CA1263418A - Board game - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract:
The invention relates to a board game intended to simulate the game of golf. The game comprises a board depicting a golf course, or a part thereof, having at least one area showing a tee, a fairway and a green.
The game includes a transparent or semi-transparent template which can be placed over the said areas of the board. The template has a line indicating an intended direction of play, a starting point and a pattern of small holes surrounding the line. Some form of random selection means is provided capable of randomly indicating one of the holes of the pattern. The game is played by marking points on the board through the randomly indicated holes in the template to represent progress of the "ball" from the tee to the green.

Description

i2~;3~18 This invention relates to a board game which simulates the game of golf.
Many board games are known which are intended to simulate or resemble a true game or sport but few gain wide acceptance with the public either because they lack any true resemblance with the game or sport they are in-tended to represent and are thus not very realistic, or because the mixture of chance and skill is poor, and the game does not hold the players' interest for very long.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a board game which simulates the game of golf and which is both realistic and interesting to play.
The invention provides a board game which simulates the game of golf, comprising: a game board depicting a golf course or a part thereof; a template in the form of a thin sheet of transparent or semi-transparent material which can be placed over a part of said game board and which has a plurality of small holes arranged in a predetermined pattern and means representing an intended direction of play extending through said pattern of holes; and means for randomly indicating a particular one of said holes of said pattern on each turn of play so that a point may be marked on said game board through said particular hole to represent the destination of an imaginary golf ball considered to have been played in said intended direction.

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1263~18 The means representing an intended direction o~ play is preferably a straight line marked on the template and a marker, such as an additional small hole, is preferably provided on the template for alignment with a predeter-mined point on the game board. The marker represents the point from which the "ball" is hit.
It should be noted, however, that the straight line and the marker can be omitted, if desired. For example, certain holes in the pattern can be used both to represent the intended direction of play and to indicate the point from which the ball is hit, so the template may if desired be provided with nothing more than the pattern of small holes.
A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a plan view of a board for use in a board game according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 2 is a plan view of a template suitable for use in the game;
Fig. 3 is a plan view of a part of the board of Fig. 1 on an enlarged scale showing the template of Fig. 2 laid thereover;
Fig. 4 represents an equipment card for use in the game; and Fig. 5 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of part of the template of Fig. 2.
The game comprises a game board 10 as shown in Fig.
1. The board may be made of any suitable material, e.g.
flat cardboard or plastic, and can preferably be folded or rolled in the conventional manner for ease of storage.
The board 10 has a drawing or photograph representing a plan view of an entire golf course or a part thereof.
In the embodiment shown, the board 10 shows for simplicity a golf course consisting of only three holes 11, and each hole has a tee 12, a fairway 13, a green 14, areas of 1263~18 rough 15 and several bunkers 16. Other obstructions, such as ponds, lakes or rivers, may also be represented if desired in order to make the golf course as realistic as possible. In fact, in a particularly preferred form of the invention, board 10 may bear an aerial photograph of an actual golf course, or a drawing made from such a photograph.
The game also comprises a template 20 as shown in Fig. 2 on an enlarged scale relative to the board shown in Fig. 1. This is a thin rectangular sheet of trans-parent or semi-transparent material having a pattern 21 of small circular holes 22 arranged in rows and columns, a straight line 23 passing through the pattern of holes, and a round hole 24 acting as a marker positioned at one end of the line 23. The line 23 intersects the circular holes of the central column as shown and the template has a series of numbers 25 representing the distances of various holes of the central column from the round hole 24. These numbers represent distances in yards on a re-duced scale and the scale is the same as that used for the representation of the golf course on the board 10. It is particularly convenient if each hole 22 in the template is separated from each of its immediate neighbours by a distance corresponding to ten yards.
The size of the template 20 is such that it can partially-or completely cover any one of the holes 11 represented on the board 10. Since the template is transparent or semi-transparent, the drawing or photograph of the hole 11 may be viewed through the template. The round hole 24 represents the point at which the "ball"
is struck and, during play, is positioned over the point where the "ball" is deemed to be at the beginning of each stroke. It should be noted that, if desired, the hole 24 may be replaced by any suitable kind of mark or point provided in the same location on the template, or as stated above, one of the holes of the pattern can be designated as the marker.

