This year, the United Inventors Association, led by president Warren Tuttle, hosted an Inventors Spotlight on the PGA Show floor and awarded three companies with honors. The three categories: Most Innovative Concept, Best Marketing Effort and Best in Show. GOLF.com hit the show floor to check them out for ourselves.
Most Innovative Concept
Awarded based on the overall innovation and uniqueness in a product category.
Winner: FOURBALL, LLC.
Tired of playing golf alone? Fourball hopes to solve that. Pitched as “Tinder for golf,” Fourball is an app that matches golfers with potential playing partners based on location and a variety of other factors.
“I was on vacation with my wife,” said inventor and founder Arsalan Amdani. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone to play golf with. So I went out and created the ‘Tinder of golf’ to find golfers based on your proximity and meet other golfers based on their handicaps or what courses they want to play.” (Website here).
Best Marketing Effort
This award showcases inventors who develop and deliver an irresistible sales pitch that makes prospects acutely aware of the value their product is providing.
Winner: THE MEDIA STICK
The inspiration for The Media Stick was frustration. Inventor Ricco Fruscio was at the driving range and trying in vain to take a picture of his swing with his new iPhone. “At the end of it I had a bunch of pictures of my right leg,” he said. He took a golf shaft, attached a selfie stick to it, put it in his bag, and thus The Media Stick was born — though it’s been refined since then.
“If you’re like any other golfer you’re someone who’s tinkering all the time, trying to get a better swing…we can see it and then we can do something about it,” Fruscio said. (Website here).
The Pinnacle Award (Best in Show)
The Pinnacle Award for Best in Show is awarded on the basis of the entire inventing process, including ideation, invention, commercialization and “recognizes the broadest range of efforts by the inventor, be it from design, market research, sales, fulfillment, manufacturing and quality.”
Winner: GUIDED KNOWLEDGE
This year, that award went to Guided Knowledge. The startup golf tech company won for its GK Smart Suit, a base-layer garment that can measure and capture users’ biomechanical motion through speed, angle and direction, collecting as many as 1000 samples per second. That motion data can be analyzed by coaches and players via the GK App and can be viewed across devices.
“We have been working hard to create entirely new 3D technology that is mobile, accessible and offers elite golfers and their coaches an unprecedented 360-degree view of their swing signature,” said CEO Kevin West. (Website here)
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