GB2035100A - Golf board game - Google Patents

Abstract

A golf board game comprises boards carrying markings representing holes, with each hole comprising tee, fairway, bunker and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players, and random choice means, preferably sets of cards. The board means comprise a baseboard (Figure 1) and two overlay boards (Figures 2 and 3) either of which can be placed on top of the baseboard. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Board games simulating the game of golf This invention relates to board games simulating the game of golf.

Known board games simulating golf usually include baseboards bearing pictorial representations of golf courses. In such a known game the baseboard has marked thereon a plurality of numbered holes, commonly nine, and the players move markers through squares marked on the board, usually in dependence upon the throw of dice. The players "play" the holes in the numbered sequence marked on the board with the result that the sequence of holes played is always the same. This lack of variation detracts from the interest of the game over a period of time.

According to one aspect of the invention a board game simulating the game of golf comprises board means carrying markings representing holes, with each hole comprising tee, fairway and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players across the board means during play, and random choice means for governing the movement of the markers across the board means, the board means being capable of presenting holes of different lengths without permanent indication of the order in which the holes should be played, so that the holes can be played in any desired sequence corresponding to a desired sequence of lengths of holes.

According to another aspect of the invention a board game simulating the game of golf comprises board means carrying markings representing holes of different lengths, with each hole comprising tee, fairway and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players across the board means during play, and random choice means for governing the movement of the markers across the board means, the board means being capable of presenting a representation of a single selected one of the holes at any one time, whereby the holes can be individually presented and played in a desired sequence of lengths.

Hence, in the two aspects of the invention described above the holes marked on the board means can be played in any desired order giving a flexibility and degree of interest not found in the prior art. The board means preferably bear par number markings for the different holes so that the players can play a sequence of par numbers corresponding to any favoured or famous golf course.

In the known types of board game simulating golf and employing dice, the number of times a player throws the dice before "holing out" principally determine how many "strokes" he has taken to play the hole.

Because there is no record of how many dice throws a player has taken, each hole is played without there being a record of the number of "strokes" taken by each player. This is unsatisfactory and can even lead to disagreement amongst the players, a situation which the invention remedies, according to a yet further aspect, by providing a board game simulating the game of golf and comprising board means carrying markings representing holes, with each hole comprising tee, fairway and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players across the board means during play, and random choice means for governing the movement of the markers across the board means, wherein the random choice means comprise cards which are drawn by the players and which indicate not only how far each marker must be moved on the board means from its previous position but also how many strokes are necessary for this, move- ment, the collection of cards held by each player at the end of each hole indicating the number of strokes taken by the player in playing the hole.

The board means preferably comprise a baseboard bearing the representation of one of said holes, and at least one overlay board which, when placed on the baseboard, partially covers the hole marked on the baseboard and alters the length of the hole presented by the board means. In a preferred arrangement, two such overlay boards are provided, the baseboard bearing a length marked par 4 and the two overlay boards respectively converting the baseboard to holes marked par 3 and par 5 respectively.

A board game according to the invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a baseboard of the game, Figures 2 and 3 respectively show two overlay boards either of which can be placed on the baseboard of Figure 1 to alter the length of the hole presented, Figure 4 shows the different sorts of cards making up a first set of cards of the game, this first set of cards being termed "tee shot" cards, Figure 5 shows the different sorts of cards making up a second set of cards of the game, this second set of cards being termed "fairway shot" cards, Figure 6 shows the different sorts of cards making up a third set of cards of the game, this third set of cards being termed "bunker shot" cards, Figure 7 shows the different sorts of cards making up a fourth set of cards of the game, this fourth set of cards being termed "putt" cards, Figure 8 is a perspective view of one of four markers of the game, and Figure 9 shows one of a plurality of scorecards of the game.