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-`` lZ63'~:18 In its most basic form the game is played as follows, with re~erence being made to ~ig. 3 which shows one of the golf course holes 11 of the board 10 with the template 20 located thereover. The small holes 22 in the template are not shown in this Figure to avoid visual confusion.
The game may be played by any number of players, even a single player trying to get around the course with a minimum number of strokes, but there are preferably four players (as in the game of golf) taking turns to play strokes. Placing the template over the first course hole (indicated by ~he number ~ (see Fig. 1)), the first player locates the round hole 24 over the tee box 12 and slides the template from side to side until the line 23 lies in the direction the player would like the "ball" to go for his preferred shot. As in the game of golf itself, the player will not necessarily aim directly for the flag 26 identifying the hole in the green 14 because it is unlikely that the "ball" will reach the green 14 on the first stroke and may land in an obstacle, such as bunker 16, if aimed directly for the flag 26.
Once the player has decided on the best position for the line 23, any suitable form of chance means is operated to randomly identify a particular one of the small holes 22 in the template 20 and this represents the point where the "ball" has landed. This point is marked on the board by placing a marking instrument, e.g. a pen, pencil or felt marker, through the particular hole.
In one form of the invention, the chance means is a pack of cards each bearing an instruction such as 150 yards forward, 20 yards right. If the space between two adjacent holes represents 10 yards, this instruction represents an "address" for a particular hole 22a in the template (see Fig. 2) and a particular point on the board (i.e. as marked by an X in Fig. 3). In keeping with the real game of golf, the terms "hook" and "slice" can be used instead of left and right.

lZ63~18 The other players then take their turns in the same way starting from the tee 12 and the position of each "ball" is marked on the board. Different players may use different coloured markers so that each can easily identify his own "ball".
The first player then repeats the procedure, but this time places the round hole 24 in the template 20 over the point X where his "ball" landed, and was earlier marked, selects the best position for line 23 for his ball to reach the green 14, and again operates the chance means to indicate a new position for his "ball" which is then marked on the board.
As soon as any player positions his ball on the green 14 by the above procedure, one form of the invention requires the operation of second chance means to indicate whether the player will require 1, 2, 3 or more strokes to sink the putt. For example, a conventional die may be thrown, and the number on the die taken to be the number of putting strokes required. Alternatively, a twelve-sided die may be used and the numbers 1 to 3 may indicate one putt, the numbers 4 to 8 two putts and the numbers 9 to 12 three putts. The number of strokes required by each player to take the "ball" from tee 12 to the hole is noted for each golf course hole 11 (which are played in the numbered sequence (see Fig. 1)), and, just as in the real game of golf, the winner is the player with the lowest number of strokes when the strokes for all the holes are totalled.
As will be noted from the above, marks are made on the board as play progresses. However, the board should be free of such marks when each new game is started or confusion will result. Accordingly, the game equipment may contain a large number o~ disposable "boards" (e.g.
golf course designs printed onto thin paper) or, more preferably, the nature of the board and/or the marking instrument should be such that the marks are easy to clean .: ~
- , , , , lZ63'~

from the board. For example, the board may have an upper lamination o~ tough plastic and the ~arking instrument may be a chinagraph pencil or a felt-tip marker using water soluble ink. The board may then be wiped clean after use.
Advantageously, the board and the template, depending on the material used, have surfaces that tend to attract each other so that the template is easy to hold in place on the board. For example, the surfaces may be formed by plastic material which easily becomes electrostatically charged. Indeed, the template 20 may be made entirely from a thin flexible sheet of electrostatically chargeable materiaL which readily, but removably, sticks to a plastic laminate overlying the playing surface of the board.
When the template 20 is made of a very clear and transparent material, it does not obscure the details of the golf course on the playing board and thus contributes to the realism of the game, particularly when the golf course shown on the board is an aerial photograph of a real golf course which tends to make the details of interest to the players.
The board may of course show any number of holes (including just one single hole) but, again for the sake of realism, 18 holes are preferred.
As noted above, the basis of the game is that the players, for each stroke, operate chance means to provide an "address" for a particular hole 22 in the template 20 showing the point where the "ball" has landed. Although the game can be played with chance means that indicate particular holes on a completely random basis, a much more realistic game results if the chance means are designed to place the "ball" in an area of the course that would be reasonable according to the circumstances. For example, a player would not expect to move the ball a mere ten yards when driving from the tee, so the chance means should be designed to make the "ball" move by a realistic distance in these circumstances, while still retaining an element 1263'~

