Like everything it comes into contact with, technology has had a huge impact on the golf market in recent years. This seems more relevant now than ever before. After our recent visit to the 2017 Orlando PGA Show, it was evident that ‘golf gadgets’ with big promises, have saturated an already busy market. In this case, two of golf’s gadget innovators, Zen Green and PuttView have combined new technology to create what they call the ultimate indoor putting experience.
This system provides PGA golf coaches with a new way to teach putting indoors, and its makers boldly claim that it has the potential to attract an estimated 100 million-plus people worldwide who only use adventure golf courses, pitch & putt and driving ranges into a ‘real’ golfing environment for the first time.
Zen Golf are hitting the road to prove this new products versatility and abundance of claimed benefits for the everyday golfer’s putting ability taking it to the Hanse Golf in Hamburg, the Irish Golf Expo in Dublin and the Scottish Golf Show in Glasgow.
Christoph Pregizer, co-founder of Viewlicity GmbH, creators of PuttView:
We are looking forward to revealing the new system over the next few weeks in Hamburg, Dublin and Glasgow. At this trio of golf exhibitions we will get the feedback of hundreds of first-time users and a large number of PGA professionals, which will be invaluable as we develop the system further.
The whole idea behind this new product is that it gives golfers or coaches the ability to re-create virtually any putt on the planet under 20 feet (6.1m) – which seems like an extremely impressive claim. Whilst attempting to hole these re-created putts on the Zen Green Stage, the PuttView system then shows you how to hole it.
The technology behind PuttView uses slope data to calculate and project an accurate, animated light path onto the putting surface, also offering additional visual guidance such as the correct pace to hit putts. PuttView claims to gives golf coaches a host of new visual aids to help create a new kind of putting lesson, including a highly user-friendly ‘Sketch’ function – where the PGA professional can literally draw his or her own graphics and instructions onto the putting surface, using a tablet.
Zen Green Stage and PuttView however highlight the fact that this is not just a product for tutorial purposes. As well as showing golfers how to hole “any” breaking putt, the system also has several fun games up its sleeve.
Nick Middleton, Tour putting coach, co-founder of Zen Green Tec and co-designer of the Zen Green Stage explains:
The Zen Green Stage with PuttView is not only for people who are already golfers, but also for anyone who just enjoys putting. When you experience the integrated system you will quickly discover how much fun it is to use – as well as how powerful it is as a teaching tool.
For golfers looking to improve their putting under pressure, animated targets can appear anywhere on the putting surface, challenging players to learn both break and pace in a series of putts as the clock counts down. And for golfers who want to try and hole famous putts from golf’s history, a wide range of classic Tour and Ryder Cup putts made familiar by TV and YouTube will be pre-programmed on the Green Stage.
If everything Zen Golf say to be true, there is no reason why this product couldn’t result in both shots saved with the flat stick as well as hours of dance floor fun.