Springfield's Windy Knoll Golf Club will unveil on Saturday the world's first hovercraft golf cart. The golf club will become the first in the country to make the hovercraft available for public use.
The Neoteric Golf Hovercraft's 65 Horsepower German engine will soon be carting golfers and their bags through water hazards and sand traps at the Windy Knoll Golf Club. It looks like a water ride at an amusement park attached to a wind fan. It travels nine inches off the ground and its fast. Fifty five miles per hour at top speed.
They cost $58,000 apiece and the golf course purchased two of them. Pete Duffey is the managing director at Windy Knoll. He says the hovercraft is worth the investment.
"It spreads the word about our public golf course. It's a whole new concept that anybody that's been around golf has never had to wrap their mind around," Pete Duffey said.
Golfing pro Bubba Watson helped design the hovercraft. Back in April, he put a video of the space-age looking vehicle cruising around a golf course on YouTube. It went viral and caught the eyes of Duffey and his father Dave.
"Just seeing it from the few streets that we have bordering us when you're flying down the fairway or something, people won't know what it is so it will generate some curiosity and hopefully people will stop in at least and see what we are about," Dave Duffey said.
Pete Duffey says there is a special price to use the hovercraft, but it won't raise fees for other patrons.
Saturday night's unveiling will feature Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez, current LPGA Tour player Paige Mackenzie, and the Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte.