Guidance from above; caddie takes to the skies to reach wider audience
Cathal Leonard and Colin Byrne
While keeping within the job description of a caddie, as defined by the Oxford English dictionary as; “A person who carries a golfer’s clubs and provides other assistance during a match”, Colin Byrne is reinventing the “providing assistance” part of his job description, writes our correspondent.
For over thirty years Colin has been providing one-to one-guidance to some of the world’s top professionals including Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Edoardo Molinari and many others.
The challenge was how to bring these professional insights to a much wider audience, while still keeping it relevant.Drawing on his experience of working with the best golfers, on the finest courses in the world, Colin set out to create a unique visual platform to look at courses in a different way, and to advise golfers how best to play them to enhance their enjoyment and improve their scores.
To that end, Colin has teamed up with Cathal Leonard to create hole-by-hole video flyovers, with Colin’s strategic insights, rendered in visually stunning 4k imagery, using the very latest in drone technology.
The beautiful drone fly–overs reveal every bump, hollow and nuance of the course architecture and design and, on their own, provide a visually breathtaking, appetite-whetting picture for any golfer. With Colin’s voice over commentary layering the stunning visuals, the course guides will provide players with game improving, strategic insights enabling them to get the best from their golf and reduce their scores.
Utilising the very latest in drone technology Colin was able to see each hole, from a new perspective, combining these visuals with his years of experience they are able to produce stunning shot saver videos filmed in 4K and propagate this content around the world, through a variety of social mediums and on their website www.AcaddieMe.com.
Considering the amount of time and money spent by golfers all over the world in improving their games; buying new clubs and working on everything from improving technique, fitness and even attitude, Colin felt the time was right to address the often neglected area of strategy and course management – one area that he knows the best professionals pay rigorous attention to.
“Imagine a rally driver setting out without a really good overview in his mind as to what lay ahead and without a navigator to negotiate through all the turns and speed requirements – well that’s what most golfers do when they arrive to play a new course. What we are doing is bridging that gap and giving golfers not just a beautiful visual presentation of the courses – but really practical, solid advice as to how to best to play them,” says Colin.
“We want to reach out to the world and showcase Irish golf. I can visualise a potential visitor to Ireland sitting in his/her office in Tokyo, London or New York googling Irish Golf and being absorbed by the beauty of Ireland and the challenge of some of the best courses in the world.
"We aim to blow this golfer away, to the point where he/she comes to the mind-set that they have to play that course. If you got it flaunt it – and we have it in spades. We see ourselves as simply spreading the word, utilising the best in technology and content marketing strategies with one of the best caddies in the world,” says Cathal.
Cathal is a self-confessed technology nerd and he hopes to be able to attract a worldwide audience to Ireland through www.acaddieme.com and through the app which will be released in the near future.
They hope to work with some of the best golf courses and resorts in Ireland with a view to building a terrific resource of eye popping informative videos for a global golfing audience.
