Denver Post

Local companies lead the way with technology

By Tom Kensler
Denver Post Sports Writer

Thursday, May 30, 2002 - The Front Range never seems to get enough credit nationally for its abundance of wonderful golf courses, and even those who follow the sport closely are surprised to learn the Denver area is becoming a hub for the golf industry.

Here's an update on three locally based companies rapidly making their marks in the industry through computer-based technology: GolfTEC, a high-tech golf instruction company set to open new learning centers in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston; Event Hospitality Network, which provides multimedia entertainment for hospitality areas at PGA Tour events; and Fairway Systems, which serves courses in several countries with its E-golf system of using the Internet to make tee-time reservations.

Watching the exponential growth of these companies makes you forget about the challenges of doing business in a nationwide recession. That speaks volumes.

Teaching on the Internet

Last year, Greenwood Village-based GolfTEC provided indoor golf instruction to 40,000 players, and company president Joe Assell expects that number to climb past 50,000 in 2002.

But what has Assell really excited is a new software program that enables GolfTEC to provide customers with lessons on the Internet.

Each time a first-time or repeat customer takes a lesson at a GolfTEC location, that instruction is downloaded onto the Internet. With a username and password, the customer can review the lesson privately - and at no additional charge - using the Internet.

Previously, GolfTEC customers relied on memory or videotape to refresh themselves about the lesson.

"We can still make a video for people to take home," Assell said. "But that doesn't do much good if you're not near a VCR. We're hearing stories of businessmen and women being on the road or on vacation, and them calling up their lesson on the Internet from the hotel room before heading out to the course."

GolfTEC has three indoor learning centers in the Denver area, three in Chicago, two in Dallas and two in Atlanta. Locations in Dallas and Houston will be up and running next month. Founded in 1995 by Assell and Cherry Hills Country Club head golf professional Clayton Cole, GolfTEC has locations locally at Marina Square in Denver (8101 East Belleview Ave.), Harland Crossing in Westminster (9053 Harlan St.) and at Colorado Ski & Golf in Aurora (2650 South Havana St.). The company employs 42 teaching pros.

GolfTEC's technology uses digital video, impact analysis and motion analysis to detect trouble spots in a player's swing. Data is compared with analysis of more than 150 PGA Tour players to help put the trouble areas into context, to give the customer an understanding on the proper swing and an acceptable range for each swing component.

A first-time hour lesson is $150, although that cost is reduced to $95 if the customer signs up for a lesson package. Continuing lessons are $45 to $70 per half-hour, depending on the package. Practice times (without instruction) also are available.

Each customer's GolfTEC.com site will include the player's first lesson, the last lesson and the next-to-last lesson for review. Students can watch their lessons on the Internet as often as they would like and add personal notations. With each lesson, a GolfTEC professional provides recommended drills to work on the swing flaw.

"A big part of learning is repetition, especially in golf, where the small details can make such a major difference in a player's success," said Mike Clinton, GolfTEC senior vice president. "Often, people who take lessons spend a lot of time and money listening to their instructor repeat many of the same concepts and details they learned in their previous lesson but may have forgotten.

"The student's ability to review their previous lessons accelerates the learning curve."

Dawn-to-dusk hospitality

Steve Suttman, president and CEO of Englewood-based Event Hospitality Network, likes to use the example of a likely scenario that occurs inside hospitality suites at PGA Tour events not using his company's services.

"A VIP arrives at a corporate suite or hospitality tent in the morning, and the TVs might be showing Oprah Winfrey or bass fishing until the live network feed comes on," Suttman said. "I don't think bass fishing is what they want to be watching at a golf tournament."

Tour events signing up with EHN can provide video and data programming on 42-inch screens customized for the particular tournament and its sponsors. In addition to the network broadcast, EHN's cinema-style video displays can show welcome messages from hosts and sponsors, tournament highlights of the past year's events, tournament history, "This is the PGA Tour" episodes, golf instruction, tournament facts and figures, tee times and pairings, scoring and statistics, weather updates and sponsor messages.

