WO1995022383A1

WO1995022383A1 - Golf scoring apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1995022383A1
Application number: PCT/GB1994/002154
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jason Charles Sayers
Original assignee: Jason Charles Sayers
Priority date: 1994-02-18
Filing date: 1994-10-04
Publication date: 1995-08-24
Also published as: AU7788294A

Abstract

Golf scoring apparatus (10) of the portable computer type has a set of data keys (13A) for entering primary stroke data and a set of control keys (13B) for controlling the operation of the apparatus. The control keys include a pair of keys, Up and Down (UP, DN), which are used for state control and selection and are also used for entering subordinate stroke data (mis-clubbing and left and right misses). The apparatus includes current hole and round storage means (21A, 21B) for storing information relating to the round currently being played and cumulative round storage means (21C) for storing information relating to past rounds; the current hole and round storage means includes a plurality of areas (45A to 45D) for the scores of different players and the cumulative round storage means includes an area for the scores of a single player (the owner).

Description

G-ol-f Scoring Apparatus

The present invention relates to apparatus intended for the automatic scoring of golf.

Golf generally

A game of golf consists, in its basic form, of two or more players playing a "round" of 18 "holes". At each hole, each player has a ball and strikes it a number of times, to get it from the starting point or tee to a hole. The length of the hole, ie the distance from the tee to the hole, is typically a few hundred metres, and the number of strokes which should be required (the "par" value) is typically 3, 4, or 5.

Obviously this basic scheme is subject to a number of possible variations. For example, a half-length course of 9 holes may be used for short games, two opposing players may use a single card, there may be 2 teams of 2 players each, and so on.

The scoring is normally done manually by each player, using a score-card which lists the 18 holes and gives a few brief details about each hole. Printed score-cards are usually available for each course. At the end of each hole, ie when the players have got their balls into the hole, each enters the numbers of strokes taken for that hole.

The details given for each hole may include the hole number (from 1 to 18), the length of the hole (which is usually given in yards), the par (3 for a hole length below 240 yards, 4 for a hole length of 240 to 479 yards, and 5 for a hole length of 480 yards or above; 1 yard = 0.9144 m), and the "stroke index". The stroke index is an ordering of the holes in terms of their relative degrees of difficulty, from 1 to 18, 1 being the hardest and 18 the easiest; this is used for handicap calculations, as discussed below.

For a simple or friendly game, manual scoring is adequate and relatively easy; the cards are marked up by pen or pencil, and the various totals can be calculated mentally. However, above the simplest level of playing, there are - a -

various elaborations which require more complicated processing of the scores, eg for the determination of players' handicaps and to enable players to monitor their medium and long term playing trends. Various forms of electronic score- keeping have therefore been proposed.

Automatic golf scoring apparatuses

Known forms of automatic golf scoring apparatus fall broadly into two classes. On the one hand, there are small devices which are essentially simple electronic counters for accumulating scores as a round is being played; these devices have very limited capabilities. On the other hand, there are devices which are in effect small portable (hand-held) computers, and may indeed be gen¬ eral-purpose portable computers which are suitably programmed. These latter devices have virtually unlimited capabilities. For example, they may readily be loaded with a number of golf courses, so that when a particular golf course is being played, the details (lengths, par values, etc) of the holes of that course are automatically available. Course selection is typically by selection from a list of the names of the -stored courses.

If cost is disregarded, the portable computer type devices are prima facie the devices of choice for golf scoring apparatus. However, the cost of such devices tends to be considerable, and the cost of suitable programs may also be quite substantial. Beyond this, however, we have realized that the very flexibi¬ lity and capability of such devices results in a significant disadvantage, since to use . them effectively, a considerable degree of skill is required. Many golfers are likely to find that undue effort is required to learn to use such devices effectively.

The general object of the present invention is to provide golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type but which is reasonably "user-friendly". The term "portable computer type" implies a considerable degree of processing power. However, this processing power is preferably specially designed for golf scoring purposes (so that the device will not be a general-purpose type compu¬ ter). Primary and secondary stroke information

According to one aspect, the present invention provides golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type, having a set of data keys for entering primary stroke data, and a set of control keys for controlling the operation of the apparatus, characterized in that the control keys include a pair of keys, Up and Down, which are used for state control and selection and are also used for entering subordinate stroke data. The data keys are primarily numeric, for entering stroke numbers. However, they preferably also serve for the entry of alphabetic information in certain states.

