GPS Tracking Balls

[Mikeman13]

What's up guys!

 

I am curious what everyone thinks about GPS-tracked golf balls. I was talking with a few buddies and we were curious why no one has put anything onto market yet. I saw OnCore was interested in the idea. Would ya'll be interested in trying something like this out if relatively cheap?

[elwhippy]

Price? Legality? Spirit of the game? 

[dave_3]

I'd need them to be fully waterproof 😕

[Stetson]

GPS tracking in something that wears out rapidly is a bad idea. 
 

Battery life while sitting on a shelf

Waterproof for morning dew

Inferior performance 

cost

gps accuracy

 

[GolfTurkey]

Practicality/cost/technological challenges aside, I would absolutely love to see this:

 

• Huge improvement to pace of play
• Reduction in unpleasant stress (the anxious “will I or won’t I find it”moments, and looking for someone else’s ball also sucks
• Far less cases of the wrong ball being played. Courses like mine where there are lots of adjacent fairways and 99% of members play ProV1 result in many spoilt rounds due to wrong balls.
• Potential for easier/enhanced automatic stat gathering.

[braincramp52]

16 minutes ago, Stetson said:

GPS tracking in something that wears out rapidly is a bad idea. 
 

Battery life while sitting on a shelf

Waterproof for morning dew

Inferior performance 

cost

gps accuracy

 

 

This^ 

[Bad9]

Sounds like a solution looking for a problem. Just because you can do something doesn't mean its a good idea.

[ScottF]

Having a golf ball that is easy to find would be game changing!  Technology has brought us a lot of advancements in ways we never thought possible.  Who would have thought, not that many years ago, that there would be a way to be able to determine how far away you were to the green just by looking at your watch?  There are a lot of things like cost, batteries, durability and performance that have to be overcome. Looking at your watch to tell you where your ball is? I don’t doubt that someone will make a ball that is easy to find. I’m sure Titleist won’t be promoting it. If people didn’t lose balls, sales would drop drastically! 

[Stetson]

1 hour ago, GolfTurkey said:

Practicality/cost/technological challenges aside, I would absolutely love to see this:

 

• Huge improvement to pace of play
• Reduction in unpleasant stress (the anxious “will I or won’t I find it”moments, and looking for someone else’s ball also sucks
• Far less cases of the wrong ball being played. Courses like mine where there are lots of adjacent fairways and 99% of members play ProV1 result in many spoilt rounds due to wrong balls.
• Potential for easier/enhanced automatic stat gathering.

Is it a huge pace of play advantage?  GPS gets you in an area, it doesn’t give you exact location. Your eyes will get you in just as general an area. 
 

Anxious is looking for a $15 ball while GPS is bouncing around a 80 foot area and people are waiting while you are on your phone. 
 

Can I come be a guest at your club?  99% ProV1 means I could really stock up!

 

Stat tracking could be improved if this were to happen. 
 

Golf balls wear out. Sometimes a ball is scuffed up after 1 hole or 1 impact on a tree. Until there is a way to create a ball that overcomes this hurdle the only chance is to create these for cheaper than current options and frankly that isn’t possible. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Stetson

[ChipNRun]

The fading out of caddies in favor of riding carts had a major impact on tracking golf balls. Increased ball searches triggered slower play.

 

Way back in the 1960s, average golf courses joined the upscale clubs in having riding carts for players. This led to a change in the role of caddies.

 

For foursomes that still walked, caddies worked as a team. One would rake greenside bunkers while the other tended the pin. The raker would then leave his players' drivers on the bench at the next hole, and go out to the landing area to watch for balls.

 

When foursomes started riding, they would bring along a runner or spotter would rake traps, take pin, and run out ahead to the landing area to spot balls. Balls in rough would be marked with white stakes or white towels. A spotter with the medium pace of a cross-country runner could easily outrun a cart.

 

This really helped pace of play. Actual ball searches were reduced to balls that richocheted off trees or ran into a hazard.

 

Sometime after I started college the caddies and cart runners at most clubs went away. So, no one was in the landing area or greenside as a lookout for wayward golf balls. Pace of play began to suffer, especially if the course had several blind tee shots where the golfer couldn't actually see the ball land.

 

So, do we need a GPS tracking mechanism? 

3 hours ago, Stetson said:

GPS tracking in something that wears out rapidly is a bad idea. 

Stetson has pointed out the big problem of thinking the eBall route. Rather than mechanism inside a ball, something like a Trackman/launch monitor system might work. It can track any ball.

 

Many players already had portable launch monitors. You would need a system with a 3D display to show where the ball landed on the course. This would probably involve integrating software for GPS/course maps and the launch monitor.

 

Warning: I didn't get my own rangefinder and Garman watch until 2016, so I'm not an expert on the workings of all the golf electronics. Possibly others can refine a solution.

