To give you an idea of how quickly clubs can become ‘Kaddy-Lac-ed,’ consider a delivery of carts last year to Atlanta Athletic Club.

In a matter of a few short weeks after a fleet of Kaddy-Lac three-wheel Tritons went into service at the major championship venue, other high-profile private clubs along or near Bobby Jones Drive placed orders, including Cherokee Town and CC and Dunwoody CC. The product is also used at dozen courses in and around Naples, Fla.

“People in golf are very discerning. People at private clubs are even more discerning,” explained Watson, who operates the day-to-day family business with his daughter Emily and a small team of six. “They won’t buy the second best of anything so we’ve been really fortunate that we’ve sold our carts to some of the most prestigious private clubs across Canada, and now America, and many of them have only ever had Kaddy-Lacs. My grandfather, my dad, my brother and myself, we’ve all been involved. As technologies changed and as more and more demands have been placed on pull cart function we’ve adapted to meet those requirements.”

To give readers an idea just how ingrained Kaddy-Lac — a unique spin on General Motors’ Cadillac division — is at Canadian clubs, consider that only three private courses in the Greater Toronto Area don’t use Kaddy-Lac products. ClubLink has more than 3,000 of the carts in service at its various properties while Royal Ottawa, Rosemere and Summerlea in Montreal and this year’s RBC Canadian Open host, Hamilton G&CC, all service their members with the “proudly Canadian-made” product.

“The commitment to product improvement and innovation as well as a commitment to service standards has kept Kaddy-Lac carts leaders in our industry,” reads a website testimonial from Paul Carrothers, Royal Ottawa’s director of golf. “I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with the company since my early days in the golf industry in Toronto. That’s 35 years ago.”

Like it was when Kilmarnock, Scotland native Hugh G. Watson ventured to Canada and founded the business as The Wylliey-Webb Co. Ltd. in 1946, it’s always been an all-hands-on-deck approach at Kaddy-Lac.

Robert Watson stitches all the belts for the carts, welds brakes, and pitches in when and wherever it best suits operations. Emily’s responsibilities include marketing, promotion and the ever-growing divot bottle program (more on that in a moment).

Jack Watson, Robert’s son, officially home for the summer from college, is already busy drilling castings for a second production run in 2019, something the company hasn’t had to do in over a decade.

“Right after the Masters we’ll be building roughly 250 to 300 carts in a day,” Robert Watson said. “We’ll do 5,000 castings; tap them, all by hand, no robots, to get ready for advanced orders. Almost everything is Canadian made. The aluminum we use comes from Chatham, Ontario, belt material from Calgary, Alberta, stainless steel from Toronto and the hardware is from Brampton. We do all our own fabrication in Burlington, including tube bending, drilling, welding and irons working. I might be the owner of the company but I’m not in a suit sitting somewhere in an office. We’re a small business, proud of how we all roll up our sleeves.”

Kaddy-Lac products have extended beyond the realm of the manual carts. Seven styles of divot bottles are proving to be equally popular with private clubs and resorts, including one design that clips onto a carry bag that is quickly being adopted at clubs worldwide. Overseeing the divot bottle division is keeping Emily extremely busy with new customers coming on board almost daily. Kaddy-Lac recently added a United Kingdom distributor to help administer orders and re-orders overseas.

“We worked on the divot bottle for seven to eight years. I got some help from Neil Verwey when he was at St. George’s and from club pros like Adam Cherry (formerly of Credit Valley G&CC),” said Watson. “It’s been a tremendous alternative program that works with our carts. We even developed divot bottle stations to help clubs who have existing divot programs or clubs who want to start one. It’s the people out there playing golf that tell us what they need. All we do is listen. We pay attention to their ideas.”

Being a first-time exhibitor at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show was a prudent investment. Speaking with Watson on Day Two of the annual golf industry major he was more than pleased he and Emily made the trip to Orlando and by the response the brand was receiving.

“We’re starting to do a lot more business in the United States,” he said. “It’s growing and we’re continuing to get more of that referral and reciprocal business so it made sense for us to come and have a presence here.”

Watson doesn’t necessarily believe Kaddy-Lac is the most aesthetically pleasing manual cart on the market today nor does he care much about that. He prefers his products to function, be durable and perform to a superior level, not only in how they move from first tee to 18th green, but also in how golfers utilize the various details of the products which have evolved over time.

“I came up with our Triton product pushing our eldest daughter around Disney World for three days years ago. It was a design for function, a commercially made product that performed, that was smooth. There were a lot of carts coming out in the market with baby stroller technology. They spent a lot of time showcasing how little space those carts take up when you fold them. Our thought is we have a cart that takes up minimal space because it’s already at your club, it’s easy to use, and it’s very functional for the golfer. On our designs everything is at an ideal height, you’re not bending over for anything so whether it’s the basket, the water bottle holder, the divot bottle, everything is at an optimum level and the handle is adjustable,” he said.

There was a time when Watson was being turned down by clubs, especially in the United States, with a “we just ride here, we don’t want anything to do with pull carts” refrain. Times have changed and as golf moves back closer to its roots as a walking game, Kaddy-Lac has been growing exponentially to meet the needs of golfers who prefer to hoof it down the fairways.

“It’s been quite a transformation the past few years especially,” Watson said. “We’re really looking forward to what’s on the horizon for the game and for Kaddy-Lac because this company is built around the needs and wants of golfers who want to walk when they play.”