Meet the “ball with a brain” from OnCore golf.
“It’s the archer not the arrow,” is a saying that may come to mind while taking the walk of shame into BFE to look for a lost ball. Everyone needs practice, but even with constant practice do you ever really know if you’re upping your consistant swing speed, improving your launch angle or generating spin? Outside of expensive TrackMan or indoor range sessions, your “what am I doing wrong?” question may forever be left unanswered.
OnCore wants those answers, and plans to get them from the source — the golf ball.
With what’s probably the most innovative leap in golf equipment, the cutting edge golf ball company plans to change the game (again) with the “GENiUS” smart golf ball. The GENiUS indigogo page details the ball’s impressive offerings, here’s an excerpt:
After each stroke, the GENiUS Ball will transmit data to your mobile device showing your location on the course, ball velocity, spin rate and spin axis, carry distance and roll, and even the distance from the green. You’ll see the information using a variety of formats and have the ability to share it to your social media accounts as well.
Real time stats aren’t new to the course with numerous apps, wearables, cart features and even smart clubs, but sourcing from a high performance golf ball has, as of yet, remained unattainable.
Yeah, we were thinking it too: how can something built to suffer blunt force trauma house something as delicate as a computer chip?
Perhaps the writing was on the wall with OnCore’s Cliber golf balls, which made waves with a hollow metal core. The GENiUS will take advantage of OnCore’s technology to protect the chip through multiple rounds and able to withstand more than 15K+ G-Force, according to the company.
(To answer what’s probably your second question: The GENiUS’s GPS feature will come in handy when you do lose it, so don’t worry about that.)
Introduced late summer 2017, the project, as of this writing, has raised $36,000, with a listed $30,000 goal, and plans to launch in 2018.
Real time stats are great on the course, but until now the information has always been closer to secondhand data, adding the challenge of deciphering it after the fact. Golf balls could offer a wealth of information if they could talk — after laughing at you, of course — and it’s about damn time they start talking.
We average golfers will continue to send balls into the sticks — some things will never change — but with a little help from OnCore’s forthcoming technology we can get the data to make sure it happens a little less often.
See more from OnCore about the GENiUS in this segment from CNBC:
ColoradoGolfBlog, in some cases, receives a small commission when you purchase items from these links. CGB has endorsed all advertisers, products and services and advertising does not influence editorial decisions or content.