Pete Charleston, Co-founder and President stops by ‘Tech of Sports’ this week.
Charleston co-founded Premium Cigars International and helped take the company public on the Nasdaq. Charleston served as vice president of sales for Premium Cigars International, where he successfully launched an in-store humidor program in over 10,000 retail outlets, negotiating contracts representing over 25,000 retail locations and managed 50 sales reps. Charleston now leads GolfLogix’s marketing, sales, and business development efforts and helped successfully negotiate the acquisition of GolfLogix by Emigrant Capital Corp. in 2014. Having been in the golf GPS business since its inception in 1999, Charleston is one of the most experienced executives in the Golf GPS industry.
What’s new?
GolfLogix/EZGO are providing a solution to golf course customers that will allow walkers to be tracked in their Textron Fleet Management (TFM) system along with the golf cart riders. GLX built features that show up only if they at an EZGO course.
Benefits to Course
Track walkers on their clubhouse pace management screen
Send page of play, inclement weather, and other types of messages to walkers
Walkers can use GLX App to order food/beverages
Cart riders will see GLX Approach view w/ QR code ability to purchase GLX App and/or GLX Green Books
Benefits to Golfer
Access to all existing GLX App features w/ option to upgrade to Plus
Ability for walkers to order food through the GLX App
Distance to Pin -course will set daily pin position and all walkers will see them in GLX App
Blind shot notifications – golfers will see players in fairway ahead which will add safety
Rick is joined this week on “Tech of Sports” by former Golf Channel and FOX Sports broadcaster, Holly Sonders. Her story is an incredible one, rising to fame through golf broadcasting and becoming one of the first “womenpreneurs” in the Sports and modeling world through social media.
Holly is candid and insightful as the former college golfer talks about NIL deals, how she is using social media as a female entrepreneur creating a multi-million dollar business online. Her new love interest with Celebrity Boxer Oscar de la Hoya and how she helped him when he had COVID and was hospitalized a few months ago.
She’s in the tech space as her new NFT just dropped is already priced at over $10k, which includes exclusive access to the NFT community and never before released photos.
That and some great Golf Channel stories. It’s great to catch up with Holly.
Rick talks with Dr. Stephen Liu this week, the man behind FORME and the Forme Tour.
FORME is a transformative solution to daily posture training and lifestyle improvement and Dr. Liu. Additionally, Forme has created the PGA Tour sanctioned Forme Tour to help disadvantaged, minority and Canadian players boost their careers. The top 5 point earners are exempt into the Korn Ferry Tour so a good opportunity for a bunch of golfers who need it.
With athletes in mind, Forme, founded by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Liu, created the Core Tee and sports bra designed to correct and train alignment of the spine/neck/shoulder/hip and increase joint movement, reduce injuries, boost recovery and provide better breathing for increased oxygenation intake. It is a sports and lifestyle wearable therapeutic. While Whoop is a wearable, it is purely a diagnostic; Forme is a wearable therapeutic.
The Forme shirt instantly pulls your shoulders down and back, correcting posture and stance for optimal form, comfort and breathing. You don’t have to do anything but put it on. No stretching, no exercising, no charging. Forme trains and nurtures your body’s alignment, giving you posture that allows you to perform, think and live at your highest level while enhancing the fundamental basics of your biomechanics so that you can make the most use of your body.
It quickly became a hit with U.S. Olympic teams, NBA, MLB, and NHL athletes and both the men’s and women’s U.S. national rugby teams. Now dozens of PGA pros, their caddies and trainers are using it including Harold Varner III, Ben Han, Jared Wolfe (exempt on the PGA tour in 2022), Rohan Ramnath and Adam Scott’s caddie John Limonti and leading trainers and instructors. Images of HV3, (including one of him stretching with Forme under his Nike gear) Ben and John are attached. Data from Sheldon Roberts, HV3’s trainer, showing improvement from his clients are also attached.
While created for athletes, Forme has benefits for non-athletes as well as 70% of the population sits at least 6 hours a day in front of a computer or TV or traveling on a plane. Bad posture has become public enemy #1 for both golfers and non-golfers. The shirt is designed as a natural and sustainable solution for anyone with back and neck issues as the wearable therapeutic naturally trains your muscles to always be in correct posture. “I wear the shirt when I’m flying from event to event and when I am training. Sometimes I even sleep in it. The biggest difference I see in my body is good posture from wearing the shirt”-HV3.
Rick talks to his friend, Bob Gillespie, former sportswriter and now co-author of South Carolina Golf.
For nearly three hundred years, South Carolina has played a vital role in American golf. The first golf clubs in America came from Scotland to Charleston in 1739. Myrtle Beach is sometimes called the “Golf Capital of the World,” with more than eighty golf courses. The Country Club of Charleston produced World Golf Hall of Fame members Henry Picard and Beth Daniel. The 1991 Ryder Cup matches, the “War by the Shore,” took place at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, also the site of the 2012 and 2021 PGA Championships. Hilton Head’s Harbour Town Golf Links has hosted the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage for more than fifty years. Bob Gillespie and Tommy Braswell detail the history of the game in the Palmetto State.
