[0003] The present inventor has discovered that when playing or practicing golf, visual markers alone often are adequate to allow a golfer to accurately align his or her body to the direction of a desired target, but the mere use of such a marker often is not helpful in allowing the golfer to accurately maintain an appropriate sense of direction during his or her golf swing. Accordingly, the present invention addresses this problem by providing an audio signal or cue that can be used, in addition to or instead of a visual cue, for indicating the direction of a desired target from the vantage point of the golfer (e.g., both before and during the golf swing). In particular, the present inventor has discovered that most people are quite adept at identifying the direction from which a sound is originating, even without any visual cues whatsoever.

[0004] Based on these discoveries, the present invention provides, among other things, systems, apparatuses and methods in which an audio source is placed along a line between a location generally corresponding to the golfer (more preferably, the golfer's ear as he or she is looking down at the ball in a posture in which the golfer is ready to swing) and the location of a desired target that generally corresponds to the location of the hole (more preferably, approximately 3 feet to the left of the hole). Using the audio signal from this source, the golfer often can obtain a good indication of the direction to the desired target while his or her eyes are focused on the golf ball.

[0005] Thus, one embodiment of the invention is directed toward setting up a golf shot in which an audio-emitting device is placed at an identified position that is along a line between (i) a first location corresponding to at least one of a position of a golf ball to be hit and a position of a golfer who is to hit the golf ball and (ii) a second location corresponding to a position within 4 feet of a target hole into which the golf ball is desired to be hit. The audio-emitting device is activated so that an audio signal is emitted by the audio-emitting device at a time during which at least a portion of the current golf shot occurs.