Introducing The Travelator!

Thanks to all who sent in Gavin Allen's Daily Mail piece on the Scholss Auel Golf Club's £175,000 "travelator" to help golfers move up a hill.

The 500ft travelator does away with the need for members to hire a golf buggy.

This kind of flat moving track may once have used as a gruelling final obstacle on the TV show Gladiators, but it is used to much more sedate effect here, allowing the club's members to enjoy the benefits of walking through the pretty woodland area in the North West of Germany.

The hi-tech piece of kit remains stationary when not in use and is only activated when players step onto the track.

Players are even still able to use it in the winter months because the travelator is waterproof and can be used in all weathers

Now I know some of you think this is a sad sign, but did you look at the size of that hill the travelator is moving them on?



Comments

[Rohan]

Reckon for that price you could buy 20 buggies. Buggies are electric powered so more eco-friendly?

[benseattle]

I think it's brilliant. I know too many golfers who take a cart/buggy just because of a few isolated "hills" scattered around various layouts. They MIGHT choose to walk if they knew they could negotiation via "travelator," and in fact -- so would I.... a confirmed walker.

There's a course we played once in Texas called Pine Forest where on the back nine, the distances between green and the next tee were often a quarter-mile.... STRAIGHT up a hill. Back then I was a fit runner and was last to leave the green on the way up the hill to the next tee so I was embarrassed to be panting heavily when I arrived at the tee.... only to find my three athletic playing partners all flopped prone on the grass, simply GASPING for air. The "travelator" would have solved that problem easy!

(I occasionally stumble on to Donald J. Trump's latest testament to his own ego on the Golf Channel and I continue to be dismayed that when showing golf EVERY SINGLE PLAYER automatically jumps into a cart....even the portly, dumpy Don himself. Carts should be a CHOICE, not a requirement.)

[Paboy]

Bandon Trails #13/14 green to tee could use this.

[RM]

The last couple of holes at Old Head could use this as well to get from green to tee. Screw that, they just need an elevator. If the ball doesn't bounce off it like a cart path then maybe it's an improvement.

[MRP]

PURE GENIUS!!! It's time to take it to the next level. Replace all cart paths with these bad boys. People can get the same 'feel" as walking, but they don't have to exert themselves. To replace lost cart revenue from the decline of golf carts, simply charges "tolls" at each green to tee transition.

BINGO, BANGO, BINGO...this is how to save all the golf clubs from the financial ruin caused by the Great Recession!!!

[the bystander]

Sorry, but this is very old news. There are probably hundreds of courses in Japan that have travelators and they've been using them for at least 30 years. I used to play frequently at about two dozen courses near Tokyo in the '80's and the travelators were fairly common.

[Jordan]

If it speeds things up, I'm all for it.

[Marky Mark]

as @the bystander said, old news - I first saw one of these playing at Kawana Resort (Fuji Course) in Japan. The weird thing about theirs is that the caddie doesn't even use it. She takes the clubs up a path on the side of the hill and meets you at the top. You just stand on the conveyor belt without your clubs. The caddies spoke zero English, so I wasn't able to ask the reasoning.

[johnnnycz]

Old news. Calgary G&CC had/has a "ground elevator" for god knows how long (50+ years??) In '85 when I was not quite a golfer and more of an aspiring skate/snow boarder my friend who was a member took me there to ride that steep hill that occupies the 1st, 9th, 10th, 18th and driving range...we got into the device (which was powered by a motor/counterbalance type of thing) only to find it was shut down for the winter months....so we had to earn our turns and hike.

The snowboarding didn't quite turn out into a career...BUT i still am riding during the winter months...and chasing a white ball when the snow goes away.

Back to golf...what's the point in spending all that money for a lift if most golfers in Germany tend to favor electric pull carts? Isn't that kind of redundant? Golf is supposed to be a game for walking!