The Cart Jockey in Golf

"Cart jockey" is a term applied to golf course staff members whose job it is to assist golfers with their carts and golf bags, and to help maintain the course's fleet of golf carts. The actual job title might be cart attendant, bag attendant, golfer services attendant, client services attendant or even just customer service representative. But golfers know them as cart jockeys.

They are typically young people — often high school or college golfers — and are far more likely to be found at resort golf courses, daily fee courses, upscale courses in general as opposed to municipal golf courses.

A cart jockey's duties may include any or all of the following:

• Driving a golf cart out to the parking lot to greet arriving golfers;
• Offering to assist those golfers in removing golf bags from their car and placing them onto the golf cart;
• Ferrying the golfers and their bags from the parking lot to the clubhouse;
• Greeting those golfers again at the conclusion of the round;
• Giving those golfers' clubs a quick wipe-down;
• Removing the golf bags from the cart; or driving the golfers back to the parking lot and then removing the bags from the cart;
• Cleaning the golf cart and returning it to the course's golf cart storage area.

If you are playing a golf course that employs cart jockeys to assist customers, you might already be playing a course where gratuities are expected. But whether you tip in general or not, gratuities for the cart jockeys are appropriate. (Many places around the world don't employ the custom of tipping, but gratuities are common at upscale golf courses in the United States. If you are unsure of a golf course's policy on tipping, call ahead and ask the pro whether you'll be expected to tip anyone, including the cart jockeys.)