The new tools of the game: $50,000 simulators and $4,500 sensor vests. How technology is driving a wedge between haves and have-nots… by Reed Albergotti, Wall Street Journal

On the fairway of the 17th hole, S. Hubert Humphrey swings his five-iron and hits a straight shot to the green with the help of a 20-mph tailwind. He’s not actually at the fabled Plantation Course at the Kapalua Resort in Hawaii — he’s in his house, practicing for an upcoming match with colleagues on his $50,000 simulator. “It certainly gives me an advantage,” says the 64-year-old entrepreneur.

Golf already has an elitist reputation, but a new generation of expensive high-tech tools is stoking a costly arms race among players looking for an edge. Pricey golf simulators can now be rigged to play matches over the Internet, while an increasing number of weekend duffers are investing in $3,000 “launch monitors” that use infrared beams to measure a ball’s angle, speed and backspin. At the renowned David Leadbetter Golf Academy near Orlando, two-day courses in a new biometrics lab, where sensors attached to various muscles detect swing flaws, will cost $7,500 — compared with the $3,000 tab for three days of old-fashioned instruction. And gearing up for tournaments from this weekend’s Masters in Augusta, Ga., to the U.S. Amateur Championship, players are turning to laptop computers and digital video cameras to help hone their swings.

The result is a widening digital divide that’s drawing new lines in the golf world. Traditional equipment makers are squaring off against upstart high-tech companies that hail from the world of Hollywood special effects. Courses are split on whether to take the high-tech route to woo new golfers or hew to more time-honored ways. And golfers who say the sport is founded on basics like practice and focus worry that turning golf into a kind of rocket science could ruin it. (more…)