Golfing is undoubtedly the most frustrating skill sport imaginable - you spend a thousand bucks on clubs, then you pay no less than 10 dollars to lug these expensive sticks around and chase a little white ball for a few hours in the hot sun.
Good times.
It's only made worse when you lose a ball - golf balls themselves aren't cheap, and losing one not only costs you another two bucks per sphere, but you also get to spend 5 minutes or so tramping through briars trying to find the thing and save yourself a stroke, while Johnny Jackass on the tee decides that he's going to play through you, whether you'll allow it or not.
I can't solve all of these problems, but I can solve at least one: lost balls.
The Never-Lost ball has a small radio receiver in it, along the lines of an RFID tag, as well as a watch battery, four equally-distanced LED lights (set within the dimples) and a small speaker.
If you're unlucky or unskilled enough to plunk a ball into the woods, grab your Never-Lost Ball Finder (it's a key fob, really), press a button. The receiver in the ball acknowledges the signal from the Finder, and your lost ball reacts to the signal by both blinking and whistling - so blind and deaf golfers are equally able to find their missing balls.
To prevent a cacaphony that would surely result from always-on status (click the fob, your 200-dollar golf bag erupts into a light and sound spectacular), the ball will have a built-in timer, initiated by club impact. The timer will force the lost ball to turn itself off 15 minutes after being struck by a club, meaning that only one ball at a time within a certain range of the Finder (say, 100 feet) will ever blink on.
See link for similar products.-- shapu, Jul 02 2004 Never-Lost Golf Ball ~bz [bristolz, Feb 17 2005, last modified Jun 28 2005] EasyFind Golf Ball http://www.halfbake...yFind_20Golf_20BallA radioactive golf ball and radiation detector from a 'baker. [shapu, Oct 05 2004] Radar Golf http://www.pga.com/...lf/spike_102003.cfmA golf ball with a radio transmitter - just like tracking a tagged bear! [shapu, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] The Sanderson Golf Ball Finder http://www.sanderso...?subj=Golf+ProductsWithout benefit of RFID [angel, Oct 05 2004] RadarGolf http://www.thefeatu...le?articleid=100672Complete with RFID, pretty much as described. [angel, Oct 05 2004] Baked (linky). Amazing what two minutes on Gooooogle can do.-- angel, Jul 02 2004 I don't think it qualifies as baked - those both have the sound in a handheld device. More warmed than anything.
In my idea, it's the ball itself that makes the noise, not the finder.-- shapu, Jul 02 2004 That is, I grant, a significant difference, but it also makes your version rather less useful. How loud would this thing need to be to be heard over the distance of a half-decent drive, while buried in foot-high rough?-- angel, Jul 02 2004 Forget your golf ball. I think you lost a whole letter there. Bip... bip... bip... PING!!! Ah. There it is.
[admin: idea renamed from 'Nevr-Lost Golf Ball' to 'Never-Lost Golf Ball']-- st3f, Jul 02 2004 //How loud would this thing need to be to be heard over the distance of a half-decent drive, while buried in foot-high rough?//
Hmm...that's a good question. I had thought that perhaps what the HB really needed was a dedicated workforce to actually build these things we come up with. Perhaps we need a research team to discover the noise level necessary to penetrate thick wheat grass as well...-- shapu, Jul 02 2004 I play golf. My elder brother has just given me a geiger counter (earning the respect and awe of approximately 50% of my friends). All I need now is a source, beta for preference as alpha is a bit short from memory.-- gnomethang, Jul 02 2004 Uranium-core golf balls? The radiation isn't THAT bad...-- shapu, Jul 02 2004 Probably not something you'd want to keep in your pocket.-- half, Jul 02 2004 Jane: I have the greatest golf ball. You can't lose it!
Michael: What do you mean?
Jane: If you hit it into the rough, it beeps. If you hit it in the water, it floats. If you hit in the sand, it bounces.
Michael: Wow, where did you get it?
Jane: I found it in the woods.-- phundug, Jul 02 2004 Homing Golf Ball
It would be heat-sensitive (I think they have invented this part already) and your ball would just have to mark where it fell before it rose and homed in on its owner. gfundl-- gfundl, Feb 16 2005 Or tie it to a piece of string?-- Loris, Feb 16 2005 [Loris]: No objections to the string, except that it conflicts my Goldbergian upbringing. Is there any way to use that string with a mousetrap, a magnifying glass, and a downtrodden laborer?-- shapu, Feb 17 2005 random, halfbakery