Disc Golf Cart Conversions

Inova brand starter disc golf carrying bag

When Allen and I started playing Disc Golf, we bought these beginner carrying bags from the sporting goods store.  They are by Inova and look alot like vinyl 6-pack coolers you’d take to work with your lunch in it.  Not bad for under $20, really.  They’ll hold half a dozen discs comfortably, or stuffed full with about 10 discs.  They have a mesh pocket on the side for a water bottle.  Mine is the red one shown here;  Allen’s is blue.  They have an adjustable strap that clips on at the sides and is removable.  There’s a zippered pocket inside for things like your phone and keys, so that you don’t accidentally lose them if your bag tips over.

We had seen alot of people using all-terrain strollers to carry their disc golf bags, and a chance conversation with another player got us one for $25.  It came in very handy we noticed, especially as Allen’s disc collection started rapidly expanding.  He needed room to carry all of those discs!  But soon the loose discs in the stroller were overflowing and he needed a solution.  Being the incredibly creative man that he is, he bought some jeans at a thrift store, some aluminum solid core flats, and designed his own disc organizer.  It measures 10 inches wide by 19 inches long.

The outside pockets of the jeans allow him the freedom to hold a LOT of stuff, and the zippered pockets provide that same safety for keys, wallet, and cellphone.  The rainbow suspenders from his early 1980’s college days allowed us to secure the homemade disc carrier to the stroller so that stuff didn’t fall out.  But we soon ran into a problem… the carrier is longer than the seat of the stroller, and the weight of the discs in the bag was causing the bag to indent on the bottom supports.  We were concerned that eventually the aluminum would bend.  So Allen devised a solution:  to create a wooden extension for the stroller that not only supports the bag, but also provides a seat for him if he’s waiting for other players to throw.

The platform isn’t attached to the stroller, it just balances on the stroller seat and the frame supports.  That way when we put everything in the trunk of our sedan, the stroller folds up and the platform lays on top of the folded stroller.  If he doesn’t want to sit on the seat area, he can fit a small cooler on there and just bungee cord it to his stroller.  We’ve found that he can use this stroller at all but the most challenging courses.  Many times he’s discovered that the people he’s playing with have asked him if he wouldn’t mind carrying this or that…

Until recently I was happy with my own small Inova starter bag.  But my chiropractor begged to differ!  She said the weight of the bag was causing me some shoulder problems and strongly suggested I find an alternative.  In discussing that with Allen, we decided investing in another stroller was outside our budget.  But didn’t we have a couple of golf bag carts from our traditional golf playing days…??  And indeed we did.  I strapped my Inova starter bag to it to see if it would fit.  In fact I used it this way (minus the cooler, that was just for laughs) for a week or two.  But then my daughter/daughter-in-law/husband got together and came up with a better idea.

The girls bought me some fabric for outdoor patio furniture and Allen cut a 2×6 to fit the height and width of the golf cart when it’s folded closed.  We bolted the wood to the cart to make it sturdy, then the fabric disc holder ties onto the wood and cart frame to hold my discs.  I LOVE IT.  Saves my back, makes it easy to get to the disc I want, and when I add pockets to the back I’ll be able to hold a water bottle, zipper pouches, etc.  This all folds down and lays in the trunk of the car along with Allen’s stroller.  Both conversions together (aside from the cost of the stroller and golf cart) were under $50.