Bob Gillespie was a senior sportswriter, columnist and golf writer for The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, from 1979 to 2010. He won The State’s Ambrose E. Gonzales Award for distinguished journalism in 1988, was Associated Press Sports Editors’ national runner-up in features (2001) and explanatory stories (2009) and was named the Herman Helms Excellence in Media Award winner by the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019. He and his wife, Jane, live in Columbia.
If you like golf, if you like South Carolina… get this book!
A golf app, that really gives you a chance at improving your game.
Can a golf app really help improve your game? Charles Cox thinks so. Cox is the CEO of SwingU, an app that features real time feedback, information, and even lessons, all designed to help shave strokes off your game. Cox has blended a perfect mix of golf and technology into one of the most downloaded golf apps on the planet.
Cox joins Rick this week on Tech of Sports.
Golfers who download the app will experience:
GPS and scorecard tracking
A monthly lesson that breaks down your statistics
A golf newsletter in your inbox with the latest news
Free lessons from golf instructors
A chance to sign up for instructional videos and drills/lessons from SwingU approved teachers
A chance to sign up for one-on-one coaching
A platform for coaches to create their own branded app to charge (or not charge) anything for instructional videos for current and future clients
Have a listen and see what SwingU can do for you.
Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, SwingU is a sports technology and media company focused on golf game improvement. The company owns and operates top-rated smartphone apps across GPS, scorecard, statistics, instruction, social & ball tracing. SwingU Clubhouse publishes an email newsletter reaching hundreds of thousands of golfers daily. Lastly, SwingU Academies develops personalized, branded instruction & training apps for clubs, teachers and academies. For more company information, please visit www.swingu.com.
According to Niall Fraser, Director of Golf at the beautiful Grand Hotel Golf Resort and Spa, “there is no better time to head to Alabama to play golf.”
So with that, Rick is joined on “Tech of Sports” by Fraser to talk about getting a course back in operation after a hurricane and the sprawling resort that he calls home.
Fraser was born in Alberta, Canada and attended Michigan State University. He was hand selected by Robert Trent Jones Senior to travel the world to design golf courses. His work with Robert Trent Jones Sr. had a strong and lasting influence on these prestigious clubs:
⦁ Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown, PA – Over the past century has hosted many prestigious tournaments most notably the 1962 PGA Championship; 1977 U.S. Amateur Championship; 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship; 2003 Senior PGA Championship; 2010 & 2011 AT&T National Championship; 2018 BMW Championship
⦁ Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, MO is only the third club in history to host all four men’s Major Championships. 1965 U.S. Open; 1981 Mid-Amateur Championship; 1992 PGA Championship; 2004 U.S Senior Open; 2008 BMW Championship; 2013 Senior PGA Championship; 2018 PGA Championship
⦁ Valderrama Golf Club in Spain is one of the leading golf courses in Europe and the venue of some of the most important golf competitions in Europe. 1997
⦁ Ryder Cup; World Golf Championships; 1999 & 2000 American Express Championship; Volvo Masters
⦁ Adare Manor Golf Club in Ireland – 2014 Irish PGA Championship
⦁ New courses Niall helped design are: Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, VA; Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston, MA; Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, NY; Playa Grande Golf & Ocean Club in the Dominican Republic; Anglebrook Golf Club in Lincolndale, NY has hosted U.S. Amateur, NY State Open qualifying, Met PGA Section Pro-Am, and 2013 MGA Mid-Amateur
Most recently before joining the Grand Hotel, Niall was Head of Construction, while overseeing the planning and construction from start to finish. The 26 courses, a total of 468 holes, are at 11 locations across the state of Alabama.
The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa is owned by the Retirement Systems of Alabama and is part of the Resort Collection on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The resort collection has eight properties across Alabama on or near RTJ golf courses. The RTJ Golf Trail has 26 golf courses on 11 sites across the state, including two courses at Lakewood Club. For more on the RTJ Golf Trail and Resort Collection visit www.rtjgolf.com.
The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa
One Grand Boulevard, Point Clear, Alabama, 36564-0639
(251) 928-9201 – http://www.marriottgrand.com/
⦁ The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa is family-friendly historic hotel which recently completed a massive, three-year transformation. A top destination for business groups and leisure guests, the resort became part of the Autograph Collection on August 23, 2018. Known for its history and Southern hospitality, the resort has been praised by leading industry publications such as Successful Meetings, Garden & Gun, Travel + Leisure; ConventionSouth; Conde Nast Traveler, Southern Living and others. While new to the Autograph Collection, the resort first opened in 1847 and is known for exceptional service, Southern charm, majestic oaks and beautiful sunsets over Mobile Bay. The Grand is truly the Queen of Southern Resorts.
⦁ 405 guest rooms in five buildings on 550 acres and is AAA Four Diamond rated.
⦁ Hotel transformation completed in August 2018 and joined Autograph Collection.
⦁ “Latest and Coolest Hotel Renovations” USA Today, September 10, 2018 (Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Hawaii and the Grand Hotel).
⦁ Six new restaurants and lounges opened in 2018: Jubilee Poolside Grill; Bayside Grill; Southern Roots; Grand Hall; 1847 Bar and the Local Market. Bucky’s Lounge remodeled and outside seating area with fire pits expanded in 2018.
⦁ Seven restaurants and lounges ranging from casual to formal.
⦁ High tea offered Thursday through Sunday in the Grand Hall.
