product showcase
18Birdies – This App Expands Fun on the Golf Course Most private and semi-private clubs around the country have groups of weekend warriors. The groups come in different sizes and skills levels, and are identified by a wide variety of names – Skins Group, Hackers, etc. What they all have in common, however, is the friendly bantering and the “pot” at the end of the round. Bragging rights and pocket change are up for grabs. It is those type groups that the founders of 18Birdies in California had in mind when they created their state of the art technology for smart phones. With 18Birdies, you don’t have to wait until the round is over to see how you did against the entire field. And you don’t have to limit smack talk to your own foursome. You can communicate with all the players in your group via your phone. “What we want to do is make golf more fun,” said CEO Eddy Lui. “This is a real social network for golf that can help grow the game. It’s all about enhancing the golf experience.” The 18Birdies app provides an easy scorekeeping system – just tap in your score and it shows up on the group leaderboard. Choose which side games you are playing – skins, Nassau, Vegas, etc. – and the app keeps everyone up to date on who is winning what. And the message board lets you send the jabs to your competitors. The app also provides a detailed bird’s eye view of each holes, providing accurate yardages to hazards, layup areas and pin locations. You can also post pictures. Track past scores and determines handicaps. And Birdies18 works for the courses. It provides technology and tools to help innovate customer experience, strengthen the relationship between courses and golfers, and build brand loyalty to encourage more rounds. “The phone should be a tool that serves you, no you serving it,” said Lui. It’s truly a win-win product for the industry and the players.
Bridgestone Golf Introduces SlipRes Cover No matter how skilled a golfer is, there will always be shots that don’t fly to the target. Golf balls will hit trees and bounce off cart paths, and usually the result is a scuff mark on the cover of the ball. Bridgestone Golf has addressed that issue with its’ latest technology, the SlipRes cover on the Tour B330 series of golf balls. Due in large part to the cover’s innovative, soft self-repairing formulation, the golf balls are more resistant to stains and abrasions than ever before. SlipRes has other benefits that are even more important to improving your results on the scorecard. The new proprietary SlipRes cover produces increased friction that keeps the ball more stable on the club. Less sliding means better quality compression time, which means reduced driver spin and faster ball speed. SlipRes has the opposite effect for shorter shots. When the ball is more stable on the face of a wedge, it allows the grooves to catch the ball resulting in more spin on shots around the green and spin retention from the rough. “We believe this is the best product we have ever produced,” said Adam Rehberg, Golf Ball Marketing Coordinator. “The buzz at the PGA Show has been amazing.” SlipRes is another example of technology developed from research accumulated from Bridgestone’s golf-ball fitting program. Over 300,000 golfers have gone through the fitting process, making Bridgestone the No. 1 ball-fitting company in golf. “Our ball-fitting program reveals the importance of ball compression when determining which ball a golfer should play,” said Marketing Director Cory Consuegra. “It is based on swing speed. Golfers with a swing speed under 105 need to play a different ball than golfers with swing speeds over 105. The technology proves it.” 8
Southern Golf Central • Volume 17, Issue 1
