Riding bikes and making birdies: We played golf with an electric 3-wheeler built by a Seattle startup

Fairway Bikes’ electric bike features a detachable battery with a 20-mile range and golf-related accessories. (GeekWire Photos / Taylor Soper)

There are a few ways to get around a golf course. You can walk; you can use a pull cart; or you can drive a 2-passenger motorized cart.

Now a new Seattle startup is throwing another option into the mix and onto the links.

Fairway Bikes recently rolled out its 3-wheeled electric golf bike that’s aimed at helping speed up the pace of play while giving golfers a way to get some exercise on the course.

“We think it’s a great way to fill the gap between walking and carts,” said Fairway Bikes CEO Alex Wunderlich.

As an avid golfer, I was excited to give this a try. Earlier this spring I met up with Wunderlich and Jim Billmaier, a longtime tech entrepreneur who founded Fairway Bikes three years ago, to play a few holes at Bear Creek Country Club near Seattle.

Before we teed off, I hopped on the bike in the parking lot. There’s a slight learning curve with a new product like this. It was a bit unwieldy to maneuver with two wheels at the front, which differs from other electric “trikes.” And if you’re not familiar with e-bikes, figuring out how to use the throttle and adjust the pedal assist settings takes a few minutes.

But by the time we got to the first hole and started pedaling down the fairway, I had a big smile — even though my drive sliced into the trees.

The cup holder with my ice cold beer didn’t hurt, either.

It was fun zipping around the course from shot to shot. The bike has a top speed of 12 MPH. You can also choose to use some, or none, of the electric assist if you want more of a workout.

The bike definitely improves pace of play compared to traditional golf carts, especially at courses that have cart path-only rules.

I did have a little trouble when the bike got stuck on the side of soggy hill. It wasn’t super easy to lift the bike and get it to a flat surface.

I also wished there was a GPS unit or rangefinder on the bike that would calculate distances for my shots.

But all in all, I enjoyed pedaling around. At times it felt like going on a nice bike ride, with a few — or many, depending on my performance — golf shots in between.

The company sees a lot of trends in its favor. Wunderlich, a former investment analyst and product leader, pointed to a growing number of golfers and the continued push to improve the pace of play.

He also noted how the bike does less damage to the turf on the course compared to heavier, motorized golf carts, due to the weight distribution. They also use less energy. The bikes have a detachable battery with a 20-mile range.

The company operates a revenue share model with courses, taking a cut of each rental. There is essentially no upfront cost for the courses.

Chas Holmes, general manager at Bear Creek, said he was intrigued by being able to offer a new mobility option for golfers, with low financial risk.

“It’s cool, aesthetically,” he added. “It kind of creates a buzz around the club.”

Members at Bear Creek pay the same rate for the bike as they would for a traditional cart.

Bear Creek is the only course using the bikes so far, but Fairway said it is aiming to have 100 courses signed up to receive bikes this year, largely based in the Pacific Northwest and in Arizona.

The company said it will offer courses the option to lease the bikes. It also has interest from consumers who want to purchase the bike themselves, but has no plans yet for individual sales.

Fairway Bikes CEO Alex Wunderlich (left) and founder Jim Billmaier.

Fairway has a few competitors. There’s GolfBoard, a skateboard-like electric four-wheeler built by a company in Bend, Ore., as well as an electric motorcycle called Finn Cycle from Missoula, Mont.-based Finn Scooters.

“Those are fun things to do, and I think it’s good for golf,” Billmaier said. “I was looking for something with exercise options and a little more stability.”

Billmaier, who previously worked with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on two different companies, began the product development process for Fairway Bikes in 2021. He funded several iterations of the bike before landing on the current version.

To help keep costs low, the company focused on using commercially available and easy to maintain components. Billmaier called the startup “extremely capital efficient.”

Fairway Bikes has not raised outside investment. Its advisors include Andrew Weber, CEO of water filtration company Grayl; Scott McNealy, founder of Sun Microsystems (Billmaier worked at Sun for four years); and Brad Griffith, founder of ticketing startup GameTime.

The company has eight employees, including COO Frank Paganelli, the former COO at produce delivery service Full Circle and CEO of biotech firm Salish Bioscience, and CTO Alex Millie, a longtime product engineering leader.