Windy Knoll completes Hovercraft Golf Cart pilot training

Dave Duffey, General Manager, and Gary Price, Golf Course Superintendant at Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio, traveled to Neoteric yesterday to pick up their second hovercraft golf cart and to become certified pilots at Hovercraft Training Centers headquarters. Windy Knoll holds the honor of being the first of the world's more than 35,000 golf courses to have HoverGolf™ Carts, the official exact replicas of Bubba's Hover.

Gary Price (left) and Dave Duffey (right) prepare for their first flight training session
in their Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart with flight instructor Chris Fitzgerald (center).

With Dave Duffey in the passenger seat, Chris Fitzgerald launches the Windy Knoll  HoverGolf™ Cart
on the Wabash River. Don't try this in your traditional old golf cart! ...

From the floating dock, Gary Price follows Pete Duffey's flight lesson via wireless headset.

Eager for his training session, Gary says, "I've been a boater all my life 

and I've helped build golf courses everywhere, been on every piece of equipment.

But I've always wanted to learn to fly - and this is going to satisfy that!" ...

Now in the pilot's seat, Dave Duffey quickly masters the technique for

getting a hovercraft 'over the hump' ...

Flying easily on the Wabash River, Dave appreciates
the exceptional maneuverability of Neoteric hovercraft ... 

Any concerns about the HoverGolf™ Cart's noise are put to rest when it's obvious that

the geese don't mind it at all. If it doesn't bother the wildlife, it isn't going to disturb golfers!

After a productive day at Hovercraft Training Centers, Dave and Gary are all set to debut their HoverGolf™ Carts on July 27 at the day-long, star-studded Hover Bash at Windy Knoll Golf Club. And they both agreed that training was a "very humbling experience. We can't imagine owning a hovercraft without the kind of training and technical support Neoteric offers."

And their afternoon on the river showed them the versatility of a hovercraft golf cart. It isn't just good for the greens - it's good for a river cruise or a fishing trip after that golf game. Or how about ice fishing or hovering over snow during the winter when golf courses are closed? Yes, this is the only golf cart in the world that isn't just a golf cart!

Neoteric to be featured in Yahoo! Finance Breakout Profiles

This week film crews from New York City and Los Angeles traveled to Terre Haute to film a company profile about Neoteric Hovercraft - which will be seen by more than 6 million monthly viewers as part of the Yahoo! Finance Breakout Profiles series.

Yahoo’s Breakout Profiles feature unique companies doing extraordinary things, and as the media have reported in Neoteric’s recent tsunami of publicity, Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc. “is certainly out of the ordinary.”

The Neoteric profile will debut on July 26, the day before the official launch of Neoteric’s HoverGolf™ Cart – the limited edition replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1 hovercraft golf cart, also manufactured by Neoteric. On July 27, Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio, will become the first of the world’s more than 35,000 golf courses to use Neoteric’s hovercraft golf carts, which will take flight in an all day star-studded Hover Bash at Windy Knoll.

Be sure to check out Yahoo! Finance Breakout Profiles on July 26! In the meantime, have a sneak peak with the following photos and video clips of this week’s filming ...

Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald (left) and Yahoo! Producer Kevin Chupka from NYC

plan the morning's video shoot at Hulman Links Golf Course in Terre Haute ...

Tribune-Star photo / Joseph C. Garza

A Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart awaits its flight across water hazards

and sand traps at Hulman Links Golf Course ...

Water hazards are transformed into joyrides with a hovercraft golf cart ...

Fitzgerald does a few "doughnuts" in the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart  on the 18th green,

without leaving a mark, because it floats 9 inches above the ground on a cushion of air ...

For the afternoon film shoot, the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart and a

Hovercraft Training Centers craft await launch onto the Wabash River ...

And you thought the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart was only good for your golf game? ...

On the Wabash River, the Yahoo! film crew, in the Hovercraft Training Centers

hovercraft, capture Chris Fitzgerald demonstrating  a golf cart that can go river cruising! ...

Tribune-Star photo / Joseph C. Garza

A few spins on the 18th green ... or a few spins on the river - 

the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart  can do it all! ...

Now here's maneuverability - Chris Fitzgerald easily flies the

Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart  right up to the floating dock ...

At the end of a productive and exciting day, the Yahoo! film crew,
media representatives and Neoteric personnel are all smiles ...

Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart featured by Hammacher Schlemmer

The Neoteric HoverGolf™ cart, the official limited edition replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1, is now featured in an amazingly appropriate place – on the cover of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and web site.

What started as a small hardware store in NYC’s Bowery in the mid-1800s is now one of America’s most venerated and successful retailers. Hammacher Schlemmer offers the most unique and innovative products available anywhere in the world, exemplified by the company’s slogan:
“Offering the Best, the Only and the Unexpected since 1848.”

Hammacher Schlemmer is also known for its “firsts”: it sold the first steam irons, pop-up toasters, electric razors, electric pencil sharpeners, microwave ovens, answering machines … the list goes on and on.

The word “neoteric” means original, novel, unconventional … and the Neoteric HoverGolf™ cart and its Bubba’s Hover prototype are the first hovercraft golf carts in the world – the perfect product for Hammacher Schlemmer.

Sept. 2013 update: Because of the avid interest it received, the Neoteric HoverGolf™ cart continues to be featured in Hammacher Schlemmer catalogues.

Hover like Bubba at Windy Knoll Golf Club

Maybe you can’t drive a golf ball like Bubba Watson, but now you can fly a hovercraft golf cart just like he did in Bubba’s Hover, the viral video that took over the Internet a couple of months ago - which now has 9 million views.

Bubba’s one-of-a-kind BW1 is no longer one-of-a-kind: this month Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio will become the first of the world’s more than 35,000 golf courses to use the Neoteric HoverGolf™ cart, the official limited edition replica of the BW1.

                    The first Windy Knoll HoverGolf™ cart undergoing Neoteric’s final performance testing.

Each craft has a 65-hp engine capable of 50 mph, seating for up to four passengers,

a lift-up roof, space for two golf bags, and sand bottles.

Windy Knoll was built on the former site of a thoroughbred horse farm. After Managing Director Pete Duffey watched Bubba cruising the fairways in a hovercraft, he decided to make golf history with a different kind of horsepower.

“We wanted to be able to offer something no other golf course could – a way to further put Windy Knoll on the map … It was an easy decision. When we saw them on YouTube, we said, ‘We gotta have one of those!’”, Duffey told ABC News. “We’re always looking for a way to set ourselves apart from the competition. We’ll be able to offer something that no one in the area, in the state and at this point in the country can offer … it’s going to turn heads.”

Duffey called shortly after the video went viral and ordered Neoteric’s first two HoverGolf™ carts. The craft will make their debut on July 27 at a day-long star-studded HoverBash at Windy Knoll, featuring HoverGolf™ rides, a clinic with Tim Rosaforte of the Golf Channel, appearances by LPGA Hall of fame member Nancy Lopez and LPGA golfer Paige Mackenzie, an afternoon shotgun scramble, and a huge party with dinner, entertainment and fireworks.

Next week, Windy Knoll representatives will come to Neoteric to pick up their hovercraft golf carts and undergo pilot and maintenance training at HovercraftTraining Centers headquarters.

The Windy Knoll craft will be in general service at the course in August. “We rely on golf scramble events throughout the season and the hovers offer yet another incentive for entities scheduling and organizing the events to have them at Windy Knoll. We also plan to come up with a VIP golf package for foursomes wishing to use them,” Duffey explains, adding that the carts will not be “for the average everyday group of golfers.”

Word of Windy Knoll’s hovercraft golf carts hit the news this week, launching a media tsunami second only to the original Bubba’s Hover storm. Golfers and media personnel alike are wild about the idea of flying around a golf course on a cushion of air. As CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter wrote, “I asked my boss if I could move to Ohio!”

For more information, check out Windy Knoll’s web site and Facebook page, the
Hover Bash events page, and follow on Twitter @windyknollgolf.