Golf on Cruise Ships
Cruise Ship Job News: 21st August 2007
For years, cruise passengers enjoyed hitting golf balls into the ocean with no pin in sight. The fun ended in 1990 when the International Maritime Organization prohibited the dumping of plastic waste into the sea, which included those little white balls.
But in the 1990s two developments brought cruising and golfing closer together. “Cruise lines realized they were losing potential customers to land-based resorts by not offering shipboard golf,” said Joyce Landry, chief executive of Landry & Kling, a corporate cruise consulting company in Coral Gables, Fla. Technology came to the rescue in 1997, when a San Diego company called Full Swing Golf sold its first golf simulator to Princess Cruises.
The computerized simulator has cemented a lasting partnership between cruising and golf, fitting into the growing array of shipboard cruise diversions like spa treatments and rock climbing. At the same time, cruise lines have expanded their stops at actual golf courses, creating itineraries that might include a different course every day.
The lines have loaded up with the simulators, in some cases with two on a ship, as on the 151,200-ton Queen Mary 2. Full Swing Golf has more than 35 simulators on the major cruise lines, trailed by several other brands including DeadSolid Golf of Pittston, Pa., and Optronics of Salt Lake City.
Using real balls and clubs, plastic grass, electronic sensors and a video screen, the simulators combine the feel of playing golf with the visuals of a live P.G.A. event. After driving into the screen, players follow a ball’s trajectory as the screen picks up its flight and shows it landing on the fairway or in the rough. The short game near the hole is just as realistic.
Read the full article in NY Times
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