Smart Wheels

The sophisticated, remote-controlled system is driven by high powered brushless motors providing effortless performance. Each wheel operates independently, allowing the tightest of turning circles for complete control in all terrains. All drive components are housed within the wheel, so they click on and off your buggy with a single action, for easy transport. Custom axle adapters mean you can upgrade all popular buggies to our S2 Smart Wheels in seconds. RRP: $1,599 

Buggy systems

We’ve developed the game’s most advanced, autonomous buggy for golfers seeking the competitive advantage through the unrivalled power and control of independent smart wheels because we focus on your gear, so you can focus on your game. The triple-braced, dual beam, fold-up Vogue buggy delivers a whole new level of performance and comfort. With an exceptionally wide wheel track, the Vogue provides stunning levels of stability. This S2-equipped system will comfortably rise to any challenge.

Alternatively, the triple-braced, dual beam, fold-up Vogue buggy delivers a whole new level of performance and comfort. With an exceptionally wide wheel track, the Vogue provides stunning levels of stability, this S2-equipped system will comfortably rise to any challenge. RRP: $1,899

Full systems

Concourse full systems seamlessly integrate buggy, bag and wheels for the simplest, smoothest operation. Our Vogue buggies allow for effortless bag attachment, as well as the benefit of easy folding for exceptional portability. Our Smart Wheels connect and detach with equal ease. It makes getting your gear to the course as effortless as getting around it.

We’ve developed a range of buggy and bag options to suit any course or player preference. RRP: From $1,999

Learn more at  concoursegolf.com

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The pandemic caused many to rediscover the joy of walking. Will the feeling last?

Golf’s return to walking, at least in the game’s motorised cart-centric markets, might be an isolated moment dictated by the necessity of the times. But it’s also a chance to appreciate anew the game on foot and maybe embrace walking as an aspect at least as central to the golf experience as, well, what carts were just six months ago.

Quaint, perhaps. Retro cool, in a way. To some, maybe an inconvenience. Nevertheless, walking brought golf back quicker than any other previously “normal” activity. Whether it was in chilly Tasmania or sunny Western Australia and Queensland, walkers were everywhere, many possibly rediscovering the way they first came to the game. Walking golf made social distancing natural, not something to be mandated. In essence, the experience wasn’t all that different from a walk in the woods.

Golf, of course, is more than a Robert Frost poem. So maybe we frame our discussion in less romantic, more practical terms. Science and data are clear: walking is better for your health, your swing and your score.

Maybe golfers intrinsically knew this. In every state where courses reopened, lightweight carry bags and pushcarts were gobbled up like flat-screen TVs on Black Friday – and back orders stretched beyond mid-year. Bag Boy, a leading manufacturer of buggies/pushcarts, called the interest level “unprecedented”, with sales projected to be “four to eight times” what they were a year ago. On eBay, “buggies” and “trollies” were selling for three times their original price (if you could find one), and some local shops were looking for trade-ins.

Though it was initially the only option, all sorts of golfers embraced playing the game on foot – in Australia and abroad. Lowell Weaver, owner of The Medalist Golf Club in Michigan, one of that US state’s top public courses, says there were fewer than 200 rounds recorded by walkers in all of 2019 at his place, but this spring, he saw more than that number in a single day – on a course that winds up and down hills, across ponds and ravines, over and through 111 heavily wooded hectares.

“People were itching to play,” Weaver says. “People found out they could walk our course. I now have people coming out to walk that wouldn’t have before.”

The numbers for walking rounds decreased as states and countries reinstated cart privileges, but that meant leaving behind one of the healthiest aspects of the golf experience. If sitting is the new smoking, playing golf while planted on your rear for 90 percent of the afternoon seems at best counter-productive. Making the biomechanically demanding moves of the golf swing after reclining in cushioned comfort seems a bit like jumping off your couch to suddenly execute a couple of squat thrusts every five minutes.

