USGA’s GS3 ball now available for purchase

(Photo: USGA/Jonathan Kolbe)

After the United States Golf Association (USGA) unveiled the GS3 ball at the 2023 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Orlando, Fla., the innovative tool is now available to domestic superintendents to purchase.

The GS3 is a rechargeable smart ball that is the same size and weight as a standard golf ball that calculates green speed, firmness, smoothness and trueness.

Used in conjunction with the Deacon app, the GS3 ball provides immediate data on key surface performance metrics. These insights inform the entire facility’s golf course maintenance staff how each surface is performing, creating accurate, measurable, first-of-their-kind agronomic benchmarks that superintendents can use to facilitate change more effectively on their course.

Since announcing the product last year, the USGA has focused on quality testing, data validation, internal adoption at USGA Championships and adding support staff to manage the growing number of users. The USGA demoed the GS3 in late 2023 at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club.

The USGA also looked at early adopter usage and used it to improve the product, as golf course maintenance staffs at Atlanta Athletic Club, Bel-Air Country Club, Longboat Key Club, Merion Golf Club, Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, among others, used the GS3 ball and Deacon.

Included in the GS3 Starter Kit is the GS3 Ball and Charger, a Deacon subscription, a USGA Stimpmeter, a drop fixture, an enkamat and capture tray, a clipping yield volume bucket and USGA agronomist support.