of randomness that approximates the randomness that can be expected in the real game of golf.
To achieve this, the chance means may consist of several collections of hole addresses rather than just one collection r and each collection of addresses may be limited to a particular group of holes 22 in the template 20. Each of the collections is then also associated with a particular set of circumstances found in the real game of golf. The player must select an address from one, and only one, of the collections and the particular collection chosen for this will be dictated by thë rules of the game.
For example, in the real game of golf, a player may select any one of a number of clubs for a particular shot, and he should not expect a particularly good shot from a bunker or other trouble spot (e.g. from the rough) com-pared with a shot from the fairway. Moreover, even the best players play some shots well and other shots poorly.
All of these facts can be simulated by the chance means by providing different collections of addresses, one collec-tion representing a good shot from the fairway using a driver, another collection representing a poor shot from a bunker using a sand wedge etc., etc. The first mentioned collection will contain the addresses of a group of holes in the template quite distant from the round hole 24 and fairly close to the central line 23, whereas the second mentioned collection will contain the addresses of a group of holes quite close to the round hole 24 and diverging quite widely from the central line 23. The selection of a particular address from each of these collections is then quite random so that the player has an idea of where his "ball" will go, but does not know precisely.
The particular collection selected by a player preferably depends partly on choice, partly on luck and partly on the player's previous shot. For example, if the player's previous shot placed the ball in a bunker, the selection would be limited to bunker collections. The .~ .

i 1263~18 player could then choose which club to use, e.q. a sand wedge, and the s~lection ~ould then be limited to two collections, namely a collection for good bunker shots using a sand wedge and a collection for poor bunker shots using a sand wedge. The final selection would then depend on the throw of a die or the answer to a question, e.g.
a number of 9 or more on a twelve-sided die or an incor-rect answer to a predetermined question would require the player to select an address from the "poor bunker shot using a sand wedge" collection, and the address would randomly identify one hole from a particular group of holes associated with this collection.
Since there are as many as fourteen different golf clubs, shots from the fairway, bunker or trouble, and good and poor shots to take into account, there must be quite a large number of collections of addresses. However, it has been found that the number can be managed quite easily by providing as few as 200 "equipment" cards, an example of one such card being shown in Fig. 4 and identified by the reference numeral 30. The card has printing on both faces and the face shown in the drawing provides hole addresses for good shots as indicated by the words "GOOD SHOT" (this assumes the player has successfully answered a question or has obtained a suitable number on the throw of a die).
The reverse face would contain hole addresses for poor shots and would bear a legend such as "BAD SHOT".
The first column on the card (left hand side) indi-cates the golf clubs available. The second, third and fourth columns give hole addresses according to whether the "ball" has landed in the previous shot on the fair-way, in a bunker or in some other trouble spot (the first stroke from the tee is considered a fairway stroke).
Each of the 200 or so equipment cards is identical to the card 30 except that the template hole addresses in the FAIRWAY, BUNKER and TROUBLE columns vary on each card.
The different collections of addresses previously referred ;3'~

