GPS and Golf

Using GPS on a golf course??? Yes.. and Greenfield made it happen!

Early in 1994, Greenfield was engaged to conduct a Business Opportunity Analysis for a major company in the golf industry. The opportunity to be analyzed was the market for electronic Golf Yardage Systems (GYS). The concept of a Golf Yardage System was to equip a golf cart with a display unit which would provide the golfer with accurate yardage from anywhere on the course to various features on the course .... sand traps, water hazards, center-of-green, including such useful information as length-of-drive.

The project spanned a period of 3 months and culminated in a report which not only ratified the notion that this would become an important product for the golf industry but also identified 26 people or organizations who had a desire to produce or market such a system. The first choice enabling technology for the application was GPS. At that time there were only two companies with GYS products and they were both using radio-triangulation technology similar to OMEGA, DECCA or LORAN.

We had the good fortune to come to know both of these companies, in particular, Yardmark, Inc. and its founder Doug Dudley. Doug is sometimes called the "father" of electronic golf yardage. In 1988 Doug proved the concept was valid when, at PGA West's Jack Nicklaus Resort Course he installed the world's first system using RF tags buried in the ground which emitted the yardage to the center-of-green which appeared on an display mounted on the golf cart as the cart passed the location of a tag. Doug later developed a next generation product using radio-triangulation and installed the system on courses owned by Boyne USA. In studies of more than 100,000 golfers who used the system it was determined that the service sped up play by more than 20 minutes per round and golfer satisfaction was significantly enhanced. But Doug wanted a more elegant solution.

Greenfield was engaged to take Yardmark into the GPS revolution! By the spring of 1995 Greenfield had developed a complete high-accuracy, real-time Differential GPS system for Yardmark and it was immediately installed on two of the Boyne courses in Michigan and later on the Boyne course in Florida. The results were exceptional.

In the summer of 1995 Yardmark announced a partnership with Tom Crow, founder and Vice-Chairman of Cobra Golf. Greenfield's contribution to the partnership would be the course system installation and on-going product support and development.

  • "I've evaluated hundreds of new golf products over the years. Yardmark will revolutionize the way we play golf," said Crow. "We'll all play faster, with more confidence and more enjoyment, knowing exact distances from our cart. I foresee Yardmark becoming standard equipment on all golf carts. I'm going to install YARDMARK this fall at my new course at Highland Park in San Angelo, Texas."
  • According to Doug Dudley, Yardmark's focus is on keeping this new service easy to use by both the golfer and the course owner. Their patented hands-off operation means the golfer simply parks, looks at the desired target yardage, selects a club and swings away. By not needing to seek out sprinkler heads or other reference points, and by being confident in their club selection, golfers play better and faster. Yardmark's high perceived value and low per round lease cost also creates a strong profit opportunity for course operators. "Yardmark offers solutions for two of golf's main problems - lack of yardage information and slow play," said Dudley.

    "The investment of Tom Crow's experience and capital in Yardmark will ensure our continued success as the originators and leaders in this new industry and we are thrilled to have him on board" added Dudley.

  • "We purchased Yardmark for use on one of our five courses and increased our per golfer charges by $10," said Steve Kircher, general manager for Michigan Operations, Boyne USA. Demand for that course skyrocketed, speed of play improved by 20 minutes and we played 1,600 more rounds in our first season. We have ordered it for all our courses."
  • The product is produced and warranted by two multi-national navigation and electronics firms exclusively for Yardmark. According to Greenfield's founder and President Jim Hume "the use of GPS for golf has been widely anticipated since 1989 but has only recently become economically feasible. We are pleased with our choice of well established manufacturers who will provide the highest quality equipment. We will set the standard for long term performance in this industry."

    Frequently Asked Questions
    About Yardmark

    WHAT IS YARDMARK?
    Yardmark is the state-of-the-art system that gives golfers exact yardages to multiple targets including that day's pin placement (see accompanying photo). Information is presented automatically without prompting from the golfer and is accurate to within two yards.
    HOW DOES THE GOLFER REACT TO THIS NEW SERVICE?
    Golfers enjoy a totally new and unique level of service when they play using Yardmark. Surveys show that golfers of all skill levels use Yardmark on nearly every shot, find it highly accurate and very easy to use.
    HOW DOES YARDMARK BENEFIT MY OPERATION?
    Golfers say our system adds $5 to $ 10 more value to their round ! This creates a new profit center for your operation. Detailed studies show improvement from 15 to 35 minutes in speed of play resulting in up to an additional 2000 rounds played per year generating not only revenue to pay for the equipment but significant profits as well.
    WHAT DOES YARDMARK COST?
    Charges vary with the number of golf carts, size of the facility, and total rounds on contract. Yardmark is installed with no down payment required on an Operating Lease (which your accountant will appreciate and is paid on a per golfer basis at only $2 to $3 per golfer.
    HOW DO YOU TRACK THE GOLF CART?
    We use the world-wide Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation technology and maximize accuracy through local radio differential signal. Each cart's individual position is known at all times and when the cart stops all relevant yardage information is automatically displayed to the golfer. No prompting or golfer interaction is ever required.
    WHO IS YARDMARK AND WHO MAKES YOUR PRODUCT?
    Yardmark is owned and operated by an experienced group of golf industry and GPS technology experts led by Tom Crow, Founder and Vice-Chairman of Cobra Golf and Doug Dudley, Founder and President of Yardmark, Inc. The product was designed by Greenfield Associates, a leading U.S. GPS product engineering firm. The product is manufactured and warranted by two large multi-national navigation and communications companies.
    HOW DO I GET A DETAILED OFFER FOR MY COURSE?
    We need to know the size of your facility (18 holes or more?), the number, brand and model of your cart fleet (for example, 79 E-Z-GO Medalists-Electric), three year history of rounds played and if you have a mandatory or optional cart use policy.
     

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