WO1988000486A1

WO1988000486A1 - An indoor golf apparatus and golf ball

Info

Publication number: WO1988000486A1
Application number: PCT/AU1987/000213
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wayne Patrick Warrick; Robert Laurence Weston; Peter William Bamford
Original assignee: Wayne Patrick Warrick; Robert Laurence Weston; Peter William Bamford
Priority date: 1986-07-14
Filing date: 1987-07-13
Publication date: 1988-01-28

Abstract

An indoor golf apparatus comprising an enclosure (10) having a plurality of playing areas (16) located on the floor surface (14), each of the playing areas (16) defining a fairway, a golf ball (22) formed comprising a material exhibiting low momentum transfer, and a golf club dimensioned to drive the golf ball (22) about the fairway. The short distance golf ball (22) comprises a polymeric elastic outer coating (24) and a low density, highly compressible, relatively elastic inner core (26), which allows a full range of golf strokes with conventional or other golf clubs.

Description

TITLE An Indoor Golf Apparatus and Golf Ball DESCRIPTION The present invention relates to an indoor golf apparatus and golf ball.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION In general golf is played on a driving range referred to as a fairway. A relatively small golf ball is struck by swinging a golf club to drive the golf ball down the fairway. Typically, the golf ball may travel up to about

300 metres depending on the nature of the golf club used and the skill of a person using the golf club. Accordingly, a golf course comprising 9 or 18 fairways occupies a relatively large amount of land. It has been found that sufficient land to accommodate a full sized golf course may not always be available at a convenient location and/or may be prohibitively expensive. Such has led to the construction of mini golf courses having a conventional number of fairways but each being between 5 to 15 metres long. A conventional golf ball and a golf club suited to putting is employed. The golf ball is then putted about the fairway from a tee off area to a hole sized to receive the golf ball, in conventional manner. The problem of such mini golf courses is that not all of the golf strokes employed in a game of golf on a full sized fairway can be used. In fact such mini golf courses only allow for putting strokes. Further such mini fairways generally have side walls of 50 to 100cm to confine the movement of the golf ball substantially to movement on the ground on the fairway.

Golf practice ranges have been provided, comprising a tee off not a short range, say 5 to 50 metres, and a catch net disposed to stop the flight of the golf ball. Such practice ranges have the disadvantage that the prior practicing sees only a small part of the flight of the golf ball and can not readily determine where the golf ball would have landed. Thus, it is difficult for the person to judge whether he or her is hooking or slicing the golf ball and so it is difficult for the person to develop his/her golf swing and stance.

To attempt to overcome the above disadvantage complicated and expensive electronic devices have been developed to attempt to predict where the ball would have landed. Further, in some countries the general climatic conditions do not readily lend themselves to people playing games of golf outdoors on full sized golf courses.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an indoor golf apparatus and golf ball allowing substantially normal golf swing to be used to drive the golf ball about a golf course housed in a building or the like enclosure.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided an indoor golf apparatus, characterised in that it comprises an enclosure having a floor surface, a plurality of playing areas located on the floor surface, ^ac of the playing areas defining a fairway, a golf ball comprising a material exhibiting relatively low momentum transfer, and a golf club dimensioned to drive the golf ball about the fairway.

In accordance with a further aspect there is provided a golf ball for an indoor golf apparatus, the golf ball characterised in that it is comprised of a material exhibiting a relatively low momentum transfer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figure 1 is an examplary golf course in accordance with the present invention; and

Figure 2 is a cross sectional view of a golf ball in accordance with the present invention, shown to an enlarged scale. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In Figure 1 there is shown an enclosure 10 of an indoor golf apparatus in accordance with the present invention. The enclosure 10 comprises walls 12 enclosing a floor surface 14 and supporting a roof means (not shown) . The walls 12 conveniently comprise accesses such as doors and windows (not shown) to allow access into and out of the enclosure 10.

The floor surface 14 could be formed with turf or the like plant matter or with a synthetic material, such as for example matted vulcanised rubber.

