By Ian Bulleid, Zuni Consulting

The past few months have been hectic for Zuni Golf.  Not only have they been heavily involved in the opening of a new five star Hotel, Spa and Golf Course in the North East but they have also been advising a Company in the North West on potential acquisitions of pay and play courses.

Ian Bulleid commented “It’s great to be involved in such differing projects from both ends of the golfing spectrum.  Although poles apart in terms of the quality of provision and the cost of potential participation, many of the basic principals are the same”.

For the project in the North East the Company’s involvement spans over three years, initially advising on the designs of the different areas from an operational perspective, then recruitment of the Senior staff and now working with the team on developing and implementing a range of operational strategies to drive the business forward.

In the North West, the project has involved advising on two potential golf course leasehold acquisitions.

For more information contact Ian Bulleid on 07770 461554 or 01923 252002.  E mail at ian.bulleid@btconnect.com

By Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Ltd 

Jimmy Wallace has joined Crown Golf as English Open Sponsorship & Events Director, to spearhead the drive to raise sponsorship for the English Open – which returns to The European Tour in 2011.

With English golf going through a purple patch – this weekend’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship finalists, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, are both English, and along with fellow Englishman Lee Westwood they occupy half of golf’s current top six World Ranking places – the appointment of a supremo for the country’s national Open is well-timed.

Wallace will be based at the company’s Blue Mountain headquarters, and will work in conjunction with The European Tour, Crown Golf Sales & Marketing Director, Nick Moran, and St Mellion International Resort Director, Stephen Towers.

The English Open will be staged on The Nicklaus Signature Course at St Mellion International Resort, in Cornwall, in August 2011. The Resort was recently refurbished, gaining an 80-bedroom 4-star resort hotel as part of a £20m redevelopment.

Jimmy Wallace has over 13 years experience in the golf operations, sports events and sports sponsorship industry in both the UK and Asia, covering golf tournaments co-sanctioned with The European Tour as well as football, basketball, cricket and snooker competitions.

He played an important role in raising funds for London’s successful bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, and also provided expertise to BT’s Sports Sponsorship Programme. 

“I am very confident that Jimmy’s expertise and skill set will provide us with every chance of raising the sponsorship and making the English Open a successful event,” said Crown Golf Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Lewis.

“We are going to put England’s national golf Open back on the map,” said Jimmy Wallace.

“Anyone who has seen St Mellion since its reopening in 2009 knows that it is now a stunning venue for a big golf tournament, and we are going to use not only The English Open event itself, but also the huge audience Crown Golf can provide across its 30 golf properties to provide a powerful package for the title sponsor and the other event sponsors.”

At Crown Golf:  Jimmy Wallace, English Open Sponsorship & Events Director, Crown Golf.
Tel: +44 (0)7584 146593 / Email: j.wallace@crown-golf.co.uk

Media:   Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Limited
   Tel: +44 (0)1780 757461, Email: andy@hiseman.com

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The Crown Golf group (http://www.crown-golf.co.uk/) is the UK’s largest golf club owner/operator with 30 properties and 52 golf courses in its portfolio. With pride in customer service and innovation, it aims to provide an outstanding golf experience for its members and visitors, tailor-made to suit the lifestyles and needs of a wide range of golfers.

St Mellion International Resort (http://www.st-mellion.co.uk/) has recently undergone a £20 million re-development which has transformed it into a world class resort, including a new four-star 80-bedroom hotel complex. The work also saw a major refurbishment of the existing clubhouse and improvements to both golf courses – including The Nicklaus Course, which was the first to be designed in the UK by the legendary American Jack Nicklaus.

The English Open (http://www.englishopenatstmellion.co.uk/) returns to The European Tour in 2011 after an absence of nine years. The last event was won by Darren Clarke in 2002. The tournament was first played in 1979, with Seve Ballesteros the first champion. Only four English golfers – Howard Clark (1988), Mark James (1989 and 1990), David Gilford (1991) and Lee Westwood (1998) have ever won the event.

By Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Limited 

The Next Generation GPS Rangefinder And The Portal To Golf’s Future

WHEATLEY, UK … SkyGolf, pioneer of the GPS rangefinder category and developer of SkyCaddie®, the #1 Rangefinder in Golf, today introduced a series of complementary game-changing technologies with the launch of its revolutionary SkyCaddie® SGX™, the next generation rangefinder, and Club SG, the portal to golf’s future.

