbered key tag on it when they check in at the counter in the pro shop. A little sign in the cart asks them to return the key at the end of the round. The key tags are numbered to match the numbers on the carts although the keys themselves are generic... Every key is the same and fits every cart.

It is very expensive to number the tags. The sheets with sticky numbers we used to buy aren't available anymore. We can't find a suitable replacement and the argument presented by those of us who work in the shop is that we don't need numbers on the tags. We can still ask a player to use a certain number cart and enter it in the computer, but the expense of numbering the tags is irrelevant. So far, the boss hasn't understood the solution and wants to write numbers on the tags, which looks very unprofessional.

We also average 6 keys a week that disappear. People pull out the key, probably stick it in their pocket and forget to return it to the shop. We can only guess they don't care enough to return them to us like some people occasionally do. About once a year we also have a cart stolen because we are too short staffed to have eyes everywhere.

How do you handle your keys and carts?


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

The starter has the keys. They are not cart specific (one key fits all carts). The carts are numbered, and the starter tells the player his cart number and hands him a key when he checks in after paying his fees. The cart number is also marked on the tee sheet, and the ranger stops by the starter a couple of times each hour to note on his sheet the cart numbers of the latest groups off the tee. 

The starter also slips a card into a holder with the starting time of the group. That way the ranger and the starter both know exactly what group they are approaching, how they are doing for pace, and whether any action needs to be taken.

Note: Every group doesn't have a cart, but there are always enough carts on the course that the walking groups can be easily identified from the tee sheet because they won't have any cart numbers after their names.


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

We don't have starters or rangers except on weekends and cart keys are given out in the pro shop. We're a bit more concerned about recovering keys. Does anyone use a different system?

Also, our carts are next to the pro shop/parking lot. The first tee is across the street, so there is nobody outside the shop to insure a player takes the requested cart.


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

DennisM said:


> We don't have starters or rangers except on weekends and cart keys are given out in the pro shop. We're a bit more concerned about recovering keys. Does anyone use a different system?
> 
> Also, our carts are next to the pro shop/parking lot. The first tee is across the street, so there is nobody outside the shop to insure a player takes the requested cart.


Most of the time the keys are just left in the cart when it's parked in the cart return area. The cart is cleaned up, put back on the line,and the key goes back in the box on the starter's desk. Every once in a while a player who is unfamiliar with our policy will bring the key back to me at the starter window, but that is not the norm. We lose very few keys that way, because the player doesn't put the key in his pocket while fiddling with his bag or changing shoes or whatever, and then forget he still has the key until he gets home. 

In my experience, players don't deliberately take keys. Years ago the course used to take a one dollar deposit for a key, refunded when the key was returned to the desk. That turned out to be more hassle than it was worth, especially when they were busy in the pro shop. They found out that they actually lose fewer keys by requiring them to be left in the cart.


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

I agree that players don't intentionally take keys, but we see vsaried results whether they return them to us or don't bother. Unlike card keys to hotel rooms that have some identification on them about the hotel, (which my youth group kids seemed to like to keep as souveniers), the cart keys don't have any sort of bag tag on them to make them any sort of collectible item.

From the standpoint that we've had 3 carts stolen in the past 3 years and caught 2 other attempts in progress, we simply recommended to the ownership that they needed to employ cart guys all day, not just to come in at 1 PM to work until dark. They don't want to spend the extra $40 a day it would cost.


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