---

TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Fore! Ads
popping up
in golf carts

---

Satellite technology is creating an unusual advertising opportunity.

Well, today it's unusual; tomorrow it may be "so five minutes ago," at the rate technology progresses.

Golfers who play rounds at the Ted Robinson Championship Golf Course at Ko Olina are exposed to full-color ads for homes in The Coconut Plantation at strategic points along the way -- right in the privacy of their golf carts. The homes were built by Brookfield Homes Southland and some front the golf course.

The ads on the carts' 10-inch monitors are triggered by a global positioning system designed by Arizona-based ProLink Systems; the golf course pays for the ProLink system and has offset some of its costs via the advertising, according to head golf professional Scott Ashworth.

The reach for such advertising can't compare with TV, but according to Ashworth, "We have a great facility with great clients," adding that as the resort undergoes further growth "there will be more opportunities for different developments to advertise."

The technology is primarily in use for "golf course information management," according to the ProLink System Web site (www.goprolink.com for curious golf-geeks).

Ko Olina's fleet of some 80 golf carts is outfitted with the monitors that track game information.

The monitors show maps of holes, yardage calculations and offer "pro tips," which recommend how to play the hole and tell golfers where to hit the ball for the best position, Ashworth said.

It won't recommend clubs, however. "Every golfer hits the ball differently," he said.

Open-ended offer

Eyebrows were raised in the Star-Bulletin newsroom by an ad in a real estate industry publication indicating Foodland Supermarket Ltd. is looking to expand.

"It's just a boilerplate thing," which had appeared in The Dealmakers before, said Foodland Director of Real Estate Cort Haverly. The publication had called to update some information, but there is "nothing firm," he said.

Should a possible deal be floated their way, the company would entertain it, he said.

---

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com