Putting with a Brain — How Genius Golf is Revolutionizing the Short Game

·40 min·2 clips

Committed golfers carrying handicaps told Genius Golf's focus groups that 80% of them don't practice putting.

1. The IMAGEN Golf Podcast episode covers the Genius Golf Ball, a putting-specific smart ball that host Daniel Guest says he waited 'a couple of years' for, discussed right after the PGA Show. 2. Daniel Guest, an instructor on staff with PXG, interviews Mike Jordan, CEO of Genius Golf, who trained as a chemist and worked at Titleist and TaylorMade. 3. Jordan's thesis is that putting has long been 'an art and a feel,' and that a ball with an electronic core can report what the ball did and then tell golfers how to improve. 4. Jordan says the core is a package of sensors inside a urethane-covered ball of conforming size and weight, built over roughly five to six years, and that it reports launch angle, skid, directionality, deceleration and stem. 5. Focus groups of committed golfers found that 80% don't practice putting, and Jordan says the $240 price for three balls, with a first-year subscription, was set so the product reaches the masses, including indoor use on a carpet or hallway. 6. After year one the subscription costs $120 annually, and Jordan says battery life is expected at 18 to 36 months, with a replacement ball sent when the battery dies. 7. The 'stroke score' acts as a putting handicap: Jordan shows 64 out of 100 on screen, says Dave Stockton is in the nineties and some novices fall under 50, and notes the Stockton family supplies drills and videos. 8. Jordan says 40 to 45% of everyone's strokes are on the green, and he sees wedge play as the next target, with a possible club-mounted form factor and eventually a full-game ball. 9. Guest compares the data-refinement loop to Tesla's fleet learning, while Jordan says he expects an early sell-out, plans all sales channels, and sees potential in mini golf and putting-course leaderboards. 10. Golfers who want data-driven putting practice will get the most from this.

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