Global positioning system speeds play, takes some guesswork out of golf

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Posted 7:37AM on Monday, April 29, 2002

YORK, Pa. - Typically, Steve Shelly spends much of his time on the golf course guessing how many yards exist between his ball and the flag. Lifting his right hand to shield his eyes from the sun, the Manchester Township resident often leaves the shade of his green-and-white golf cart behind to calculate the distance and force of his next swing. Residents like Shelly who golf at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort and Conference Center no longer need to leave the comfort of their carts to measure the distance between hazards and holes. On April 5, at a cost of roughly $200,000, the York Township resort installed a global positioning system to help golfers increase the pace and accuracy of their game, said Don Beardsley, director of golf for Heritage Hills Golf Resort and Conference Center. "I've been golfing here for 10 years, and this takes a lot of the guesswork out of the game," Shelly said. Technicians with Largo, Fla., based Shortgrass Technologies attached video display units to the top right corners of Heritage Hills' 80 golf carts. Each unit is connected to a main computer, located in the resort's golf shop, which tracks the location and pace of each cart. An employee of the resort monitors how long a cart has been situated at each hole on a computerized map of the course, Beardsley said. A number on the screen turns red if a golf cart has been in one place for too long. The employee sends a message to the cart if a golfer has spent an extended period of time in one location on the course, he said. "The No. 1 complaint we have is slow play," he said. "This system should reduce a player's time at each hole by 15 minutes." Each panel inside a golf cart displays a graphic view of the golfer's position in relation to the flag. Total yards to hazards and holes, sports scores and advertisements are displayed on the screens, Beardsley said. "The only thing this system won't do for the golfer is hit the shot," he said. "The global positioning system receives a constant signal from up to 12 satellites above the earth," said John Fahey, director of marketing and strategy for Shortgrass Technologies. The string of satellites conducts a calculation of the cart's position on the Earth and sends the data to the commercial receiver at the golf course, he said. The system is accurate to within three yards of the cart's exact location. Amateur golfers may appreciate the help in game play, but the system has been deemed illegal by the U.S. Golf Association for use in professional tournaments, said Michael T. Schanne Jr., director of competitions for the Pennsylvania Golf Association. "It gives you an advantage over the other players and takes some of the skill out of the game," he said. "It tells the golfer what the distance is rather than him finding out for himself." Besides the function of aiding golfers around the course, the system features a radio and Internet relay. Radio and Internet signals are used to communicate with the golfer on the course, Fahey said. For example, as the golfer approaches the eighth hole, a food and beverage prompt appears on the screen. The golfer may select choices from the menu by using the buttons located on the side of the panel. A printout of the order is sent from the cart to the resorts restaurant nearly half an hour before the golfer pays for the meal. A typical round of golf lasts about four hours, Beardsley said, so "the meal is ready way before the time you get there." Although the advanced system was expensive, Heritage Hills hopes to offset some of that cost through revenue generated from advertisements displayed both on the system's screen and outside the golf carts, Beardsley said. Although the system is used by all of the resort's golfers, the graphic technology is expected to appeal particularly to younger guests, he said. "In this area, there is tremendous amount of competition when it comes to places to play golf," Beardsley said. "We are trying to entice people to play a few rounds of golf at this resort and offer them something the Joneses don't have." But people who lease golf carts at the course may notice the rental price has increased from $9 to $10 for nine holes of golf and from $19 to $20 for 18 holes. Someone who would visit the resort on a weekday would now pay about $55 in greens fees, including the rental price of the cart, to play 18 holes of golf. The public golf course established the increase to help pay for the new global position system, Beardsley said. The golf course has also invested in another new technology for golfers who do not wish to use the GPS technology but who still want to practice their swing. A stationary and portable Swing Cam on the course calculates the speed of a person's golf club and ball and the distance traveled by the ball. A picture of the golfer's swing may be printed from a kiosk inside the resort's golf store or can be downloaded from the Internet, Beardsley said. "It will come to a point when people become dependent on these technologies," he said.