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Upgrades bring Country Club golf cart fleet into the 21st Century and beyond! BY STEPHEN VRATTOS Photos courtesy of GPS Industries, LLC. Golfers hitting the course this season are in for a pleasant surprise when they hop behind the wheel of their carts. The Visage Mobile Golf Information System has been installed in all the vehicles, enhancing play, maximizing course times, increasing revenue, offering greater protection to the grounds and players, keeping score… even ordering you a drink for after you’ve completed your round. And it’s all controlled from outer space. It may sound like something out of a ’50’s sci-fi pulp novel, but the technology has been in place since the mid-90s. GPS Industries, LLC, which created Visage, was formed eight years ago in part with Legendary Golfer Greg Norman and a New York private equity group. “The technology has its roots in New York through the formulation of the company,” said Kevin Carpenter, Senior V.P. of Business Development. According to Carpenter, the company has an 80% market share, with more than 65,000 golf carts employing Visage around the world, including Europe, The Middle East, Africa and Australia. The Visage Mobile Golf Information System is about as big as an iPad and attached at the center of the roof, where the rearview mirror would normally be situated in a traditional automobile, so it will not impede the safety or drivability of the vehicle. With it, players can now keep score through the computer, which is linked to a hub in the Country Club, negating the need for pencils and scorecards! Visage can keep track of as many as four golfers at a time and scores can be automatically forwarded to each golfer’s home email or mobile device. During tournament play, Visage displays a real-time leaderboard, so competitors always know where they stand during an event. Visage is also a GPS system, satellite remote-controlled from outer space, which can provide an aerial view of the course. Players can see traffic on upcoming holes ahead of time and adjust their play accordingly; so, too, can management, who can alert rangers to a particular hole in order to facilitate play when there is a problem, or more importantly, head off potential problems and bottlenecks before they happen. Being able to see the breadth of the course—where each group is and locating gaps in play—enables Country Club staff to maximize rounds, squeezing in an additional group or two every day. Players will now have the ability to contact the Clubhouse, in case of emergency or other problems. Since each golf cart can be individually tracked, management can immediately locate the trouble spot or golfer in need of attention and get help to them more quickly. Conversely, the Clubhouse can contact golfers when needed. In the case of an impending thunderstorm, for example, management can instantly message players to return to the Clubhouse. The system allows close-ups of individual holes, with which golfers can better plot their approach. Know where you’d like your first shot to land? Simply touch the spot on the screen and Visage will inform you of the distance. The Screen is located for use without impeding vision while driving system supplies the sort of information golf professionals get from their caddies. But the wonders of the Visage Mobile Golf Information System are not confined to the interactive screen above the dash. It’s fully integrated with the operating system of the vehicles, allowing the Country Club, in conjunction with the North Shore Towers grounds crew, to establish exactly where golf carts will be permitted to venture. If a golfer tries to drive their cart into a restricted area, the motor will slow the vehicle down. If the driver persists in trying to access the off-limits area, the cart comes to a complete stop. In such cases, the vehicle will only be able to back-up, until it is free of the no-go zone and once again within the permissible path of travel. The maximum speed of the golf carts can also be controlled, preventing reckless driving. This hands-off control ensures vehicles will not be driven on areas of the course, which are too wet to drive on after inclement weather, preventing damage to the grounds. Newly sodded or seeded expanses will be safe from golf carts, as will environmentally sensitive areas, such as those covered in native grass. Areas under rehabilitation remain undisturbed to flourish, foregoing a possible need for replanting due to human carelessness. Golfers will be protected from accidentally driving into bushes, trees, guard rails, fencing, declivities and sand traps. And course permissibility can be changed at a moment’s notice to facilitate that day’s ground work. Restrictive signage and barriers will become a thing of the past, facilitating course upkeep and saving money, as well as de-cluttering the course. “The GPS on the carts will allow us to direct carts using less ropes and stakes, which will look better and also reduce labor on moving and replacing them every time the grounds crew tends to an area,” said Eric O’Neill, North Shore Towers Director of Grounds. Although all the carts are docked in charging stations at the end of each day, so they begin each Icons make Visage easy to navigate 12  NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER  ¢  March 2017


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