German firm Viewlicity has laid claim to one of golf’s most out-there, game-changing technologies – Augmented Reality – with a new product named PuttView.
A demonstration for Tour golfers and their coaches will take place at this week’s Porsche European Open, a European Tour event at Green Eagle Golf Courses, Hamburg, Germany, from July 24th – 30th.
When playing outdoors, golfers wearing PuttView glasses can see the line and pace of a putt before they hit it, with a computer-generated display overlaid transparently onto the real world.
And indoors, PuttView projects an animated light path onto any putting surface to show the line and speed of a breaking putt.
Phil Kenyon, coach to Major-winning Tour players, says: “PuttView helps me coach vital skills such as green reading and speed control. Quite simply, it is one of the best tools I have at my disposal.”
PuttView has already won major technology awards, scooping an ‘Auggie’ award (the Augmented Reality industry’s Oscar equivalent), and awarded 2nd place at the CeBIT Innovation Award 2017.
“PuttView creates an immersive learning environment, and activates your mind’s eye” says Lukas Posniak, co-founder of Viewlicity. “The indoor version of PuttView is available now, and an increasing number of golf coaches are using it to help their students improve their putting.
“At the current level of technology, the Augmented Reality golf glasses for outdoor use are mainly for demonstration and custom orders” adds co-founder Christoph Pregizer. “As the glasses hardware evolves and becomes more affordable, it will be possible to offer them more widely. The final goal is to make this technology available to all golfers, and also to augment data from launch monitors and other training devices in the future.”
At Green Eagle Golf Courses during this week’s Porsche European Open, PuttView will be demonstrated both indoors and outdoors.
Outside, competitors and coaches using the practice putting green will be invited to use the PuttView glasses to help them see the line of an actual putt.
In the event Village, which is open to the public, visitors will be invited to participate in the Porsche Public-Hole-in-One: a 30m putt on a level surface.
As a supporting tool, all participants are free to decide if they want to use the PuttView glasses for the challenge in order to see the line and pace of the putt.
In the Village, PuttView will also be demonstrated projecting an animated light path onto the Zen Green Stage adjustable putting platform. The light path moves as the surface changes, to show how different slopes affect the line and speed of a breaking putt.
Ralf Luehmann, co-owner of Green Eagle Golf Courses, says: “Here at Green Eagle Golf Courses we like to innovate, and do things differently from other golf clubs. PuttView is a good example of original thinking and world-class implementation, which matches our approach to life and makes it a great partnership for us. It will be exciting to see how people react to this stunning look at the future of golf: we think PuttView is a game-changer for the whole sport.”
Visitors to the Porsche European Open 2017 are invited to contact PuttView to arrange a personal demo during the week.
“We are looking forward to hearing feedback from European Tour golfers and their coaches” says Posniak. “We promise an unforgettable experience, and the chance to try one of the most advanced new technologies in golf.”
PuttView www.puttview.com