By contrast, walking can be the foundation for a better swing, says Lance Gill, founder of LG Performance and co-director of the Fitness Advisory Board for the Titleist Performance Institute. “What you’re doing on every single step is, you’re going through a golf swing,” he says. “It involves your neck to your shoulders to your mid-spine to your lower spine to your pelvis and, of course, your legs and feet and how they work together as a team. It’s the best warm-up you can do because it involves every part of your body.”

Neil Wolkodoff, the medical director at the Colorado Center for Health and Sport Science, says that though golf on foot is additive to your fitness routine, his studies show that walking burns 50 to 55 percent more calories than riding. “That can be significant in terms of health impact,” he says. How significant? A study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, where the vast majority of golfers walk, showed the death rate for golfers is 40 percent lower than the rest of the population.

Wolkodoff says walking can help reduce injury, too. “Walking the course is like idling the metabolic and muscular engine,” he says, “so the body is partway warmed up to the demands of the actual swing.”

Tour players are better than average golfers for a lot of reasons, but Gill says walking is one of them. “Their ability to be able to control their knees, their pelvis, their ankles, their core is off-the-charts good,” he says. “It’s not necessarily because they work out more, it’s because they walk upward of 50 miles a week.”

Health is nice, of course, but how about something immediate and tangible? Well, Wolkodoff’s study showed that players averaged three shots better for a nine-hole round when they walked with a buggy compared to riding. 

There is a natural rhythm to the game on foot that goes beyond calories burned and strokes saved. “Walking is a form of meditation,” Gill says. Golf’s sense of escape, especially in times of stress, is best experienced as a walk in the woods rather than a race around a cartpath. (And we haven’t even discussed how course maintenance is easier and less expensive when the majority of rounds don’t involve 550 kilograms of motorised vehicle compacting the turf everywhere you look.)

Unfortunately, despite all these benefits, despite the rise in popularity of golf meccas like Barnbougle Dunes or those bucket-list trips to Ireland and Scotland where walking is more or less mandatory, and even the recent surge in walking-related purchases like buggies and lightweight carry bags, there is no sense the walking game will fully return to golf. In the US, lawsuits demanding the use of carts in states that had banned them were threatened before state authorities eventually relented on their no-carts rules.

Furthermore, the cart is built into the economic model of how the golf-course business functions at some venues. As Weaver says about the business side of his course operation, a riding golfer in a typical outing might generate twice the revenue of a walking golfer, and that’s not just in cart fees. “If you’re in a golf cart, you’re more likely to get a hot dog or a burger, a couple of snacks and a six-pack to go.

“If you’re walking, you might only get a bottle of water.”

Healthier, certainly, but walking seems simpler, cleaner. Probably what we need in times like these. Weaver has seen that change at his course. “There was a willpower to walk,” he says. “I had people who had signed up thinking they were just going to play nine, but they’d come in after the turn and say, ‘You know what, I’m going to walk the back nine, too.’”

Maybe this resurgence in walking is a good reminder that the game’s basic appeal lies in a steady progression of steps that seem to refresh more than they fatigue. Steps forward that bring us all the way back to where we started.

Walk Your Way To A Better Swing

Leading instructor and fitness expert Lance Gill says walking is an important contributing factor to playing better golf. Here he breaks down how your steps can improve your swing:

• When your lead foot is about to hit the ground, your hip is in a similar position to how it is at your address position. Also, the ankle is in what’s called “dorsiflexion”. Proper dorsiflexion helps you maintain ideal posture during the swing.   

• On the forward stride with your left foot, the right arm swings forward in a cross-rotational pattern. That activates the core muscles, extending from the right shoulder through the abdomen and down into the left leg. That rotational movement mimics what happens in the backswing and downswing.

• When the spine gets to a vertical position, your body has to deal with gravity. Every part of the musculoskeletal structure has to work together, or you’ll fall over. This is called axial loading, and it develops the balance needed during the swing.