Such technologies and break-through innovations provide a true foundation for growing the game, both on and off the course, by connecting golfers to their game, their PGA Professionals, their equipment, their courses and other golfers that are passionate about the sport of golf.

“Our mission is to help golfers play smarter, play better, play faster and have more fun.  We believe that if golfers experience more rewards from the game, they will play more rounds, take more lessons, get properly fit for equipment, and share their passion with other golfers, both new and inactive, to help to grow the game,” said Richard Edmonson, CEO, SkyGolf.  “The SkyCaddie SGX is not only the most advanced, reliable distance measuring device in golf, it is a platform that can extend the game beyond the 18th green.  Moreover, it provides a foundation for improvement, while providing access to a passionate golfing community where players come together to enjoy the sport and celebrate achievements, which will motivate them and others to play more golf.”

The Next Generation Rangefinder

The SkyCaddie® SGX™, golf’s next generation rangefinder, boasts a durable, new sleek design with a large 3” easy-to-read, transflective LCD screen that provides brilliant colour images even in the brightest sunlight.  Powered by a long lasting rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, the SGX is ready for up to 14 hours of continuous play.  The SGX uses an innovative, dual navigation option, to provide easy one-handed operation and precision positioning without blocking critical screen information with fat fingers and smudges.  With its new, intuitive user interface, errors generated with large fingers and the difficulty of using gloves on touch screens are totally eliminated.

The SGX also includes SkyCaddie’s proprietary TruePoint Precision Positioning Technology in a high performance GPS engine with ultra-fast satellite acquisition for unmatched accuracy and reliability.  The unmatched accuracy of the SGX is crucial to a golfer’s confidence, which is further enhanced by an omni-directional, high performance GPS antenna that locks quickly onto more satellites and stays locked to optimize performance and accuracy in all terrains, including under the foliage of trees.  To trust their club, a golfer has to be able to trust their caddie, just like a Tour player.  The SGX is built to be trusted.

For the ultimate in convenience and reliability, the SGX offers up to 30,000 pre-loaded, ground-verified maps making it “Ready to Play” out of the box with basic green information.

Only SkyCaddie spends the time and money to ground-verify every single course map in its library to make sure its golfers have information they can trust.  Not a single player on Tour uses yardage books in competition derived from satellite images or flyovers.  SkyCaddie does not believe consumers should play with such unverified information either.  SkyCaddie owners receive unlimited access to the most complete, most reliable and the only ground verified course maps in the game, offered in easy to understand annual membership plans, with no hidden fees or variable charges.  Not only can the SGX store up to 30,000 preloaded courses with basic green information, its enhanced storage offers the capability to maintain up to 50 full-featured courses in the SGX at one time with the most advanced and reliable information in the game.  Nothing else comes close.

Advanced Game Changing Features

The SGX also supports SkyCaddie’s growing database of courses offering Interactive HoleVue™ with Zoom capability.  SkyCaddie is creating the first-of-its-kind, ground-corrected graphics library of courses maps in brilliant colours and detail.  HoleVue enables the golfer to know the distance to any point on a hole, which helps them to plan the best strategy to play the hole in the fewest strokes.  In fact, only SkyCaddie has invested the time and money in ground verification of all map data, to provide HoleVue graphics that can be trusted.  This is further complemented by SkyCaddie’s patented HoleVue™ Zoom capability that provides the golfer with an up-close view of the target area to strategize his next shot.

The SGX is further separated from its competition through SkyCaddie’s patented IntelliGreen® technology that showcases the exact shape of the green by automatically rotating the green to match a golfer’s angle of approach.  IntelliGreen provides all of the distances needed to hit more greens and avoid three putts.  Additionally, the SGX offers IntelliGreen® Pro, providing golfers with the added ability to obtain distances to major green contours, false fronts and any other point on the green, plus front, carry and back distances from any angle of attack.  Because such information cannot be derived from satellite imagery, it is available exclusively from SkyCaddie thanks to its proprietary ground mapping methodology. 

Lastly, SGX offers a convenient Digital Scorecard and Stat Tracking option to track key game statistics, including: greens in regulation, fairways hit, driving accuracy and distance, plus total putts.  Golfers can auto sync their scores and stats to SkyGolf’s newly created and quickly evolving online community, Club SG, for comprehensive game tracking and analysis.

