MAUMEE, OHIO—AboutGolf—a 19-year-old golf company that has become the world leader in indoor golf simulator technology—has announced plans to expand its research-and-development efforts with the establishment of a state-of-the-art facility in Ottawa Lake, Michigan, approximately 15 miles from its Maumee, Ohio world headquarters.
AboutGolf Labs—founded in Spring 2007 as a spin-off consisting of what formerly was AboutGolf’s Development Division—and its core staff of 12 engineers are currently based in its recently expanded 5,000-square-foot Maumee headquarters, which includes a 2,000-square-foot research lab. AboutGolf Labs expects to move into its new Michigan facility on October 31, 2008. AboutGolf recently was successful in securing zoning for a 10-acre tract it has purchased in Ottawa Lake, conveniently located at a major freeway exit.
"The site is ideally located for us logistically, one minute off Exit 5 of U.S. 23 between our Maumee headquarters and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where many of our top tech folks reside," says AboutGolf CEO Bill Bales.
The proximity to Ann Arbor is crucial, not only because several members of AboutGolf Labs’ technical staff reside there, but also because of AboutGolf’s long-term technology alliance with PlayData, LLC, a world leader in machine vision technology. Ann Arbor—home of the University of Michigan, one of the country’s top five engineering schools—is a machine vision technology epicenter and also boasts some of the nation’s most highly regarded engineering minds.
"One would think Maumee, Ohio, is an odd location for a high-tech business like ours," Bales says, "but besides being the country’s leading location for freight transportation, we’re just up the street from [Ann Arbor], the absolute best place in the world for us to tap into the technology resources that fit our needs."
The new AboutGolf Labs Research Campus will include at least two separate buildings, designed to resemble the iconic hilltop clubhouse at New York’s famous Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. The AboutGolf Labs facility will include both real and artificial teeing areas, a 350-yard driving range surrounded by towering oaks and other hardwoods, a putting green, and a tree-studded environment reminiscent of a fine country club.
The new practice facility will replace AboutGolf’s first permanent field-test lab it opened this spring at The Legacy Golf Club in Ottawa Lake. The current field-test lab features four heated indoor/outdoor hitting bays, as well as the usual outdoor practice range facilities. The lab is shared with the Clare Batista Academy, where daily users focus-test the latest AboutGolf technology. Clare Batista is a top 50 female instructor.
AboutGolf has even commissioned a soon-to-be-revealed big name in the golf industry to produce two key pieces of test technology for its new facility—a unique ball cannon that can be calibrated to launch golf balls at precise velocity and spin rates with precise spin-axis settings, as well as what promises to be the world’s most sophisticated and advanced club-swinging robot.
"This will be our answer to ‘Iron Byron,’ but we might call it ‘Titanium Tiger,’ " Bales jokes.
AboutGolf is a 19-year-old Maumee, Ohio based company that 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 at: 760-346-6942, email: mb@mblacy.com
