NEW YORK — Golfing great Greg Norman is looking to change the golf cart and turn it into an entertainment hub to enhance the on-course experience.
The Greg Norman Company and Verizon announced Wednesday that they partnered with golf transportation manufacturer Club Car and GPS technology company GPSi on the “Shark Experience,” which will provide golfers with a fully connected golf car experience that delivers connectivity, content and customization.
The 62-year-old Norman said at SportsBusiness Journal’s Sports Marketing Symposium that there would be three tiers of carts that bring high-definition touchscreen displays. At the most basic level, the Club Car vehicles will enable the instant measurement of yardage for shot distances to the pin. The next level includes yardage plus built-in speakers with Bluetooth connectivity to enable streaming music via Slacker Radio, with golfers pairing their devices to the cart. At the highest level, the carts will enable golfers to also watch live content while they’re enjoying a leisurely day on the course. The content can include live sports, highlights from beIN Sports, entertainment and news — options that are currently available on Verizon’s go90 app, according to Golf World.
The touchscreen displays can include the current scorecard, live sports scores, cashless payments, a map of the course and golf tips with video content from Norman. Hole-in-one technology, food and beverage ordering, Shot Tracer and more will become available as the platform evolves.
“It is a platform. It is not a product,” Norman said. “And so any time Verizon comes up with some new innovation or any time Club Car comes up with a new innovation or we come up with a new innovation from a content standpoint, we can put it on that platform. We can forever evolve in a way the industry is asking it to be evolved.
“This platform is going to evolve. What we have today is going to be different in January, is going to be different in the second quarter next year.”
Norman said Club Car was manufacturing the carts for the first quarter of 2018 and that they would gradually be rolled out at select golf courses across the U.S. throughout next year. The pilot will be previewed at the PGA Show in January.
For Norman, the project has been four years in the making — ever since he found himself in a cart barn wondering why there couldn’t be a screen in every cart bringing the kind of content already available in the hotel room.
In May, The Greg Norman Company and Verizon announced they would join forces to bring innovative and disruptive technology to the golf industry. Verizon is the connectivity partner in this project. Norman’s company is financing it.
One other potential partner that is in negotiations with Norman is the PGA Tour that made him famous. The carts could ultimately bring PGA Tour content to golfers who want to follow the pros while playing their own rounds.
“The PGA TOUR is committed to being a leader in innovation and technology, in order to not only grow the fanbase of the TOUR, but also the game of golf as a whole,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a testimonial. “It’s obvious that Greg Norman has had the same commitment throughout his legendary career, and that commitment is truly coming to life with the launch of “Shark Experience.” It has the potential to greatly innovate the golf course experience and bring more – and different – players to the game. We wish Greg and his team well in this exciting new endeavor and look forward to seeing it succeed.”
Ultimately, Norman — an Australian known for his aggressive style and nicknamed “The Great White Shark” — is betting on customization, as the connected cart will cater to user preferences.
“It will recognize you,” Norman said. “We’ll be building up the data analytics of what you like, how you like it. Eventually there will be an app on your phone. It will be connected.
“It’s amazing the feedback we’re getting from the Baby Boomers all the way down to Gen Z’ers and the millennials.”
