Reflecting on the prevalent use of golf carts in the United States, where 80% of golfers ride, CEO Mark Stewart sought to capture the unique charm and experience of walking the course.

We were on a shoot in Florida. As usual we were there getting amazing content featuring golfers walking, but the majority of groups that came through were riding in their carts. With every one that drove past I couldn’t help but thinking that they didn’t know what they were missing out on, and I started wondering how else we could try to make them understand our motivations for creating our machines.

Later that morning I had to drive for a couple of hours to collect some parts that had been lost in transit, and put on a podcast about iconic adverts and the stories behind them. The campaign in this episode was about the Guiness ‘Surfer’ ad from 1999, which features a poem with a Scottish voiceover, telling the story of a surfer waiting for the perfect wave. My earlier thoughts on walking golf in my head, the idea for ‘the walkers’ video came in to my head almost fully formed. How cool would it be if we could create an emotive piece about walking golf that would resonate on an emotional level? A Scottish voice would also perfect for us to nod to the roots of golf, and who better than Sam Torrance? When I got back to the golf club to continue the shoot, I jotted down a 6 line poem that formed the basis of the content.

Ryder Cup legend Sam Torrance has held a long-standing relationship with Stewart Golf already; he was the ‘face’ of the company for three years when it launched in 2003. Luckily, he still has the same agent so making contact was easy, if slightly odd at the time (“I’ve written a poem about golf, do you think Sam would be up for voicing it?”). From there it was very easy; Sam loved the idea and was excited to be involved, so from there it was a case of completing the poem and finding somewhere to shoot it.

The only snag at the shoot itself was that our teleprompter was too small for Sam to be able to read when it was in motion, so we had to shoot it line by line. The accidental benefit of this was that I sat next to Sam, just out of shot to his right. I would move the text on to the next line and give him an example of how I wanted the line to be delivered, and then he would say it a couple of times. We even changed a few of them with Sam’s input to make it suit his delivery. I think this was the most surreal moment of all for me. Sitting next to golfing royalty, with his deep Scottish brogue delivering the lines that I imagined many months before. When he spoke I actually closed my eyes so I could imagine the finished piece, it was an incredible experience.

After that it was down to our expert in house team to bring it to life. The visuals and music that were selected combined with Sam’s voice to create a beautiful, cinematic film that I am not sure I will ever tire of watching. The reaction was amazing, with some viewers commenting that it brought them to tears! A few months later I delivered a new trolley to Sam for his rounds at Sunningdale, and he was kind enough to sign some ‘movie’ style posters that now have pride of place at our UK and US offices, as well as on my wall at home to remind me of the whole experience.

Reflecting on the prevalent use of golf carts in the United States, where 80% of golfers ride, CEO Mark Stewart sought to capture the unique charm and experience of walking the course.

We were on a shoot in Florida. As usual we were there getting amazing content featuring golfers walking, but the majority of groups that came through were riding in their carts. With every one that drove past I couldn’t help but thinking that they didn’t know what they were missing out on, and I started wondering how else we could try to make them understand our motivations for creating our machines.

Later that morning I had to drive for a couple of hours to collect some parts that had been lost in transit, and put on a podcast about iconic adverts and the stories behind them. The campaign in this episode was about the Guiness ‘Surfer’ ad from 1999, which features a poem with a Scottish voiceover, telling the story of a surfer waiting for the perfect wave. My earlier thoughts on walking golf in my head, the idea for ‘the walkers’ video came in to my head almost fully formed. 

Ryder Cup legend Sam Torrance has held a long-standing relationship with Stewart Golf already; he was the ‘face’ of the company for three years when it launched in 2003. Luckily, he still has the same agent so making contact was easy, if slightly odd at the time (“I’ve written a poem about golf, do you think Sam would be up for voicing it?”). From there it was very easy; Sam loved the idea and was excited to be involved, so from there it was a case of completing the poem and finding somewhere to shoot it.

The only snag at the shoot itself was that our teleprompter was too small for Sam to be able to read when it was in motion, so we had to shoot it line by line. The accidental benefit of this was that I sat next to Sam, just out of shot to his right. I would move the text on to the next line and give him an example of how I wanted the line to be delivered, and then he would say it a couple of times. We even changed a few of them with Sam’s input to make it suit his delivery.