to are the addresses shown in the same places on all o~
the equipment cards. For example, the hole address~s shown on all the equipment cards in the DRIVER row of the FAIRWAY column on the GOOD SHOT sides of the cards form the collection of addresses for a good shot from the fairway with a driver. The fact that a different address from this collection appears on each equipment card means that addresses can be selected from the collection at random by randomly selecting equipment cards from a pack of such cards (or, more usually, by always selecting the top card from a previously shuffled pack).
An example of a hole address from the card 30 is 280 S 20. This identifies a hole on the template 28 spaces along the line 23 from the round hole 24 and 2 spaces to the right (the "S" stands for "slice"). An-other example is 190 H l0 which identifies a hole 19 spaces along the line 23 and one space to the left ("H" stands for "hook"). A further example is 90, which indicates a hole 9 spaces along the line 23.
The equipment cards are thus used as follows. The player locates the round hole 24 of the template over the point on the board where his ball is determined to be (i.e. on the tee 12 for his first stroke of each hole, or over the mark made on the board during his last turn).
The template is pivoted around this point until the line 23 lies in the desired direction of play, the player throws a die or chooses a card from a question and answer pack and attempts to answer the question posed. The player then chooses an equipment card such as the one shown in Fig. 4 from the top of a stack of such cards and turns to the "GOOD SHOT" or "BAD SHOT" side in accordance with the number thrown on the die or his answer to the question, and then decides which club to use. Having decided on the club, he then reads off the hole address relating to this club from either the "FAIRWAY", "BUNKER" or "TROUBLE"
column according to the position of his "ball" on the lZ63'~8 board (the tee is of course considered to be on the fairway). Usin~ the hole identi~ied by the address, the player marks a new position for his "ball" through this hole. He then returns the equipment card to the bottom of the equipment card stack and the question and answer card (if used) to the bottom of its stack.
Incidentally, as shown in Fig. 4, there are no instructions in the "BUNKER" and "TROUBLE" columns for certain clubs. This is because, in the real game of golf, such clubs would rarely be used in such circumstances.
The player must accordingly choose another club.
The preferred manner in which the instructions for the equipment cards are generated is described below, taking the no. 4 iron golf club as an example.
Fig. 5 is a representation on an enlarged scale of a part of the template 20. Experience with the real game of golf indicates that a good shot from the fairway with a no. 4 iron would normally carry the ball between 180 to 200 yards with a variation of perhaps ten yards to each side of the desired line of flight. This corresponds to the holes 22 enclosed by the dotted lines 31, 32, 33 and 34 shown in the drawing. Thus, the address of each of these holes should appear at least once in the equipment cards under the heading "FAIRWAY" in the row for "4 IRON"
on the "GOOD SHOT" side of the cards. In fact, since there are only 9 such holes and 200 equipment cards, these holes will each be indicated in this location on the cards 22 times, except for two of the holes which will be indicated 23 times (9 X 22 + 2 = 200).
The hole addresses for the other strokes of the no.
4 iron are generated in a similar way. That is, a good shot from a bunker would not be as accurate as a good shot from the fairway, so the number of possible holes should be larger and are enclosed by the lines 31, 35, 36 and 37 in Fig. 5. Thus there are 20 possible holes, each of which will appear 10 times in the equipment cards on the "GOOD SHOT" side in the "BUNKER" column and the "4 IRON"
row.
The lines 38, 39, 36 and 41 indicate the holes for both a good shot from trouble and a poor shot from the fairway.
The lines 38, 39, 40 and 41 indicate the holes for a poor shot from a bunker.
The lines 38, 39, 42 and 41 indicate the holes for a poor shot from trouble.
In each of the above cases, the holes enclosed by the stated lines are each indicated in the appropriate rows and columns on the appropriate sides of the equipment cards.
The hole addresses for the other clubs are generated in the same way using distances which are reasonable according to the real game of golf as it might be played by a professional golfer.
If desired, the "BUN~ER" or "TROUBLE" columns on a few of the equipment cards may have indications such as "LOST
BALL" or "MISSED STROKE", requiring a player to forfeit one stroke. If so, it would be necessary to obscure the instructions on the equipment card before the player made the choice of club, otherwise the player would choose a club not having the "MISSED STROKE" or "LOST BALL"
instruction.
In order to assist the player in choosing an appro-priate "club", the distance ranges that a professional golfer would normally hit a ball with each club are preferably indicated on the template 20 as shown in Fig. 2. For example, the lines appearing in the left hand margin of the template show that a player could hope to hit the "ball" a distance of 230 yards by using either a no. 3 wood (3W), a no. 4 wood (4W) or a no. 2 iron (2I). The preferred distance ranges are given below:

