Features

PGA Show: 3 products to keep an eye on

The Show's New Product Zone and Inventors Spotlight produced several noteworthy products that may not be headliners — yet — but they certainly caught the attention of attendees

ORLANDO, Florida — They may not be recognizable products now, but coming out of the PGA Show are a number of notable innovations that caught the interest of attendees and may become must-have products. Among them were a portable GPS golf tablet, a series of miniature caricature tee holders and golf’s essentials made out of recycled coffee grounds.

Pinned, VannyVee Sports and Greenup were among the big winners from vendors displaying new products to golf’s general managers, executives, pros and media at the Orange County Convention Center.

From the New Product Zone, a panel of award-winning PGA of America Golf Professionals and golf buyers selected three overall Best New Product Award winners — Pinned Golf, Heathlander (golf shoes and knitwear) and GreenUp. biodegradable golf tees made from coffee. In the Inventors Spotlight pavilion, organized in partnership with the United Inventors Association, a panel presented four awards — UpSwing Golf (Most Innovative), PuttBuddies (Best Marketing), VannyVee Sports (Best Product Pitch) and Tübr Storage (Overall Award).

GPS systems on golf carts are starting to become the norm, but it’s expensive for many courses to supply on each vehicle. It’s often hit-or-miss if the course even provides the technology.

Most still don’t.

The Caddie, an 2018 idea created by three Boston friends from college who named their company Pinned, is here to save the day.

IMG_0740.jpg
Pinned co-founders (from left), Alec Lorenzo, John Rowell and Matt Buckley.

Caddie was released just last week and pre-orders of the product are expected to begin shipping by May. The 8-inch touchscreen display, with a built-in magnet and 72-hole battery life is available for purchase at $350. That price will increase to $450 after pre-sales are exhausted.

The new tablet concept has more than 45,000 course maps, meaning it’s a good bet the layout you’re playing is GPS covered, and can be taken from course to course. It's also waterproof.

"All you have to do is stick it to the cart and press play," says Alec Lorenzo, one of Pinned's co-founders. "You get front, back, center distance, you get distance to the hazards, you get a hole course overview."

"We've had golf pros come by our booth from places like Japan and Australia and their course pops up in seconds," co-founder John Rowell says.

There are no fees or subscriptions for the Caddie, and since it is GPS-based no internet connection is needed. 

"We wanted to make it that no matter what course you're playing you're going to have access to the best technology,” Rowell says.

Meanwhile, a one-of-a-kind animal caddy golf tee holder hooks onto your golf bag and comes in four choices — an eagle, tiger, gopher and alligator.

The startup VannyVee Sports has a motto: "Golf tee holders reimagined." Company founder Vanessa Vanderzalm is from Canada and her college friends urged her to start with an eagle.

“All my American friends are extremely patriotic, so I was like, ‘Let's rock with the eagle first,”’ she says. That proved to be a good choice since the eagle design sold 2,000 units on Amazon for $25.99 each.

IMG_0747.jpg
The Golf Tee Holder line debuted with an eagle and has expanded to include a tiger, gopher and alligator.

"That's why we expanded the designs," says Vanderzalm, who created the four figures herself. "It's just a passion of mine, so I just kind of chased that passion with these figures."

Four tees fit on the back of the caddie backpack design of each animal, which are made out of silicone. An additional four more tees come with the packaging.

The third winner was Greenup, a Denmark-based company that has invented and designed tees, divot tools, ball marks and pencils from recycled coffee grounds. .

RELATED: PGA Show Notes: Greenup making the best of recycled coffee grounds

Greenup has partnered with Volle Golf to soon begin distributing the unique product in the United States. Volle is already helping get the product placed in large box stores in Australia, Japan and New Zealand.  

"First, I am immensely proud, humbled and extremely happy," says Kristian Kohn, Greenup's director and co-founder. "I’m taking it all in. Obviously it’s a boost for us, but I know for a fact that even though that you win stuff you need to materialize it.

"As a small Danish startup and being able to have a product that is relatively insignificant like a golf tee or divot tool and win something like this here at the PGA Show is amazing."


Share