The control keys include Enter, Up, and Down keys. The apparatus prefer¬ ably operates with menus arranged in a tree structure, with a main menu from which various subordinate menus can be selected, and with various specific operating states which can be selected from the subordinate menus. Movement within a given menu - is the selection of an item from a menu - is achieved by using the Up and Down keys to move a marker up and down the set of selections in the menu. Once the desired item (a sub-menu or an operating state) has been selected, the sub-menu or operating state is entered by means of the Enter key. Preferably the selection can also be achieved by entering the number of the item to be selected (the various items being suitably numbered, of course).

A fundamental operating state is the Playing a Round state, in which the scores of the various players at the different holes are entered as the round is played. In this state, the Data keys are used for entering the required numeric information, which may be simply the number of strokes. (In an elaboration, the stroke information may be the number of strokes, drives, and/or putts; such a system may be designed to accept any particular two of these values, or any two, computing the third therefrom, or all three (using the third as a check).) It is also possible to enter certain subordinate stroke information; over- and under- clubbing, and/or strokes going off line to the left or right ((either for drives and putts separately or simply for any strokes, depending on the details of the system).

One known way of entering ' this information is by means of a graphical dis¬ play and screen input system. However, this technique has disadvantages. Considerable demands are made on the robustness of the apparatus itself, which has to withstand use by golfers who may not treat it with care (eg dropping it in sandy bunkers, 'using a variety of possibly rough and scratchy pointers to enter date with, etc). Also, some golfers may not be comfortable with entering graphical data with acceptable accuracy. It also places considerable demands on the golfer in entering the course data initially (having to draw maps of every hole of the course being played - it may not always be feasible to have the course data previously prepared and downloaded). It also imposes a considerable computing demand on the apparatus, with the consequent increased cost in both the apparatus and its program.

With a general-purpose portable computer having a keyboard, it would be possible to program the apparatus to use. a variety of keys for entering the various different types of data. However, even if the keys could be chosen according to suitable mnemonics, the users would probably find it inconvenient to use, as it would be likely to take them a considerable time to learn which keys to use for the various functions. Also, the keyboards of small portable computers tend to be cramped and awkward. And, of course, the cost of a general-purpose portable computer tends to be relatively high.

The present system is concerned primarily with special-purpose apparatus. With such apparatus, it is particularly important for the key layout to be simple to use and (for reasons both of ease of use and of cost) for the number of keys not to be greater than necessary. The keys can generally be broadly divided into^' Data and Control keys, with the Data keys being used to enter numerical information relating to the playing of a round and the Control keys performing a variety of control functions. In particular, the Control keys can conveniently include a pair of keys, the Up and Down keys, which are used primarily for scrolling up and down the display (eg for selecting items from menus).

In the present system, the Up and Down keys are used, in addition to their normal use for control functions, as auxiliary data keys for entering certain subordinate stroke information. This subsidiary or auxiliary stroke information may conveniently include ove. — and undei — clubbing (for drives and putts or for any strokes), and/or strokes going off line to the left or right (again for drives and putts or for any strokes), depending on which of these types of information the system is designed to accept.

It will be noted that information on the number of strokes taken for a hole (and/or the breakdown of this number into drives and/or putts) is normally worked out and maintained mentally by the players as the hole is being played, and entered when the play of the hole is complete. This information is there¬ fore conveniently entered by means of a numeric set of data keys. Subsordinate stroke information, however, is more conveniently treated as single rather than cumulative items, and can conveniently be entered by "increment" (add) functions as the strokes are played. The use of control keys is therefore convenient for this purpose.

Preferably, the system is designed to accept information on over- and under-clubbing on drives, and drives going off line (off the fairway) to the left or right.

For over- and under-clubbing, the correspondence of the Up key to over- clubbing and the Down key to under — clubbing is sufficiently natural and obvious that it needs only to be pointed out once to the user for it to be readily remem¬ bered without effort; indeed, it will be self-evident to most users once they have been told to use those keys for over — and under-clubbing. Those keys can con¬ veniently be marked with Up and Down arrows, which will serve equally as icons for the Up and Down control functions and for over- and under-clubbing. For left and right fairway misses, the use of those keys is equally evident provided that they are placed side by side, ie one on the left and one on the right.

To enable these keys to be used to record both under- and over — clubbing and left and right fairway misses, a control function is required to permit the selection of the desired function. This can be achieved in various ways; pref¬ erably it is achieved by providing a further control key, for mis-clubbing, with the Up and Down keys normally operating as left and right miss keys during the playing of a round and their function being altered to record ovei — and undei — clubbing by pressing the mis-clubbing key. An arrow or lead line can conveni¬ ently be formed on the keyboard connecting the mis-clubbing key to the Up and Down keys.

