A severe geomagnetic storm disrupted golf cart operations relying on GPS technology at courses across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. On Thursday, Club Car sent an email to courses, warning that a powerful solar storm “will impact all GPS devices” on these high-tech carts.
Courses that use ‘Club Car Connect,’ a heads-up display in the golf cart that utilizes GPS and acts as rangefinders for golfers while simultaneously allowing course management to geofence locations on each hole, experienced widespread disruptions during today’s solar storm, which brought many carts at various courses to a standstill.
“Geomagnetic storms will impact all GPS devices, and the Visage Units may be affected by this solar event. You may experience cars falsely triggering action zones during this event, our recommendation is to reduce the restriction of action zones or turn off the zones. We will continue to monitor conditions today,” Club Car Connected Account Manager David Nichols, PGA, wrote in an email to US courses.
In other words, the solar storm interfered with the GPS satellite signals used by the carts, causing inaccurate location data and triggering course restrictions. This sent many golf carts into snail mode, which only infuriated golfers. According to the email, the solution was to turn off the geo-fencing limits.
Into the evening, a severe solar storm is underway.
Colorful auroras could be visible in areas across the nation.
Intense solar storms can wreak havoc on the modern economy.
The chaos on courses today was a first-world problem.
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