It’s Shark Week with Greg Norman & QBE ShootOut

Greg Norman hosts this week’s QBE Shootout, while continuing to expand his golf business with his latest release, the “Shark Experience”.

Discovery Channel has their Shark Week, and so does golf. This is Greg “The Shark” Norman week with the QBE ShootOut.

As often happens with Norman, not only does he have a tournament, he has a new business venture in a partnership with Verizon which was announced, with little detail, last spring. It was pitched as a disruptive technology. It appears that was right.

According to a recent article on golfdigest.com, it is quite literally, a golf course disruption. But it’s probably one you want.

Norman and Verizon have teamed up to provide the ability to stream live TV in your golf cart. The call it, what else, the Shark Experience.

You have to hand it to the guy. Norman comes up with some interesting ideas, and he pairs everything with his Shark brand, just as Jack Nicklaus has done with the Golden Bear brand.

The idea for the Shark Experience, according to Norman in a podcast on soundcloud.com, came to him when he was in the cart barn one evening and noticed all the dark screens on the golf carts. Somehow, he made the jump from golf cart screens to TV screens to what you can do with TVs in your hotel, which is basically order up music, entertainment programs, kids programs and sports. He thought, why not in a golf cart? As usual, with Norman, the idea turned into a business plan.

The partnership with Verizon makes the live streaming possible, and bringing Club Car into the mix assures him of having the idea introduced on courses as early as 2018. Norman’s company provided the necessary investment to get the screens in the carts, and there are a few of them at The Breakers in Palm Beach.

Now, you’ll be able to watch a baseball game while you play golf, watch a football game while you play golf, or (even better) watch professional golf while you play golf. You can get the stock market news – then trade using your smartphone — watch SportsCenter – then use your smartphone to buy tickets to a sporting event, even watch daytime soaps or Sesame Street if you are so inclined.

The key, of course, is Verizon’s 4G network. According to Mike Toto, a product development specialist at Verizon, it will change the game of golf through connectivity.

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The 10-inch screens will still provide GPS locations for the golf holes being played, and still allow you to order a snack at the turn, but now, there’s so much more.

According to a Golf Magazine article on the debut of the new technology at The Breakers, the sound coming from the screens is directed cleverly toward the cart seat so that 40 yards away, no one else will hear what you are watching. That means you won’t disturb other golfers, even if you’d like to, unless you drive up behind them while they are in mid-backswing. (Think Caddyshack-like shenanigans!)

There’s probably an upcharge of $5 to $10 for using these ultra-connected carts, but if you’re not missing anything on TV, and you want to keep an eye on the news, it’s another good reason to get out and play guilt-free golf.

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