Endicott, NY (WBNG Binghamton) For a time-tested event, some new ideas to enhance a player's game and the spectator's experience.
Action News reporter Matt Markham shows us new technology at the Dick's Open.
Maybe not par for the course before, but from now on, looks like it will be.
It washes off. This doesn't. This doesn't. You just put your thumb on and they've got ya," said Bill Beagle, a yearly visitor to the Dick's Open from Old Forge, Pa.
Here at the Dick's Open this year, the new hand-stamp if you were going to leave and come back is now a thumbprint reader. You put your thumb down on a machine, lift it up, put it back down one more time, and there are eight points on your finger that are measured for your fingerprint. And that's how you're able to come back in to the tournament.
"It goes in to the system and then when you put your thumbprint back, it matches those points and tells you if you have a hit or not," said Bob Sterlacci, a former Binghamton University engineering professor and entry-gate volunteer with the Endicott Lions.
Bob's engineering students came up with the plan.
"I gave the challenge to the students, I'd like a new system that does not use the ink and they came up with the biometric finger print," Sterlacci said.
Out on the green, two friends from Endicott expose players to their company called Zenolink. It uses 3-D technology to assess a their swing.
"They didn't realize how simple it was to get information to them about their golf swings, that was never really ever available to them," said George Bock with Zenolink.
What's also now available to golfers --
"There's direction on how to train, to be more effective from a performance perspective, there's also a lot of information about injury and injury prevention," said Chris Welch with Zenolink.
Tee-time for some new technology, making a line drive down the fairway.
Welch and Bock were out at the 11th hole earlier this week during Pro-Am play. They're now processing the information they collected from golfers. They relocated their business to Endicott about five years ago after starting in Florida.
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