Memory organization

According to another aspect, the present invention provides golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type, having a set of data keys for entering stroke data, and a set of control keys for controlling the operation of the appa¬ ratus, including current hole and round storage means for storing information relating to the round currently being played and cumulative round storage means for storing information relating to past rounds, characterized in that the current hole and round storage means includes a plurality of areas for the scores of different players and the cumulative round storage means includes an area for the scores of a single player (the owner).

A golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type is known which comprises a small portable (hand-held) general-purpose computer which is suitably programmed. (This can in fact be programmed to display a map of each hole.) When a round is being played, the details of the play of each player are entered for each hole and stored in current hole and round storage means. (These details include a graphical indication of the player's strokes on the map of the hole.) When the round has been finished, all the round information is passed to cumulative round storage means.

This means that in this known apparatus, cumulative or statistical informa- tion is obtained by entering the identification of the player whose statistical information is desired. The apparatus can then retrieve the records for that player from the cumulative round storage means and process them to display the details required.

The present system is based on the realization that the apparatus will noi — mally be the personal property of a single individual, and that individual - the owner - will normally be interested only in his or her own performance as far as statistical information concerning previous rounds is concerned. In the present apparatus, therefore, at the end of a round only the owner's performance details are transferred to the cumulative round storage means. The retrieval and dis¬ play of statistical information is therefore simplified, since all that is required is the selection of the statistical display functions. (In the preferred arrange¬ ment, this involves the selection of statistical display and then of the particular statistic required.) No selection of player is required, since the statistics displayed are necessarily those of the owner.

It is therefore easy for the owner to switch to statistical display at various times. In contrast, in the known system this would require the repeated selec¬ tion of the player whose statistics were required. It will be realized that the present system is also simpler than the known system. The cumulative round storage means of the present system requires less memory than the known system. Also, the known system requires a mechanism for selecting, from the cumulative round storage means, the records relating to whichever player whose statistical information is desired. In the present appa¬ ratus, no such selection mechanism is required.

Preferably, however, the present system includes means for storing, with the information relating to past rounds, the name of the course for each round, and means for selecting, for statistical information display, either all past rounds or the past rounds for a specified course. The statistical display may be operable to display statistical information relating to either any selected course or to all courses.

Preferably, in the present apparatus a predetermined one of the areas of the current hole and round storage means is coupled to the cumulative round storage means. The areas of the current hole and round storage means may also be organized so that entry of stroke information into them is performed in a fixed sequence, with the first of the areas being the predetermined one coupled to the cumulative round storage means. This means that at the end of each hole, the owner must always enter his or her stroke information first, followed by the stroke information for the other players.

Combined features

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type, having a set of data keys for entering stroke data, and a set of control keys for controlling the operation of the appa¬ ratus, and including current hole and round storage means including a plurality of areas for the different players, characterized in that the control keys include keys which are used for entering subordinate stroke information; and a predeter¬ mined one of the areas of the current hole and round storage means includes means for storing subordinate stroke information.

As discussed above with respect to the second aspect, the apparatus will normally be the personal property of a single individual, the owner, who will normally have a greater interest in the details of his or her own performance than of the performance of the other players. In particular, the owner will normally be interested in his or her own subordinate stroke information (as dis¬ cussed with reference to the first aspect above), but will normally be interested in only the primary stroke information of the other players. In the present apparatus, therefore, only the area of the current hole and round information memory concerned with the owner's stroke information can store subordinate stroke information. This means that the subordinate stroke information can be entered at any time without the need to select the player, and means that the memory space required is less and the organization of the system is simplified.

If desired, the system can be arranged so that the information in the area of the current hole and round information memory concerned with another play¬ er's stroke information can also be transferred to the cumulative round storage area (either directly or via a preliminary transfer into the area of the current round information memory concerned with the owner's stroke information), with the name of the course being changed therefor. This will enable a second per¬ son's primary stroke information (though not their subordinate stroke informa¬ tion) to be stored as well, by using two names for the same course, one name being used for the owner's round on that course and the other for the second player's round on that same course.

By this indirect technique, the present system can thus be used to store information relating to a second player as well if desired. However, this tech¬ nique is of course likely to be of limited use, since only primary stroke infoi — mation can be stored for the second person. Further, cumulative statistical information for all courses cannot be meaningfully generated, since the data for different courses is in fact data for different players.

Suitable features from any two or all three aspects can obviously be com¬ bined.

Specific embodiment

A golf scoring apparatus embodying the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a general perspective view of the apparatus;

Fig. 2 is a general block diagram of the circuitry of the apparatus; Fig. 3 shows the layout of the keys;

Fig. 4 shows part of the logic unit in more detail; and

Figs. 5A and 5B show parts of the logic and memory organization in more detail.

