CHECK OUT SOME OF THE WILD (AND HEARTWARMING) GOLF STUFF GETTING CROWDFUNDED RIGHT NOW

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe are the Wild West of moonshot product ideas and crusading causes. Everyone from would-be golf entrepreneurs with a dream to aspiring tour professionals use the sites to try to keep the lights on and the dream alive.

After England's Lottie Woad won the Augusta National Women's Amateur, members of her home club used GoFundMe to raise enough money for her to travel to the four major championships for which she is now exempt.

Chloe Knott

Three recent favorites tick each of those boxes. Florida State sophomore Lottie Woad birdied three of her last four holes to win the Augusta National Women's Amateur last month—skyrocketing her profile and filling her schedule with a festival of top amateur and professional events this season. The problem? As an Englishwoman, Woad is limited in what she can accept in name-image-likeness money while going to school in the United States. The members of her hometown club in England are passing the hat, modern style, on GoFundMe. The goal? Raise 5,000 pounds to defray Woad's travel expenses to the four major championships for which she's now exempt. The campaign has cruised past its goal in three weeks, which means Woad will be able to concentrate on her game this summer and not her credit card bills.

All it takes is one stroll through the annual PGA Merchandise show's new product aisles to get the sense that there's nothing new left to invent in the golf space. But one look at the Table Golf Association's latest custom you-build-it board game will change that opinion. Table Golf's concept? From a collection of various terrain tiles, players build their own 18-hole course and then compete with friends in a game reminiscent of the old homemade table-top football field goal kicking contests you had in eighth grade. You flick a sliding puck along the layout, eventually holing out in a recessed "cup" on the green. The challenge? Obstacles and a random spinner that tells you which finger you have to use to flick. The success of this "Meeple Beach" edition campaign—more than $50,000 raised by 400-plus backers—shows how quickly Table Golf leagues are spreading around the country.

The DJ Caddy allows you to hook your Sunday bag to your ebike.

For the times when you want to get out on the course but don't necessarily want to carry or ride in a cart, the DJ Caddy proposes to give you a way to hook your Sunday bag to your ebike and pedal as you play. The campaign is featured on Indiegogo now, and you can go for the rack by itself ($256) or have it delivered with a fat-tired ebike perfect for slaloming slopes without hurting the turf for $1,400. The rack comes with a locking mechanism to prevent theft and space for a cooler on the other side of the back tire because, hey, life is about balance.

It's all more proof there has never been so many ways to participate in the game.

2024-05-07T17:46:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd