Founder Bill Bales discusses Clarity.Golf’s all-lady advisory board
Harrogate, England – Clarity.Golf Inc., arguably indoor golf’s most innovative concern, has established an all-lady advisory board made up of close friends and longtime associates of Clarity founder Bill Bales. Bales has long been an outspoken supporter of women in golf, and harsh critic of the golf industry for its historic exclusion of women.
Bales said, “These wonderful folks and the idea of a distaff advisory board somewhat spontaneously combusted itself. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it twenty years ago.”
Speaking from Clarity’s European headquarters in Harrogate, England, here is what Bales wrote regarding Clarity’s new team:
Our little company is about innovation. But it’s not just about innovating technology. It’s also about innovating entrepreneurship, lifestyle, inclusion, giving, and happiness. We’re not out to make a billion dollars, or as I have facetiously said, put our competition out of business. Here is a little info about our ladies:
Karen Palacios-Jansen: Karen is an LPGA professional for more than twenty-five years, a long time member and former officer with the LPGA Teachers and Club Pros, former LPGA teacher of the year, Golf Channel host and guest, author, and founder/operator of Cardiogolf.com. I’ve known Karen for almost twenty-five years. She was good friends with my wife, also Karen. Karen shared my crusade on women in golf as related to my last indoor golf company, AboutGolf. There is no more lovely and sweet person on earth than Karen, also a wonderful player, instructor and golf fitness guru.
Mary Beth Lacy: I remember over twenty years ago calling the late Jim Achenbach, one of golf journalism’s greatest gentlemen, to ask who the best golf publicist in the world was. Jim immediately knew the answer, but replied, “There’s only one but she’ll never take you on”. Jim gave me the names of two distant “next bests”. Insisting on knowing this mysterious #1, I pried out the name Mary Beth Lacy. I called MB, and by the end of the call she was committed to AboutGolf. She was the first individual in the golf industry to take on the PR for the concept of indoor golf and the benefits to practicing and playing indoors. It was an uphill battle at first and she worked hard to make indoor golf important and legitimate to the game. Mary Beth is, and always has been, the best managing press for the likes of Adams Golf, The Bob Hope Classic and the Skins Game, Fairway and Greene, Ashworth, Sunice Golf, Miura Golf, and GolfLogix among so many other recognized golf brands. MB retired last year but will consult for Clarity. After sending her a long-winded explanation and request for her to join Clarity and the Disruptors, MB–typically also long-winded, immediately replied as follows: “Yes”.
Kathleen Wilkinson: I refer to Kathleen as the Queen Mother of all things having to do with physical indoor golf simulator and studio design. That’s because Kathleen is exactly that. She was the first and only person I connected with regarding this subject, in 2002, when launching AboutGolf. Just about every design concept applied in simulator enclosures and screens was originated by Kathleen. The terminology she applied to these components are the terminology applied in the industry today. Sim screens and enclosures may sound trivial, but they are the visual and physical performance core of simulators and studios. Kathleen carried on with AboutGolf and later retired. I talked her out of retirement. She’s our queen, again.
Shawn McDonald and Roz McCreery: Shawn reached out to me on LinkedIn less than three months ago. She and Roz spent most of their careers as high level engineers with NASA. Their work has been key to America’s space program. Needless to say they are brilliant and highly accomplished. Shawn took up golf not too long ago. She searched and failed to find the type of self-learning golf technology she assumed would be available. So she invented it, with the help of Roz. Clarity now is bringing Shawn and Roz’s “FeedbacK Coach AI” product to market. It’s fantastic.
Renee Powell: Shelby Steele observed that Louis Armstrong transformed American music almost single handedly in a time of extreme segregation, wearing a mask of inferiority. It’s sad to think that the mask was his tool to penetrate the discriminating world of the “white folks”. Renee Powell has worn that same mask for many decades, handed down from her father William, in never preaching or crusading but living the life of a clear view on humanity. I am infinitely proud to call Renee one of my dearest friends. She is my role model in how to comport oneself in life. Winner of the PGA TOUR’s inaugural Charles Sifford Award, Director of the Clearview Legacy Foundation, recipient of an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews University, R&A member, and the most giving person I have known, Renee stands as a mountain in the middle of a vast plain in the worlds of inclusion and giving.
Karen Bales: Karen was my wife of nearly forty years. We lost her to depression. I knew no men who knew her that weren’t jealous of me for the unearned love she provided. If you were to meet any of our three progeny–and know me well enough to see their amazing character had to come from someone else–you’d know Karen and the brilliance of her life. We have established a startup foundation in Karen’s name. That foundation has, so far, donated a driving simulator and golf simulator to Toledo’s First Tee chapter that shares its facility with the Girls and Boys Club, and has committed a simulator to Renee Powell’s Clearview Golf Club and two Toledo area YMCAs. Clarity.Golf has committed 5% of its future profits to the Karen Leigh Foundation, and 5% of its future profits in Karen’s name to the Clearview Legacy Foundation.
All of these amazing ladies in my life have enriched it beyond measure.
About Clarity.Golf
Clarity.Golf (www.clarity.golf) is a golf technology company focused on launch monitors, simulators, related technologies–and in delivering free knowledge to these markets. Clarity.Golf’s team is made up of prime movers within the indoor golf industry, including brilliant folks around the world working daily to educate and advise the indoor golf markets, and to manifest next-generation technologies.
For more information email Bill Bales at billbales@clarity.golf, or text him at +1 419-470-9890
