Having just returned from our annual golfing holiday to Portugal (Great Courses played in a mediocre stylee) I remarked on the fact that we spend a lot of time in the pub afterwards, and indeed at home, arguing about courses, shots, what happened etc.
I suggested buying a course shotsaver book and adding our positions as we went round
THEN I remembered that many buggies have GPS course management software that will:
A) Tell you how far you are away from the hole.
B) Impart tips of note for the hole (like get your camera out because this is the most photographed golf hole in Europe) and
C) Actually stop your buggy from driving in places where they don’t want you to drive (e.g. somebodies lovely villa).
What none of these GPS software packages do is allow you to display your progress round the course.
I suggest an internet based service that allows the player to mark the position of his ball via GPS on every shot (Buggy mounted or trolley/hand held PDAs are sufficiently cooperative to allow a signal to be sent to a central server while standing over the ball).
This information can easily be rendered against a backdrop of the course (In the same way that current systems can profile buggy movements throughout the day)
Combined with the industry that I am involved with (putting realtime building management information on the web) you could fix the position of every ball played throughout a round and post it on the net in real time.
I am very sure that with a bit more graphics based application one could ‘walk through’ the round.
Obviously an individual player could cheat but we all know that golfers don’t!
I would imagine that most good (i.e. expensive) courses already have course maps held electronically and would gladly pay to be associated with an online tournament view.
I would also think that serious (Ha!) golfers would like a record of their “best” rounds for posterity
But I think that the best thing would be allowing friends at home to laugh in real time at your follies.
-- gnomethang, Nov 18 2003

GPS Golf Stuff http://innovagolf.com/personalgps.html
Handheld passive giving yardage [gnomethang, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

More of similar http://www.proshotgolf.com/index-1b.htm
Buggy mounted [gnomethang, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Tour Cast http://www.real.com...2&url=landing2.html
[gnomethang]

Urban Golf http://www.halfbake...m/idea/Urban_20golf
I think golf would be a lot more fun this way. Although you might have to hit some things that would hit back. [gnomethang, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Urban Golf http://www.halfbake...m/idea/Urban_20golf
I think golf would be a lot more fun this way. Although you might have to hit some things that would hit back. [Eugene, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I think Golf was a sport reserved for superior beings or something... because most mortals I know happen to

a) be too poor to play it

b) don't give a rat's ass about it

c) actually hate it
-- Pericles, Nov 18 2003


Yeah, well, you do live in Mexico. Parts of the United States are actually architected around golf.
-- DrCurry, Nov 18 2003


I might agree with the first [Pericles] but it is cheaper to play golf than go to WATCH a premiership football match in the UK - we did the sums. I know lots of people who hate golf but there are still people who are mad for it (myself included).
This is just an idea for those that do.
-- gnomethang, Nov 18 2003


I think golf wins the prize for most open space wasted for something so terribly boring.
-- notme, Nov 21 2003


UB, you deserve a cash prize for that retort.
-- waugsqueke, Nov 21 2003


Roll up! Roll up! Pass the hat folks, we have a winner! Roll up! Roll up!
-- thumbwax, Nov 22 2003


I thought this had some thing to do with homemade knives from around the world.
-- Eugene, Nov 23 2003


Great minds think alike. In terms of violence, evidently.
-- Eugene, Nov 24 2003


***UPDATE*** Having checked out pgatour.com to look at TPC in Sawgrass I suspect that this is very nearly baked (definitely golden brown anyway). See tourcast link and 1st preview (Real Player)
-- gnomethang, Mar 28 2004


I'm glad you didn't title it "Hook around the world".
-- eyeguy, Mar 29 2004


Indeed!
-- gnomethang, Mar 29 2004


Golf has actually become more interesting to me of late. After all, what's not to like? You've got your funny hat (Ooh--I'm in!) your neat little cars (Me too!) and you get to hit something that can't hit back (I wanna!). What's not to like? Still, I think golf would be even more fun if played in an urban area.
-- Eugene, Mar 29 2004



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