 

Note: In a couple of scrambles I played in, I was able to convince the organizers to have a few spotters on the course. Spotters on blind holes or holes with hazards really speeded up play. Non electronic, but it works - if you can find volunteers to spot!

[jons1]

Have you seen a golf ball compressing on the clubface at impact?  Are you familiar with the delicate nature of electronics? LOL

GPS would not likely be an option.  Never mind the performance and ball consistency issues you'd have in constructing a ball that does this, assuming you could get all of the components perfectly in the center of the ball and you didn't break them.

 

If you think ProV1s are expensive, these would be like $150 a ball or something ridiculous.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by jons1

[pallmall]

Prazza Golf Ball Finder uses a tracking receiver to find a RFID-embedded golf ball. It can only finds a ball; does not collect a ball's flight data, so no help for stat gathering.

It seems they do not have a good business. Maybe their ball is not good, or other reasons.

Edited October 8, 2020 by pallmall

[jons1]

RFID might be an option, but it's a passive technology.  Think of it like using a metal detector looking for your ball... you have to be close enough to pick anything up.  But still can't get past the consistency of mass ball production.  I think you'd end up with goofy performing balls and inconsistent from ball to ball. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by jons1

[braincramp52]

Dumb idea. I'm not sure why we think everything needs to be tracked. 

[phil75070]

@ChipNRunYou must be talking about exclusive course when you talk about the use of caddies being phased out. I've been playing golf since the 1950s and never been on a course where caddies were even an option. The only time I've had a caddie was when I was fortunate enough to play in a Champions Tour Pro-Am.

 

Now that I recall, I take that back. A country club I belonged to, for a very brief period of time, associated with a program where you could arrange for a caddie at least a day in advance. However, there were no caddies on site to just grab one on a whim. It didn't last long as very, very few people took advantage of the program.

[GBBM]

GPS seems unlikely due to being able to have the ability to communicate with satellites or whatever. I’d think maybe a small RFID that can be picked up within 20-30 feet by a smartphone or a stand alone device might allow the same ball performance with tracking ability. 
 

https://thefutureofthings.com/3221-hitachi-develops-worlds-smallest-rfid-chip/

[Hateto3Putt]

What's in a TopGolf ball?

 

It knows if your ball hit the target or not. (I know apples/oranges, but the basics are there)

 

I'm sure someone, somewhere is trying to create (has already created) a Never-lose.

 

And for those of you saying it's technologically impossible, please...

 

https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/1971/Never_Lose_a_Ball_Again_with_the_Prazza_Golf_Ball.html

 

 

[Paintman]

That would be the Holy Grail.

But it wouldn't help when I spray my tee ball into the cornfield.

I played High School golf in the middle 80s and I remember we had a discussion about a tracking device in a golf ball.

[jons1]

9 hours ago, Hateto3Putt said:

What's in a TopGolf ball?

 

It knows if your ball hit the target or not. (I know apples/oranges, but the basics are there)

 

I'm sure someone, somewhere is trying to create (has already created) a Never-lose.

 

And for those of you saying it's technologically impossible, please...

 

https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/1971/Never_Lose_a_Ball_Again_with_the_Prazza_Golf_Ball.html

 

 

 

 

RFID https://www.impinj.com/library/customer-stories/topgolf-transforms-golf-driving-ranges-with-r

 

 

[ChipNRun]

On 10/10/2020 at 9:31 AM, phil75070 said:

@ChipNRunYou must be talking about exclusive course when you talk about the use of caddies being phased out. I've been playing golf since the 1950s and never been on a course where caddies were even an option. The only time I've had a caddie was when I was fortunate enough to play in a Champions Tour Pro-Am.

 

Now that I recall, I take that back. A country club I belonged to, for a very brief period of time, associated with a program where you could arrange for a caddie at least a day in advance. However, there were no caddies on site to just grab one on a whim. It didn't last long as very, very few people took advantage of the program.

 

Phil, could I ask what region you lived in? Caddies were quite common in the Sixties and Seventies in Missouri and St. Louis area. Until the 1970s, caddie programs were a major pathway to the professional golf ranks.

 

Given, you had the top four clubs in the area, and a number of second-tier clubs: They all had caddie programs. Some, such as Algonquin, had a semi-formal caddie training program. Groups of prospective caddies would come out for two or three on-course lesson sessions. These included the finer points of caddie how-to, plus an overview of the rules of golf and how they affected caddies.

 

As for caddies in 2020 in St. Louis region, it's like you said, "...there were no caddies on site to just grab one on a whim."

 

At Old Warson, members must reserve caddies a day ahead of time for a specific round. And, base rate for carrying a bag 18 holes is $75.

