Designer Kim Young-se’s one-seater golf cart experiment

Could a change in design change golf cart culture?

INNO-F1, a one-seater golf cart made by Korean design company Innodesign, was selected as one of the Top 5 Best Golf Cars of the Year at the American Professional Golf (PGA) Equipment Show.

At the golf goods show held last week in Orlando, Florida, Innodesign attracted great attention by releasing electric carts that charge with electricity, breaking away from the existing 5-seater and 2-seater carts.

Kim Young-se, CEO of Innodesign, posted an emotional message on Facebook after completing a video interview introducing the Inno-F1 through an interview with NBC TV Golf Channel at the goods show. ‘The PGA Show made a wonderful finale for Innodesign. The world’s first single-person golf car, Inno-F1, submitted by Innodesign, was selected as one of the ‘Best 5 Golf Carts’ this year and aired worldwide. (Omitted) We had breathless consultations for several days, and today we are proud of the Inno-F1, which beautifully decorated the final scene of the exhibition.’

If you look at golf history, the electric cart is a purely American invention. It was first used in 1910 by William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, who was a golf enthusiast and weighed over 160 kg. It was difficult for him to walk 18 holes due to his bulky body, so he used a cart by attaching an engine to a cannon transport vehicle. However, it is said that after this cart passed, the greenkeeper followed behind and worked hard to repair the course crushed by the wheels.

In 1932, in Texas, JK Wadley introduced a three-wheeled electric car, which was a means of walking for the elderly, to a golf course and commercialized it. After World War II ended, Parkland-style golf courses with wide fairways sprung up in the United States.

At the same time, cart companies created electric carts, and it became fashionable and fashionable to drive carts through the fields among the baby boomers and the newly affluent class. Two-seater carts have become established in the United States because people enjoyed a successful life while running through the fields with their girlfriends by their side.

In Korea, where the demand for golf far exceeds the supply, four-player play is taken for granted. In addition, due to the greed of golf course owners who want to make more money even by slowing down the process, it is now difficult to find anything other than a 5-seater cart at domestic golf courses (the 2-seater cart experiment at South Links Yeongam Golf Course in South Jeolla Province is therefore worth applauding and cheering for).

However, Innodesign boldly launched a single-seater cart. The model name ‘Inno-F1’ reads like Formula One (F1), but actually contains the meaning of a kart for one person. CEO Kim Young-se, a designer who can be obsessive about developing original things, sketched a cart three years ago out of curiosity, “Why isn’t there a single golf cart for one golfer?” and finally reached the launch of the product.

Innodesign is a total creative consulting company established in Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, USA in 1986, and now has offices in the USA, Korea, Japan and China. The Inno-F1 was designed with the electric vehicle technology of InnoMobility Lab, a subsidiary of Innodesign.

The innovation of the single-seater cart was mentioned several times at product shows. The distance between the wheels is wide, so it is safe for one person to ride, and the weight is reduced because one person is seated, and it reduces the playing time because I go to the field alone. It is close to half the weight of a two-person cart, so there is little damage to the fairway, and if you charge it for 4 hours, you can go around 2 rounds of 36 holes. The maintenance cost of the cart is also reduced by using a removable battery pack.

At the goods show, the commentator said, “I have seen many single riders such as scooters and kickboards, but this is the first time I have seen them at a PGA show, and this will open up a new golf culture.”

If so, can the experiment of the 1-seater cart really overcome the stronghold of the 2-seater cart in the US and the 5-seater cart in Korea? In Korea, it is good news that Pine Beach Golf Course in Namhae, South Jeolla Province, is considering introduction.

At a demo day the day before the show, Match Play TV host Ray Adams said, “Single rider golf carts are the way of the future.” If the U.S. wants to increase the use of single-seater carts, it needs to target the younger generation. American MZ generation can’t do anything for more than 4 hours, so if you reduce the time, they will welcome it.

Even in Korea, there is a strategy to replace the dominant 5-seater kart. If golf course owners were told, ‘You can get a higher fee per person than for 4 people’, wouldn’t it spread rapidly to golf courses nationwide? 스포츠토토

Could a change in design change golf cart culture? INNO-F1, a one-seater golf cart made by Korean design company Innodesign, was selected as one of the Top 5 Best Golf Cars of the Year at the American Professional Golf (PGA) Equipment Show. At the golf goods show held last week in Orlando, Florida, Innodesign attracted…