Beverage Cart and On-Course Ordering Guide

A beverage cart brings drinks and snacks to golfers on the course; on-course ordering lets golfers order from their phone and have it delivered to the cart or waiting at the turn. Together they are the club's food and beverage service for the four hours members spend between the first tee and the 18th green. The traditional cart depends on the driver happening to reach a group at the right moment. On-course ordering flips that: the member asks, the club delivers.

This guide covers beverage cart operations, how on-course ordering works at a private club, charging to member accounts, alcohol service, the driver's job, fees and tips, and the numbers to track.

The traditional beverage cart

A beverage cart is a mobile outlet: a cart with a cooler, an ice well, a small dry-goods rack, and a way to take payment. The driver circulates the course on a loop, stopping at groups on tees and greens.

Good practice:

• Loop against the flow. Driving the course backwards (from 18 toward 1) meets each group once per loop rather than chasing them.
• Stop at tees, not greens. Groups waiting on a tee have time; groups putting do not.
• Carry what sells. Water, sports drinks, beer, a few seltzers and sodas, snacks, and the club's one or two signature items. Restock at the halfway house.
• Know the sheet. The driver should know which groups are on the course, where the gaps are, and when the shotgun or tournament starts.
• Be quick. A cart stop that takes five minutes holds up the group behind.

The limits of the traditional cart are well known to every golfer: it arrives when you don't need it, and it's on the other nine when you do.

How on-course ordering works

On-course ordering adds a request channel. The flow at a private club:

1. The member opens the club app on the course and sees the delivery menu — only items that can travel.
2. They order and choose delivery to where they are, or pickup at the turn.
3. The order is placed on their member account. No card, no cash, no signature on the fairway.
4. The order reaches the right place: drink-only orders to the cart driver's device; food orders to the halfway house or grill kitchen to be prepared first.
5. The driver takes the order on their device, picks up any food, and drives to the member.
6. The member sees the cart coming — ideally on a map — so they aren't waving at every cart that passes.
7. The driver marks it delivered. The member's account and the club's sales update.

Location

Delivery needs to know where the member is. Two approaches:

• GPS from the member's phone, so the driver gets a point on a map and the system can work out the hole. This handles players off the course too — the range, the practice green, the pool.
• A hole picker ("I'm on the 7th"), which is simpler but wrong the moment the group moves on.

GPS is more accurate and needs the member's permission to share location while an order is active. The club should say so clearly in the app.

Deliverable items

Not everything on the halfway house menu travels well. Mark each item as deliverable or not. A delivery menu should never show items the cart can't bring; asking the member to remove items at checkout is better than silently dropping them.

Delivery only when someone is driving

The most common failure of on-course ordering is an order with no one to carry it. The fix is simple: offer delivery only when a driver is on duty. When the last driver goes off shift, the delivery option disappears from the app, the way a closed kitchen disappears from the dining menu.

"Flag down the cart"

Sometimes a member just wants the cart to swing by without deciding what they want. A request for the cart — with no order and no charge — lets the driver route to them, and anything they buy is rung at the cart when it arrives.

Charging to the member account

At a private club, the member account is what makes on-course ordering work. Members don't carry cards on the course and shouldn't have to. A delivery order charged to the account:

• appears on the member's statement like any other chit, itemized;
• counts toward the food and beverage minimum if the club's policy includes on-course spend;
• respects household charging privileges — a teenage dependent might be allowed to order food but not beer;
• and needs no payment step at the cart.

Guests and members of other clubs present a different case. A member's guest can have orders placed on the host's account; a guest paying for themselves pays by card at the cart.

Alcohol service

Alcohol on the course carries real responsibility. Club policy should cover:

• Who may order alcohol — members and adult household members only, with privileges set per person.
• Age checks for guests at the cart.
• Limits per order or per round, if the club sets them.
• Driver training in responsible service, as required by the club's license and state rules.
• Items flagged as alcohol on the menu so the rules can be applied automatically.

The driver's job

The beverage cart driver is part server, part delivery driver and part course ambassador. Set them up to succeed:

• A dedicated duty assignment. Only staff the club designates should drive the cart, and they should go on and off duty explicitly, so delivery availability follows them.
• One device showing incoming orders, where to go, and what to pick up.
• Take and deliver in two taps. Taking an order tells the member it's on the way; delivering it closes it.
• Location sharing on duty only. Members see the cart on a map while it's on duty. Tell staff that driving the cart means members can see the cart's position, and that it stops when they go off duty.

Fees and tips

Private clubs usually do not charge a delivery fee — delivery is a member amenity. Some add a small fee or apply a service charge; whatever the club chooses should be configured per order type, so a dining-room service charge doesn't land on a can of soda delivered to the 12th tee by accident.

Tips on delivery orders belong to the driver who delivered them. Track them per driver and run them through payroll with the club's tip policy. See service charge vs. gratuity.

Pace of play

A well-run cart helps pace; a badly run one hurts it. Order-ahead reduces stops at the halfway house and eliminates the group that waits on a tee for a cart they hope is coming. Deliveries should be handed over quickly and never on a green. Clubs that measure pace can see whether heavy delivery hours coincide with slow holes. See pace of play at private clubs.

Launching on-course ordering

A club turning on ordering from the course for the first time should treat it as a service launch, not a software setting.

1. Start with a short delivery menu. Drinks, a few snacks and two or three hot items the halfway house can turn quickly. Expand once the timing is proven.
2. Pick the hours. Weekend mornings and afternoons, when there is a dedicated driver, are the obvious start. Weekday service can follow.
3. Train the drivers and the halfway house together. The driver needs to know where food orders are picked up; the halfway house needs to know that a delivery ticket has a member waiting on the course.
4. Tell members how it works — in the app, on a card on every cart, and from the starter on the first tee: how to order, when delivery is available, and that the cart is on their account.
5. Watch the first few weekends closely. Time from order to delivery, orders that were late, and items that didn't travel well. Adjust the menu and the driver's loop.
6. Keep the cart's walk-up service. Ordering adds a channel; members who flag down the cart as it passes should still be served.

Numbers to track

How Bubs handles on-course ordering

In Bubs, members order from the course in the club's own member app, for delivery to the cart or pickup at the turn, and the order goes on their member account like everything else the club sells.

• The delivery menu shows only items the club has marked deliverable, and delivery is offered only while a driver is on duty.
• Drivers are staff the club grants cart duty; they go on duty from the register, take orders and mark them delivered on the register's deliveries screen, and food orders fire to the kitchen first.
• Members see the cart on a map while their order is on the way, and can flag the cart down with nothing ordered — whatever they buy is rung at the cart when it arrives.
• Charging respects each household member's privileges; guests pay by card or go on their host's account.
• Fees are the club's choice per order type — no delivery fee unless the club sets one — and delivery tips are tracked per driver.

See on-course ordering, the halfway house operations guide and food and beverage.