• On your back leg, the foot is pushing off the big toe. That puts the back leg and hip in extension, activating your glute muscles. As Tiger Woods can tell you, those muscles fire on your downswing.

• As your back foot presses into and off of the ground, it moves into what’s called plantar flexion. That’s a similar action to how the foot works in the transition from backswing to downswing, all the way to impact and into your follow-through.

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In recognition for outstanding design and innovation, Concourse Golf Smart Wheels have received a prestigious Good Design Award Best in Class in the Product Design category.

The world’s first completely self-contained electric wheel set for push buggies, Smart Wheels have pioneered a game-changing experience for golfers.

Proudly designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia, Smart Wheels can cleverly replace the existing wheels on a push buggy and transform it into an advanced, remote control-operated electric buggy in seconds.

“We have always pushed design and engineering boundaries to deliver a better experience for the walking golfer,” said David MacKay from Concourse Golf.

“Existing motorised golf buggies have too many limitations and inconveniences tied into them. Rather than make small improvements, we began our journey from the ground up to achieve a solution which lets golfers focus on the enjoyment of playing game. Gone are the often enormous and heavy singular battery, axle, and centrally positioned motor of typical electric buggies. Instead, Smart Wheels provide a more compact and convenient overall experience for golfers by significantly reducing weight while increasing stability and handling.”

A break-through development in the golf category, the Smart Wheels concept also opens up enormous opportunities beyond this with potential applications in healthcare, transportation, logistics, and other mobility solutions.

The Good Design Awards Jury commented: “Ingenious design and exceptionally well executed. From the fundamental idea, all the way to the detail of being able to charge while in the carry case, this is intelligent design at its best.

“Thoughtful consideration of human factors and simplicity of operation make this a superb product overall. Extension use case to other applications make for an exciting future of possibilities. This solution is fresh and opens the opportunity to new categories beyond golf. Brilliant engineering inside the wheels making them safe to use on different types of grounds. This is truly a brilliant product that deserves to be recognised at the highest level in this category.”

Internationally recognised, Australia’s Good Design Awards are the highest honour for design innovation in Australia with a proud history dating back to 1958.

Winners of the Good Design Awards will be showcased to the general public during Vivid Sydney, the world’s biggest festival of light, music and ideas in Sydney from May 25-27 at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay.

RELATED: Concourse Golf’s wheels of fortune

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Concourse Golf’s Smart Wheels

It’s an Australian idea, manufactured in Australia. And it’ll change the way you navigate your golf course.

In a sport filled with technology, innovation and myriad gadgets to make you play better or make golf more enjoyable, every so often a product comes along that separates itself from the pack through sheer genius.

Concourse Golf’s Smart Wheels is one such invention. So much more than a motorised buggy (yet also so much less than one), Smart Wheels essentially are the motor and the wheels for your buggy. In other words: it’s not an electric buggy, it’s your buggy being made electric.

Perhaps most impressive is how Smart Wheels fit to your existing buggy. Smart Wheels users are not forking out money for a new buggy, rather motorising what they already have. So you bought a new buggy with a seat and all the other assorted accessories? Great, it’s not redundant – only the wheels are. And the benefits are real.

Firstly, golfers can keep the buggy of their choice rather than purchasing an entire unit, which has a cost benefit. Secondly: travelling, moving buggies to and from a car and setting up for a round becomes far more convenient as there isn’t a heavy, clunky battery or whole electric buggy unit to juggle.

And even aesthetically, being a completely self-contained wheel set with all the workings discretely contained within the wheel housing, doesn’t pigeonhole users into a bracket of golfers who need help getting around. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the design, technology and outcome instead position the Smart Wheels in the ‘performance enhancement space’, one that aligns with the ambitions of every golfer: a more enjoyable experience where the focus is on playing the game.

Australian Made

Smart Wheels sought to achieve the best of both worlds – delivering on-course performance that’s top-of-the-game with regards to what an electric buggy can do, plus overcoming the inconveniences and shortfalls that existing electric buggies face. The result is a world-first product, proudly designed, engineered and manufactured
in Australia.

