FairwayiQ brings the IoT to golf – Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
Several golf club owners and operators and the PGA have teamed up with a startup that is creating a sensor network on golf courses to help with everything from tracking players to figuring out where to plant trees. While both individual golfers and the sport of golf itself have both been quick to embrace technology, golf clubs and other course operators, in particular when it comes to the maintenance side of things, have lagged. Maybe it’s because the world can’t imagine golfers wanting to book a tee time via an app or because having an algorithm hustle you through play seems ill-conceived.
Tracking lawn equipment can not only help course managers schedule course maintenance, but understand trends in both plant growth and worker efficiency. For example, if a mower is sitting still for a few minutes, it’s likely that the worker is taking a break or has a problem. Making employees more productive is one of the selling points of FairwayIQ’s software. While such fine-grained tracking of workers isn’t something that would go over well in white-collar jobs, I see this more and more often in blue-collar professions.