MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Eight companies brought ideas for improving golf to the eMYRge Golf Tech Accelerator Challenge, but the winner focused on something that can interrupt every round, empty a course and send a superintendent scrambling: the weather.
Flash Weather AI won the pitch showcase that concluded the three-day program that was supported by Play Golf Myrtle Beach, Coastal Carolina University and Golfweek. Entrepreneurs from the United States and Europe presented their ideas to judges, local golf business leaders and potential investors, connecting emerging technology with the people who could help bring it to more facilities.
For Myrtle Beach, the goal of the eMYRge Golf Tech Accelerator Challenge extends beyond hosting a competition. The region wants to attract golf companies and make establishing headquarters in the area appealing. Its courses, tourism businesses and university connections are seen as ways to help new ideas develop into lasting businesses.
Flash Weather AI’s pitch made a distinction that matters when golfers are spread across hundreds of acres. Detecting lightning tells you something has happened, but predicting it could provide time to act before the first strike.
The company has a patented technology it calls First Strike that analyzes weather data so it can forecast lightning strikes. Unlike most weather updates, which happen every few hours, Flash Weather AI’s forecasts update every two minutes with a focus down to one square kilometer. That means golf course operators don’t just know that dangerous weather could be coming; they’ll know much more precisely what areas of a course are in danger.
During the presentation, chief meteorologist Dave Downey showed an example of how the system predicted lightning would hit a venue in Alabama in 22 minutes. On radar, the showers appeared relatively unremarkable, but approximately 23 minutes later, lightning occurred.
For a golf operator, that potential warning time is the appeal. Getting players from a distant fairway into shelter takes more than sounding a horn. Maintenance crews, practice-area users and resort guests need time to move, too.
Flash delivers information through desktop and mobile applications, text messages, push notifications and optional warning hardware. A display called FlashView can put weather conditions and changing threat levels on clubhouse televisions, helping staff and golfers follow the same information.
Its All Clear product is designed to help operators assess when the lightning threat has diminished. Flash argues that more precise information could reduce unnecessary closures. Any change to a facility’s reopening procedures, however, requires confidence in the forecasting and alignment with its safety policies. A forecast is not a guarantee.
The service also reaches into the maintenance building.
Flash’s agronomy tools forecast frost, precipitation, turf disease risk and evapotranspiration, the loss of water through evaporation and plants. Those measurements can help superintendents plan irrigation, choose spraying windows and anticipate conditions that encourage diseases such as dollar spot and Pythium blight.
That could mean fewer wasted applications, better use of staff time and fewer surprises before a busy weekend. The company reported serving nearly 200 golf courses, with agronomy often providing the starting point for those relationships.
The potential extends across a resort property. The same localized weather information could help managers coordinate pool closures, tennis activities, outdoor weddings and other events where guests and employees are exposed.
Beyond resorts, the company cited work with the Big 12 and the Kansas City Chiefs, illustrating applications in sports operations and turf management. Schools, parks and outdoor entertainment venues face similar questions about when to suspend activities and how to communicate the decision.
Golf offers a demanding place to prove that value. People are outdoors, often far from shelter, and reluctant to stop when they finally have a good round going. Better warning gives operators more time to make the decision nobody wants to make, before the weather makes it for them.
David Dusek is a senior writer at Golfweek covering equipment and technology.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Flash Weather AI wins Myrtle Beach golf tech challenge