The present apparatus is conveniently in the form of a "wand", a generally flat device having its buttons arranged on the lower part of one face and a dis¬ play screen on the upper part of the same face, and of a size such that it can be held comfortably in one hand, lying across the palm with one end projecting beyond the angle between thumb and first finger and the other end projecting beyond the edge of the palm running from the little finger to the wrist. This allows the device to be held in one hand while entries are made in it by the other hand, and allows the display screen to be of a reasonable size for viewing.

The device can be placed in a pocket (eg a jacket pocket, or a pocket on the golf club bag) for carrying round the course. It may be attachable to either a golf bag or some article of clothing worn by the user by means of a strap or a Velcro¹" patch.

Fig. 1 shows the wand 10, which is in the form of a flattish block which may typically be some 100 to 200 mm long, 50 to 100 mm wide, and 10 to 30 mm thick. . (These dimensions are convenient for holding the wand, but can of course be varied if desired.) The wand has a display screen 1 1 (which can con¬ veniently be a multi-line LCD screen) on the upper end of its front face, an on- off switch 12 on its side, a set of keys on the lower part of its face, and a data connector 14 at one side. The keys can conveniently be divided broadly into data or numeric keys 13 A and control keys 13B.

Fig. 2 is a general block diagram of the circuitry of the wand. A logic unit 20 is coupled to the display screen 1 1, the numeric and control keys 13A and 13B, and interface circuitry 14A which includes the data connector 14; this is shown as a jack-type connector, but a PC card connector may be used instead (or as well). If desired, an internal printer 24 may also be provided, coupled to the logic unit 20. A clock and time circuit 26 may also optionally be provided, coupled to the logic unit 20, so that the date and time are available. The logic unit also has coupled to it a scores memory 21, a course memory 22, and a player memory 23. The scores memory 2 1 consists of a set of memory units arranged in a hierarchy. A current hole memory 21 A is at the top of the hierarchy, and contains details of the current hole; a current round memory IB comes next, and contains details of the current round; and finally there is a cumulative memory 21 C, which contains details of all rounds played, up to a maximum of 50. Once the cumulative memory 1 C is full, "old" rounds are lost as "new" rounds are played, but they can of course be copied into a conventional computer at suitable intervals via the connector 14. Memory 22 contains details of the player, and memory 23 contains details of the course on which the current round is being played. Memory 23 is preferably made large enough to contain details of a plu- rality of courses.

The circuitry is powered by a battery 25 which is controlled by the switch 12. The clock and time circuit 26 must of course be permanently energized.

As will be seen, certain memories such as the cumulative memory 21C and the player memory 22 must maintain their contents permanently, and must therefore either be permanently energized or non-volatile. Certain other memories such as the current hole memory need not maintain their contents permanently, and other parts of the system such as the logic circuitry can be switched off unless the device is in active use, to conserve power. The on-off switch 12 therefore controls the power supply to the appropriate parts of the system.

It may be desirable to provide a "freeze" or "quiescent" switch, which can be switched to render the device unresponsive to any keys but maintain the power on. This will prevent the device from responding to accidental key presses which may occur while it is being carried, put into or taken out of a pocket, knocked accidentally, etc. Alternatively, the on-off switch 12 may be coupled to a timer which maintains the power on but renders the device unres¬ ponsive to any keys for a suitable period of time.

The on-off switch may be dispensed with, by using the keys to control the switching on and off of the device. For this, a suitable key (eg the Enter key) may be used to switch the device on, or the pressing of any key may switch it . on. The device may also be switched off by a suitable key (preferably in combination with a suitable menu selection, as discussed below) or by a suitable time delay without the operation of any key, or both. Of course, if the on-off switch is dispensed with in this way, the device is not switched off completely in the off state; however, in that state it is preferably switched into a low power consumption mode. Suitable circuit technology is readily available in which such a state consumes very little power, so that the battery life is not significantly affected.

Fig. 3 shows the face of the wand, including the details of the keys, divided into the data keys 13A and the control keys 13B. The control keys are summar¬ ized in Table I, Control Keys.

TABLE I - CONTROL KEYS

ST a Start key, which serves as a general-purpose Enter and

Return (confirmation) key;

C a Cancel key, which serves to cancel previous transactions;

UP & DN an Up key and a Down key, which serve to scroll up and down a variety of displays;

RD a Round Details key, which causes the operating mode to change from the Playing a Round mode to a Round Summary mode while a round is being played;

CL a Clubbing (Up/Down Modify) key, which modifies the func¬ tion of the Up and Down keys as discussed below.

