Google Glass & Golf - The Many Awesome/Annoying Possibilities

A woman wearing Glass.            Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.

Golf has a rich and singular history, one that's often alluded to in contemporary
conversations about the sport.

That said, the sport has been quite receptive to technological advances.... like those that've taken the golf ball from the featherie to the guttie to the multi-layered urethane marvels we play with today.

In a continual quest for additional distance, golfers were quick to retire their hickory shafts and persimmon heads when steel shafts and metal woods made the scene.  Over the past decade, the pace of change in golf equipment, accessories and gadgets accelerated rapidly, as "innovation" became both a business buzzword and the holy grail for competitive advantage.

With that in mind, I'm guessing golfers... for the most part... will be quick to explore the myriad possibilities in Google Glass, one of the most anticipated and promisingly innovative-seeming  products in the news these days.  For those who don't know, we're talking about a rather diminutive device that's basically just a very, very, very smart smartphone... that you wear on your brow like a sleek pair of spectacles/shades.  The video below gives you a very basic idea of how it might work.






So yes:  Wrap your mind around that and imagine what you might be able to do with it on a golf course.  The fact is, quite a number of forward-thinking golfers have already weighed in on such matters via Google+ and Twitter.

Google's @ProjectGlass sent out a call for "Glass Explorers" using the hashtag #ifihadglass.  Contestants were asked how they'd use glass and why they felt they should be among the first group of testers.  Apparently the company got an avalanche of suggestions among which were many that involved golf.  Some were great.  Others provided a preview of the annoyingness that will undoubtedly ensue once Glass makes its way to the grass.

Early Morning Tee Time? Wake Up With a Putting Practice Session.

Early morning tee times definitely have their advantages... at least that's what I've heard.

In areas where mid-day temperatures soar, the fleeting coolness of the early hours may motivate some to rise with the sun, but  for the golfers I know, the biggest benefit seems to be that a less crowded course... and the absence of slower, casual golfers... allows for a much quicker round. "...so I can get my round in and be back home in time to have breakfast with the family" one friend of ours proudly put it.

I've also heard golfers liken their early AM rounds to a spiritual experience, where the purity of the untouched course and the awakening of flora & fauna, engender feelings of peace and well-being.

I'm more of a twilight golfer myself.  In fact, I like being in the last group out, if at all possible. Having more or less mastered the art of thermoregulation, even the most oppressive heat doesn't really bother me, and while there might be a bit of a backlog at the tees, if there's no one behind us stressing about it, I'm good. Plus, if you ask me there's something kind of Zen-like about reaching the 18 green at dusk.

Here's the thing though; according to certain sleep experts, most people hit the deepest part of their sleep cycles between 4a.m. and 6a.m.  So when you book that dew sweeper tee time you'll probably want to have a pretty effective wake-up system in place.  And that's where the small plexiglass orb pictured above comes in. It's the Sport Time Golf Green Alarm Clock and once it starts ringing, it won't stop till you sink a putt on its tiny plastic green. By that time, you'll not only be wide awake, you'll have some putting practice under your belt. How annoying awesome is that?

[Focalprice via GeekAlerts via Gizmodo]