Beverage Cart or Open Coolers on the Course

[Tom King]

I've used both open coolers and beverage carts and a combination of both (water and sodas in the coolers and alcohol in the carts).  What's your experience?  Which works better for you or do you have a different idea?

[Nina Renaud]

Ditto, and my least favorite is all beverage carts.  The course needs to pay an employee to drive each one, so it's more expensive, plus hydration is less accessible on hot days than with a lot of open coolers.

The combination has always worked well.  It keeps the cost within reason, and strikes a nice balance between hydration for all, hospitality for those who enjoy a cold gold one on the course, and avoiding the risk of somebody getting tanked and driving a cart into a water hazard.

I suspect that all open coolers with beer as well as water and soft drinks would work fine in most cases, but the risk of someone over-indulging is not one most planners want in our litigious society.  One of my clients avoids that nicely by limiting the coolers with beer to a few stations, all of which are manned.  Those are the tent at the turn and the snack shack halfway house, both of which also dispense dogs, chips and other snacks, plus the witnessed "hole-in-one" par 3's.  Knowing someone outside your group can see what you take discourages loading up to compensate for the spacing without putting a damper on moderate indulgence.  This event is held at a private club on Monday, so the setup may have been designed so the cart girls don't need to work on their day off.  But it's convenient, effective, low-cost, and worth a shot if you already plan to station volunteers or staff around the course for some other reason.

[Tom King]

Thanks, Nina. Good advice! I like soft drinks and water in open coolers and beer and wine cooler stuff in the beverage carts.  Haven't done manned alcohol stations, but it's a good idea.  Legally, the course may have to manage all alcohol and provide staff. You may not be able to give away alcoholic beverages or accept "tips" unless you have a liquor license. In that case always let the course handle it if they have such a license.

In any case, the alcohol distribution system always needs to be manned or you will be fishing golf carts from the water hazards.

[Tad Griffin]

In addition to Tom and Nina's excellent (as usual) thoughts, I would add that bev carts might be driven by volunteers who are wearing the tournament beneficiary's logo. Must be adults, obviously. Save some ca$h and pimp the mission one more time. (Can't be enough promotion of the cause/organization.) The combination of coolers / stations and carts is perfect.

Having a volunteer drive the cart gives you a little more control over the cart, too. Have found that clubs are very good at forgetting to get the cart out or consider it a very low priority. The golfers / donors / sponsors, on the other hand, feel very differently...according to every, single post tournament survey I have *ever* done. :-)

My experience is that the booze liability issue can is a bigger deal at dinner if there is a bar. I have found that having 'x' number of "tickets" for drinks included in a welcome pack is a good way to limit the amount of harder stuff consumed closest to the time they are behind the wheel.

[Tom King]

I agree on having your volunteers drive the beverage carts if you can make it happen.  Our country club allowed us to rent the beverage cart and we just assigned drivers. Different clubs have different rules. If there is a licensing problem and the club insists that their people drive the carts, at least ask them to wear your volunteer shirts and see if there's a way you can get a sponsor sign on the beverage cart. Even if you have to charge a bit, you might be able to serve the beverages in plastic cups with the sponsors name on them.  Always look for a way to find a sponsor for everything.

At one tournament we had an adult beverage company donate the drinks and we sold them for a "donation" to control consumption and allowed the guys to tip the beverage cart girls. The cart made a very nice side income for us. Check your local liquor laws. The club manager can help you there. The point is have someone sponsor the beverage cart in some way or other.