Cart Path Layout

Cart path layout at a golf course is sometimes one of the overlooked hazards at a course. The lay of the land and the designer could not avoid certain terrain and therefore you find cart paths with steep slopes and sharp curves. Many golf cart accidents occur not only due to careless driving, but also the layout of the cart path and improper signage. Patrons that are not familiar with the layout are at greater risk of having an accident.

We must examine how a golf course can identify the risk, reduce the likelihood of it happening, manage the risk and control the risk. When golf cart accidents occur, the golf course will shoulder a lot of the blame. The golf course may have created, failed to remedy or failed to locate a potentially dangerous situation.

Let us identify the risk. The risk can fall into three categories. The golf cart, the golf course and the operator of the golf cart. The risks associated with the golf cart include the gas pedal, hand railing, steering mechanism and the warning sound for reverse. It is the golf course’s duty to inspect, maintain and repair on a regular basis. The second category deals with the golf course. The layout of the land includes steep slopes and sharp curves that could not be avoided during design and construction of the golf course. It is the golf course responsibility to ensure that proper signage is in place. The third category deals with the golf cart operator. This risk falls into the following sub –categories: who, when, where and how.

Bearing these risks in mind, a golf course must do everything it can to fulfill its duty to exercise reasonable care in its cart path design and golf cart operations. How can a golf course manage these risks?

A golf cart is a motor vehicle without safety protection.

Golf Car — Golf cars are motor vehicles without safety protection. A golf car maintenance program should contain well-defined procedures for the inspection, preventive maintenance and repair of its golf car fleet. The program should be proactive, rather than merely repairing the broken-down carts. Golf cars should be regularly inspected for visual damage, test driven for operating problems and given an “under-the-hood” check by a mechanic. Preventive maintenance and necessary repairs should be carried out by trained mechanics. The golf car should not be released into service until a thorough review and test drive confirms that the problem has been solved.

The Golf Course — To retain market share, golf courses often focus on playability, pace of play and friendly customer service. Ask management personnel to step back and take a look at the golf course from a safety perspective. The staff members may have a whole new appreciation for the perils that lie under their noses. The risks are generally easy to spot and easy to fix. It just takes time, a little bit of money and dedicated effort. If the problem can’t be fixed, reduce as much of the risk as possible. If nothing can be done, warn the golfers to stay away and prevent them from getting too close.

Golf Car Operation — A golf course can regulate golf car-related behavior through rules, policies and procedures. Golf courses should take a very close look at what golfers do and don’t do, what they should and shouldn’t do, and where they go and shouldn’t go. Just as there are rules of the road for motor vehicles, there should be rules of the road for golf cars. Think those policies through and document them in writing. Also, train starters and rangers on enforcement.

Liability management

Liability management is a subset of risk management. Liability management seeks to address the potential liability that could naturally flow from the risk. It partially answers the questions: What happens if I get sued? Is there anything else that can protect me against liability?

Insurance — I’m preaching to the choir here. Insurance is a risk transfer or shifting mechanism. Insurance manages the ultimate financial responsibility should something bad happen. Certainly, every golf course and golf car fleet should be insured against liability stemming from golf car related accidents.

Contracts — Contracts are a liability management tool. Language requiring a person (or entity) to waive, release, hold harmless or indemnify the golf course can be enforceable. Golf car rental agreements should contain provisions related to responsibility for damage to the golf car as well as language that requires the golfer to release the golf course from liability.

Documentation — Document, document, document. A golf course may have a commitment to safety, but if it isn’t documented in writing, it is going to be pretty tough to convince the jury. Golf car inspection, maintenance, repairs, and return-to-service should be documented and stored for safekeeping. A golf course should keep a safety journal that tracks everything it has done in the name of safety. That will be evidence of reasonable care and make the insurance company’s job a whole lot easier.

There was nothing Superior National could have done to prevent the sequence of events that found me tumbling along the rough of the 14th hole. I can’t conceive of any viable legal argument that would justify an action against the golf course.

Now Paul and Tom, that’s another story. I can sit here and conceive of all kinds of miserable outcomes for them. As a matter of fact, I think I’m experiencing a little shoulder pain from being viciously catapulted out of that speeding golf car. Too bad the statute of limitations has run out.

“The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation; any conduct that falls below the legal standard established to protect others against unreasonable risk of harm. …”

Evaluate the Risk

To locate those risks, golf course managers, professionals and superintendents should drive the course — often. Drive it like a 25 handicap golfer. Tee shot is in the right rough. Second shot is in the left rough. (No offense intended to 25 handicap golfers.) It is those areas that contain tree stumps, protruding rocks and generally nasty surroundings — the no-man’s land of the common golfer — places where the golf course maintenance crew make a quick sweep and moves on to tee boxes, fairways and greens.

As the definition indicates, conduct is compared to that of a reasonably prudent person. Golf courses and all land owners and businesses have a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent others from being injured. Reasonable care is the test of liability for negligence.

For practical purposes, what exactly is reasonable care?

The answer is not in the law books. It’s not going to be in this article, either. And if you ask me in person, I’m going to give you a frustratingly inexact response such as “it depends.” For in the law of negligence, there are very few black and white rules when it comes to reasonableness.

What is reasonable care to one jury in one state may be inadequate care to another jury in another state. Change one fact and the entire outcome is different. Ultimately, the jury decides what reasonable care is on a case by case basis.

Because reasonable care cannot be reduced to a definitive list of rights and wrongs, how does a golf course fulfill its duty of care? By demonstrating risk identification, risk management and liability management. If a jury is shown evidence that a golf course identified the risk, tried hard to manage it and documented its conduct, the chances are good that the jury will decide reasonable care was taken.

By JP Van Rooyen