The indoor golf apparatus comprises a plurality of playing areas 16 located on the floor surface 14, such as, for example, as shown in Figure 1. Each of the playing areas 16 defines a fairway. The fairways are conveniently numbered 1 through to 14. The fairways each comprise a tee off area 18, a green area 19 displaced from the tee off area 18, a hole to receive a golf ball and a pin 20 to indicate the location of the hole on the fairway. Also, each of the fairways may comprise obstacles (not shown) , which obstacles are similar to those encountered on a full size outdoor golf course. The obstacles may include undulating, vegetation and the like. Each of the fairways is conveniently specified by a number of strokes prescribed to drive a golf ball from the tee off area 18 to the pin 20 and into the hole. The prescribed number of strokes for a fairway is referred to as the par number of strokes allotted by the designers for the particular fairway. The par for each of the fairways is conveniently shown in Figure 1 in parenthesis beside the fairway member. The examplary golf course has fairways of 3, 4 and 5 par size.

It is intended that each of the fairways has a length of between 4 to 40 metres, more particularly between 4 to 15 metres, such as about 6 metres, for a par 3 fairway, between 15 to 25 metres, such as, about 20 metres, for a par 4 fairway and between 25 to 40 metres, such as about 26 metres, for a par 5 fairway. It is also intended that the width of the fairways vary with the par of the fairway. Conveniently, a par 3 fairway is about 3.5 metres wide and a par 4 and par 5 fairway about 4.5 metres wide.

The indoor golf apparatus also comprises a golf ball 22 as shown in Figure 2. The golf ball 22 comprises an outer coating 24 and an inner core 26, the combination of which has a relatively low momentum transfer so as to travel, when struck by a golf club, only a relatively short distance. Preferably, the momentum transfer is such as to allow the golf ball 22 to travel about one thirtieth of the distance of a conventional golf ball. Thus, the golf ball 22 in accordance with the present invention preferably travels a minimum distance of about 12 metres when struck with a golf club. 0 Conveniently the golf ball 22 has a mass of between 2 to 3 grams and an external diameter of between 42 to 45 mm. That is the golf ball 22 has substantially the same dimension as a conventional golf ball but is considerably lighter. Preferably, the outer coating 24 of the golf ball 22 is 5 formed of a polymeric elastic type material to give some strength to the golf ball 22 and to act as a substantially water resistant barrier.

Preferably, the inner core 26 is formed of a low density, highly compressible, relatively elastic material, such as, D:^' for example a low density polyurethane foam such as having the above described mass to volume characteristics. For example, an F48 grade polyurethane foam could be used. Preferably, the inner core 26 has a radial dimension of between 92% to 98%, such as about 95%, of the radial dimension of the golf ball 22. Accordingly, the outer coating 24 may be between 0.9 to 3.6mm thick. It is envisaged that the outer coating 24 could be dimpled or otherwise patterned to aid in flight of the golf ball 22. The indoor golf apparatus also comprises one or more golf club (not shown) in a set of golf clubs. It is envisaged that each player of the indoor golf apparatus uses a set of the golf clubs. The set of golf clubs may conveniently include a driving wood, a 3 and 4 wood, ^~ 3 to a 9 iron and a pitching wedge.

Conveniently, the above described conventional golf clubs may be used to drive the golf ball 22 the following distances:- GOLF CLUB DISTANCE (metres) Driver 12

3 Wood 10

4 Wood . 9

3 Iron . 8

4 Iron 7 5 6

6 5

7 4

8 3

9 2 Pitching Media 1

The golf clubs each comprise a head which could be made of a plastics material or rubber or the like to reduce the damage which the golf club may cause when hitting the floor surface 14. It is to be noted that since the golf ball 22 is relatively light the construction of the golf club need not be as rigid as that of a conventional golf club. For example, the golf clubs could be formed substantially or entirely of plastics material or fibreglass or the like. In use, a person wishing to play a round of golf on the indoor golf apparatus of the present invention enters the enclosure 10 with the set of golf clubs. The players then places a tee at the tee off area 18 at the first fairway and rests the golf ball 22 thereon. The player then chooses one of the golf clubs from the set commemorate with the distance that he or she wishes to drive the golf ball 22. The player then addresses the ball in conventional manner and drives the ball down the first fairway toward the green 0 area 19. Where the first stroke of the golf club does not drive the golf ball 22 to the green area 19 the player again selects one of the golf clubs in similar manner and again drives the golf ball toward the green area 19. In striking the golf ball 22 with the head of the golf club 5 the golf ball 22 is substantially deformed from a relatively spherical shape to a relatively semispherical or relatively disc shaped form. Accordingly, the transfer of momentum between the head of the golf club and the golf ball 22 is relatively inefficient and the consequent velocity of the D.- golf ball 22 is slower than it would otherwise be.

