Yamaha Golf Cars at The Home of Golf

USPA NEWS - Yamaha have been providing vehicles for St. Andrews Links Trust since the eighties. Here we look at the latest fleet of standard, customised and personnel carrying golf cars which support the activities of St. Andrews Links Trust staff and visitors.

St. Andrews is The Home of Golf and a golfing mecca for players from every corner of the globe. With more than 230,000 rounds of golf played across seven courses each year, St Andrews Links is the definitive place for professionals and amateurs alike. With a unique and challenging environment, the staff and services at St. Andrews Links must be of the highest standard in order to accommodate the demands and expectations of the visitors.

Yamaha Motor (UK) Ltd and The St. Andrews Links Trust have had a relationship since the eighties, when course rangers would support players from the seat of a Yamaha Townmate scooter. Since then the relationship has developed to accommodate the demands of the modern Links Trust and the high volume of players who are hosted on their courses each year. Player shuttles, Ranger buggies and traditional hire buggies are all provided by Yamaha to transport visitors and staff around the courses and facilities in St. Andrews.

To meet such a high volume of players the facilities in and around The Links Trust are efficient and reliable. With around 45,000 rounds played on The Old Course alone, the experience for the visitors is seamlessly managed by the staff of The Trust, with around 300 employees during peak season. From the greeting at the door of the clubhouse, to the first tee shuttle, past the starter´s boxes to collect your score cards, to the historic Swilcan Bridge on the way back up the 18th fairway, the positive experience of anyone playing St. Andrews is paramount.

Yamaha provide a diverse fleet of golf buggies to The Trust to accommodate a variety of tasks across the 300 hectares of land which is home to the St. Andrews courses. Personnel carriers, hire buggies and customised buggies for course rangers are all utilised by The Trust.
Ranger Buggies
Playing the Old Course at St. Andrews Links is a true once in a lifetime experience, many legends have crossed the Swilcan Bridge and, provided your handicap is good enough, you can follow them. Playing the Home of Golf is not your average round, not to mention that every tee time from dawn till dusk will be fully booked, so getting round the Old Course is a serious golfing challenge.

To help players along their way a team of Course Rangers are deployed around the St. Andrews courses to ensure that the pace of play is maintained and all of the players get the most out of their round. You can spot the Rangers by their distinctive apparel and customised Ranger Buggies.

Based on the Yamaha G29 electric golf car, the Ranger Buggy benefits from a fully enclosed cab to protect the Ranger from the elements and any errant golf balls. The Ranger Buggies also feature custom electronics, the single point battery refill kit and Delta-Q high efficiency chargers, all accessories designed make life easy for the fleet operator.

The Rangers perform a variety of tasks around the course and sometimes additional cargo needs to be moved around, not to mention those players who need urgent transportation back to the clubhouse. The cargo box option replaces the bag rack on the rear of the car and allows rangers to replenish score cards and move boxes around, whilst retaining the passenger seat in the cab. A mixture of cargo box options and bag carriers means that the Rangers can accommodate players, bags, boxes and anything else the Old Course might throw at them.

Trojan batteries are world renowned for their quality, which is why they power Yamaha´s cars and why you can get a normal days work done on a single charge. With a designated charging area incorporated into the design of the Jubilee Sheds at St. Andrews and high efficiency chargers also used, the Ranger buggies are a great example of how to run an electric fleet. The single point battery refill kit ensures battery levels are maintained with maximum efficiency and no spillage so the ten car fleet is always ready for action with first rate technical support from Yamaha´s local service partner, the Golf Car Company based in Morningside, Edinburgh.

By working together, Yamaha and the St. Andrews Links Trust are able to provide a unique range of services to visitors on the St. Andrews Links, while ensuring the employees of the trust have a reliable and efficient working vehicle to support them.

Six Seat Personnel Transport
The first tee box on the Old Course sits alongside the caddie pavilion, roughly 500 metres from the St. Andrews Links Clubhouse. To ensure that the players make their tee time, on time, a six seat personnel carrier based on the Yamaha G29 golf car shuttles players to and from the tee box.

The car has been engineered to accommodate five passengers and a driver with golf club storage at the rear. The reliable 375cc engine shuttles players and clubs to and from the first tee every day that the course is open and can complete over 1000 runs in a month. Wheelchair access modification is also available and the St. Andrews Links Trust have both variants of the shuttle available on request from the Links Clubhouse.

With the Yamaha shuttle your first drive at the Old Course is always a good one.

Hire Buggies
With a fleet of G29 Electric buggies, dressed in black, looking sharp and ready to transport players around the stunning St. Andrews scenery. The G29 buggies are recognised as one of the highest performing buggies in the market with independent suspension, class leading Trojan batteries, comfortable seating, automotive style dashboards, spacious cabs and extra-large bag racks.
Players enjoy the plush seats and smooth ride, while the local wildlife enjoy the ultra-quiet electric motors and zero emission transport. The Yamaha buggies have proven reliability so the St. Andrews Links Trust can be confident in offering a year round service that can cope with the demanding St. Andrews terrain.

Available from either of the St. Andrews clubhouses, the hire buggies always prove popular with players.
So next time you are thinking about that round at St. Andrews, don´t forget that you will have over 6km to walk before you get to the nineteenth! (Some restrictions do apply, please check the St. Andrews website for full information on hiring cars)
If you think that your course or facility could benefit from Yamaha golf cars then please get in touch.
(Source: Yamaha Motor U.K Ltd.). For more information regarding Yamaha Golf Cars in Scotland, please call the Golf Car Company on +44 (0)131 4473706 or visit golfcarcompany.co.uk

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