Turning now to the data -keys, there are 1 1 such keys, which serve for numeric data entry. These keys are for the numbers 0 to 10; thus a single key stroke on one of the keys " 1 " to "9" enters that digit, while a key stroke on the " 10+" key enters the value 10, which can be incremented to a value between 1 1 and 19 by an additional stroke on one of the keys " 1 " to "9". Values in excess of 19 can be entered by repeated use of the " 10+" key. The "0" key is useful for confirmi ng the di git 0 following the use of the " 1 0+" key. The "0" key also functions as a "No Return" control key, as discussed below.

These keys can also be used in another mode as alphabetic entry keys. Each of the keys " 1 " to "9" has (not shown) a triplet of letters ("ABC", etc, with one key having only a doublet); pressing that key repeatedly causing cycling through the triplet, and the " 10+" key acting as a "space" key in this mode. The letter-triplets may act as sextuplets, cycling through capital and small letters (upper and lower case) alternately. As noted above, the system is menu based, and when the apparatus is initi¬ ally switched on, the main menu is displayed. This main menu is preferably as shown in Table II. If necessary, these items, and items in other tables, can be shown in compressed form on the display - eg COURSE/PLAYER for item 2.

TABLE II - MAIN MENU

1 Playing a Round

2 Course and Player Details

3 Statistics

4 Print-out

5 Off

Of these menu items, the Print-out item is optional, depending on whether the apparatus has a built-in printer (or can be coupled to a special-purpose printer). Item 5 is also optional, as the apparatus is preferably designed so that it turns itself off automatically if a suitable interval is exceeded without any keystrokes being made.

From the main menu, three further menus (sub-menus) can be selected. Initially, the top item i n the main menu is hi ghlighted (by flashing, appearing i n reverse colour, having a pointer arrow shown beside it, or in some other con¬ venient manner). To select a sub-menu, the highlighting is moved up or down the list of sub-menus by using the UP and DN keys or by keying the number of the desired item. (If the display does not have enough lines to show the full menu, it can be scrolled up and down by the UP and DN keys.) Once the desired item has been highlighted, it is entered by pressing the Enter key ST. The three sub-menus are as shown in Tables III to V (the functions of the various items of these menus being largely self-evident).

From the Course and Player Details menu, the course details memory 22 can be loaded with the details of the course by selecting item 1. These details may conveniently comprise the name of the course and, for each hole, the number and name (if any) of the hole, the length of the hole, the par value of the hole, and the stroke index of the hole. (The 18 holes of a course are ordered in order of difficulty, from 1 (the hardest) to 18 (the easiest); these values are the stroke indexes of the holes.) The course details can also be viewed, edited, or duplicated (copied) for" editing (which may be easier than entering the details of a fresh course ab initid).

TABLE III - PLAYING A ROUND

1 All functions

2 Strokes and Putts

3 Strokes only

4 Yards/metres

5 Options

TABLE IV - COURSE AND PLAYER DETAILS

1 Enter course details

2 View course details

3 Edit course details

4 Delete course

5 Import course

6 Export course

7 Copy course

8 Handicap details

9 Owner/player details

TABLE V - STATISTICS

1 Scorecard

2 All scores

3 All Stableford scores

4 Last round statistics

5 Last "n" rounds statistics

6 Last 50 rounds statistics

7 Course details

Similarly, from the Course and Player Details menu, the player details memory 23 can be loaded with the player details. These may conveniently consist of the name of the player and their handicap. The handicap may be anything between 0 (for the highest standarδ) to 24 (for men) or 36 (for women). The details of the first player, the owner, may be stored permanently in this memory. For various of these items, the Up and Down keys can be used to move through the list of elements. Thus to View or Edit the Course Details, the Down key can be used to bring the details of each hole in succession into view on the display, and the Up key can be used to backtrack to earlier holes. For Editing, each item in turn is automatically selected. The item is amended if desired by using the Cancel key (to delete existing characters) and the data keys (to enter new characters), and the Enter key is used to confirm an item (whether or not the item has been amended) and advance the system to the next item.

Preferably, however, the player and particularly the course details are entered automatically by loading them from an external source, such as another similar apparatus or a conventional computer, through the data connector 14 and the interface circuitry 14 A. The course details can also be passed from the apparatus to another similar apparatus or a conventional computer.

There are three choices for recording the playing of a round: recording strokes, putts, and subordinate stroke information (all functions); recording strokes and putts; or recording strokes only. The third of these choices allows subordinate stroke information to be recorded, by using the Up and Down keys. (The fourth choice, Yards/metres (or Units), allows the hole lengths to be dis¬ played in metres rather than yards. The fifth choice, Options, is for setting initial * parameters for the round, such as the number of holes to be played, the starting hole, etc; after these options have been entered, the system returns to the Playing a Round menu.)