The board game comprises the set of parts shown in the drawings, the set of parts being housed in a box. The baseboard (Figure 1) and the two overlay boards (Figures 2 and 3) are of stiff cardboard and form board means across which the players move their markers (one of which is shown in Figure 8) in dependence upon the instructions given an the sets of cards which are shown in Figures 4 to 7 and which, since they are regularly shuffled, form random choice means. Each player rec ords his score on a score-card as shown in Figure 9.

The baseboard shown in Figure 1 has an area 1 coloured green and representing the tee. An adjacent area 2, divided into six marked distance bands or regions, represents the fairway. The fairway 2 is also coloured green, but is shaded along the wavy dividing lines between the distance bands or regions.

Beyond the fairway 2 is an area coloured yellow representing a sand bunker or bunkers.

Within the sand bunker area is a further area which represents the putting green, complete with flag. The area of the putting green is coloured with alternating light green and dark green stripes. The area 1 representing the tee bears four teeing off positions respectively marked A, B, C and D, enabling any number of players up to four to participate.

The baseboard shown in Figure 1 bears the distances shown and the legend "PAR 4". To enable the board means to present a par 3 hole of shorter length the overlay board shown in Figure 2 is placed on top of the baseboard with the upper corners of the baseboard and overlay board in registration. The overlay board of Figure 2 then covers all of the baseboard except for the tee area 1 of the latter. The overlay board of Figure 2 has a shorter fairway area 3, a sand bunker area and a putting green area, the latter two areas bearing the marked distances shown in Figure 2. Thus, when the overlay board of Figure 2 is placed on the baseboard of Figure 1 the marked length of the hole presented by the board means is reduced.

By using the overlay board shown in Figure 3, the marked length of the hole presented by the board means is lengthened. The overlay board of Figure 3, when placed in position on the baseboard of Figure 1, covers the sand bunker and putting green area of the latter.

The overlay board has a fairway area 4 divided into two distance-marked regions, a sand bunker area and a putting green. It will be appreciated that the effect of placing the overlay board of Figure 3 on the baseboard of Figure 1 is to increase the marked length of the fairway, increase the marked lengths of the sand bunker and also increase the marked length of the putting green area.

Each card shown in Figure 4 bears on its back the words "Tee Shot" as shown at 4a.

The fronts of the cards are shown at 4b to 4g, there being six types of card in the set. The set consists of one card of the type shown at 4b, two cards of the type shown at 4c, two cards of the type shown at 4d, two cards of the type shown at 4e. one card of the type shown at 4fand one card of the type shown at 4g.

Figure 5 shows, in a similar manner to that of Figure 4, the set of fairway shot cards.

There are three cards of type Sb, six cards of type 5c, six cards of type 5d, two cards of type 5 e and one card of type Sf.

Figure 6 shows, in a manner similar to that of Figures 4 and 5, the set of bunker shot cards. There is one card of the type 6b, four cards of the type 6 c, two cards of the type 6 d and two cards of the type 6e.

Figure 7 shows, in a manner similar to that of Figures 4 to 6, the set of putt cards. There are four cards of the type 7 b, three cards of the type 7 c and two cards of the type 7 d.

Referring to Figure 8, each marker has a frusto-conical base 5 which has a flat underside and which is surmounted by a partspherical, dimpled formation 6 similar in appearance to a golf ball. The four markers bear on their tops the letters A, B, C and D, respectively, the exemplary marker of Figure 8 bearing the letter A. The markers may be made of a plastics material.

