Camouflaging a crappy thing

Hmm…This tree had some reading material in there too. Photo: Golfdom Staff

We all saw a lot of interesting things while at the 2014 Golf Industry Show in Orlando last week, but there was one booth that made me do a double take. Just like a cartoon character, my head whipped around multiple time when seeing trees at the end of one isle. Yup, trees. At a distance they looked oddly realistic and if we had been in the woods, that would have made sense. But we were at a trade show…

Turns out they were port-a-pots. I honestly didn’t see that one coming.

I chatted with Kurt Ludwigsen, from Nature Calls about the walk-in trees at his booth. He opened a hidden door and sure enough, tucked in these trees, are port-a-pots. The trees were originally used as blinds for hunters, however they are now also being put to use as port-a-pots that could blend into their surrounding environment. Ludwigsen said that one of their goals was to have cameras pan over a golf tournament and not see any of the port-a-pots. Instead someone would just pop out of the woods, having completed their business unknown to the cameras or crowds.

Photo: Golfdom Staff

Each unit runs around $3,000 and could be fitted as a port-a-pot, storage shed or cover for equipment.

Nothings perfect of course and up close, you can tell that the partial tree is man-made. But the idea is interesting and couldn’t have been shown off by a more entertaining guy. Shouting catch phrases like: “Go in it, not on it!” and “We’re number one when it come to number two!” Ludwigsen was a lot of fun to chat with in the middle of a long day.

For more information about these “crappy” trees, check out http://naturecalls.com/

Photo: Golfdom Staff