Post date: Apr 04, 2013 2:1:48 PM
USA (YOU TUBE/BUBBA WATSON AND OAKLEY) - American golfer Bubba Watson has come up with a new way of getting around a golf course. The Masters Champion and his clothes sponsor Oakley have teamed up to create the BW1, what they say is the world's first hovercraft golf cart.
The prototype has advantages over an everyday golf cart that Watson himself explained.
"BW1 is a prototype, our first one out. No bumps, golf carts is going to have bumps. It takes you everywhere you want to go through sand traps, through water, shortcuts into the woods, out of the woods and my ball likes to go in and out of the woods, so we got to get there the best way and quickest way possible."Watson believes the attention the hovercraft has attracted will bring more people to golf.
"I see a lot of stares, a lot of laughs and then they see actually how efficient it is. I think it's going to get really more people involved, they're going to just want to drive a hovercraft and not play golf, but that's how I got started, by driving a golf cart, but then golf got in the way," he said.
The hovercraft video was released close to April Fools Day but seems no joke as the craft was constructed by the President of Neoteric Hovercraft, Chris Fitzgerald.
He explained its production.
"Bubba's idea was to see if we could incorporate a hovercraft principle, that is riding on a bubble of air, into the existing golf cart. We had to look at the existing elements such as the roof, the seat handles, the sand bottles (for repairing divots), all of the various pieces that are on existing golf carts, how we could incorporate that into hovercraft technology."
Fitzgerald said its impact on a course would be far less than that of a normal cart.
"The biggest advantage of the hovercraft, is that it has a footprint pressure of about 33 times less than the human foot, so by hovering across a green you leave absolutely no trace," he said.
It remains to be seen whether Bubba's hovercraft really takes off.