D
rop in at Teth-
erow Golf Club
in Bend, Ore.,
on any given day and
you're likely to see
golfers cruising around
the fairways on futuris-
tic-looking devices that
are a cross between a
skateboard, scooter and
four-wheel-drive re-
mote control Jeep.
While many golfers
have caught on to the
craze, for the uniniti-
ated, GolfBoards
are the hot new
trend in the game,
and three years into
their run, they appear
to be here to stay.
Tetherow, Gamble
Sands in Washington,
CordeValle Golf Club in
Northern California and
Monarch Beach Golf
Links in Southern Cali-
fornia are among the
OB Sports properties
where GolfBoards are in
use, and they can now
be found at more than
200 golf courses world-
wide. Golfers are em-
bracing them because
they allow players to
navigate all over the
course, but even more
so because they bring
an added element of
fun to the game.
"What's so cool about
it is that you're not sit-
ting down, so you're
more active and en-
gaged from tee to green
than you are in a golf
cart," said Jake Ed-
wards, the Head Golf
Professional at Teth-
erow, adding that ap-
proximately 35 percent
of its players use them.
"You also get to experi-
ence the terrain like
you're surfing or snow-
boarding. I think that's
why people enjoy them
so much."
Tetherow was one of
the first courses in the
country to offer Golf-
Boards, as the com-
pany's president, Jeff
Dowell, is a member.
The course has em-
braced the GolfBoard
movement so fully that
it recently hosted the
second annual Golf-
Board Open, with all
players cruising the
fairways atop the futur-
istic transport.
The boards are a pop-
ular option for golfers
looking for a new way
to enjoy the game, and
being able to offer them
puts courses at a com-
petitive advantage in
terms of attracting
members and filling tee
sheets.
Monarch Beach de-
buted its GolfBoards
during the summer and
now has a fleet of a
dozen available to
guests at the course.
"The response from
golfers so far has been
overwhelmingly posi-
tive," said PGA General
Manager Eric Lohman.
"They are cool, fun,
unique and impressive.
I think it connects older
golfers to their youth.
Either they skate-
boarded, surfed or
snowboarded. And
some people like me,
who really didn't do
any action sports, like
to use the boards to try
that motion out. It's a
lot more fun than walk-
ing or riding a golf car."
Edwards agrees.
"It just gives you a
whole new experience,"
he said. "You're out
there playing the game,
but you're also riding a
board and get to add a
little bit of the active,
extreme sports element
into golf."
SURF ON TURF
n GOLFBOARDS ARE FAST BECOMING A
POPULAR WAY TO NAVIGATE THE LINKS
LEARN
MORE
ABOUT THE
GOLFBOARD
HERE
l
IN THE NEWS
OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE
x
FALL 2016
x
obsports.com
< GolfBoards at Monarch
Beach Golf Links.