At the start of a round, each of options I to 3 requires the entry of ini¬ tial information such as the number of players and their names. Then, at the end of the hole, the user enters first his own primary stroke information and then the corresponding information for the other players. The primary stroke information is entered in a fixed sequence (eg total number of strokes, followed by the number of putts if the second or third menu choices has been selected), followed by the corresponding information for the other players. At any time during the play of the hole, using the Up and Down keys increments the appro¬ priate counts (left and right fairway misses and over- and unde — clubbing).

As noted above, the "0" key also functions as a "No Return" control key. This key is pressed if a ball is picked up. Since the number of strokes can never be 0, the system responds to this key by entering the lowest score that a player can score, together with a Stableford value of 0. Of course, this only happens if the "0" key is pressed alone; if it is pressed after the " 10+" key, it is taken as part of the entry of a score of 10 (or conceivably a multiple of 10).

During the play of a hole, the logic unit 20 normally displays the contents of the current hole memory 1 A, together with information relating to the cur¬ rent hole (obtained from the course memory 22) and the player (obtained from the player memory 23). A typical form of display is as shown in Table VI.

TABLE VI - HOLE & PLAYER DISPLAY

Player A N Other

Hole no 5, the water-hole

Hole length 224

Par 3

Stroke index 12

Strokes 5

Stroke index 5

Score 4

Points 4

Over-clubbing 0

Under — clubbing 0

Fairway misses 0

Putts 3

Win/loss 0

Obviously, if the size of the display (specifically, the number of lines) is limited, then the display can be presented in a scrollable form, or in 2 parts between which the player can switch. It may be preferable for the display to include only the .first two blocks or sections of Table VI, with the user being prompted to enter the number of strokes (and possibly also the over-clubbing, under-clubbing, fairway misses, and putts values) but with the last block not being displayed, or being displayed only if requested by the user. Obviously, the subordinate stroke items will only be displayed for the owner of the appara¬ tus. During the play of a hole, the current hole memory 21 A stores details of the play for the current hole being played. These details must include the number of strokes taken for the hole; they can conveniently also include the accumulated number of fairway misses, under-clubbing strokes, over-clubbing strokes, and the numbers of drives and/or putts. These details are entered at convenient moments during and at the end of the play of the hole by the player, using the data keys to enter the values and the control keys to select (with the aid of prompts displayed on the screen) the appropriate types of value being entered.

Figs. 5A and 5B show parts of the logic and memory organization in more detail. Fig. 5 A shows the current hole memory 21 A in more detail, as consisting of 4 sections 45A to 45D. Section 45A consists of two portions, a primary portion used for primary stroke information for the owner and a secondary por¬ tion used for subordinate stroke information for the owner, and sections 45B to 45D are used for primary stroke information for the other players.

The secondary portion of section 45A consists of 4 subsections L, . R, O/C, and U/C, for left, right, overclubbing, and underclubbing strokes; each of these subsections operates as an accumulator. These subsections are driven from the UP, DN, and CL keys of the control keys 13B as shown; the CL key is coupled to these sections via a latch 46 which selects the overclubbing and underclubbing subsections O/C and U/C in place of the left and right subsections L and R when the CL key is operated.

Sections 45B to 45D and the primary portion of section 45A are used to store primary stroke information for the players, as entered by means of the numeric keys 13A at the end of a hole. A selector unit 47 is used to select the sections for the entry of stroke information. The player memory 23 contains 4 sections into which the names of the players are entered; the first name, that of the owner, is held permanently in this memory and the names of the remaining players are entered at the beginning of the round. This player memory is coupled to the selector unit 47 to enable the players to be selected for entry of their (primary) stroke information. The player's names may be displayed on the display 1 1 to permit them being selected manually in any convenient order, or they may be automatically selected in sequential order. The sections 45B to 45D of the current round memory 21 A will each store only the total number of strokes taken by the respective players for that hole. The primary portion of section 45 A, for the primary stroke information for the owner, is divided into 3 subsections S, D, and P, for the total number of strokes, the number of drives, and the number of putts for the owner. A further selec¬ tor unit 48 is used to select among these subsections. This selection may be under manual control or in automatic sequence. All 3 subsections may have their information entered manually, or the information may be entered manually into 2 subsections and that for the 3rd calculated automatically.

When the hole has been played and all the information for that hole has been entered, the information is passed to the current round memory IB, and the current hole memory 21 A is cleared in readiness for the next hole. (If desired, the system can be arranged to require confirmation by the user that they are happy with the entries for the hole before the system passes the infor¬ mation to the current round memory 21 B and clears and resets the current hole memory 21 A.)

