It is hoped that new robotic technology for testing golf balls and clubs will help grow the country’s export market for golfing equipment.
A new golf machine designed by Kiwi engineering students is believed to be the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
It’s used for testing Kiwi-made golf balls to make sure they’re up to scratch, engineering student Ben Remacha saying it looks at “ball speed, spin rates, [and] launch angles”.
New Zealand already has a thriving golf tourism industry worth around $425 million, with 61,000 international visitors playing here annually.
However, Kiwi-made equipment like this hasn’t had the same success.
Co-founder of Aotearoa-based golf ball company Vollē Golf, Kael De Herrera, says New Zealand is “really well known as a golfing destination, but in terms of golf product exports, there hasn’t really been a market”.
Golf balls must meet specific weight and size criteria and are tested within dozens of aerodynamic parameters to ensure they meet international standards.
That means sending equipment overseas to be tested, which isn’t cheap.
“We have to send our golf balls over to Los Angeles at a testing facility there, it costs $1,000 an hour,” says De Herrera.
Instead, Vollē Golf commissioned a team of University of Canterbury students to build a robot that could make checks while working on a shoestring budget.
“We settled on about $12,000 [as a budget] and I think we [spent] about $10,000 at the end of it, so under budget which was good, and it took us about nine months to make,” says Remacha.
De Herrera says what the Canterbury students have built on such a small budget “hasn’t been done in the world”, noting that it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a machine instead.
Vollē Golf is hoping to set up its own testing facility to make golf equipment production cheaper for other local companies trying to enter the international market.
“The data this provides is really useful for other companies, research companies, companies that provide independent reviews, and also testing data for other manufacturers,” says De Herrera.
The company is hoping to build even more machines as its team takes a swing at growing our golf industry.
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