Local inventor develops new device that literally speaks golf

NEW DEVICE THAT LITERALLY SPEAKS GOLF, By John Craig
You walk up to your ball and it’s a fried egg in the bunker.  Or you find it in some deep rough.  Or you’ve got “first tee jitters.”  Would some calming words from your golf pro give you a good thought?  A local inventor hopes so.

The product is called “Pro-On-The-Go,” a device that looks like a key chain that may have the keys to your game at the touch of a button. You can check it out on U-Tube -

“It brings focus to each shot,” said Howard Katz, the co-inventor of the new device that is just now hitting the market. “It drives swing thoughts out of your head. Our new little catch phrase is ‘We speak golf.’”

COMMERCIAL APPEAL

Katz was at Mohawk Golf Club on Wednesday, overseeing a commercial shoot for his product.  The Pro-On-The-Go has four buttons that correspond to tee shot, fairway, pitch and bunker.  Each button has several fixed lessons on it such as “Find interim target” and “Maintain knee flex” for the tee shot to “Focus two inches behind the ball” for a bunker shot.  Each pre-recorded lesson ends with “Focus on rhythm.”

“There are just some things that are accepted fundamentals,” Katz said.
Then you can add a customized swing thought for each button, up to 40 seconds of new content, which you or your teacher can record.

“You’re able to have me with you every time you go play even though I’m not there,” said Glen Snowden. He is the “voice of” the Pro-On-The-Go and the head golf professional at Van Patten Golf Course in Clifton Park. Snowden says he’s incorporating it into lesson packages so when you are finished with his lesson, you can take audio thoughts with you to the range or the course.

“Believe it or not there’s quite a bit of information for ten seconds,” Snowden said. “So the value of that lesson is that much more than that one specific lesson.”

‘THERE MAY BE A BUSINESS HERE’

Snowden has been teaching Katz for several years and that’s how the two collaborated. The other co-inventor is Katz’s friend Joe Basile, who now lives in Cortland.  They met when Katz’s regular group needed a fourth.

Basile, “the technical guy” of the operation, says Katz, made and delivered a $1200 set of customized irons for a customer.  But the guy still had trouble.  With just half a dozen balls left in the bucket, Katz handed him a small digital recorder that Basile had recorded some basic swing thoughts. 

“Each time he tells him what to do in a set up, he hits a good shot,” Katz said. “Each time he didn’t, it’s a lousy shot.” Katz thought to himself, “There may be a business here.”

In the winter of 2008, Pro-On-The-Go was born.Katz set up a think-tank, an advisory council for a couple dozen people at Van Patten last year.  In exchange for lunch and golf, he got about 90 minutes worth of input on how to create the device. That included everything from the name to how it looks to the number of prompts and what the prompts would be.

Plus, the focus group said, don’t make it the color green.“They said if you drop it on the golf course, you’ll never find it,” Katz said.

APPROVED FOR PLAY

Making the commercial at Mohawk Club photos : http://picasaweb.google.com/jrcjmu91/ProOnTheGo?feat=email#

Katz and Basile then sent a prototype to the USGA for approval.  Golf’s ruling body said they needed the actual device and eventually, it was approved.

“The only restriction is you’re not allowed to record a new message after your round starts,” Katz said.This past January, Katz and Snowden went to the PGA Merchandise Show in Florida.  For them, that was a sight – 40,000 people, ten miles of booths of new products and ideas for the golf community.  Teaching pros are their target market.

“Now they’ll have it the way you said it, not how they mis-remembered,” Katz said.
So, while talking in a person’s backswing is frowned upon, what if it’s your golf pro? “You just hit a button, you hear a beep, you let it go and that’s specifically for you,” Snowden said.

It will retail for $19.95 and Katz says that even in a tough economy, golfers know what they want to spend their money on.“The real value is to record the user-specific message that works for you,” he said. “But for the mid to high-handicapper, right out of the box, you’re going to play better golf.”

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