Winston-Salem, NC January 15, 2015 – SkyTrak LLC, a joint venture of SkyGolf and SportTrak, and makers of the revolutionary SkyTrak™ Personal Launch Monitor, has entered into a licensing and development agreement with WGT Golf to integrate their mobile golf game with SkyTrak to offer golfers everywhere the freedom to play championship courses with their own clubs in a stunning, high-definition virtual environment. WGT Golf expects their integration with SkyTrak to be ready for market in 2nd quarter 2015, so SkyTrak users will be able join the over 10 million golfers worldwide playing the WGT Golf game with their own clubs and balls.
The SkyTrak Personal Launch Monitor is a complete Practice, Play and Entertainment System for golf at home. SkyTrak accurately captures thousands of data points from a golfer hitting balls with their own clubs into a net to simulate practice and play as if you were on the course or practice tee. Now with WGT Golf, golfers can experience and test their skills on some of the world’s most famous 18-hole courses with their own clubs at their own pace. The WGT Golf integration will include the ability to enter tournaments, challenge other golfers, improve your game and work your way up the leaderboard.
WGT Golf is an online and mobile golf game played by millions and known for its championship tournaments featuring famous and realistic golf courses. Golf is played virtually on actual golf courses around the world using patented 3D photo-realistic images and terrain-mapping technology.
“Our goal with the SkyTrak Personal Launch Monitor is to deliver commercial quality ball flight simulations that reflect a golfer’s actual performance for game improvement and entertainment at a price far below comparable alternatives,” said Richard Edmonson, SkyGolf CEO. “In essence, we have created a way for a golfer to take his or her passion beyond the 18th green with what we see as the XBOX of Golf. SkyTrak fits nicely into our core values by delivering an accurate and realistic in-home golf experience that both entertains and makes you a better golfer. Our strategic relationship with WGT Golf allows us to add more ways for golfers to practice, play and be entertained with the integration of SkyTrak with the #1 virtual online golf game with over 450 million rounds played on over 20 of the world’s most famous golf courses.”
With the integration of WGT Golf with a SkyTrak Personal Launch Monitor, golfers will have access to select championship courses featuring either all 18 holes stroke play or a 9-hole challenge with the best approach shots on each course. Golfers can play some of the world’s most famous courses such as Pebble Beach, St Andrews, Bandon Dunes, Pinehurst No. 2, Wolf Creek, and Harbour Town Golf –having the next best experience to actually being on those courses.
“The large WGT audience is over 90% real-world golfers, so giving players a chance to experience WGT with real golf equipment is a natural fit,” said YuChiang Cheng, WGT founder and CEO. “Our partnership with SkyTrak adds another platform to WGT’s presence across web, social and mobile, and puts WGT in the growing market of smart home sensor technology.”
While entertaining, SkyTrak is not a toy, but a serious tool that accurately reflects the golfer’s actual skill level and shot results to provide year-round practice, play and game improvement without ever leaving home. Combined with an App and iPad, the Wi-Fi enabled SkyTrak captures the actual ball speed, launch angle, back spin, side spin and side angle to project the ball flight over a vivid 3D practice range and virtual golf course. SkyTrak also offers various challenges for engaging practice such as Closest to the Pin, Longest Drive and Targets, along with Shot History Tables, Performance by Club, and helpful data screens. Designed to be an open platform, SkyTrak expects to extend features, games and golf play by making a software developers kit available to select licensees and partners who want to develop innovative applications around the unique capabilities of SkyTrak. It’s easy to use, compact, totally portable with no wires required, and highly accurate, so improvements the golfer sees in their swing at home are improvements they can take to the course.
“Our strategic partnership with WGT is twofold,” said Andy Allen, SportTrak’s Managing Director of Golf. “It offers SkyTrak users the unique opportunity to join the millions of golfers who play the #1 online golf game and the most realistic golf game on the web. Also, WGT players will now have the added ability to play using their own clubs. With the combination of SkyTrak and WGT, golfers will be able to virtually play actual championship courses, practice at their convenience, see the details of every shot, and have fun while improving their games.”