 

National tournament stops Old Warson and Bellerive still have caddie programs, as does Sunset CC, Algonquin and a couple of other clubs. And, Bellerive serves as a feeder system for caddies headed to the professional golf tours.

Edited October 15, 2020 by ChipNRun

[Bad9]

23 hours ago, Paintman said:

But it wouldn't help when I spray my tee ball into the cornfield.

Or the deep woods, or water hazards. Most balls I've seen lost were in some unrecoverable place where having GPS would be of no use.

[phil75070]

3 hours ago, ChipNRun said:

 

Phil, could I ask what region you lived in? Caddies were quite common in the Sixties and Seventies in Missouri and St. Louis area. Until the 1970s, caddie programs were a major pathway to the professional golf ranks.

 

Given, you had the top four clubs in the area, and a number of second-tier clubs: They all had caddie programs. Some, such as Algonquin, had a semi-formal caddie training program. Groups of prospective caddies would come out for two or three on-course lesson sessions. These included the finer points of caddie how-to, plus an overview of the rules of golf and how they affected caddies.

 

As for caddies in 2020 in St. Louis region, it's like you said, "...there were no caddies on site to just grab one on a whim."

 

At Old Warson, members must reserve caddies a day ahead of time for a specific round. And, base rate for carrying a bag 18 holes is $75.

 

National tournament stops Old Warson and Bellerive still have caddie programs, as does Sunset CC, Algonquin and a couple of other clubs. And, Bellerive serves as a feeder system for caddies headed to the professional golf tours.

50's and early 60's I was in the Mid-Atlantic area, Baltimore-Washington. 70's and 80's in the Chicago area and since 1991 North Texas (Dallas area). Until I moved to Texas I had never belonged to a private Country Club and neither that I have belonged to here had/has a formal caddie program. So maybe playing pretty much public courses is why I didn't see caddies. Until the Country Club memberships I always walked carrying my own bag or using a pull cart. Now I ride!  LOL

[madeintheshade]

Would it help pace of play? Yeah, You would find your ball in the rough quicker. Nevertheless, it would slow things down as players ventured into the woods or thickets to retrieve balls they would otherwise write off. 

[braincramp52]

You have to love these people who join up ,make one post, and disappear.

[Bad9]

10 hours ago, braincramp52 said:

You have to love these people who join up ,make one post, and disappear.

I think some of them are known members who want to troll without being identified. I don't think that in this case necessarily but have in some threads in the past.

[eastriver]

another idea: add some low-level radioactive material into the ball core mixture (excellent recycling use for spent reactor fuel!) and pair with a golf branded handheld geiger counter.  Then just follow the clicks!

[braincramp52]

1 hour ago, Bad9 said:

I think some of them are known members who want to troll without being identified. I don't think that in this case necessarily but have in some threads in the past.

 

That sure sounds like a lot of work to me but I don't doubt it for a minute.

[Twism86]

Hit it in the fairway, problem solved! 🤣

 

Now, only if I could take my own advice...... No need to make balls more expensive and complicated. If its lost, drop and move along. We have a 3 minute search rule that gets ignored by every amateur out there. THAT is what I want to see the course rangers enforcing. They see a group start looking, start the clock! 

[grm24]

16 hours ago, Bad9 said:

I think some of them are known members who want to troll without being identified. I don't think that in this case necessarily but have in some threads in the past.

No doubt that happens. There is a very recent closed WRX website help thread where some troll went on an obvious post run the get to 75 posts for B/S/T privileges then whined about the B/S/T rules after being provided them by Gxgolfer. LOL!

 

Then amazingly today another "newbie thread runner" showed up with the same posting style as the original post runner in said thread and questioned the B/S/T payment rules while being a WRX member for all of a few hours. <smh>. Hopefully both user names have been shown the door.

 

Great work WRX mod Buzzkill for nuking that thread. That's Greaattt.  I'm sure you know what thread I'm referencing. 🤣

Edited October 17, 2020 by grm24

[Bad9]

7 hours ago, grm24 said:

No doubt that happens. There is a very recent closed WRX website help thread where some troll went on an obvious post run the get to 75 posts for B/S/T privileges then whined about the B/S/T rules after being provided them by Gxgolfer. LOL!

 

Then amazingly today another "newbie thread runner" showed up with the same posting style as the original post runner in said thread and questioned the B/S/T payment rules while being a WRX member for all of a few hours. <smh>. Hopefully both user names have been shown the door.

 

Great work WRX mod Buzzkill for nuking that thread. That's Greaattt.  I'm sure you know what thread I'm referencing. 🤣

You, I posted in it😀 Before I did I checked his profile and pretty much knew what he was doing. Posted to both be helpful and see where what his response would be. Just what I thought it would.