Tech and Golf meet at Maybank Championship 2017

This year’s Maybank Championship 2017 will see the likes of US Masters reigning champion Danny Willett, former Masters winner Charl Schwartzel and some of the world’s finest golfers tee off at the Saujana Golf and Country club from 9 to 12 February. While the pros are getting their shots in, Maybank is also serving up a slew of exciting technology innovations in at a showcase around the tournament grounds where they are sharing some tech from 15 different fintech and tech start-ups.

At the showcase, Maybank displayed a Virtual Reality Lab installation where visitors could tee off on a virtual driving range without the hassle of toting a bag of clubs, getting fried under the sun and walking from hole to hole. That’s a winner in our books any way you slice it.

From left: VR Lab CEO Shireen Tan demonstrating the VR golfing simulation to Maybankn Group Chief Strategy Officer Michael Foong

Visitors who run out of power on their phones were able to take advantage of a strategically allocated array of solar powered mobile charging stations developed by Suncrox Solar.

Another interesting item on show was a vertically integrated mobile experience called Jom Fishing that – you guessed it – focuses entirely on recreational and sports fishing with a mobile app, trip planning and e-commerce platform to market fishing equipment so that customers can get the whole experience from top to bottom. Other similar apps included an app-centric laundry pick-up and delivery experience called Laundry on the Go (laundryonthego.com.my) and for those with a sweet tooth, a cake purchase and delivery service platform via a website called www.eatcaketoday.com.

The most unique thing on show was also the most important as Maybank showed off their latest MaybankPay and Samsung Pay cashless payment systems. Maybank deployed terminals accepting MaybankPay and Samsung Pay at a variety of retail and food outlets around the tournament grounds area for the duration of the championship so that users can experience the system for themselves.

Samsung Pay is a cashless payment system that works with a selected but growing range of Samsung phones. Maybank is the first bank to be compatible with the system. With Samsung Pay, users can use their Samsung phones to conduct payment transactions across MST and NFC platforms, allowing them to be used almost anywhere that accepts a credit card. The Maybank Championship 2017 tees off at the Saujana Gold & Country Club from 9 to 12 February. For more details swing by maybankchampionship.com.my.

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