Wrapping Up the Week Dedicated to Golf Course Patents – A Compact Design

What better way to get hit by a golf ball than playing on a compact golf course. Every golfer has played on one of those courses that squeezed 18 holes in the space that should house 14 holes. The type that has a net around at least one tee box; probably the result of a line drive to the forehead (and a lawsuit).

Can you appreciate a course that takes it a step further and fits 18 holes in the space of 7 holes? Well, check out the disaster waiting to happen in disclosed in USPN 4,157,831 titled “compact golf course.”

The patent describes the invention as:

Outdoor golf course layouts are described for providing a complete eighteen hole course in a minimum area. The golf course layouts are characterized by a substantially polygonal outside course perimeter utilizing straight lines from tee area to hole. The preferred embodiments are in the figure of a hexagon. Fairways of different holes will intersect other fairways in the embodiments. It is also contemplated that doglegs can be provided in the fairways for each or some of the holes rather than the straight line configuration from tee to hole, still substantially utilizing the hexagonal outer shape of the course. Each of the apices of the hexagon will include, in the general surrounding area, the holes or green and tee areas for a plurality of the holes in the course. In addition, there will be one area located in the interior of the hexagon which will provide in the general area thereof tee and hole or green locations for a plurality of the holes of the layouts.

This wraps up a rather uneventful week of crazy golf course designs! (thankfully)

Dave Dawsey  – Monitoring Golf Course Architecture Patents

PS – Check out some of this week’s other golf course designs; a linear golf course layout, a circular layout, a shared fairway layout, a web pattern layout.