Up until recently, there were only so many ways to walk a good round of golf. If you wave off the motorized cart and decide to embrace the seven to 10 mile stroll that playing 18 holes can bring, you could carry your clubs in a loop, pull the bag along in a hand cart or employ a “human” caddy. It’s time to add that qualifying term because Stewart Golf is establishing its robot assistants across the game.
UK Manufacturer Stewart Golf brought their first remote trolleys to golf courses in 2004 and now offers two varieties, the $2,699 Q Follow and $2,599 X10 Follow. While previous generations of Stewart’s automated club carriers used a remote control to bring the four-wheeled electric device to you, the current versions use the specially developed 7 Follow System to keep up with you on the course at your own pace.
The electric X10 Follow cart from Stewart Golf takes a load off a golfer’s shoulders.
According to Stewart Golf CEO Mark Stewart, the company is owned and operated by engineers looking for ways to improve the experience of playing golf.
“Most of the time, ideas come from within the company, but we keep our eyes open for inspiration from everywhere,” Stewart says. “Thomas Edison said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration–and it took three years of perspiration to get our concept to market.”
Stewart adds the robot caddies were designed for stability, so they were suited to the addition of the AI follow technology.
Weather-resistant and stable enough to adapt to a golf course’s terrain, the Stewart Golf robot … [+]
“It took dozens of iterations of hardware and millions of lines of code to get the follow system to the point where it worked really well,” he explained. “We even had to redesign the wheels and tires to produce more grip and allow the caddy to respond quickly to the automatic steering commands.”
Now that these artificial companions are becoming more common on the world’s links, Stewart Golf is developing a good image of its average customer.
“Generally, our buyers are between 30 and 60 years old, but really anyone who loves walking the golf course is a potential buyer,” Stewart says. “We have customers in every US state except Alaska & Hawaii, and we also have sold to more than 50 other countries globally. Our electric caddies are designed for all weather and terrain conditions, so we are yet to find a golf course that isn’t suitable.”
While some courses can bring in small follow cart fleets to rent out on a per-round basis, Stewart insists the electric caddies are sold more often to private buyers.
“Both the X Series and Q Series have been designed to fold small enough to go in the trunk of almost any car, so they are easy to transport and store at home if a club doesn’t have a storage option,” he says.
Some old school golfers might look at the Stewart trolleys with a dubious eye, concerned how technology might change the game or worried that these robots might put human caddies out of business. That’s nonsense as the Stewart carts bring convenience and comfort to the game, but can’t show you the line, read a green or kick your ball out of the rough. Your human caddy’s job is safe.
.