Fig. 5B shows the current round memory I B and associated elements in more detail. This memory consists of 18 sections, one for each hole of a course. The current hole memory 21 A is coupled to the course memory I B, and its contents are passed to the course memory at the end of each hole. A hole selector unit 49 selects the appropriate section, being stepped on each time the play of a hole is completed (ie the entry of the information for a hole is com¬ pleted). Each section in the course memory stores the detailed stroke informa¬ tion (primary and subordinate) for the owner and the single stroke score for that hole for each of the other players.

The information from the course memory I B is passed to the logic unit 20 for the display of the course information and the calculation of the round results and the display of statistical information as required.

The cumulative rounds memory 1 C contains 50 sections, one for each of the last 50 rounds played. Each section consists of 2 subsections, one for the stroke information for the owner for that round and the other for the course name. Each time a round is completed, the information in each section in this memory is shifted down into the next section, with the information in the last section being lost, and the information for the owner (but not for the other players) in the current round memory 2 I B being passed into the stroke informa¬ tion subsection of the first section. The selected course name is also copied from the course memory 22 into the course name subsection of the first section of this cumulative rounds memory 21C.

The passing of the current hole information to the current round memory 21 B involves certain manipulations of the information. Fig. 4 shows the cir¬ cuitry of the logic unit which is used for determining the stoke index, the score, and the points from the number of strokes, the par for the hole, the player's handicap, and the stroke index for the hole.

The number of strokes, as entered by the player, is provided from a unit 30 (forming part of the current round memory 2 I B), and the par score for the hole is provided from a unit 31 (forming part of the course memory 22). These units feed a summing unit 32 which subtracts the par value from the stroke num¬ ber to yield a score value, which is entered in a unit 23 (forming part of the current round memory IB).

The hole stroke index (discussed above) is provided by a unit 34 (forming part of the course memory 22), and the player's handicap is provided by a unit 35 (forming part of the current round memory 2 I B). These units feed a bounds logic unit 36, which generates a value z which is set to 0 if the handicap is less than or equal to the stroke index, 1 if the handicap exceeds the stroke index but by less than 18, and 2 if the handicap exceeds the stroke index by 18 or more. This unit and the unit 32 feed a sum circuit 37, which subtracts the score value from the value z from the bounds unit 36 and adds 2 to the result. Unit 37 feeds a further bounds logic unit 38, which changes a negative value from the sum unit 37 to 0 but passes a positive value unchanged. The output of the bounds unit 38 is passed to a unit 39 (forming part of the current round mem¬ ory" 2 I B).

The value which is generated in the unit 39 is known as the Stableford score. This is a value which is derived from the player's actual number of strokes by adjustments to take account of the player's skill (as represented by their handicap) and the difficulty of the hole (as represented by the stroke index of the hole). The Stableford score thus enables players of different degrees of skill (ie different handicaps) to play against each other on broadly even terms. At the end of a round, and at any desired point during the play of a round, the RD key can be used to cause the display of the contents of the current round memory 21B, together with information relating to the holes so far played (obtained from the course memory 22) and the player (obtained from the player memory 23). A typical form of display is as shown in Table VII.

Table VII - ROUND DISPLAY

Hole Yds Ξ/Index Par Strokes Putts Score Stableford

1 388 12 4 "4 2 0 2

2 511 16 5 4 2 -1 3

3 162 18 3 5 3 2 0

4 360 10 4 5 3 1 2

5 454 4 4 5 2 1 2

6 381 14 4 5 2 1 1

7 439 2 4 5 3 .1 2

8 215 8 3 4 2 1 2

9 582 6 5 5 2 0 3

3492 36 42 21 6 17

The last line shows totals for those columns for which the totals are mean¬ ingful. These totals are calculated by sum circuits (not shown) in the logic unit 20, and stored in the current round memory 2 I B. As before, the display may be scrollable if the display device is not large enough to hold a full display.

At the end of the round, the contents of the round memory 21 B may be printed out or transferred to an external computer for printing. Also, the complete round values are further processed to generate round statistics, and these may be displayed if desired by the display unit. These values are calcu¬ lated, by circuitry (not shown) in the logic unit 20, from the accumulated values for the round. A typical form of display is shown in Table VIII (GIR means

Greens In Regulation, ie the number of greens which have been reached with the idea'l number of drives).

Also at the end of the round, summary statistics for the round are calcu¬ lated (by circuitry, not shown, in the logic unit 20) and passed to the cumulative rounds memory 21C. This memory maintains summary statistics for each of the last 50 rounds (losing the oldest set each time a new set is entered). The contents of this memory are processed (by circuitry, not shown, in the logic unit 20) and can be displayed by the display means when desired, a typical form of the display being as shown in Table IX.

