There’s something appealing about a drive on a hot summer’s day. Catching a breeze, the wind blowing through your hair as you cruise along from point A to point B, is a welcome break from the humid Bay area heat. There’s no vehicle in Mobile and Baldwin counties more favored for a quick joyride than a golf cart.
Golf carts make for easy ice cream runs and rides to a friend’s house for a cookout. In the summer, bathing suit bottoms stick to the golf cart’s hot vinyl seats before kids jump off and dive straight into the pool. “We have a pool, and the golf cart is a great addition,” says Jan Herndon. “You try to have attractions for your grandchildren so that they don’t mind coming to your house,” she laughs. Herndon lives just off the golf course at the Lakewood Club in Point Clear. She and her neighbors all have golf carts they use on the green, to visit each other and to get around to nearby places, such as The Grand Hotel. She says a big reason they bought their cart, though, is because of her grandkids. “They just love it! I ride with my grandchildren, and they enjoy taking the younger ones out on it,” she says. “They enjoy it probably more than we do, to be perfectly honest.”
Times have certainly changed since Herndon lived in Mobile 30 years ago. “Golf carts weren’t a thing then, except for on the golf course,” she says. “I don’t remember that much golf cart traffic in Mobile at all.” Now, it seems that golf carts only increase in popularity as time goes on. They are just about everywhere — in neighborhoods, at parties, gathered in parking lots and more. The Bay area’s golf cart culture has become so prevalent that businesses have even established dedicated golf cart parking spaces, such as those at POST on the Hill in Spring Hill.
“We sometimes go over there in ours,” says Tom Cunningham. “What really got us into golf carts was COVID. It was a fun way to socialize with neighbors without having to go into their houses.” Cunningham and his two kids enjoy taking their street-legal golf cart — complete with a license tag and seat belts for safety — around their slow-speed neighborhood in Ravine Woods. They also go to nearby places, like the pool, Food Pak and Municipal Park for baseball practice and games. They aren’t alone. At the baseball field, there can be upwards of 10 golf carts lined up.
For Wayne Malone, co-owner at H&M Golf Cart Sales in Fairhope, the appeal boils down to one factor. “Golf carts are fun!” he says. “There are many practical reasons to own a golf cart such as easy neighborhood travel or to use for driving practice, but most golf cart owners enjoy taking in the scenery in an open-air slower ride, having fun and making memories.”
Taking golf carts for a spin is just one part of the fun. Golf cart owners take personalizing their ride seriously. From unique accessories to lights to custom paint jobs, anything goes. Some carts even sport stickers from places the drivers have traveled.
Beth Lamar and Mimi Johnson noticed people’s love of decorating their carts and developed a business out of it. “We’ve been friends for six years and love being creative,” says Beth. “We thought, you know, it would be fun for us to do something together and dress up the golf carts.”
A year ago, they started Cart Couture, which sells golf cart covers. Along with everyday cart covers, which feature stripes, scalloped edges, fringe and other design elements, they sell a variety of holiday-themed covers, encompassing Mardi Gras, football season, Fourth of July and more.
“We’ve gotten calls from Pensacola and Mobile and Dauphin Island, so we’re still pretty local right now,” says Lamar. “It’s really caught on because people like to entertain and decorate,” says Johnson. “They drive their golf carts like they do cars, so it’s fun to personalize it.”
Though they recognize they are still in the early stages of running their small business, the duo can’t help but look forward and develop a few big ideas for the future. “What we would ultimately like to do is have a golf cart cover that’s the signature cover for Fairhope, with the Fairhope logo colors,” says Lamar.
While golf carts provide easy, quick travel, they’re most loved for the memories they help make. “I have a golf cart and enjoy the fact that it is a reminder to slow down and spend quality time with my family,” says Malone. “Most evenings you can find my entire family of six cruising around our neighborhood in our golf cart. Life happens fast and it’s the little things that make life worth living.”