lZ~

GOLF CLUBRAN OE IN YARDS
Driver 250-300 3 Wood 230-260 4 Wood 210-230

2 Iron 190-220

3 Iron 180-200

4 Iron 170-190

5 Iron 160-180

6 Iron 140-160

7 Iron 120-140

8 Iron 100-120

9 Iron 60- 90 SW o- 20 It was mentioned above that once a player positions his ball on the green 14, other chance means are then operated to determine how many putts are required to sink the ball. However, if the scale of the board is sufficiently large, and the distance between the holes 22 in the template sufficiently small, this may not be necessary, i.e. the player can use the template 20 to locate the ball actually in a hole in the green shown on the board.
Alternatively, if chance means are employed, some means other than a die may be used, e.g. question and answer cards, with a correct answer being equivalent to sinking the ball in a single putt and an incorrect answer being equivalent to sinking the ball in two putts, or the like.
When question and answer cards are used as chance means, an extra dimension of interest to the game can be provided by posing trivia questions relating to the game of golf, or perhaps providing categories of questions such 3S as general knowledge, golf facts, sports questions, etc.
and letting the player or an opponent choose the category.

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Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described in detail above, various modifications and variations will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. All such Inodifications and variations are included within the scope of this invention as defined by the following claims.

Claims (14)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OR
PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A board game which simulates the game of golf, comprising:
a game board depicting a golf course or a part thereof;
a template in the form of a thin sheet of transparent or semi-transparent material which can be placed over a part of said game board and which has a plurality of small holes arranged in a predetermined pattern, means representing an intended direction of play extending through said pattern of holes, and a marker adjacent one end of said direction means spaced apart from said predetermined pattern of holes;
and means for randomly indicating a particular one of said holes of said pattern on each turn of play, so that a point may be marked on said game board through said particular hole to represent the destination of an imaginary golf ball considered to have been played from the point at which the marker is located in said intended direction.

2. A board game according to claim 1 wherein said means representing an intended direction is a straight line marked on said template.

3. A board game according to claim 1 wherein said marker for alignment with a predetermined point on said game board comprises a further small hole in said template.

4. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the pattern of holes comprises rows and columns, and wherein said intended direction of play coincides with a central one of said columns.

5. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2, or claim 3 wherein the pattern of holes comprises rows and columns, wherein said intended direction of play coincides with a central one of said columns, and wherein said marker for alignment with a predetermined point on said game board comprises a further small hole in line with said central one of said columns.

6. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the template has numerals marked thereon in said intended direction of play, to represent distances on the golf course depicted on the game board, measured from the location of the marker.

7. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the board is covered by a layer of transparent material from which said points marked on said board can be easily erased.

8. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein an upper surface of said board and a lower surface of said template comprise material that can hold an electrostatic charge, so that said template may be caused to adhere weakly to said board.

9. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the golf course depicted on said game board comprises an aerial photograph of a real golf course, or a part thereof, on a suitable scale.

10. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein each of said small holes has an address by means of which it may be identified, and wherein said means for randomly indicating a particular one of said holes comprises at least one collection of said addresses, in combination with means enabling said addresses to be selected at random from said at least one collection.

11. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein each of said small holes has an address by means of which it may be identified, and wherein said means for randomly indicating a particular one of said holes comprises a plurality of collections of said addresses, each collection containing the addresses of the holes to be found in a predetermined small area of said template, and means enabling addresses to be selected at random from each of said collections.

12. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein each of said small holes has an address by means of which it may be identified, and wherein said addresses are provided on a plurality of cards which may be withdrawn at random from a pack of such cards.

13. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein each of said small holes has an address by means of which it may be identified, wherein areas of said pattern of holes are designated to correspond to different types of strokes known in the real game of golf, wherein the addresses for the small holes of each of said areas are associated together as a collection, and wherein means are provided enabling addresses to be selected at random from each of said collections.

14. A board game according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein said depicted golf course on said game board includes at least one hole having a tee, a fairway and a green, said game including additional chance means to be operated when a player marks a point on said green, said additional chance means indicating the number of putts required by a player to sink the imaginary ball from the point marked on said green.