TABLE VIII - ROUND STATISTICS

Player A N Other

Stableford 17 points

Par breakers 1 1.1 1%

GIR 66.67%

Putts per green 2.33

Missed left 8.95%

Missed right 10.05%

Over — clubbed 4.76%

Unde — clubbed 14.29%

TABLE IX - OWNER STATISTICS

Player A N Other

Stableford 17.50 points

Par breakers 5.55%

GIR 66.67%

Putts per green 2.33

Missed left 7.97%

Missed right 22.03%

Over — clubbed 9.88%

Under-clubbed 9.64%

Depending on the menu item selected, either the statistics for the last 50 rounds can be displayed, or the statistics for the latest round plus any desired number of previous rounds up to the maximum stored number of 50. If the date and time unit 26 is present, the date and time can of course be copied into the cumulative rounds memory and included in any of the displays and the printed-out versions thereof.

It will of course be realized that the current hole memory 21 A and the cur¬ rent round memory 2 I B contain information for all players, but hold more info — mation for the owner of the device than for the other players. The cumulative rounds memory 21 C contains only information relating to the owner of the device.

Claims

1 Golf scoring apparatus ( 10) of the portable computer type, having a set of data keys (13 A) for entering primary stroke data, and a set of control keys (13B) for controlling the operation of the apparatus, characterized in that the control keys include a pair of keys, Up and Down (UP, DN), which are used for state con¬ trol and selection and are also used for entering subordinate stroke data.

2 Apparatus according to claim 1 , characterized in that the data keys are primarily numeric, for entering stroke numbers, but also serve for the entry of alphabetic information in certain states.

3 Apparatus according to either previous claim, characterized in that the subordinate stroke information comprises ovei — and under — clubbing and strokes going off line (off the fairway) to the left or right, and the apparatus includes a further control key (CL), for mis-clubbing, with the Up and Down keys normally operating as left and right miss keys during the playing of a round and their function being altered to record over- and under — clubbing by pressing t-je mis- clubbing key.

4 Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that an arrow or lead line (Fig. 1) is formed on the keyboard connecting . the mis-clubbing key to the Up and Down keys.

5 Golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type, having a set of data keys ( 13A) for entering stroke data, and a set of control keys ( 13B) for control¬ ling the operation of the apparatus, including current hole and round storage means ( I B) for storing information relating to the round currently being played and cumulative round storage means (21 C) for storing information relating to past rounds, characterized in that the current hole and round storage means includes a plurality of areas (45A to 45D) for the scores of different players and the cumulative round storage means includes an area for the scores of a single player (the owner).

6 Apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that the cumulative round storage means includes means for storing, with the information relating to past rounds, the name of the course for each round, and by means for selecting, for statistical information display, either all past rounds or the past rounds for a specified course.

7 Apparatus according to either of claims 5 and 6, characterized in that the areas of the current hole and round storage means are organized so that entry of stroke information into them is performed in a fixed sequence, with the first of the areas being coupled to the cumulative round storage means.

8 Golf scoring apparatus of the portable computer type, having a set of data keys (13A) for entering stroke data, and a set of control keys (13B) for control¬ ling the operation of the apparatus, and including current hole and round stor¬ age means (21 A, 2 IB) including a plurality of areas (45 A to 45D) for the differ¬ ent players, characterized in that the control keys include keys (UP, DN) which are used for entering subordinate stroke information; and a predetermined one (45A) of the areas of the current hole and round storage means includes means for^" storing subordinate stroke information.

9 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized by interface cir- cuiδry (14A) including a data connector (14).

10 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized by an internal printer (24).

1 1 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized by a scores mem¬ ory (21) comprising a current hole memory (21A) for containing details of the current hole, a current round memory (2 IB) for containing details of the current round, and a cumulative memory (21C) for containing details of past rounds; a course memory (22); and a player memory (23).

1 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized in that the control keys include a Start key (ST) which serves as a general-purpose Enter and Return (confirmation) key, a Cancel key (C) which serves to cancel previous transactions, and a a Round Details key (RD) which causes the operating mode to change from the Playing a Round mode to a Round Summary mode while a round is being played. 13 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized in that the data keys include a "10+" key which operates to enter tens digits.

14 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized in that the data keys include a "0" key which operates to confirm the digit 0 following the use of the "10+" key and/or as a "No Return" control key.

15 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized in that the data keys also operate as alphabetic entry keys.

16 Apparatus according to any previous claim, characterized in that scoring modes of Strokes only, Strokes and Putts, or All functions (including subsidiary stroke information) can be selected.

17 Any novel and inventive feature or combination of features specifically disclosed herein within the meaning of Article 4H of the International Convention (Paris Convention).