Informational kiosks, which provide tournament information through a touch-screen system, can be set up at outdoor locations to provide real-time leaderboards, the location of players on the course and a variety of statistics to the general public.

EHN signed a contract with the PGA Tour in February and made its debut in March at The Players Championship. It provided its services at the May 2-5 Compaq Classic in New Orleans and The Memorial Tournament, which concluded Sunday in Dublin, Ohio. Discussions are underway with several other tour events, including The International at Castle Pines Golf Club.

"Going into this year, we were committed to making our event look like a $4.5 million event," said Rick George, president and CEO of the Compaq Classic and a former recruiting coordinator for former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney. "We worked very hard to accomplish that, and the final piece of the cake was (the EHN) network. It was fabulous from Day One. I know that it is hard to track the number of impressions that a sponsor would receive, but I can tell you the kiosks were never able to rest for very long."

EHN charges a tournament a fee that ranges from $40,000 to six figures, depending on the services provided.

The PGA Tour was so impressed that it allowed EHN to be part of The Players Championship, where tournament directors of all tour events are invited for meetings and hospitality by the tour.

"What we've done is create a sponsorship asset for the tour," said Suttman, an Ohio native who moved to Denver in 1989. "On any tour broadcast, you'll see 12 minutes of advertising (per hour). We can do the same thing on our screens from 8 a.m. until the network telecast comes on."

Suttman's long-range plans are to branch out EHN technology to other sports. Preliminary discussions have been held with NASCAR.

"Golf is probably more of a challenge than any of them," Suttman said, "because when you're talking about a wireless network, you have particular problems on a golf course like hills and trees."

Tee times at your fingertips

Fairway Systems president Jim Keegan plays to a 7 handicap, and he recently completed a lifelong dream of playing each of the world's top 100 golf courses as ranked by Golf Magazine. But he also understood the frustration of trying to get a tee time at a top public course just around the block.

"You can wear out your phone trying to get a decent tee time," Keegan said.

Englewood-based Fairway Systems, with its tee-time reservation system, is providing a solution for golfers worldwide. The Internet site is designed to access tee times at the last minute without the inconvenience of making multiple phone calls.

Established in 1989, Fairway Systems has been a leading designer of software for the golf industry, providing services for more than 500 golf courses spanning the United States, Canada, Bermuda, Ireland, England, Italy and the United Arab Emirates states of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

In the United States, Fairway System services are used by courses in 30 states and 80 cities. That includes the Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, site of next month's U.S. Open Championship, and Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego, which hosts an annual PGA Tour event.

On April 15, Fairway Systems launched its online tee-time reservation system in the Front Range. Participating courses include those of the city of Aurora and the city and county of Denver, the city of Loveland, Foothills Park and Recreation District and Indian Tree Golf Course in Arvada. Soon they will be joined by Red Hawk Ridge in Castle Rock, the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield and the American Golf facilities of Thorncreek, Arrowhead, Applewood and Park Hill.

Golfers can customize their bookmarks to e-golf.net by specifying their favorite courses or by ranking their priorities by location, by price or by course slope rating. They can view lists of available tee times at several courses at the same time.

Keegan said studies are showing 13 percent of tee times at the Aurora courses are being made via the Internet.

"It's a more convenient way to make tee-time reservations," said Keegan, a native of the Philadelphia area who moved to Colorado in 1974 after serving as a captain in the Air Force. "If you want to play in Aurora, you can look at Murphy Creek, Saddle Rock, Aurora Hills and Meadow Hills at once and decide which tee time is best for you."

Customers of e-golf.net can keep track of their handicaps online and can enter tournaments sponsored by Fairway Systems. The next tournament is June 21 at Indian Tree. Fairway Systems also conducts golf-related surveys among its customers.

Among those using the site, Keegan discovered that, on average, they make tee times three days in advance. According to the survey, they try to make a tee time with a certain golf course in mind, but will switch to a different course if a tee time is not available within a two-hour window.

As for tournaments, the preferred format is a scramble.

"That one really surprised me," Keegan said.

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