Chris Savarese quit his job selling software and launched RadarGolf. The system helps players find balls embedded with radio frequency identification chips.

By Julie Patel
The Modesto Bee

SAN JOSE - Lost balls spoiled many a round of golf for Chris Savarese, until the former software executive decided to do something about it.

His search of patent filings showed that others had tried to devise technological fixes to the lost-ball dilemma.

Among the notready- for-prime-time contraptions: golf-club-shaped metal detectors that scout out metallic balls, a tube that helped players sniff out scented balls and even Geiger counters that could locate balls embedded with radioactive material.

Savarese thought he could do better. And his new hand-held gadget, called RadarGolf, may prove that he's a better entrepreneur than he is a golfer.

RadarGolf helps players find balls embedded with radio frequency identification chips. RFID chips emit a radio signal that can be tracked with a scanner.

Steve Harari, a technology consultant and angel investor, took a stake in RadarGolf early on and became chief executive. Harari showed off a prototype of the RadarGolf system at the Palo Alto Hills Golf & Country Club last summer. On his second shot in the third hole, a par 4, Harari's ball flew high toward the golden hills of the East Bay, bounced off a tree and descended - somewhere. Savarese whipped out the hand-held scanner and turned it on, sending a radio signal to the ball, which responded by beaming signals back.

The device began beeping at a faster clip as Savarese walked straight, then slightly to his right. Just as the ball was in view-in a patch of grass under some pine trees - the beeps changed into one continuous, high-pitched whine. "Bingo," Harari said.

He found the ball within 10 seconds, avoiding what might have been a two-stroke penalty if he hadn't located the ball within five minutes as golfing rules require.

On average, the device finds one out of four balls. If golfers hit water, over fences or down canyons, they're still out of luck. Some golfers might balk at paying $249 for a ball-finder scanner and the first dozen balls, and then $39 for each additional dozen, but that may not be RadarGolf's biggest obstacle.

Some serious golfers like Mary- Bee Johnston of Portola Valley opt for the brand of golf balls they like best.

Golfers are very picky about the golf balls they use, Johnston said. "I'm not going to want to buy just any brand."

RadarGolf balls are fine for tournaments because the microchip in each ball doesn't change its size, shape or performance, say United States Golf Association officials, but scanner is not allowed because it would be considered a distance-measuring device that would give players an unfair advantage. On the Net: www.RadarGolf.com.