http://gregorydowling.com/every-picture-tells-a-story-2 In the 1950s and early 1960s, the golf world underwent a Cambrian Explosion of golf-cart designs. (All these advertisements are from issues of Golf Digest.) Lots of different ideas were tried and rejected, and lots of companies went extinct—even ones that had the backing of celebrities:

Bobcats must have been fun (and loud), and until you got yelled at you could hold intra-foursome races. For women, there was a version with training wheels:

Ben Hogan was a fan of the new machines, since (apparently) he believed that walking spoiled golf for many players:

Most early models had three wheels. A few had roofs:

There were many gasoline-powered versions. You turned them off when you got to your ball, the keep the noise down:

This one—for a single golfer—had a “multi-baffled muffler”:

Most one-player gasoline-powered carts were more expensive, as the one below was. But it weighed just a hundred pounds, and it folded so compactly that you could carry two of them in the trunk of your car:

There were also powered carts for golfers who, Ben Hogan notwithstanding, insisted on walking. This one held two bags:

Unless you had one of the folding ones, you needed one of these to get your cart to and from the club:

And if your cart was one of the electric ones you probably were wise to buy a spare one of these, as a backup:

Merry Christmas to all!