Communication, calculation, and record keeping method and apparatus for golf course

摘要

An apparatus to provide golf players calculation, communication and record keeping of golf game scores. In addition communication of information pertaining to weather, flow of play, course topology and layout, advertising, service needs, emergency medical and security, rules of play and personal messages are provided to the players throughout the golf course by the apparatus. The apparatus includes a group of mechanisms distributed throughout the golf course area of play for the purpose of transferring this information between the players and the apparatus interactively and in real time. In the preferred embodiment the mechanisms distributed around the course are statically located, use photoelectric means for their electrical power needs and transfer data by radio communication means to and from a computing mechanism. The apparatus includes a computing mechanism that performs calculation steps needed to determine the golf game scores and also manages the transfer and storage of the various communications. In addition it extracts and saves information pertaining to the use of the course and its services for course management to use in accounting, planning and course improvement tasks. The computing mechanism can include programs to detect bottlenecks in the flow of play and alert course managers of the bottlenecks. In one embodiment, "timestamp" data which includes time, date, and/or location data is appended to at least some messages passed between the golfer interface and the manager interface. Additional programs that determine corrective modifications to the flow of play can be included in the computing mechanism.