Golf Dash posts about the need to have a golf publication that isn’t much more than a marketing publication with some instruction thrown in. I couldn’t agree more and after reading 20 years of golf magazines, they get a bit stale. I have great respect for the writers in those golf magazines, but there needs to be more there there.

The Golf Dash seems to think so, and it’s hard to argue with his logic. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, home of the 6 hour round, it seems like they’ll be around for a while longer but it’s hard to justify the price, regardless of the locale.

Perhaps I’m the last golfer to see these things, but a couple of weeks ago I went golfing at a new course that was renting the new Segway X2 Golf as an alternative to the normal electric cart. I much prefer walking a golf course to riding (as does my doctor), but I have to say those things look pretty cool. I held off on renting one but they were very tempting at least as a novelty.

Unless a course has long distances between the green and the next tee, I find electric carts more hassle than they are worth. I’m seemingly always on the opposite side of the fairway as my cart partner, and unless I carry half my clubs with me, I end up taking the wrong club for the shot I need. The Segways, at least on the course I played, are far more handy since they allowed users to drive them anywhere that a pull cart can go, and since it’s one person per Segway, you can drive straight to your ball.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they really take off on higher-end courses. I imagine they would speed up play at least as opposed to normal power carts, and from the sound of it, make less damage on the course. By charging 4 rentals per foursome as opposed to two power carts, there’s some additional economic incentive to switch to them as long as the Segway price is right.