Yves Behar is a busy man: The San Francisco-based design guru has worked on everything from Birkenstock footwear to sleek Bluetooth headsets. And on Tuesday, he unveiled his latest brainstorm: A device to help golfers improve their games and share stats with friends.
Behar and his Fuseproject studio were commissioned by a Silicon Valley startup and a pair of star golfers to bring Game Golf into the world. The system combines hardware and software to record each swing and upload such information as distance and accuracy to a smartphone app.
“There’s a lot more that happens than just hitting the ball,” Behar said. “People are very involved in numbers and statistics. How you learn from the game depends on your ability to track the data.”
Behar’s solution includes a small transmitting tag that plugs into the handle of each club; a receiver that clips onto a golfer’s belt; and the app itself, which lets a user trumpet that hole-in-one to friends on Twitter and Facebook.
But don’t go running for your checkbook just yet: Game Golf, as they say, is not available in stores. Tuesday’s unveiling was meant to draw attention to a crowdfunding campaign that by the end of the day had raised nearly half of the $125,000 needed to mass-produce and market Behar’s prototype.
While a golf startup might seem like a narrow niche, a growing number of competitors are entering the space.
Santa Clara-based Mobiplex has raised more than $4 million for a similar product that uses wireless motion sensors to analyze a golf swing and send the data to a mobile device. Its backers include Brian Halla, former CEO of National Semiconductor.
Palo Alto’s Swing by Swing Golf says more than 2 million users have downloaded its mobile app, which helps duffers gauge distance on the course and get video feedback from a golf pro.
Many entrepreneurs, though, have shanked their tee shots into the woods. A startup called Sonic Golf, for instance — whose product, designed by a Yale physics professor, also featured a belt-worn receiver and accelerometer inserted in the club — has gone dormant despite having raised more than half a million dollars. William Sulinski, CEO of another defunct startup called AccelGolf, raised more than $400,000 from investors before raising the white flag in 2011 and selling his company; like Game Golf and Swing by Swing, it used phone-based GPS technology to help golfers make better club choices and track improvements in their games.
Still, he said of Game Golf, “These guys are working on a cool idea,” and he predicted the market might be ripe for success now with the increasing ubiquity of smartphones.
Game Golf was founded in Ireland and relocated to San Francisco about two years ago. The device will cost $249, including a set of 18 wireless “tags” for your clubs.
Behar — who in his spare time is chief creative officer of headset maker Jawbone — was introduced to Game Golf 18 months ago by some of its early investors. They include U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood, formerly the world’s top-ranked golfer.
Behar said he hacks around the links a bit but is “more of a surfer than a golfer.” Still, he said that’s not a handicap when it comes to designing a product.
“It’s not about being a golfer — it’s about the opportunity to bring along an existing field into a new experience. I don’t see it as that different from designing the Jambox (portable speaker) and changing the way people experience their music.”
Contact Peter Delevett at 408-271-3638. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercwiretap.
