DEVICE FOR WASHING AND TRANSPORTING GOLF BALLS A driving range is a place where golf players are able to practise long shots. It consists of an area to the edge of the course on which tees have been created. Golf balls are shot from these areas and land on the driving range. At regular intervals these balls are collected again and once more made available to the practising golfer, usually by way of a ball-dispensing machine with coin-insertion. If, following rain-fall, the ground where the golf balls land is wet then obviously sand, clay and mowed grass sticks to the balls. In that case, the balls will have to be washed to avoid damaging the ball-dispensing machine and also because golfers only want to play with clean balls.

Many different types of golf ball washing devices are available such as the Range King 1C901 Spiral Ball Washer and the Range Servant Ball Washer BT 1250 and BT 1950.

These devices are all disadvantageous in that they are slow-working, use a lot of water, are apt to break down and are comparatively expensive.

To avoid having to deposit the balls manually in the reservoir of the ball-dispensing machine, a ball transporting device is required that is able to collect the balls at ground level and transport them to the top side of the ball-dispenser's reservoir, approximately 1.75 mt.

There are golf-ball transporting devices like the Range King 1A301 Elevator that transports golf balls to a higher level by way of a conveyor belt.

This invention aims to provide a new type of ball washer that combines both of the afore- mentioned functions but does not have the same disadvantages. It consists of a housing having the same height as the required conveyance height of the golf balls. A number of horizontally rotating brushes have been mounted on the housing. These have been screened off by a protective plate that is shaped in such a way that space is allowed for a golf ball on the upwards rotating side of the brush. This space measures approximately 2/3 of the cross- section of a golf ball. The rest of the space is obtained by transformation of the brush. The downwards rotating side of the brush is entirely blocked off The ball is picked up from the reservoir by the bottom brush. When it is passed to the following brush the ball takes a turn in the opposite direction of rotation. In this way and due to the bulk inertia of the ball, extra brushing effect is created and the ball is simultaneously"brushed"upwards.

By way of a row of sprayers situated just under the upper brushes, a counter-current downwards stream of water is created. As they make their way upwards, the dirtiest balls are gradually brushed in cleaner water.

The invention is described in this document by way of the following operational example: The dirty golf balls are deposited in the reservoir (9). As the device is put into action brush (1) picks up a number of golf balls from the reservoir over the entire breadth and transports them upwards whilst simultaneously brushing them against plate (11) to brush (2). At point (12) brush (2) takes the golf ball over and the ball takes on another direction of rotation which creats an extra brushing effect. The balls are in turn taken over by all the other brushes and are washed and transported to the required level and deposited through shute (13) into the reservoir of the ball-dispensing machine. As the device is put into action water is supplied via sprayers (14). After the brushes and balls have been sufficiently rinsed the water flows out of the device together with the loose dirt.