That’s a factor that can’t be oversold. The benefits of being manufactured in one of Australia’s most advanced facilities (Melbourne-based SRX) represents more than just supporting local production and a focus on quality, it means being able to deliver a new level of service with post-sale matters. Should a set of Smart Wheels ever need repair work, there’s no waiting for parts to be shipped from overseas or, worse, an international freight charge (and wait). Instead, any faults or concerns see the wheels returned back to the source with the components built here, aiding a swift turnaround. Plus there’s a certain cachet in being Australian and knowing the technology and concept behind that technology is ‘ours’.

To achieve this it’s been a remarkable development journey for Concourse. Not only did the concept chart new territory in form and design, but also functionally on performance, durability and reliability.

“Everything we do is intended to deliver the best experience possible for the walking golfer,” says David MacKay from Concourse Golf. “From the start we really pushed the boundaries of design and engineering to make these wheels more capable and versatile than anything ever made – I think we got there.”

Concourse’s Smart Wheels are coming to the Australian marketplace soon with a price tag of $1,399. Compare Smart Wheels to your standard motorised buggy – for weight, bulk, ease of use and cost – and it’s clear there’s a significant new player in the game.

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INNOVATION and technological enhancements have made a remarkable impact to the enjoyment of golf. However, it’s rare that something as exciting and so broadly game changing comes along as Concourse Golf’s Smart Wheels.

The world’s first self-contained, self-propelled remote-control operated motorised buggy wheels, Concourse
Golf’s Smart Wheels can transform any standard golf buggy into a motorised marvel so golfers can focus on the enjoyment of the game.

Internationally patented, the wheels seamlessly click into place to replace your current buggy wheels with each discreetly housing their own powerful electric motor, long lasting lithium battery, and technologically advanced sensors, processors and gyroscopes.

Wirelessly communicating between each other more than 50 times per second, the Concourse Smart Wheels are more compact, lightweight and intuitive to use than any motorised buggy option available on the market today.

“We threw out the rule book of what a traditional motorised buggy offered and put golfers enjoyment of the game at the heart of this journey,” says Concourse Golf’s managing director David MacKay.

“We developed and engineered the Concourse Golf Smart Wheels in Australia with the most advanced lightweight and robust materials, then married them with clever technology not seen in motorised buggies to achieve a game-changing user experience.”

With an expected price point that’s certain to disrupt the motorised buggy category as we know it, these new Concourse Golf Smart Wheels are set to improve the game experience of many golfers.

Concourse Golf is no newcomer when it comes to clever design, with their current push/pull golf buggies already recipients of Australian and international design awards.

“Australian ingenuity is central to our DNA and we love the game of golf,” says MacKay. “Being able to design, test and harness world-class technical expertise in our own backyard has undoubtedly been the difference for us. It’s been a rewarding journey with the support of the Australian Government’s Accelerating Commercialisation Program and Victorian Government helping ensure manufacturing of the new Smart Wheels in Victoria.”

Already the official buggy of Qantas Golf with a range of proven performers available in leading golf retailers, pro
shops and direct online, Concourse Golf is set to continue conquering the game of golf with the arrival of their new Smart Wheels this December.

The walking golf market is big with as many as half of the world’s 60 million players taking the option to get some exercise when they play. Interestingly, the commercialisation potential for Concourse Smart Wheels is not limited to golf.

Other industry sectors that stand to benefit from this uniquely Australian initiative include disability and mobility (wheel chairs), travel/transport terminals/couriers and removalists (trolleys), retail (supermarket and hardware trolleys), parenthood and early childhood (prams
and strollers).

“We have no doubt that our Smart Wheels will have opportunities in other markets as the relatively complex requirements for golf provides a good platform,” adds MacKay. “We are now happy to commence discussions with other industries that could benefit from our technology.”

Visit ConcourseGolf.com for more information

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