Introducing Club SG Beta…

An additional component in the Company’s portal to golf’s future is Club SG Beta, SkyGolf’s new online community located at www.skygolf.com.  Club SG Beta connects golfers to their game, their courses, their equipment, their teachers and each other.  In fact, new SGX owners can sync and store their game data in a personal performance locker and, in-turn, track key stats, learn about courses, find a teacher, learn if their equipment is helping or hurting their game and connect with other golfers.  Launched in January 2010, Club SG Beta, a fast-evolving work in progress, is a growing community of passionate golfers eager to enjoy better experiences on and off the course, by motivating each other to improve, celebrate their successes, and attract new players to the game.

Edmonson adds, “Growing the game by helping golfers to play better and have more fun fuels the passion that keeps us innovating.  This innovation is why we’re #1 in golf’s only growth category, and why we always have something game-changing on the horizon.”

Delivery & Pricing

SkyCaddie SGX will be available at golf shops throughout the UK in April 2010.  SmartClub Technology with SGX SmartClub Tags is expected to be available by July 2010.  Suggested retail price for the SkyCaddie SGX is £349.95.  Pricing for SmartClub Technology with SGX SmartClub Tags will be released at a later date.

Product Details

• SkyCaddie SGX
• Available in the UK April 2010
• RRP: £349.95
• Pre-loaded with 28,000+ ground-verified golf course maps
• Store up to 50 full-featured ground-verified golf course maps with membership plan
• With TruePoint Precision Positioning Technology
• Features Interactive HoleVue™ with Zoom, IntelliGreen® Pro, Digital Scorecard, Stat Tracking and more
• Connect your SkyCaddie SGX to Club SG Beta
• Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion battery

Contact: Jackie Hitchcock, SkyCaddie, Tel: +44 (0)1865 875809. Web: www.skycaddie.co.uk
Media: Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Ltd, Tel: +44 (0)1780 757461. Email: andy@hiseman.com
SkyCaddie UK media centre: http://www.hiseman.com/media/#sky

NOTES FOR EDITORS: About SkyGolf® and SkyCaddie®
www.skycaddie.co.uk
SkyGolf, developer of SkyCaddie, the No. 1 rangefinder in golf, is committed to providing the same reliable information a professional caddie provides to PGA Tour professionals. This unmatched reliability, only available with a SkyCaddie, is created by walking the course just like a Tour Caddie does for a professional golfer and recording critical target information using the only method trusted in professional golf.  To date, SkyGolf has walked over 287,000 miles or 12 times around the earth mapping  almost 30,000 courses using SkyCaddie’s exclusive Tour Caddie Methodology, while thousands of  the golf courses are updated and remapped each year using the same reliable methodology. SkyGolf believes every amateur deserves the same complete information with the same reliability professional golfers receive and would never play without.  SkyCaddie is the Official Rangefinder of The PGA of America, Canadian PGA, PGA of Great Britain and Ireland, PGA of Germany, the Swedish PGA and a Technology Partner of the PGA Learning Center.  SkyCaddie is also the Official Rangefinder of The English Golf Union. Visit www.skycaddie.co.uk for more information. SkyHawke Technologies UK Ltd, based in Wheatley, Oxfordshire, UK, runs the European Headquarters for SkyCaddie®.

By Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Limited 

Golf swing analysis & instruction by David Leadbetter now available at home

STOURBRIDGE, UK – First there was Wii Fit, now it’s time to slim down your golf handicap thanks to the perfect game-improvement partnership: the Nintendo Wii and the world’s best-known golf coach, David Leadbetter.

Using the unique, user-friendly interface that has made the Wii a global hit in millions of households, golf lessons are about to take a huge leap forward when the most advanced home golf product in history goes on sale in the UK next month.

With features and functionality which improve on those offered by golf simulators costing thousands, Data Design Interactive’s new ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ will be released in March 2010, taking the Nintendo Wii well beyond games and transforming it into a training device.

The Wii’s enormous popularity will bring more people into the sport, and it removes the intimidation factor that some beginners – particularly female and younger golfers – experience at first with golf lessons.  And if golfers use their Wii for a few minutes each day to perfect their swing, their handicaps are sure to tumble!

In a world-first, and featuring advice and personalised feedback from the world’s #1 golf instructor, David Leadbetter, ‘My Personal Golf Trainer with IMG Academies and David Leadbetter’ uses the Wii Balance Board and the Wii MotionPlusTM Controller to analyse the full golf swing in 3D space.

Following Leadbetter’s best-selling ‘7 Steps to a Better Golf Swing’ principles, ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ offers instructional videos and suggests drills for each of the seven basic components of a golf swing: grip, posture, alignment, ball position, coil, swing shape, and tempo.

