The HSBC Golf Business Forum Innovation Award attracted more than 100 entries this year – compared with 89 last year- and 11 entries were selected for judging by an international panel of experts comprising:
Giles Morgan- Global Head of Sponsorship and Events, HSBC; Joseph Beditz- President, National Golf Foundation;
Andrea Sartori- Global Head of Sport, KPMG;
Antony Scanlon- Executive Director, International Golf Federation;
Carin Koch- 2015 European Solheim Cup Captain;
Eric Lynge – CEO, Asian Golf Federation;
Tim Merrett- Senior Vice President of all Turf Divisions, John Deere;
Du Sha- Chairman, Pacific Links International;
Alastair Johnston- Vice Chairman, IMG; and
Xavier Asensi- Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Barcelona FC.
The shortlist of entries that was considered by the panel came from: Moore Park Golf Club, Golf Stream Inc, Golphin Ltd, Golf Voyager Ltd, Piza Golf Design, Swingbot, Turner Sports, Ayrshire Golf Company, TurfLynx, All Square and SkyTrak.
Three companies were then shortlisted as finalists to pitch their projects at the HSBC Golf Business Forum held at the Pudong Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai. The finalists were All Square – the social platform for golfers, Golphin Ltd – manufacturer of kids clubs and Ayrshire Golf Company. There was then a 10 minute question session led by the expert panel of Dr Paul Hawkins (Founder of Hawk-Eye Innovations), Jim Nugent (Founder and Publisher of Global Golf Post) and Matthew Kirkby (HSBC Regional Head of Large Corporates, Asia Pacific, Commercial Banking) after which Golphin was presented with the innovation trophy by Dr Paul Hawkins. A recurrent topic of this year’s HSBC Golf Business Forum was the increasing importance of the use of new technologies in the golf industry.
All Square received encouraging feedback from the leaders and key entities that attended the event. During the multiple discussions the introduction of All Square’s Business Tools was considered an innovative way to drive awareness and engagement of the game of golf.
