In almost every golf tournament player must walk.
At Circuit Canada Pro Tour and Great Lakes Tour, players may use a cart for the 1 and 2 days tournaments. In the 4 days tournaments, players must walk.
At the Champions Tour, in the non-majors, players may use a cart.
At Golf Quebec, players may use a cart in a few tournaments (Seniors, Mid Amateur and some qualifiers).
In those organisations, we see 2 different rules to cover the usage of carts:
When the carts are not permitted, a golfer with a permanent disability may ask for a waiver.
A few years ago, Golf Quebec needed only a doctor’s notice but players abused the system. Now, it must be a permanent disability. Someone that is injured and must use crutches for 6 months is not considered having a permanent disability.
When it is permitted to use a cart, a player must never ride pass the position of his ball. The penalty is 2 strokes in Stroke Play and lost of hole in Match Play.
At the last CCPT Tournament in Hawkesbury, we had to penalise a player because he went with his cart to see the contours of the green before making his stroke. He was not very happy and he did not know the rule. Most of the players know this rule.
We might find this rule unfair but we must consider the equity with the players that are walking.
We must also remember if our ball after a stroke hits our cart we have a one-stroke penalty and we must play the ball where it lies.. If we hit a fellow-competitor’s cart in Stroke play there is no penalty and in Match Play if our ball hits the opponents cart, we may replay the shot without penalty or play the ball where it lies.