In early 1991, Darryl Cornish and Chad Huston were working on a system that used the emerging Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system to track fighter planes for Chad's reserve fighter unit. At that time, the GPS constellation was only available intermittently and accurate GPS receivers cost tens of thousands of dollars. Knowing that the GPS system would mature and become more cost effective with time, Chad and Darryl started looking for other applications for the GPS system.
One of the applications that they envisioned was tracking golf carts and providing golfers with accurate distances, so they filed for patents based on that idea as well as several others. Darryl and Chad worked on the first GPS golf system in their spare time for over four years, their patent finally issued in late 1994 (5,364,093 US Patent). They immediately installed their first system on Barton Creek golf course in Austin, Texas.
After founding UpLink Corporation and developing three generations of golf cart based GPS tracking and distance measurement systems, the founders sold their interest in UpLink in 2001. They had the foresight to retain the exclusive rights to the use of their patent for handheld consumer GPS golf systems.
They first looked at developing a handheld device in 2002, but at that time, GPS technology was not accurate and efficient enough to provide a solution that would meet golfer requirements. When GPS technology was ready in 2004, they started developing the Guru in earnest. Darryl and Chad pulled together a team of the best developers and managers in GPS golf, and after two years of development and an additional year of extensive testing and refinement, they finally allowed the Guru to go to market.
The Guru is the result of sixteen years of experience in the GPS golf industry: more than any other team, whether hand held or cart mounted.
Founders' Story