Cart Girl
A cart girl is a beverage cart attendant on a golf course who sells drinks and snacks to players from a mobile cart during their round.
What is a cart girl?
The cart girl is the person golfers hail down somewhere around the 4th or 13th hole when they want a cold beer or a bottle of water. She drives a beverage cart, basically a golf cart fitted with coolers and a small bar setup, and circles the course throughout the day so groups never have to leave their round to find refreshments.
The role exists because a round of golf takes about four hours, and most courses don’t have permanent food and beverage stations between the clubhouse and the halfway house. On-course service fills that gap. According to the National Golf Foundation, there were approximately 16,000 golf courses at 14,000 facilities in the United States at the end of 2025, and a large share of them run some form of beverage cart program.
“Cart girl” is the colloquial title. The official job description usually reads as “beverage cart attendant,” “bev cart attendant,” or in some regions “beer cart driver.” Many courses have moved away from the gendered term in formal listings and use neutral language like “food and beverage server,” though the informal name has stuck with players.
What a cart girl does on the course
A typical shift starts in the clubhouse. The cart gets stocked with ice and beer, which is the main seller, alongside water bottles, plus a mix of sodas and sports drinks. Snacks like chips and candy are standard, with some courses adding hot dogs or sandwiches when a kitchen is on site. Many carts also carry small extras like sunscreen for the player who forgot.
Once stocked, she drives a route around the course, looping front nine and back nine in a pattern that depends on how busy play is. When she sees a group, she pulls up at a safe distance, takes orders, runs the transaction on a mobile point-of-sale device or in cash, and moves on without slowing the pace of play. A LinkedIn guide by experienced bev cart attendant Ashley Burgiss notes that cart girls develop silent signals with golfers, like a thumbs-up to ask if a group still wants service.
Most courses expect their cart girls to handle cash accurately and follow alcohol service laws. Trips back to the cart barn for restocking happen multiple times during a busy shift.
Cart girl vs. cart attendant
The two terms get confused all the time, but they refer to different jobs. A cart girl works on the course. A cart attendant (also called a cart boy or bag boy at some clubs) works in and around the clubhouse, managing the golf cart fleet itself.
| Role | Where they work | Main duties |
|---|---|---|
| Cart girl (beverage cart attendant) | Out on the course | Sells drinks and snacks to golfers from a stocked cart during their round |
| Cart attendant (cart boy) | Bag drop, cart barn, clubhouse | Brings carts to players before the round, takes bags from cars, cleans clubs after the round, charges and parks carts |
Both roles often work for tips on top of an hourly wage, and at smaller courses the staff sometimes rotate between them. Job titles are not standardized across the industry, so a posting for “cart attendant” can mean either role depending on the course.
How much does a cart girl make?
Pay varies based on the course type and the local market. Glassdoor reports an average cart girl salary of around $38,328 per year in the United States, or about $18 an hour, with top earners reaching roughly $58,000.
Hourly base rates are usually modest. Most cart girls earn between $12 and $18 an hour at the entry level, and the bulk of their income comes from tips. JobMonkey reports that daily tips can climb as high as $250 per day at busy courses. In a 2025 first-person account published by Business Insider, 20-year-old cart girl Ellie Dressler said she earns a $16 hourly base plus steady tips, and called it the most money she had ever made over a summer.
Resort markets like Scottsdale and Phoenix tend to pay the highest, both in base wage and tip volume. The job has also seen a noticeable bump in applicant interest since cart girl content went viral on TikTok, with creators like Phoenix-based @madzillz drawing tens of thousands of views per video.
Tipping a cart girl
Tip the cart girl. The standard is 15 to 20 percent of the purchase, the same as in a restaurant, per Golf.com’s tipping guide. Smaller purchases? Round up or let her keep the change.
Tipping is especially expected when alcohol is involved. A six-pack or a couple of mixed drinks sits closer to a bar transaction than a snack purchase, and bartender-style gratuity applies. At some private clubs, tipping is built into membership fees and not permitted; checking with the pro shop in advance avoids confusion.
Related Golf Terms
- Beverage cart attendant — The formal job title for what most players call the cart girl.
- Caddie — A person who carries a golfer’s bag and provides advice on the course.
- Carpet — Slang for the putting green.
- Halfway house — A snack and drink stand located between the 9th green and 10th tee on many courses.
- Carry distance — The distance the ball travels through the air before landing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the role called a cart girl?
The term comes from the role traditionally being filled by women, dating back to the 1950s and 1960s when American courses first introduced on-course refreshment service. The colloquial name stuck even as formal titles shifted to gender-neutral language in many places.
Do cart girls need to play golf?
No. A basic understanding of golf etiquette helps, especially knowing when not to interrupt a group during a swing, but cart girls are not expected to play or know the rules of the game in detail.
What’s the minimum age to work as a cart girl?
It depends on state law. In most states, an attendant must be at least 18 to serve beer and 21 to serve liquor or mixed drinks. Many courses also require a Responsible Beverage Service certification.
Are cart girls always women?
Traditionally, yes, and the colloquial term reflects that, but many courses now hire men in the same role under titles like “beverage cart attendant.” The job is not legally restricted to women anywhere in the United States.
Sources
- National Golf Foundation. “Golf Industry Facts.” Accessed April 2026. https://www.ngf.org/the-clubhouse/golf-industry-research/
- Glassdoor. “Cart Girl Salary in United States.” Accessed April 2026. https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/cart-girl-salary-SRCH_KO0,9.htm
- Entrepreneur / Business Insider. “I’m a Cart Girl On a Golf Course.” Ellie Dressler interview. September 2025.
- Golf Digest. “The Secret Life of Cart Girls.” March 2015.
- JobMonkey. “Beer Cart Driver Jobs.”
- Golf.com. “Golf Tipping: The Ultimate Guide to Tipping at a Golf Course.”
- LinkedIn. “Rules for a Bev Cart Girl.” Ashley Burgiss. March 2021.
- BroBible. “How Much Do Beverage Cart Girls Make In Tips?” December 2025.
