Identifying golf balls
AssigneeS World Golf Systems Ltd.
InventorsSteven Paul Jollifee, David Victor Jollifee, Geoffrey Emerson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a golf driving range (10, FIG. 1 not shown) golf balls (21) incorporating uniquely-coded passive transponders are collected by means of a device having a receiving channel (22) which directs the balls past a reader (25) employing RFID technology which reads the codes and supplies this information via a link (32) to a central computer for subsequent display. The reader (25) also actuates a gate (28) to direct the balls to a “reject” receptacle (29) or an “accept” receptacle (30). Similar devices are used for dispensing golf balls (50, FIG. 4 not shown) or supplying balls to an automatic tee device (70, FIG. 5 not shown). Alternatively balls can be identified on or near a tee (84, FIGS. 6 and 7 not shown) on a mat (70).
Claims8
A golf driving range employing uniquely-coded golf balls wherein a tee of the range incorporates ball-identifying means connected to a computer system so that the computer system knows which ball a player is driving from said tee, the range further comprising means which automatically supply balls one-by-one to said tee, said supply means comprising means for moving each successive ball from a first position in which it can be identified by said ball-identifying means to a second position in which it can be driven from said tee by a player, and wherein the ball-identifying means is arranged in or underneath said tee so that it can identify a ball placed thereon or adjacent thereto.
A golf driving range employing uniquely-coded golf balls, comprising:
- (a) a computer system;
- (b) a tee;
- (c) a ball-identifying device operable to identify a golf ball and connected to the computer system, whereby the computer system knows which golf ball a player is driving from said tee, wherein the ball-identifying device is located at the tee;
- and
- (d) a ball supplying device operable to supply automatically golf balls one-by-one to the tee, the supplying device comprising a ball displacement device operable to displace each successive ball from a first position in which the ball can be identified by the ball-identifying device to a second position in which the ball can be driven from the tee by a player, wherein the ball-identifying device is arranged in or underneath the tee so that the ball-identifying device can identify a ball placed on the tee or adjacent to the tee.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.