The greatly deformed golf ball 22, immediately after leaving the head of the golf club, has relatively poor aerodynamic characteristics which tend to further shorten the flight and hence the distance that the golf ball 22 travels. The golf ball 22 returns relatively slowly to its static spherical shape which return is relatively inelastic and tends not to add to the flight of the golf ball 22 to the extent that the elastic deformation of a conventional golf ball adds to its flight. Further, as the golf ball 22 is relatively low in mass its momentum is low and the resistance of the air by a substantial, effect on the duration of the flight of the golf ball 22. The above actions are repeated until the golf ball 22 lands on the green area 19. Then the golf ball 22 may be putted into, the hole in known manner or the golf ball 22 could be replaced: with a conventional golf ball and said conventional goIf^r ball putted into the hole. When the golf ball is putted into the hole it may be removed by hand and play resumed on the next fairway, for example fairway 2. Play may then continue in like manner until all the fairways have been played. ~ By use of the indoor golf apparatus of the present invention a player may play a round of golf using a conventional range of golf clubs and playing relatively conventional golf strokes. By virtue of the construction of the golf ball 22. the fairways are relatively short and can conveniently be located in an enclosure 10 such as a building. The player, in using the indoor golf apparatus of the present invention, may practice his or her game of golf whilst being protected from the elements.

Also, since the apparatus requires relatively little space the cost of the apparatus compared to a conventional golf course is likely to be much less and according so could be the cost of playing.

Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed within the scope of the present invention. For example, other numbers of fairways could be used such as 9 or 18.

Claims

1. An indoor golf apparatus characterised in that it comprises an enclosure having a floor surface, a plurality of playing areas located on the floor surface, each of the playing areas defining a fairway, a golf ball comprising a material or materials exhibiting relatively low momentum transfer, and a golf club dimensioned to drive the golf ball about the fairway.

2. An indoor golf apparatus according to Claim 1, characterised in that the golf ball comprises an outer coating and an inner core encapsulated by the outer coating, the outer coating being formed of a polymeric elastic material and the inner core being formed of a low density highly compressible and relatively elastic material.

3. An indoor golf apparatus according to Claim 2, characterised in that the inner core is formed of low density polyurethane foam.

4. An indoor golf apparatus according to Claim 2 or 3, characterised in that the inner core has a radial dimension which is between 92% and 98% of the radial dimension of the golf ball.

5. An indoor golf apparatus according to Claim 4, characterised in that the radial dimensions of the inner core is about 95% of that of the golf ball.

6. An indoor golf apparatus according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterised in that the golf ball has a mass of between 2 to 3 grams.

7. An indoor golf apparatus according to any one of the Claims 2 to 6, characterised in that the golf ball has a diametre of 42 to 45 millimetres.

8. An indoor golf apparatus according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterised in that the golf club comprises a head mode substantially of plastics material or rubber or fibreglass.

9. An indoor golf apparatus according to any one of the preceding Claims, characterised in that the enclosure comprises a plurality of walls bounding the floor surface, a roof means supported by the walls.

10. A golf ball for an indoor golf apparatus, the golf ball characterised in that it is comprised of a material schiliating a relatively low renumeration transfer.

11. A golf ball according to Claim 10, characterised in that it comprises an outer coating and in inner-core encapsulated by the outer coating, the outer coating being formed of a polymeric elastic material and the inner core being formed of a low density, highly compressible and relatively elastic material.

12. A golf ball according to Claim 11, characterised in that the inner core is formed of low density polyurethane foam.

13. A golf ball according to Claim 11 or 12, characterised in that the inner core has a radial dimension which is between 92% and 98% of the radial dimension of the golf ball.

14. A golf ball according to Claim 13, characterised in that the radial dimensions of the inner core is about 95% of that of the golf ball.

15. A golf ball according to any one of the Claims 10 to 14, characterised in that the golf ball has a mass of between 2 to 3 grams.

16. A golf ball according to any one of the Claims 10 to

15, characterised in that the golf ball has a diametre of between 42 to 45 millimetres.