For Emma Thom, golf has always been about more than what happens between the first tee and the 18th green. It is about family, time spent outdoors and, increasingly, finding ways to make the most of the precious hours golfers have available to them. That philosophy has become central to her role as E-Commerce and Marketing Coordinator with Motocaddy, which established itself as a local entity in Australia in September 2025 after more than 15 years in the market through distributors.

With a warehouse, office and team now based in Botany, Sydney, Motocaddy has taken a significant step closer to Australian golfers. The move has allowed the global electric trolley brand to provide direct-to-golfer pricing and local customer support, while gaining a better understanding of what Australian golfers want from their equipment. For Thom, who joined the business six months ago, that connection has been particularly valuable.

A freelance marketing specialist and sole trader before joining Motocaddy, Thom had worked with small Australian businesses during their start-up and growth phases. The opportunity to combine her marketing experience with her family's love of golf, however, proved difficult to resist. “My husband and my eldest daughter both play golf regularly,” she says. Her youngest daughter, just two years old, is also already showing a remarkable enthusiasm for the game.

Scottish-proud Thom and her family have lived in Sydney for almost four years, and she has quickly developed an appreciation for the Harbour City. “I love the coastline and the landscape you get here with golf courses,” she says. “The links-style coastal courses are phenomenal, and we’re very lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing local layouts.” That personal connection with the game has influenced the way she approaches her role at Motocaddy, where she is more interested in understanding why people play golf than simply selling them another piece of equipment.

That thinking was behind Time to Play, a campaign which grew from Thom’s own experience of being part of a golfing family and recognising one of the modern player’s biggest challenges: finding the time to play. “What I found was that golfers want to walk. It’s a choice,” she says. “Even if there’s a cart available, many are choosing to walk.” The challenge, then, is making that walk as enjoyable as possible, something she believes an electric trolley can help achieve.

“From my perspective, joining Motocaddy allowed me to see that there was a smarter way to get the most out of a round of golf,” she says. “You still get your 18 holes, you still get the kilometres of walking and you still get to enjoy playing golf. There’s something magical about that.” Rather than replacing the walking experience, she sees Motocaddy’s technology as a way of making it easier for golfers to enjoy the game, while taking some of the physical strain out of transporting their equipment around the course.

That becomes particularly relevant in Australia, where golfers can encounter everything from hilly terrain to wet winter conditions. Motocaddy’s technology is designed to take some of the physical effort out of moving a golf bag around the course while allowing golfers to remain focused on their game. Features such as Motocaddy’s Click ’N’ Connect batteries and downhill control are examples of technology designed to make the trolley easier and more intuitive to use, but for Thom, the real value lies in what those features allow golfers to do.

Motocaddy's 2025 M7 REMOTE EliteFLEX Lifestyle model.

“With the hilly terrain, especially in this area, and the wet weather and wet winters we get in Australia, you want to be able to take the weight off your shoulders and stay in control of your swing, no matter what time of year you’re on the course,” she says. It is a benefit she has seen first-hand at home, too, after watching her husband return from rounds of golf exhausted. “Six months into this job, he has a Motocaddy and now he comes back having enjoyed his golf. You can see it. He’s not complaining about shoulder pain, for example.”

While Motocaddy offers a range of electric trolley options, it is the remote-controlled models which have made the biggest impression on Australian golfers. Thom says the remote models were the best-sellers in Motocaddy’s 2025 range, with Australian golfers embracing the technology faster than customers in other markets. “Nowhere else in the world does remote lead the way like it does here in Australia, and I think that says a lot about the Australian golfer and how discerning they are about their equipment,” she says.

The appeal of the remote models is obvious. The golfer can control the trolley using a remote, rather than having to physically push or pull it, allowing the trolley to move ahead while the player remains focused on their game. “I think that’s largely because it’s hands-free, apart from the remote control,” Thom says. “You can send the buggy onwards and you’re in full control. It looks really cool, too.” More broadly, she believes the growing popularity of electric buggies reflects a shift in the way golfers view the technology.

“I think the uptake in electric buggies in particular has been really exciting to see,” she says. “People are really getting behind electric buggies as a way to enhance their game, not take away from it.”

Motocaddy’s arrival as a local entity has changed the way Motocaddy can interact with Australian customers. After operating through a distributor model for more than 15 years, the company now has a local warehouse, office and team in Botany, allowing it to offer more competitive, direct-to-golfer pricing while providing support from people based in Australia.

Rather than replacing the walking experience, Motocaddy’s technology as a way of making it easier for golfers to enjoy the game.

For Thom, the local customer service component is particularly important. “When you call us, you actually get our team,” she says, highlighting the difference between having a local operation and relying solely on a remote call centre. “I think a lot of people value customer service more than anything else nowadays, and rightly so.”

Thom believes the next 12 months could be significant for Motocaddy, with new product ranges in development and a number of exciting initiatives still to come. “There are some exciting things happening in the next couple of months and, for me, it’s the next step towards even better golf, essentially.”

For now, though, Thom remains focused on a simple idea: making golf easier to enjoy. Her marketing philosophy is rooted in an understanding that golfers already have plenty competing for their attention. Work, family and everyday responsibilities can make it difficult to find the time for 18 holes, and once that time is found, she believes it should be protected.

“It’s about respecting that window of time and trying to make every minute of it better,” she says. That is ultimately what she sees as Motocaddy’s role. The technology, whether it is remote control, downhill control or the convenience of Click ’N’ Connect batteries, is important, but it is what those features give back to the golfer that matters most.

“It’s the experience of golf we’re trying to protect here,” Thom says, a philosophy that neatly captures both her approach to marketing and Motocaddy’s growing presence in Australia. Golfers want to walk, they want to enjoy their 18 holes and they want to spend time with family and friends while experiencing the landscape around them. With a growing local team, direct-to-golfer pricing, local customer support and more than two decades of global engineering behind it, Motocaddy is looking to make that experience a little easier - and Thom believes the company is only getting started.