MAUMEE, OHIO—AboutGolf—No. 1 in worldwide golf-simulator sales less than four years since installing its first simulator in Golf Galaxy in Akron, Ohio—is riding a wave of success as it heads to Orlando, Fla., for this month’s PGA Merchandise Show.
AboutGolf is fresh off an incredible year of growth. In 2006 the company’s total revenues grew more than 100 percent, and strong additional gains are also expected in 2007 thanks to its active launch of Kudu II, Kudu Power, WeightTrac, PuttTrac and the new 3D/E graphics engine, all of which will be on display at the PGA Merchandise Show.
AboutGolf’s impressive growth has enabled the company to increase its resources for customer service, reduce prices, and add features. Research-and-development spending has increased along with sales. AboutGolf is not only determined to keep its industry lead, but to increase it with ever-improving technology.
To that end, the company’s breakthrough technologies being demonstrated in Orlando include two noteworthy developments from its Simulator division—Kudu Power and the 3D/Eâ?¢ graphics engine. Both represent very key competitive advantages for About Golf.
Kudu Power is a sensor upgrade option that, when added to the AboutGolf simulator, delivers the Holy Grail of simulators—directly measured spin. Its unprecedented level of club data also allows Kudu Power to take clubfitting, teaching and self-analysis to new levels, demonstrating how serious AboutGolf is about its dominant position in the simulator market. "Kudu Power is an added sensor that substantially augments the capabilities of our system," says Bill Bales, AboutGolf’s president and CEO. The Kudu technology is engineered by EDH, AboutGolf’s key partner from South Africa.
PGA Tour Superstore is adding Kudu Power to every simulator in all of its stores, with AboutGolf giving PGA Tour Superstore an exclusive for Kudu Power for big-box retailers until Sept. 1, 2007.
The 3D/E graphics engine is a major upgrade to AboutGolf’s proprietary graphics software, allowing the company to expand its lead in the simulator market. This "higher-than-high-def" upgrade takes graphics to unprecedented levels. Three-dimensional rendered graphics are the only way to ensure the accurate flight and placement of every shot. The 3D/E graphics engine enables trees, grass and flags to blow in the wind, for clouds to change shape and move by, birds to fly overhead and waves to roll onto the shore.
AboutGolf’s Lab Technologies unit will also be very busy in Orlando, featuring its groundbreaking Kudu II, WeightTrac force plate and PuttTrac putting analyzer in AboutGolf’s Launch Monitors booth on the show floor.
Lab Technologies will place its 2007 focus on the new Kudu II launch monitor. Kudu II can track a golf ball for up to 230 yards outdoors (an advanced trajectory model calculates the rest of the flight) and with as little as 12 feet of ball flight in an indoor setting. The minimum of 14 feet of ball flight in the AboutGolf Simulator provides an ideal indoor environment for measuring spin using a patented designed ball with tour-ball qualities. Comparisons of other golf balls can be used so a recommendation can be made to golfers about their optimal ball type based upon swing and club data.
PGA Tour Superstore is installing 46 Kudus in its existing stores and in pioneering practice bays in their new Dallas stores, while Henry-Griffitts has purchased 10 Kudus for the company’s key clubfitting agents and its research-and-development department. "In my opinion, Kudu is the most accurate and easiest launch monitor to use that I’ve seen in the marketplace for obtaining the essential data for clubfitting and teaching," says Billy McDonald, Henry-Griffitts’ chairman.
The WeightTrac system (MSRP $4,000) is a force plate to which are mounted four load-bearing sensor cells connected to the software program. Each cell records downward force or weight independently. A key interface screen in the software provides a moving graph, or "snake", that moves with the student’s body during the swing. This reveals the body’s center-of-gravity patterns which can be related to actual fade, straight, or draw shot types. WeightTrac allows students to practice a prescribed center of gravity movement through visual or auditory feedback, making it an invaluable training device.
"WeightTrac is the single-most useful training tool since the development of video 20 years ago," says Dr. Jim Suttie, 2000 PGA Teacher of the Year.
In fact, PGA Tour Superstore purchased all of AboutGolf’s initial WeightTrac inventory for its Atlanta-area stores, integrating WeightTrac into all of its AboutGolf teaching simulators.
"The seamless integration of WeightTrac will allow the instructor to record and collect center-of-gravity movement data of a student without the student’s knowledge," Winger says. "This type of data collection eliminates the statistical deviation that can be caused by a student being extra nervous in performing for the instructor."
The PuttTrac putting analyzer (MSRP: $1,500) consists of a putting analyzer board and software package. One good putt is all that is necessary for calibration. The student’s stroke is read by PuttTrac for squareness of the putter face at impact, acceleration, velocity, and clubhead direction. In 10 strokes enough data is captured and presented so golfers know their putters’ swing characteristics.
The updated version of AboutGolf’s iS system will also be presented in the AboutGolf Launch Monitors booth at the PGA Merchandise Show. The solutions integrated into the iS Simulator and iS Performance Bay include WeightTrac, PuttTrac, AboutGolf’s proprietary VideoTrac camera system and video analysis software, AboutGolf’s DataTrac online data-tracking ASP, Kudu, and AboutGolf’s WorldPlay online event ASP for entertainment and creative practice.
AboutGolf is a new type of golf company responding to the golf market’s desire for advanced game-improvement technology. With its roots deep in golf-simulation software, and having established itself with the world’s top-selling indoor golf simulator, AboutGolf is focused on the development of advanced software and hardware technology for game improvement. In addition to the products mentioned above, AboutGolf has in the works SwingSync video self-analysis software, SwingTrac 3D motion capture system, and the aG Perform responsive learning system. But while these individual components are all very unique and powerful, the sum of the parts is far greater. Applying AboutGolf’s iS software—think of it as a Windows-type operating system for AboutGolf’s game improvement products—can provide information never before available by enabling the correlation of data from multiple sources.
AboutGolf is a 19-year-old Maumee, Ohio-based company which has been dedicated to golf for its entire history. AboutGolf has produced Microsoft Golf, Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf and World Tours, which is the world’s most-widely-distributed golf simulation, and now is the world leader in indoor golf simulator technology. AboutGolf is a registered trademark of AboutGolf Limited, Maumee, Ohio.
Contact:
Mary Beth Lacy
760-346-6942
email: mb@mblacy.com