The Case for Pushcarts

+ News, Notes, and Weekly Favorites

Author

Sean Melia
March 07, 2025

Rachel Heck (left) and Rose Zhang (right) were pushcart players at Stanford.

Hey Everyone,

February is done! Phew. I spent the month daydreaming about golf. It turned into a few videos about golf courses I’ve played that aren’t in Massachusetts and culminated this week in a video about my Five Favorite Courses in the World.

One of my goals in 2025 is to grow this YouTube Channel. You can help by subscribing or even hitting the “like” button. It would help the algorithm lift me up into other people’s feeds.

News and Notes:

Mass Am and Mass Open registration: Golf is booming. That’s no surprise. It’s not recreational golf, though. Competitive golf is incredibly popular. Look no further than the MassGolf site needing to push back their Mass Amateur registration on Thursday because the site was overwhelmed with applications. After just an hour, half the sites were filled, and by Friday morning, 8 of the 11 sites were filled. The long tail of people getting into the game five years ago is there are players who have now lowered their handicap below the 3.7 threshold to qualify for the Mass Amateur.

Puerto Rico Open: While 72 players are at Bay Hill, Michael Thornjornsen and Richy Werenski are competing in the opposite field event in Puerto Rico. After Round 1, Richy Werenski is T60 (-3) and Thorbjornsen is T76 (-2). Good rounds on Friday should lock up a paycheck and an appearance on the weekend. Live Scoring.

College Golf results: Mass. Division 1 teams are starting to play some competitive golf and the players like Ryan Downes, John Broderick, Morgan Smith, and Isabel Brozena all competed this week. I have compiled schedules and results for Mass. men’s and women’s teams along with individuals who flew the coop and are competing across the country. Check it out here.

Northeast Golf Show - March 14-16

Join thousands of golfers on March 14-16 at the Gillette Stadium Field House to kick off the season. Restock on golf balls, plan a trip, try out the latest equipment, set up your GHIN with MassGolf, and discover new local courses.

The folks at Northeast Golf gave me a promo code to share with you for a discount on your ticket. I’ll be there all weekend, so make sure to say hello! Here’s the link to the site.

BSG = $3 OFF General Admission (Enter the code in the “Additional Information” section and hit “enter/return”)

BSGVIP = $10 OFF the VIP Experience

Hilton Head with The Golf Trips Guys

These guys are putting the finishing touches on a trip to Hilton Head from April 10-13. It’s a two-man format that includes 54 holes of golf, 3-nights lodging, airport transportation, and swag.

You and your partner can sign up with promo code BSGHH and get 10% off the trip for both you and your partner. That’s a $430 promo code! I’m kicking in a year subscription to Bay State Golf for you and your partner. That’s a $100 value. Here’s the link with details. Deal expires on March 14, 2025.

The Case for Pushcarts

When given the choice, I walk a golf course.

This puts me in the minority among the 26 million golfers in the United States, as 2/3 of those golfers ride a golf cart.

I’m not here to litigate the value of walking vs. riding. I’m walking if I am allowed, if you like to ride, enjoy the day and play fast.

One thing that has happened since the start of my quest in 2020 is I have grown a little older, and injuries have slowly crept into the story.

In late 2023, I played three days in a row and started to feel a small tinge on the inside of my right elbow. I stood on the first tee for the third and final round of that trip and felt some pain that increased over the course of the day. That kicked off a challenging fall; after a few weeks off while trying homemade Golfer’s Elbow PT (read: YouTube exercises…), I started playing again with a small brace and some Advil. Four weeks after the injury, I felt good enough to tee it up in a U.S. Four-Ball qualifier. We didn’t qualify…

One thing I did use for the rest of that fall was a pushcart. I played pushcart (or pullcart…) roulette at places like Franklin Park and George Wright. I used the ones that barely held the bag and hit the jackpot in other cases with a three-wheeled Cadilac of pushcarts. The pro at CC of Wilbraham, Bobby Downes, was kind enough to loan me a good pushcart during that Four-Ball qualifier.

