Celebrities at the Lake Tahoe event are ripping around in the coolest golf carts ever

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – The sun’s out, the lake is sparkling…and the celebrities are tearing around on motorcycle-golf carts.

It’s the American Century Championship, almost inarguably the biggest and baddest celebrity golf event on the planet, which is now in its 30th year. With each passing summer the ACC tosses out a few new wrinkles to add to the good times, usually around its lakeside par-3 17th hole which acts as the de facto spectator party scene. This week the pro-ams include a smattering of celebs perched atop these impossible-to-miss carts, which they board behind the 17th green. If you want to grow the game, you gotta make it fun, right? The participants seem to be enjoying it.

“These are awesome, aren’t they?” said a wide-eyed Brett Saberhagen, the former major league pitcher, after dismounting his scooter earlier this week. “Coolest cart I’ve ever seen.”

They’re called Phat Scooters, and the company started two-and-a-half years ago with a line of recreational electric carts. In early 2018 they launched a remodeled edition that was built for golf courses, and today they’re available at more than 40 courses, including Bandon Dunes and Pronghorn Resort. (You can also order your own cart on their website. They start at $3,500, and can be customized with an array of colors and add-ons.) The company doesn’t pay anyone to endorse its scooters, but they do have several celebrity and PGA Tour believers, including Justin Timberlake, Bill Murray, Pat Perez and Charley Hoffman.

“We just gift them a cart and they can do what they want,” said Drew McFarland, Phat Scooters’ marketing and partnerships director. “It all takes off from there.”

The carts have a compartment in the back for clubs, plus room for a cooler and divot repair tools. They’ll run about 30 miles on a single charge, and they top out at 20 mph — a little quick for a golf course, but you can flip the scooter to a “golf setting” that limits the top-line speed to a more links-friendly 13 mph. Good thing, because the crowds in Lake Tahoe are starting to swarm these things.

At any speed, they’re hard to miss.

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