The Golf Cart That Zigs

It’s happened to every golfer: You’re ready to go charging out onto the course in a comfortable, spiffy, fully juiced-up golf cart. Instead, you get something resembling a beat-up Tonka toy that feels like it runs on static electricity.

Creature comforts: a cup holder. Top speed: glacial. Range: two short holes (as long as they’re downhill). Try taking it on an actual street and you’ll get outrun by continental drift.

But in a handful of Southern California golfing communities, the mannerly, plodding, plain-vanilla golf cart is beginning to mutate into the fairway equivalent of Thor’s thunder chariot.

Ready-made and custom carts are being driven around the links--and nearby city streets--with the quickness and flash of golf club-laden sports cars. Think of them as sub-subcompacts with built-in ice chests.

“There are two ways of looking at our product,” said Scott Montana, vice president of Planet Electric, a high-end golf cart manufacturer based in North Hills. “You can look at it as a golf course Ferrari, but it also functions extremely well as a second car.”

Planet Electric’s cart, called The Masters, is the sort of golf course conveyance Rodney Dangerfield might have driven in “Caddyshack” had it been around when that film was made.

With the seat belts (yes, seat belts) hooked up, this machine will zip to 40 mph in about the time it takes to mark a scorecard. With the belts undone, a governor holds the speed to 20 mph, still quick for a golf cart.

This means that The Masters, and other golf carts with similar speed capability and street-legal features, can roll through the golf course parking lot at the end of a round and just keep on rolling.

Many golf-oriented communities throughout Southern California (mostly in the Palm Springs area, where there are more than 100 courses) allow golf carts to share the streets within a one-mile radius of a golf course.

The only Southern California municipalities that permit widespread use of golf carts, apart from those dedicated golfing communities, are Avalon on Catalina Island, and Palm Desert, where golf cart lanes have been installed on many city streets.

But Bob Thomas, owner of Electric Car Distributors in Rancho Mirage, says there may be more golf carts taking to the streets in the future.

“People are living longer now. More people are retired, and their recreation is golf,” Thomas says. “Business has really picked up in the last couple of years.”

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Most of the golf carts sold in the United States--perhaps 125,000 a year, one industry insider estimated--are made by three companies: E-Z-Go, Club Car and Yamaha. Most are electrically powered, built specifically for the golf course, and their features are limited to such accessories as drink holders, golf bag straps and, occasionally, a windshield.

The custom carts, however, are routinely fitted with head and tail lights, brake lights, turn signals, rear-view mirror, horn, stereo and receptacles for everything from ice chests to groceries. Some, such as The Masters, can be equipped with a “swamp cooler” installed on the underside of the top--a device that acts as an air conditioner by drizzling a fine mist down on the occupants.

The generic golf course-only carts are almost universally painted white. The custom jobs, however, can be had in just about any color the buyer wants.

One Planet Electric customer, an avid hunter from Montana, ordered a cart painted in a black-and-white cowhide motif. Another, a man from Michigan, ordered a cart equipped with a built-in hand-warmer.

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Celebrities have fallen to the lure of the golf cart as sports car.

Scott Stevens, president of Western Golf Car, a manufacturer of custom golf carts based in Desert Hot Springs, said he has assembled carts for Michael Jackson (who ordered several) and Deion Sanders (who wanted a $2,000 stereo installed), among others.

Western Golf Car, he said, produces eight basic models, each built on an E-Z-Go chassis. About 2,000 custom carts roll off Western’s production line every year, Stevens said.

Lovers of the little runabouts can expect to pay Detroit-style prices--between $5,000 and $20,000--for a new cart, according to manufacturers and distributors. The used golf cart market also “is very strong,” Thomas said, with prices ranging from $800 or so to $7,000.

What do you get for your money? In the case of The Masters, which retails for $15,000, you get a nonpolluting vehicle with a range of 50 miles, said Montana. Operating costs will likely run about one-twelfth of what a gas-burning vehicle requires, and the electric carts do the job with considerably fewer moving parts.

The batteries need to be replaced every few years at a cost of about $500, “if you use it a lot,” Montana said. All electrical components of The Masters are guaranteed for one year, and the motor is rated for 40,000 miles.

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Now, about that speed business. . . .

Yes, it’s possible to turn a stock golf cart into a relative lightning bolt. John Hoster, president of Orange-based Santiago Golf Car Supply, provides cart components to manufacturers and individuals--”motors and other things that will make the car go fast.”

A standard golf cart motor, he said, produces 36 volts, but some customizers have assembled carts with higher voltages that can hit 60 mph or more.

That may be OK in some places, but not in California. The state Vehicle Code says that “No person shall operate a golf cart on any highway except in a speed zone of 25 miles per hour or less.”

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So why own such an electric rocket in California? For the same reason one buys a blisteringly fast automobile, said Todd Larsen.

“It’s like buying a Corvette,” said Larsen, owner of Golf Car Specialties, a dealer in Palm Desert. “There are a lot of guys out there with egos who want to out-accelerate everybody else. They don’t want a golf car just for golf. They want to turn heads.”