Instructions for playing the game are printed on the upper half of the overlay board shown in Figure 2. The instructions are thus always accessible and not likely to become lost as sometimes happens when they are reproduced on a separate sheet of paper. To commence play, the cards are shuffled in their respective sets and placed face downwards so that the card titles shown in Figures 4a, 5a, 6a and 7a are uppermost. Each player selects a corresponding one of the four markers and places it on the corresponding play off position A, B, C or D on the tee area 1 of the baseboard. Assuming that the players wish to commence with a par 4 hole, they play the first hole on the baseboard of Figure 1 and do not initially use the overlay boards of Figures 2 and 3. To commence play, the player with marker A takes the top card from the "Tee Shot" set of cards of Figure 4 and moves his marker along the fairway to the distance indicated on the front side of the card which he has drawn. If the drawn card is of the type shown in Figure 4g and bears the legend "Out of Bounds", the player immediately takes a second card from the top of the same "Tee Shot" set and moves his marker the distance given on this second card. The remaining player or players follow in alphabetical order of their markers, taking their tee shot cards in turn and moving their markers in accordance with the instructions given on the front side of the tee shot cards.When each player has taken a tee shot card, the player furthest from the hole takes the card from the "Fairway Shot" set of cards shown in Figure 5 and moves his marker on by adding the distance given on this card to the previous distance reached. If a player draws one of the two out of bounds cards shown at 5e he immediately takes a second card from the "Fairway Shot" set and moves his marker accordingly. If the player draws the card shown at Sfbearing the legend "Holed Out", that player has completed the hole and returns his marker to the corresponding tee box.

If two or more players have reached the same distance with their markers the first player to reach that distance is the first to take a card, in accordance with the priority which prevails in the real game of golf. This procedure continues until the markers reach the sand bunker area or the putting green area.

When all the players have played through the fairway area, players in the sand bunker area take a card from the "Bunker Shot" set of cards shown in Figure 6, the order of play being first in, first out. If a player draws a card shown at 6 b he has finished the hole and returns his marker to the corresponding tee box. Otherwise, he moves his marker out of the sand bunker area and on to the putting green area taking the number of strokes marked on the bunker shot card. The players on the putting green area play in order of arrival, that is to say the first player to reach the putting green takes a "Putt" card from the set of cards shown in Figure 7. Each card of the putt set of Figure 7 indicates the number of strokes taken by the player to hole out, after which the markers are returned to their respective tee boxes.The par 4 hole has now been played and each player adds up the number of strokes shown on the cards which he has collected during play of the hole, and each player's total score for the hole played is entered in the appropriate column on the scorecard of the form shown in Figure 9.

Under the heading PAR are entered the par numbers of the individual holes, and the par aggregate is entered in box 7. If desired the column headed PAR may be pre-printed with par numbers and the appropriate aggregate, e.g. 72, pre-printed in the box 7.

The cards are returned to their respective sets and reshuffled before the next hole is played and before each subsequent hole is played. On each hole after the first, the player who has won the previous hole has the honour of'teeing off first, as in real golf, and if two or more players have the same score the order of play corresponds to that at the previous hole. When the players wish to play a par 5 hole, the overlay board shown in Figure 3 is placed in position on the baseboard, play proceeding as described above for the par 4 hole.When the players wish to play a par 3 hole the overlay board shown in Figure 2 is placed in position on the baseboard and play follows the procedure described above, except that the cards shown at 5b are removed from the set and the players do not use the tee shot cards of Figure 4 at all, commencing play from the tee by drawing the fairway shot cards from the reduced set of Figure 5.

It will thus be seen that the described board game simulates the real game of golf quite closely. Players may play a round of nine or eighteen holes, and scoring can be on a stroke play basis (as described) or alternatively on a match play or stableford basis. The players may play singles, foursomes or four ball, and may employ a "sudden death" play off if the match is level after the agreed number of holes. Only one hole is presented for play at any one time, so that the players concentrate on this hole without being distracted by other holes.

The baseboard and overlay boards may bear distances in metric or imperial dimensions and an additional overlay board bearing a par 6 legend may be incorporated. Instead of using overlay boards, there may be a plurality of baseboards each including tee, fairway and green (and preferably bunker also), and these baseboards may be interconnected by folds or hinges enabling a selected one of the baseboards to be presented at any one time.

A baseboard game according to the invention is simple to play and interesting, whether played by the family or by serious golfers.

Claims (12)

1. A board game simulating the game of golf and comprising board means carrying different markings representing holes, with each hole comprising teeway, fairway and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players across the board means during play, and random choice means for governing the movement of the markers across the board means, the board means being capable of presenting holes of different lengths, without permanent indication of the order in which the holes should be played, so that the holes can be played in any desired sequence corresponding to a desired sequence of lengths of holes.

