Handicart, the Netherlands’ largest provider of Club Car vehicles for disabled and reduced mobility golfers, has announced the registration of its 17,000th member.
Established in 1986, the Handicart Foundation supplies golf cars to clubs and courses that can be rented for a reduced fee by golfers with limited mobility, enabling them to play more golf for more years.
The brainchild of Fred Plesman, who conceived the concept after two of his golfing companions were unable to play more than six holes of a round due to health reasons, the Foundation now supplies 603 vehicles to over 120 golf courses across theNetherlands.
Recent findings have shown that a Handicart cardholder hires a Club Car vehicle an average seven times a year for their rounds of golf, resulting in an additional 119,000 rounds per year.
According to Handicart, this is good news not only for those with reduced mobility who can enjoy full access to the sport with subsidised golf car rentals, but it enables clubs to increase green fee revenues at a time when membership sales are proving challenging.
“Knowing you can offer players with reduced mobility the opportunity to continue to play, can only prove beneficial,” says Dave Stenfert Kroese of Stichting Handicart. “The Handicart Foundation offers a unique service for disabled golfers that exists in no other country.
“Unlike our foreign counterparts where golf cars are commercially exploited and disabled golfers pay the same rate as their able-bodied peers, Dutch courses signed up to the scheme offer significantly reduced rates. This encourages more play and 119,000 rounds of golf a year that would not otherwise have been played – not taking into account the additional revenue benefits of food and beverages, ball and tee sales.”
Dave Stenfert Kroese added: “Club Car’s high quality product, reliability and customer service are second-to-none, providing the main reasons why the relationship between both companies has grown so much, so quickly over the past few years.
“We hope to see many more Dutch courses join the Foundation and help extend players’ golfing lives.”
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