“SkyTrak is a unique product in the consumer golf space,” added Allen. “There are a couple of economically-priced golf simulators on the market that offer some measure of simulated ball flight, but none of them are able to measure enough information about the performance of the golf ball to accurately simulate a golfer’s actual ball flight to include shot shape, deviation from target line and distance. So, the feedback provided by such systems can misrepresent your actual performance and as such may not provide the feedback needed to improve your game. In fact, such systems may actually hurt your game and at best are a waste of your valuable time.”
SkyTrak provides the accurate measurements of a commercial-quality launch monitor, at a fraction of the cost, to open up an entirely new world of game improving practice and hours and hours of entertainment away from the course. SkyTrak measures ball speed, launch angle, deviation and spin on axis and then uses very sophisticated algorithms to produce highly accurate simulations of a golfer’s actual ball flight to improve their games and provide more fun. SkyTrak works wirelessly with an interactive App that runs on compatible iPads to create a practice environment that’s fun for golfers. Weighing less than 2 pounds and under 7 inches tall, SkyTrak’s powerful engine also provides entertaining challenges and competitions between family and friends, while delivering the same results as if you were on the course.
SkyTrak users have the option to upload their practice and play data to the SkyGolf 360 cloud service for storage, analysis and sharing with friends via the new SkyGolf 360 App and enjoy the benefits of being part of the fast-growing online community of passionate golfers via integration with popular social networks. The ability to share with friends will make the interactive platform the centerpiece of a consumer’s in-home golf practice and entertainment experience.
For more information on the SkyTrak Personal Launch Monitor System, please visit www.skytrakgolf.com, and for more information on WGT Golf, please visit www.wgtmedia.com.
About WGT Media
Based in San Francisco, WGT Media is home to the most engaged sports fans in the world, with over 20 million total registered players and high online engagement levels. WGT Golf is the #1 golf game on web and mobile, featuring over 20 championship golf courses, virtual golf equipment, and virtual golf tournaments. WGT strategic golf partners include David Leadbetter, Golf Channel, PGA of America, SkyGolf and USGA. WGT Baseball is the #1 MLB-licensed baseball game on Facebook that puts fans inside their favorite MLB ballparks in virtual reality with MLB uniforms and players. Learn more at www.wgtmedia.com.
About Sky Golf
SkyGolf, maker of SkyCaddie, the #1-Rated and Most-Trusted Rangefinder in Golf, is a private company specializing in the development of innovative positioning systems and technology specifically designed to help golfers play better and have more fun. SkyCaddie is the Official Rangefinder of the PGA of Canada, PGA of Great Britain & Ireland, and PGA of Sweden.
The overall mission of SkyGolf is to help golfers play better with better information while respecting the long-standing traditions of the game. By using technology responsibly and within the spirit and rules of golf, SkyGolf provides golfers of all skill levels with better and more rewarding golf experiences. The Company’s innovative products include: SkyCaddie®, rangefinders that are preloaded and ready-to-play out of the box; SkyPro®, golf’s most powerful swing/putting analyzer and training tool; SkyGolf 360, golf’s fastest growing community where golfers can go to connect to their Game, their Courses, their Equipment, their Golf Professional and to one another; Swing Labs®, the golf industry’s first unbiased, performance-based fitting solution; SkyCourse™ Technologies, a company that equips golf course superintendents with tools they need to complete daily property management tasks with less effort, less time and less money, through a unique combination of precision GPS maps, web-based technologies and mobile mapping solutions; and the new SkyTrak™ Launch Monitor, the only company in the golf industry positioned to deliver game improvement solutions during practice, play, lessons and fitting at the course or at home. For more information, visit: www.skygolf.com, www.skycaddie.com, www.golfskypro.com, www.skytrakgolf.com, www.swinglabs.com, and www.skycourse.com.
Contact:
Tracy Nackel, TEN Marketing & PR, 760-420-1602 or tnackel@cox.net
Vanessa Price, TEN Marketing & PR, 714-544-6515 or readthegreens@aol.com
