Your option wanted - any handicapper - any age! PRODUCT REVIEW

Would you buy this product?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No

    Votes: 27 100.0%
  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
E

earlofwarwick

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Hi All,

I am a Warwickshire based product developer and just wanted to test the water on the viability/uptake of a product we have coming to market shortly.

The principle in short is -

a small device that attaches to the club, makes not difference to the swing (small/light), and links with your phone to alert you when you have left a club behind.

After leaving many a wedge or steep iron at the apron after taking two clubs out of the bag we have realised a product that is easy to use and simply alerts you when you are X distance away. Most people have their phone on their person/in their bag/on the cart these days.

Would you be interested in this product that would cost circa £5?

Many thanks,

James
 
No sorry. If I have my phone in my bag it's on silent. If I can remember to check my phone to see if I've left a club behind then I can remember to pick the club up in the first place.
 
How far away would it be before it buzzed you? What if you leave all your clubs in a buggy thats' 50 yards from the green - would you be buzzed whilst putting?!

There's a courses I have played where the 8th and 9th tee boxes are next to each other. The 8th is a 150 yard Par 3 where you can see all of the green. If you hit the green you just take out the putter and leave the bag at the entrance to the 9th tee box. What would happen then?

Is it £5 per club or a set of x amount, and how does it attach? How does it link with the phone - bluetooth?

Not trying to be negative, just seeing if all these things have been thought of and solutions come up with?
 
Thanks @TheDiablo. Hopefully this helps with the queries:

The proposed selling quantities are 1, 3 and 5. It is unlikely you would want to buy the whole set.

You would download the associated Andriod/Apple app, within which you can set the proximity. We did worry about multiple alterts - however, if for example you are leaving your clubs outside the clubhouse or any other situation where you are happy to leave clubs you simply close the app - which is a two second double tab or slide for most smartphones. This would be what you would do in your example, and a one-click app reopen on the next hole to re-engage the sensor. Either that or keep your phone in your back pocket so the proximity stays at nil, thus no alert. I'm in my 30's and we all do that because we refer to yardage etc every hole.

It would be circa £5 per single club device to include free downloadable app. It is a simple, removable attachment to the grip. (but not effecting the grip similar to Game golf.)

Yes, it is Bluetooth, so low frequency/energy and compatible with all phones these days.

Thanks,

James
 
How much do you think it would cost to write, host, and maintain the App? I have been looking at App development costs, and they are horrendous. I would need to sell a heck of a lot of products to get my money back. I am getting quotes of around 100k for a simple timer App.
 
earlofwarwick said:
Thanks @TheDiablo. Hopefully this helps with the queries:

The proposed selling quantities are 1, 3 and 5. It is unlikely you would want to buy the whole set.

You would download the associated Andriod/Apple app, within which you can set the proximity. We did worry about multiple alterts - however, if for example you are leaving your clubs outside the clubhouse or any other situation where you are happy to leave clubs you simply close the app - which is a two second double tab or slide for most smartphones. This would be what you would do in your example, and a one-click app reopen on the next hole to re-engage the sensor. Either that or keep your phone in your back pocket so the proximity stays at nil, thus no alert. I'm in my 30's and we all do that because we refer to yardage etc every hole.

It would be circa £5 per single club device to include free downloadable app. It is a simple, removable attachment to the grip. (but not effecting the grip similar to Game golf.)

Yes, it is Bluetooth, so low frequency/energy and compatible with all phones these days.

Thanks,

James
Click to expand...


Sorry James, don't quite understand the bit in bold, but I probably don't grasp how this works. In the examples I mentioned, If I leave my bag with all my clubs 150 yards away as I walk to the green to put out, or leave them in the buggy and have my phone in my pocket (which I do), then surely I will start being alerted?

Will the alerts distinguish in any way from a normal notification? I'm probably getting anywhere from 5-25 texts/emails/social media buzzes in a round, that I probably check once or twice when I'm stood waiting on a tee box - so I could possibly miss the important notification that I've left my PW by the green 3 holes back.

It would also need a far more intuitive way of turning on the sensors on and off - if I'm remembering to do this and willing to go through the process at the exact points in a round when this would be required (clubhouse, buggy, tee box etc) then I'm probably not the sort of person that would leave a club lying around in the first place.

I'm sorry, from what I can see I don't think it has any mass market appeal. Possibly brought by a non-golfing partner as a stocking present, or as a joke prize in society day to a particularly forgetful person etc, but as mentioned by Tarkus I don't think this is a problem that exists enough to cause the necessary pain to go through the upkeep of it every round.
 
Maybe if you have 4 in a set (say wedges and putter as i would guess these are the most frequently left/lost clubs) and if one is parted from the others and the group of them (ie the 3 left in the bag) start moving and the lonely 52 wedge is static, then you get an alert. Or a 'home' sensor thats in your bag, if the bag is moving and a club is not, there is a potential problem...

I wouldn't buy it though, sorry. Neve left a club in my life!
 
I think its a very niche product. You have obviously put a lot of thought into it but it seems to be a solution to a problem that doesnt really need solving. So to turn all Duncan Banatyne "im out".
 
Maybe a better application is something to pin on an infant which alerts the parents if they are more that 50ft away. £5 for child safety is a bargain.
 
Only left a club once and the marshal was bringing it to me on next hole just as I realised it was missing and started heading back so I doubt I'd buy a product/app combo to keep track of them, normally quite fastidious about my clubs

I see/hear of left clubs most weekends though so there will be golfers who might have use of it but I doubt its a large enough % to make a business
 
IanG said:
Maybe a better application is something to pin on an infant which alerts the parents if they are more that 50ft away. £5 for child safety is a bargain.
Click to expand...

Now this is a good idea!! Does something like this exist on the market today?

Returning to clubs though, if I ever take an extra club onto the green with me, I lay it across the flag when it's taken out, can't forget it that way.
 
IanG said:
Maybe a better application is something to pin on an infant which alerts the parents if they are more that 50ft away. £5 for child safety is a bargain.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the receiver could omit an electric current, thereby neutralising the child temporarily. For Daily Mail readers who believe that their children are being watched constantly by kidnappers, the USP here is that the crims would also receive a shock on grabbing the child.

Could call it Kidzap or BuzzBaby.

No one steal my idea, ok?
 
I hardly ever take my phone on the course, lay my spare club on the flagstick and have never lost a club ever. I'm probably not a potential customer
 
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