How to Survive Your First Round With a New Golf Rangefinder

You've done all your homework and found the best golf GPS for your style of play. It finally arrives, so you charge it up and head out to the course confident that it's going to help you knock the pins out of the hole. You get to the first tee, turn it on and it doesn't find your golf course right away. You press buttons hoping for something, anything. You even turn it off and back on again. Distracted, you rush up and hit your first shot of the day... into the trees.

Here are three keys to surviving your first round of golf with your brand new golf GPS:

1. Prepare ahead of time. While the device is charging, look at the instructions. If none came with it, go online to the manufacturer's website and you should find them under the "Support" section. Get familiar with which buttons do what. Turn on the device and see if you can do a demo or preview mode. Make sure you know where to look for the distance to the middle of the green. That's the most important information on any golf GPS. It will really pay off if you know how to navigate from one screen or view to another. Make sure you always know how to get back to the default screen.


2. As soon as you arrive at the golf course, power it up and let the satellites get locked in. Sometimes this can take a little while, especially if the last time it was shut down, it was in a different state. On your first day, make sure you get to the course a little early, so that when you get to the first tee, it's ready to go. You don't want to be fighting your GPS before you even start your day.


3. Don't try to do too much with it during the first round. Stay away from the buttons as much as possible. Most golf GPS rangefinders will auto-advance from hole to hole and you might not even need to touch them during the round. There will be temptation to try all the bells and whistles, but while you're getting used to having it, don't let it distract you from playing your game. Remember, distance to the middle of the green is your friend!

Some golfers like and can handle lots of detailed information during their rounds and others, just want the basics. Know what works best for you and allow your golf GPS to help your game, rather than become a distraction.

Golf Beginner Tips: How and Where to Properly Tee Up a Golf Ball

Being able to place your golf ball on a tee provides a distinct advantage over hitting the ball off the ground. Players new to golf often find it difficult to get the ball airborne. By teeing the ball up and lifting it off the ground, you are able to get the ball airborne much easier. You also are able to greatly reduce the possibility of grass getting between the club face and the ball, promoting more solid contact with the ball, i.e. better ball-striking.

If you're new to golf, here's one of the most simple golf beginner tips you can use: Always use a tee! You should always take advantage of hitting from a tee when you are allowed. To do this, you need to know the "how" and "where" of teeing up a ball.

How to tee up the ball. To tee up a golf ball, start by placing the tee between your index finger and middle finger or between the middle finger and ring finger. Place the ball on the top, or head, of the tee and hold it in place with your palm. Place the pointed end of the tee on the ground and apply pressure with your palm, which will force the tee into the ground. You can use your thumb or fingers to push the tee into the ground, but this is harder to do, especially on ground that is hard and dry, and can hurt your thumb or fingers. Make sure the tee is as straight up and down as possible when it's in the ground, as your ball will need to balance on the head of the tee. Place the ball on the head of the tee and prepare to take your shot.

Where to tee up the ball. Under the rules of golf, the only place on the course where you are allowed to tee up the ball is the tee box. The tee box on each hole is denoted by a set of two markers, one on each side, spread perpendicular to the direction of the fairway and/or green. The tee box is the space between the two markers and extends two club lengths back from there, forming an "imaginary" rectangle. You must tee the ball within this rectangle, never in front of our outside of the markers, in order to play your shot within the rules. It is OK for your feet and body to be outside the imaginary rectangle that defines the tee box as long as the ball is within it when you make contact to put it in play.

So if you're new to golf, make use of these golf beginner tips, even when hitting an iron, fairway wood or hybrid, to get the ball airborne easier and for more consistent ball-striking off the tee. Better ball-striking means better golf shots and lower scores.

Internal Suit Sensors On Scientifically Engineered Sports Apparel Will Improve VR Training or Gaming

A few years ago, I was talking with a lead engineer scientist for an LED company about the use of LEDs on a suit to track movements of a human doing various activities, then an optical flow sensor would take those movements and the light streaks to help train AI computer systems to help model those movements. This has applications for animation cartooning, virtual reality training, and making movies in the future with non-available actors of the past. Okay, but it also has endless applications for sports training augmented reality systems, and for electronic gaming. Let's talk.

There was a great article produced in the late 80s by Donna Hood Crecca titled; "Physics on the Fairway" which discussed the perfect golfing swing, the aerodynamics of golf balls dimples, and the design of clubs, new materials, and the future of golf. It's worth reading. In that article were some interesting pictures of the USGA's biomechanical laboratory studying a pro-golfer's stance as he wore special bands at all of his major joints as he swung the golf club. All of this recorded by instruments and then visualized on computers - the latest CADCAM computers of the time.

Now then, in my dialogues with the former MIT graduate engineer working now at one of the top LED manufacturer lab, I suggested additional sensors inside the suit to measure specific pressure applied for use in robotics, androids, and robotic personal assistants, not to mention for physically challenged folks, exo-skeletons, and also entertainment; movies and animation. It might also help to train our Olympic athletes, cyclists, skiers, martial artists, etc.

We should very easily be able to create fifth-generation smart sports apparel which will remember every move, that coupled to artificial intelligence and uploaded through a USB port and you'd have one hell of a great technology with endless applications. Now then, you will not be able to patent any of this because my engineering friends working with some MIT grad students have already filed a patent, and they're hoping the movie industry will be using some of this technology that they are developing.

Nevertheless, if who wish to take all this to the next level, and I do believe that we should, there are applications in endless industries, including some future industries which haven't been created yet. Not to mention, the opportunities to unite the virtual world with the real one in totally new and unique ways. Indeed it is my hope that you will please consider all this and think on it. If you'd like to discuss this at a much higher intellectual level, then you may shoot me an e-mail.