Technology: Ball out of sight? Listen for beep
Its legality is questionable, but golf gadget makes search less annoying

Detroit Free Press
July 3, 2006

I have a problem with golf.
I hook.
Therefore, I often lose my balls in the woods.
Lessons would help, I'm sure. But until then the RadarGolf system is my next best bet for finding those lost balls.
It uses a handheld receiver that emits a beeping noise that zooms in on a signal transmitted from a tiny microchip embedded in a golf ball. Like a Geiger counter or one of those metal detectors folks use to find buried coins on the beach, the beeps from the handheld unit get louder and more urgent the closer you get to the ball.
Saves me from holding up my whole party as I go tromping around in the woods looking for my hooked balls. It really does do a fine job in finding them.
Legal, who cares?
I talked about this system with some coworkers the other day who obviously play a lot more golf than I do and they sniffed.
"Is it legal?" one asked, with barely disguised indignation and consternation.
Legal? Probably not on those hoity-toity golf courses he plays on where they won't let you wear shorts and people really take the game seriously.
But where I play -- and play is the operative word when it comes to my game -- nobody seemed to mind. Though come to think of it, one of my buddies did remark that the RadarGolf handheld unit sounded like it needed to be put out of its misery.
The RadarGolf people note that officially, in tournament and regulation play or among purists who strictly follow the United States Golf Association rules, using the system is, indeed, not legal.
The microchip embedded in the balls is no bigger than a pinhead. Anyone who complains about non-regulation balls probably is one, too.
But let's face it: Anyone who needs one of these to find lost golf balls is probably not playing a lot of seriously competitive games.
All that aside, the RadarGolf Web site (www.radargolf.com) is brimming with testimonials from people who played some pretty ritzy golf courses and weren't kicked off so I wouldn't hesitate to take it along. If, that is by some strange twist, I were ever invited to play one of those ritzy courses.
How it works
The system costs $249 and consists of three parts -- the handheld unit, a dozen golf balls and a shielded pouch. You can buy another dozen balls for $39.
You need the pouch to prevent the handheld from picking up the little microchip transmissions embedded in the other golf balls. If you are in the habit of carrying a couple of extra balls in your pockets ... don't. The handheld receiver will get all confused.
That means that if you're playing with someone else who is using the same system and RadarGolf balls, you want to be sure you're not picking up your buddy's signal.
To pick up the signal, my tests found that you needed to be within a couple dozen feet of the ball. That means you still need to have a rough idea where your ball landed.
If you want to see this in operation, check out my Web log at www.freep.com/pcmike and scroll down the posts. I've put together a video that shows me using it and digging a ball out of an overgrown patch of woods, which -- I unfortunately learned later -- contained poison ivy.
I found the ball each of the six times I hooked off into the woods on my test play a couple of weeks ago.
However, I also learned that the ball better not land in water, something else my hook shots tend to do much too frequently.
The system doesn't work in finding submerged balls.
So it's a good thing they provide a dozen balls with the initial purchase.