Golf-cart hovercraft
This genuine innovation in the golf world was designed by the reigning Masters’ champion Bubba Watson in conjunction with his sponsors Oakley and BW1. “Why not have fun?” he says of the prototype vehicle, which, in floating over the course, not making contact with the grass after lift-off, causes 33 times less damage to the grass than a human foot, and can, of course, take water features in its ... er ... stride. “Only problem with it is people will just want to drive the hovercraft rather than play golf, but hey, that’s how I started, driving a golf cart,” adds Watson.
US$58,000 (Dh213,034); www.neoterichovercraft.com; www.hammacher.com
GolfBoard
All aboard the GolfBoard – but one at a time, please. Developed with an eye to pulling in new, young players, the clever GolfBoard is half- skateboard, half-golf buggy, directed by a hand-held controller. Developed by the duo who had been making electric skateboards for use on grass, it came about after the founders had a chance encounter with America’s Bally Total Fitness founder, Don Wildman, who had been experimenting with using a skateboard to get around the golf course in Hawaii. Fun, but unsteady, it inspired the GolfBoard designers to widen the wheels and refine the design to ensure power and stability.
US$3,595 (Dh13,204); www.golfboard.com
Pro-Lite Ball Retriever
Losing golf balls is an occupational hazard for most golfers, and one of those nigglingly irritating ones, too. But now, from a company better known as golf cleat specialists, Champ, comes this neat and potentially satisfying gadget. It’s 19 inches long, less than eight ounces in weight, and extendable to nine feet, thus letting the frustrated loser of balls hook up his or her own property and maybe other people’s, too.
$35 (Dh129); champspikes.com
polarized radar pitch sunglasses The Oakley Polarized Radar Pitch sunglasses feature the company’s hydrophobic coating, which makes sweat and rain bead off without leaving streaks. Ingeniously, the wetter the
nose piece gets, the stickier it becomes, so the
glasses don’t slide. And best of all, the liquid-infusion technology means there’s none of the distorting haziness that polarised lenses can suffer from.
$255 (Dh935); www.oakley.com Neo-X GPS Rangefinder watch
From the equipment specialists Bushnell comes the lightest, thinnest golf GPS watch on the market. See it and marvel. Preloaded with 30,000 courses, and with no download fee, it features automatic course recognition, and provides yardage to hazards and to the front, centre and back of greens, has a stopwatch and odometer, measures shot distances and, as its crowning glory, tells you the time, too.
About $200 (Dh735); www.bushnellgolf.com; www.prosports.ae
