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Committee hears capacity limits for cart rentals; staff plans phased replacements
Summary
Committee discussed cart fleet capacity, storage limits and plans to buy about 30 carts this year; staff said shortages can cost rounds and that carts are typically held in service about 10 years.
Sun City West staff told the golf committee that the association’s cart fleet and storage infrastructure limit the ability to expand rental capacity, and that shortages already cause lost rounds during peak season.
Pat O'Hara, golf operations manager, said the association’s seven-course fleet totals about 155 carts. He said the average life of a cart in the fleet is a little over 10 years and that the current per-cart budget figure is approximately $7,000. Staff said they plan to purchase about 30 carts in the coming procurement cycle and typically buy in lots of 20–30 to roll changes into the fleet incrementally rather than replacing all units at once.
Committee members asked whether the association runs out of carts; Pat answered “absolutely” and estimated that on busy days late February and March the shortage can cause a daily loss of “10 to 20 rounds of golf at 5 of our golf courses.” He said most rented carts are used by nonmembers and that increasing nonmember play would require fleet growth and potentially infrastructure changes such as additional cart-storage electrification if the association later wishes to move toward electric or lithium-powered carts. Pat said the association has added roughly 15 carts over the past five or six years but is at or near current storage capacity.
No formal procurement vote was taken at the meeting; staff presented equipment-replacement planning elsewhere on the agenda and said they will factor technology, storage and phased rollouts into future purchases.
