This article was first published by The Hamilton Spectator. Read the original article.
It was a triumphant return of sorts for Sougata Pahari as he watched his invention put on a show on the Hamilton Golf and Country Club driving range at last month’s RBC Canadian Open.
There was Pik’r, a diminutive but powerful robot, pushing around the golf ball picker as PGA Tour players warmed up for their rounds.
That job is usually done by someone in a large tractor, but Pahari’s device is beginning to have a huge impact at practice and driving ranges throughout North America.
The Pik’r is manufactured by Korechi Innovations in Oshawa, but Pahari says the robot was invented at McMaster Innovation Park while he was living in Hamilton.
Pahari, who is originally from India, came to Canada from Europe in 2016 with his wife, Nisha, who was starting a job at McMaster University.
“As we took the taxi from the airport to the house we were renting, we came down the 403 and saw McMaster Innovation Park and I thought ‘that looks interesting,’” said Pahari, who noted it was only a couple of months later that his robotic concepts were being incubated there.
“I was new to Canada and I hardly knew anyone in Canada and none of this would have been possible without their help. I have very fond memories of my time in Hamilton.”
Pahari initially envisioned his robots being used in agriculture, but became convinced early on that giants John Deere and Toro dominated the agricultural market so much it would be next to impossible to crack.
Around that time, he and his wife were out for an evening walk and ended up at Chedoke Golf Club on Aberdeen Avenue.
Pahari, who didn’t play golf, started to think about all the grass that had to be cut.
“I wondered out loud if maybe there was a need for robots in golf,” he said.
“One of our mentors at the McMaster Innovation Park, Pete Lewis suggested that since we didn’t know anything about golf, he would introduce us to a friend of his.”
That friend was Jim Clark, who ran the Canadian Open for decades and is one of the best-known and well-connected people in the golf industry.
Clark helped connect Pahari with golf course superintendents who were willing to let their facilities be used to test and show off the Pik’r.
During one of these demonstrations, Pahari was told that if golf courses were going to invest in automated lawn mowing, it would probably happen through one of the more established grass-cutting companies.
But, they asked, could the Pik’r be adapted to push or pull a ball picker on the range?
It didn’t take much research to realize this would be their niche.
Range owners and operators will tell you picking up balls is a pain. It requires a big, diesel-guzzling, air-polluting tractor that has to operate at a slower-than-normal speed in order to not miss any.
That tractor has to be operated by someone. And if that person doesn’t show up for work, it can bring the whole operation to its knees.
Automate almost the entire process? They loved the idea.
“In two weeks, we had modified our robot to replace the tractor, which traditionally had pushed or pulled the actual ball picker, and we had proved the concept worked,” said Pahari.
Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic hit right around that time. For most of the next two years, Pahari was limited to testing, upgrading and refining the Pik’r.
Much of 2022 was spent testing the Pik’r at TeeZone Driving Range in Oakville.
“They have one of world’s largest ball pickers, which has a 14-foot radius and weighs 900 pounds when it’s full,” said Pahari.
“That gave us valuable feedback.”
Armed with that feedback, Korechi took the Pik’r to the North American golf market at the 2023 and 2024 PGA of America merchandise shows in Orlando, Fla.
The Pik’r did its job on the range at last year’s RBC Canadian Open at Toronto’s Oakdale Golf and Country Club and again this year in Ancaster, at the request of HGCC CEO Alan Carter. It also picked the range for the United States Golf Association’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in North Carolina a week after the Hamilton event.
For more information on the invention, visit www.korechi.golf.
Pik’r facts
- Ping Sports Equipment uses a Pik’r on the driving range at its headquarters in Phoenix.
- Since it has become almost tradition to try and hit the cage on the tractor attached to the ball picker, Korechi assumed golfers would also try and hit their robot. So they made it with tubular steel and encourage golfers to go ahead and try. An early model of the device even flashed a blue light and proclaimed “ouch you got me” when it was struck with a ball.
- The battery-operated robot costs less than a dollar a night to recharge for 12 to 16 hours of running time. Korechi calculates that in a year, one Pik’r could save two to three tons of diesel fuel emissions.
- The Pik’r uses GPS programming to avoid obstacles on ranges, such as fences, trees, signs and flag sticks.