The act of picking up and carrying my bag was certainly a cause of the pain in my elbow; the more I used the pushcart, the better my elbow felt. Winter was also a big help in the healing process.

A year later, in August 2024, I bit the bullet and purchased my own pushcart after staring at them online for months and doing as much research as I could. I was sick of hoping a course might have a good pushcart. It was one less variable when I arrived at a new course, which is always important. It was also one more thing to store away in our apartment.

During the 2023 Masters, college golfer Sam Bennett shocked the world and found himself in the final group with Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm. His Texas A&M team had a tournament the following Monday, and when asked about playing and how tired he was, he said he planned to play, but he’d be carrying his bag because “We’re not Stanford.”

It was quite a dig, as there are college teams who use pushcarts and others that don’t.

Carrying a golf bag paints a picture of a purist who is simultaneously tough or, at least, physically capable.

In a TPI article, Dr. Josh Nelson wrote, “In almost all situations I believe it to be much better (and safer) to use a buggy (i.e. pushcart) rather than lugging your clubs around 18 holes. Carrying your clubs not only places a huge amount of compressive force on your spine, but also causes lactic acid build up in the surrounding muscles causing fatigue and you guessed it..... Injuries!”

Want to burn calories? Walking is the important part, not how you carry your clubs around.

Dr. Neil Wolkodoff, medical director of the Colorado Center for Health and Sports Science, found that carrying for nine holes burns 721 calories, and pushing burns 718 calories.

In his article, Is carrying your bag or pushing it a better workout? This data might surprise you Josh Sens dug deep into a European Journal of Sports Science and found the following:

While golfers in each category burned different amounts of calories, those differences were so slight (688 calories-burned over 18 holes for golfers who carried compared to 663 calories for those who used an electric caddie, and 756 calories for those who pushed) as to be negligible, the study found. When it came to energy expenditure, the researchers concluded that there were “no meaningful” differences between carrying or using a trolley.

Josh Sens

I like walking because it’s how I learned to play golf. I’d walk 9,18, 27, even 36 holes as a kid. I wasn’t allowed to ride a cart, and when I did play with my dad, he walked, too. He was a marathoner, so 18 holes was light work. As he aged, he started pushing a cart, too.

When I’m walking, I feel more connected to the course and can feel the flow of the round, especially those moments between the holes when I have to make my way to the next tee box. It also allows me to stop and take photos or videos. Zooming to my ball in a cart steals some of that opportunity.

If you’re looking to walk a bit more over the course of this golf season, a pushcart can be a great way to step out of the cart and try walking without the strain of hoofing a golf bag on your shoulders. If you are a hoofer, it’s a good way to stay healthy and still enjoy the walk.

You also never have to worry about the dreaded, “Cart path only” signs.

WORMBURNER COMICS

Last month, Wormburner Comics reached out, and I thought it might be fun to have a little levity in the newsletter! You can follow the new account on IG.

If you would like to support my work, you can upgrade your subscription.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

🏌️ When an interview starts with, “Why do you still have a job,” you know it’s going to be good. Eamon Lynch chatted (interrogated?) Jay Monahan this week, and it was very good.

🏀 Good stuff on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his rise to stardom in The Athletic…. I still wonder if he’ll be treated as poorly as Tatum if he flames out in the playoffs again this season…

I’m listening to…

I’m eating…

🐔 This Three-Cup chicken was very good. Made great leftovers, too.

🍚 This NYTimes Cooking article has completely changed how I cook rice. Basically, you can cook it like pasta. Boil the water. Dump the rice. Cook it. Strain it. Eat it.

I’m watching…

🧠 Still enjoying Severance… flipped from season 1 to season 2.

☘️ Have the new Celtics documentary, Celtics City, on Max in the queue for this weekend.

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