Surfside Beach relaxes golf cart road rules: What SC drivers should know

A third Grand Strand municipality voted to relax its golf cart rules after South Carolina updated state law to give local governments more flexibility in regulating golf carts. Surfside Beach now allows drivers to operate golf carts with working lights anytime of day or night.

South Carolina law generally limits golf carts on public roads to a 4-mile radius of their registered address on secondary highways and roads during daylight hours. That means 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. normally and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in daylight savings time.

But since the new South Carolina law giving municipalities and counties the power to enact their own golf cart ordinances went into effect in May, North Myrtle Beach, Conway and now Surfside Beach have all passed ordinances of their own.

Surfside Beach’s new rules are the most permissive in the Myrtle Beach area so far.

Golf carts permanently equipped with working headlights and taillights can now be operated 24 hours a day, so long as the lights are illuminated 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise. During that time, drivers can’t operate golf carts without the necessary lights.

Outside Surfside Beach, North Myrtle Beach now allows the operation of golf carts from sunrise to sunset and, more recently, Conway voted to permit golf carts on certain primary highways from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Although Myrtle Beach hasn’t expanded its golf cart operation rules, in June spokespeople for Myrtle Beach and the Myrtle Beach Police Department told The Sun News the city was reviewing its ordinance.

This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM.