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.

Cleveland Browns: 0 … Hovercraft Halftime Show: Touchdown!

Over the weekend, Windy Knoll Golf Club’s two Neoteric HoverGolf™ Carts were the star of the show at the Cleveland Browns-Cincinnati Bengals game at FirstEnergy Stadium. Windy Knoll was the first golf course in the U.S. to own official replicas of Bubba's Hover, Bubba Watson's BW1 hovercraft golf cart.

Steve Stafford, flight instructor at Hovercraft Training Centers, organized the hovercraft halftime show and described the action:  “At halftime, we fired up the hovercraft and flew around the field. Next, we each raced a passenger around some flags to the other end, where they got out and donned pink bunny suits,” he reported. “Then they both got back in, were hovered back to the starting point, where they each had to change bunny suits with their partner. After switching suits, both partners were flown back to the other end zone. The first one back got first choice of a gift held by each of the mascots. Both gifts were all-expense paid trips to upcoming football events.”

No fumbles in the hovercraft action! But the game itself was another story. Fans and media alike praised the hovercraft halftime show over the game.

The Wall Street Journal, in “Johnny Football Gets Deflated” wrote: “At halftime, people in pink bunny costumes raced hovercraft on the field. This was the highlight of the afternoon.”

A fan Tweeted, “Hovercraft race at halftime in Cleveland. It is approximately 400 times more interesting than the football game so far.”

The Washington Post  reported the live action, writing at halftime, “I am sure hovercraft racing at halftime will make fans forget all about what they just witnessed,” then after the game reported, “Alas, not even the hovercraft could help turn the momentum Cleveland’s way in the second half.”

In the end, the Bengals rolled past the Browns in a 30 – 0 rout. But the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Carts were a definite winner!

Enjoy a few photos below of the hovercraft scoring points …

At Cleveland's FirstEnergy Stadium, Windy Knoll's Neoteric HoverGolf™ Carts wait to enter the field:

In the Cleveland Browns' Dawg Pound, the hovercraft golf carts are ready for their halftime performance:

Left to right: Crew member Jody East, pilot Steve Stafford, pilot Preson Aleshire, and Cleveland Browns mascot Brownie the Elf inside the hovercraft:

Cleveland Browns mascot, Chomps, squeezes inside one of the Windy Knoll Neoteric HoverGolf™ Carts:

Touchdown! The Neoteric Hovercraft golf carts fly the race contenders during the halftime show, capturing more positive attention than the game itself:

Read more about Windy Knoll’s Neoteric Hovercraft golf carts …

Windy Knoll "Hover Bash" debuts Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Carts

Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio holds the honor of being the first of the world’s more than 35,000 golf courses to use the Neoteric Hovercraft Cart, the official limited edition replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1, also manufactured by Neoteric.

The club’s two Neoteric HoverGolf™ Carts were unveiled July 27 at their star-studded Hover Bash, with LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez, golfer Paige Mackenzie and Tim Rosaforte of the Golf Channel. The day featured golf clinics, a shotgun scramble, a huge dinner party, a massive fireworks display – and hovercraft golf cart rides with Neoteric's president Chris Fitzgerald and flight instructor Steve Stafford …

Reporting live from the Hover Bash, the Golf Channel’s Matt Ginella got behind the controls of a HoverGolf™ Cart and quickly grasped its unique nature. “You’re piloting, you’re flying the hovercraft … it’s a lot easier than you might think, and it’s just an absolute blast! I’m impressed – going from the land to water is seamless,”  he said.

Watch the Golf Channel’s coverage of the Hover Bash on Morning Drive …

Just like their hovercraft golf carts fly on a cushion of air, Windy Knoll is floating on a cushion of national and international publicity, attracting attention from ABC News, NPR, the Huffington Post and more.

“They’ve already paid for themselves with the notoriety,” says Dave Duffey, Windy Knoll’s General Manager.

Managing Director Pete Duffey agrees, “We see this as a fun opportunity to promote our town and, of course, Windy Knoll Golf Club, and we’ve already started to reap the benefits.”

And there’s no doubt the benefits will continue for the long term: hovercraft always arouse more interest and curiosity than just about any other vehicle in existence!

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 ...

HudsonMOD features Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart

The tsunami of publicity about Bubba’s Hover rushes on. The Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart is featured this month in HudsonMOD, a luxury lifestyle magazine that prides itself on treating its New York City readers to “the best the world has to offer” …

HudsonMOD

September 2013

THE WOW – You know you want it

Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart

A video that could have been taken on any golf course shows your run-of-the-mill golf cart winding down a paved pathway. But suddenly, a larger cart flashes across the screen. Never mind that the driver of this floating golf cart is none other than 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson, who deadpans with a nonchalant stare back at a gawking golfer. The golfer looks like he’s seen something he can’t very well explain. Yes, that’s a hovercraft on the links. Welcome to the future.

What started as a clever marketing stunt earlier this year by Thinkmodo to drive interest to Bubba Watson’s promotional deal with Oakley has had another, truly astonishing, effect. Since being uploaded to YouTube, the video “Bubba’s Hover” has gone viral, receiving more than eight million views thus far and garnering worldwide media attention for Neoteric, the manufacturers of rescue, military and commercial hovercrafts - and now the first hovercraft golf cart on the planet, the BW1. 

“Since the viral video hit YouTube, we’ve been deluged with inquiries from all over the world,” says Filip Przybysz, an executive at Neoteric. The prototype bearing Watson’s initials has given rise to 100 limited-edition HoverGolf carts that are custom manufactured at the close of each sale. “At this point, we have shipped the first order and are in the process of shipping the second to customers in the US,” he says.

One of the recipients of the accommodating four-passenger, two-golf-bag, 65-horsepower vehicle is the Windy Knoll Golf Club, in Springfield, OH, which recently became the first golf course in the US to purchase two $58,000 hovercrafts with lift-up roofs and the latest noise-reducing fan technology. But why wait for your local golf course to follow suit with futuristic rides? You could be piloting a cushion of air across water hazards in no time with your very own personal hovercraft.

Finally, a reason to smile about spraying a shot: You get to drive in a BW1 to find the ball. The future has arrived. Score!

Learn more at hovercrafttraining.com and facebook.com/HovercraftTraining

###

As the article says, “Why wait for your local golf course to offer futuristic rides?”  Sign up right now for a Hovercraft Test Flight or Training Course in a Neoteric Hovercraft at Hovercraft Training Centers!

Enjoy a few photos of the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart in action ... 

Bubba Watson flies the BW1 during the filming of Bubba's Hover at the Raven Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona.

The BW1 flies over sandtraps at an Oakley charity event held at the Heritage Club in Mason, Ohio.

At another Oakley charity event, the BW1 captures attention at the Four Bridges Country Club in Liberty Township, Ohio.

At the Four Bridges Country Club - or at any golf course - water hazards are no obstacle for the Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart.

The BW1 was filmed at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, with NBC's Matt Lauer and Al Roker at the controls.

Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart stars at Southpointe Golf Club

Canonsburg, Pennsylvania’s Southpointe Golf Club, twenty minutes from Pittsburgh, is widely recognized as “the area’s finest.” So when Southpointe celebrated its 20^th Anniversary this weekend, it made certain that event guests were given the greatest entertainment possible: rides on the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart – the official replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1, featured in Bubba’s Hover.

The Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart soars far above ordinary golf carts.

Hovercraft Training Centers’ flight instructor Steve Stafford, who flew the HoverGolf™ Cart at the Southpointe event, reported, “Another successful event! I gave rides all day on a somewhat challenging area and they were perfect. Everyone was very pleased!”

Nestled in rolling hills, Southpointe Golf Club was designed by world famous golf course architect Arthur Hills to make the most out of western Pennsylvania’s incredible terrain. Southpointe features a scenic course with undulating greens, natural streams and rolling fairways – the perfect landscape for a hovercraft golf cart!

People dropped in from all over for a HoverGolf™ Cart ride at Southpointe Golf Club!

From Ohio's Windy Knoll Golf Club to Ukraine's Superior Golf & Spa Resort, courses throughout the world hope to own a hovercraft golf cart – but a limited edition of only 100 Neoteric HoverGolf™ Carts will be manufactured. The good news is that no one will be left out because, just like Southpointe, golf courses anywhere in the world can rent a HoverGolf™ Cart and an experienced pilot to give rides at your special events.

And just ask those who’ve experienced the finest: There’s no better way to put the 'special' into your event than rides on a Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart!

Contact Neoteric for full information.    

Ukraine's first Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart

With its massive publicity, most everyone in the world knows that Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio was the first of the world's 35,000 golf courses to own Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Carts - the official replica of Bubba's Hover. And now we have another first: Superior Golf & Spa Resort is the first golf course in Ukraine to treat its members to the latest and greatest way to glide across the greens ...

As it nears completion in the Neoteric assembly facility, custom decals are applied to the reverse thrust buckets of Superior Golf's craft:

Like every Neoteric craft, Superior Golf's Hovercraft Golf Cart undergoes performance testing on the Wabash River before being shipped to Ukraine: 

The retractable roof of the Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart makes it easy for golfers to hop in and out of the craft:

Follow Neoteric on Facebook and Twitter

Hovering over a Terre Haute success

The Terre Haute Tribune-Star gives kudos to Neoteric Hovercraft, recognizing the positive impact Neoteric is having on our city and state ...

Tribune-Star Editorial

Aug. 1, 2013

Hovering over a Terre Haute success

Finally, the world knows about Neoteric

Chris Fitzgerald’s Neoteric Hovercraft company of Terre Haute has become an overnight international success and a viral novelty in cyberspace.

Overnight, though, only if you translate that as meaning decades of envisioning, designing and building hovercraft in relative obscurity. Overnight in the same sense as an actor who becomes a Broadway star after decades of toiling in summer stock.

To most of the world, the successes of Fitzgerald and his crew on Tippecanoe Street are breaking news – all owing to the game of golf.

It was April when a Floridian named Bubba flew one of Neoteric’s customized craft over a golf course. Other players in their wheeled golf carts watched in amazement as 2012 Masters winner Bubba Watson floated on a bubble of air from shot to shot, nine inches off the ground, in a HoverGolf Cart, a craft whose footprint pressure is 33 times lighter than the human foot. And the craft leaves no spike marks, divots or golf cart tracks.

Fitzgerald was front and center in the video of Bubba’s hovercraft outing, narrating much of it and appearing in its opening section.

A few days later, NBC “Today” show co-hosts Matt Lauer and Al Roker showed a national morning TV audience how the hovering golf cart worked.

Last Friday, Indiana Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-8^th, visited Neoteric’s plant to consider working to make Neoteric in Terre Haute a training center for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

The next day, on a Saturday made for golf, Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio, became the first of the world’s 35,000 golf courses to offer the Neoteric model, [the official replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1] to its players at what it termed the “Hover Bash.”

You’ll forgive Fitzgerald if he’s scratching his head and wondering what took so long. He said as much in an interview with Yahoo! News in April: “I’ve been in this business for 50 years. You can pull your hair out trying to figure out how to get this information out that this [hovercraft] technology exists. In one fell swoop, [Bubba’s Hover has] gotten across all these hovercraft concepts to people.”

Fitzgerald, a native of Melbourne, Australia, who says his first experience with hovercraft came in 1959, is “kind of a celebrity now,” Thinkmodo marketing company’s Michael Krivicka told Yahoo! News. “Millionaires from Russia are calling him, placing orders.”

Much less known than the golf outings is that two of Neoteric’s craft were used in May to help divers out of the water after the collapse of an Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington state.

And perhaps forgotten is that Fitzgerald’s craft have been used several times to rescue local residents who were threatened by flood waters, as in that terrible day in June 2008 when heavy rains fell and deep water rose, especially in southern Vigo County.

With Neoteric’s newfound international notoriety comes a definite benefit for Terre Haute. As Neoteric’s Filip Przbysz told our Arthur Foulkes in a story a few days ago: “This could put Terre Haute on the world map.”

And it already has, and deserves the community’s congratulations.

It joins DADC, Bemis, the old Columbia Records, Larry Bird, Indiana State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin and others in bringing worldwide distinction to Terre Haute and Vigo County.

But the difference with Neoteric is that it truly is riding on air.