Golfers can improve their swing step-by-step in easy stages, following on-screen instructions, and can then graduate from training mode to the practice range, and finally onto a full 18-hole golf game where the golfer can choose to receive feedback from Leadbetter, including suggested drills for improvement, after each shot played.

The ultra-sensitive, gyroscopically-controlled Wii MotionPlus controller, introduced in June 2009, enables ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ to become the first home golf product to record and analyze a full golf swing from address to backswing, impact to follow through, in three dimensions and over time – all on a home TV screen.

Golfers can compare their own golf swing with an ‘ideal’ swing, to identify areas for improvement. With 3D replays golfers can view their swing from any angle for detailed analysis. ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ then goes further and provides step-by-step corrective drills, guiding the golfer through a simple interactive process. It also provides complete analysis of clubhead speed, angle and force through the entire swing process, and includes weight transfer, swing plane and tempo information.

The result is practice with a purpose, and the opportunity to work on the golf swing in a convenient home environment – either before, during or after a series of golf lessons with a PGA professional – enabling the golfer to build a repeatable, reliable and instinctive golf swing.

“Good golf is built around feel, and a few minutes at home with the Wii is a great way of being able to maintain the perfect feel, and to allow yourself to learn to swing consistently,” said David Leadbetter.

“What you get from ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’, more than anything else, is my feedback – so you know instantaneously when you are doing it right or wrong. It gives you the opportunity to repeat a movement consistently, and with tailored feedback you’ll learn a repeating motion which, hopefully, you’ll be able to take out on the golf course successfully.”

To date, a few golf training devices have been available for the home, but have only given basic feedback limited to just the impact portion of a swing.  ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ takes the golfer through the entire golf swing, and produces analysis comparable with full-size golf simulator installations costing thousands of pounds, way beyond the reach of most golfers.

Stewart Green, CEO of Data Design Interactive, said: “David Leadbetter is recognised as the #1 instructor in golf, and his instructional DVDs are perennial top sellers. We are delighted that this incredible new product features Leadbetter’s world-class personal golf instruction. We hope that it will redefine the way that millions of golfers around the globe will think about their golf swing. We also expect it to encourage more golfers to seek golf lessons with their local PGA professional, and they will find that ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ is the ideal product to refine the swing thoughts that their pro has given them, after the golf lesson.

“The new ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ for Wii enables golfers to move from passively watching an instructional DVD, to actively swinging a ‘club’ and receiving personalized feedback with suggested drills from David Leadbetter himself – all from the comfort of home, for less than £100.”

‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ will be available in March 2010 for purchase online, and from April 2010 at golf retailers throughout the UK with a suggested retail price of £99.

To learn more about Data Design Interactive and its ‘My Personal Trainer’ series, visit www.mypersonalgolftrainer.com.

CONTACTS

Data Design Interactive: Ray Bridgewater, +44 (0)1384 447900,  raymond_b@datadesign.uk.com 
Media (Hiseman Ltd):  Andy Hiseman, 01780 757461, andy@hiseman.com 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

• Data Design Interactive is a leading international developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software products for Microsoft, Intel, Sony and Nintendo.  The company has built a diverse portfolio of products that span a wide range of categories and target markets. The company’s new “My Personal Trainer“ series launches an exciting new genre in computer sports using the world’s greatest sports experts to teach and guide players through real sports in the comfort of home.
• For 25 years, David Leadbetter and David Leadbetter Golf Academies have provided world class golf instruction to golfers of all ages and abilities. David Leadbetter is the World’s #1 Golf Instructor and coach to countless PGA Tour, European PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and Champions Tour players. There are currently 27 David Leadbetter Golf Academies strategically located around the world in 13 countries.
• IMG Academies is the world’s foremost authority in athletic, academic and personal development. Over the span of 30-plus years, the Academy’s advanced training methods have helped countless junior, adult, collegiate and professional athletes improve in sport and life by providing an energetic and inspiring atmosphere on a nearly 350-acre campus in Bradenton, Florida. Consisting of the IMG Bollettieri Tennis Academy, IMG Leadbetter Golf Academy, IMG Performance Institute, and IMG Baseball, Basketball and Soccer academies, the Academy attracts more than 12,000 dedicated athletes from approximately 80 countries every year. Through specialized training, expert coaching and customizable programs for all ages and ability levels, IMG Academies offers the ultimate preparation for life in and out of the athletic arena.