2 A board game simulating the game of golf and comprising board means carrying markings representing holes of different lengths, with each hole comprising tee, fairway and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players across the board means during play, and random choice means for governing the movement of the markers across the board means, the board beans being capable of presenting a representation of a single selected one of the holes at any one time, whereby the holes can be individually presented and played in a desired sequence of the lengths.

3. A board game according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the board means comprise a baseboard bearing the representation of one of said holes, and at least one overlay board which, when placed on the baseboard, partially covers the hole marked on the baseboard and alters the length of the hole presented by the board means.

4. A board game according to Claim 3, wherein said overlay board is one of two such boards, the marked length of the hole on the baseboard lying intermediate the lengths of the holes presented when the two overlay boards are placed in position on the baseboard.

5. A board game according to Claim 4, wherein the tee marked on the baseboard is not covered by either overlay board when the latter is placed on the baseboard, each overlay board covering at least the green marked on the baseboard.

6. A board game according to any one of Claims 3 to 5, wherein the presentation of each hole includes an area which simulates a sand bunker and which is positioned between the fairway and the green.

7. A board game according to any of Claims 3 to 6, wherein the board means are such that each hole presented has a plurality of marked regions at successively greater distances from the tee, each such region bearing a marked distance.

8. A board game according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said random choice means comprise three sets of cards respectively governing movement of the markers off the tee, on the fairway and on the green, of each hole, subject to the set of cards governing movement off the tee not necessarily being used for holes of shorter marked distances.

9. A board game according to Claims 6 and 8, wherein a further fourth set of cards is provided to govern movement of the markers out of the bunker of each hole.

10. A board game simulating the game of golf and comprising board means carrying markings representing holes, with each hole comprising tee, fairway and green, a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players across the board means during play, and random choice means for governing the movement of the markers across the board means, wherein the random choice means comprise cards which are drawn by the players and which indicate not only how far each marker must be moved on the board means from its previous position but also how many strokes are necessary for this movement, the collection of cards held by each player at the end of each hole indicating the number of strokes taken by the player in playing the hole.

11. A board game simulating the game of golf and comprising: a baseboard bearing a representation of a single hole, comprising a tee area, a fairway area, a bunker area and a green area, the baseboard being marked with a plurality of distances representing distances from the tee area; a first overlay board which, when placed on the baseboard, covers the fairway area, the bunker area and the green area but not the tee area of the baseboard, the first overlay board being marked with a plurality of distances representing distances from the tee area of the baseboard, the green area of the first overlay board bearing a marked distance less than the marked distance of the green area on the baseboard; a second overlay board which, when placed on the baseboard, covers the bunker area and the green area, but not the fairway area or the tee area of the baseboard, the second overlay board being marked with a plurality of distances representing distances from the tee area of the baseboard, the green area of the second overlay board bearing a marked distance greater than the marked distance of the green area of the baseboard, the baseboard bearing the legend "Par 4" and the first and second overlay boards respectively bearing the legends "Par 3" and "Par 5" to enable a single hole bearing the legend "Par 3", "Par 4" or "Par 5" to be presented and played and to enable holes of these three par numbers to be played in any chosen sequence; a plurality of markers for marking the progress of the players from the tee area to the green area of the hole being played; four sets of cards respectively giving instructions for movement of the markers off the tee area, on the fairway area, out of the bunker area and on the green area of the hole being played, subject to the set of cards governing movement off the tee not necessarily being used when a Par 3 hole is being played, each card indicating the number of strokes taken by a player in making the corresponding move such that the aggregate of the strokes indicated on the collection of cards held by each player after each hole has been played indicates the total number of strokes taken by that player in playing the hole; and a plurality of score-cards for marking the number of strokes taken by each player in playing each hole of the chosen sequence of holes

1 2. A board game substantially as herein particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings.