BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Golf is a very popular sport in a large number of countries. Traditionally golf is played on a course having nine or eighteen holes. Each hole has a tee, a fairway and a green. Thus a ball is hit from the tee towards the green. Mostly the ball will first land on the fairway or in rough surrounding the fairway or in a hazard. The player then moves from the tee to the ball and hits it again. This process is repeated until the ball lands on the green and can be putted into the hole.

During a typical game of golf a player will walk between and five and nine kilometres. This can be exhausting for the unfit and virtually impossible for the disabled. Also, conventional golf courses take up a fairly large tract of land which can be problematical where property is expensive and in demand.

A player can practice hitting golf balls on a driving range and these normally consist of an area from which players hit a ball and a range into which the ball is hit. A plurality of players can generally stand on the hitting area and practice their strokes. The players do not enter the range and leave balls struck onto the range to be collected by employees of the driving range. While driving ranges can assist in improving a payer's stroke, they tend to be boring and not offer the challenge provided by playing on a golf course.

In this specification"range"denotes an area into which a ball is hit and which the player does not enter.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide a golf course which at least partially alleviates some of the above-mentioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention there is provided a golf course having a plurality of adjacent playing areas from which a ball is hit and a range into which a ball is hit, characterised in that each playing area is zoned to have at least two different playing surfaces.

Further features of the invention provide for each playing area to be zoned to have at least three different playing surfaces; for the playing surfaces to simulate fairway, rough and sandtrap conditions respectively ; and for the range to have areas corresponding to the zones on the playing areas.

Still further features of the invention provide for the range to have watertraps and targets; and for the targets to be greens each marked with a flag.

Yet further features of the invention provide for there to be means to determine the distance a ball is hit; for the means to be markers on the range or electronic measuring means.

Further features of the invention provide for a plurality of putting greens to be located adjacent the playing areas; and for the surface of the putting greens to be marked to indicate distance from a hole on the putting green.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS One embodiment of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to Figure 1 which is a plan view of a golf course.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A golf course (1) as shown in Figure 1 and has a plurality of adjacent playing areas (2) from which a ball (not shown) can be hit, and a range (3) into which the ball is hit.

Each playing area (2) is zoned to have three different playing surfaces (4,5,6).

The playing surfaces simulate fairway (4), rough (5) and sandtraps (6) respectively and the range has areas (7,8,9) which correspond to the fairway (4), rough (5) and sandtraps (6) on the playing surfaces. The range (3) also has watertraps (10) and targets (11). The targets (11) are greens (12) each having a pin (13). Markings (14) on the green indicate distance from the pin (13).

Markers (15) on the range indicate distance from the playing areas (2).

To the rear of the playing areas are a plurality of putting greens (20). The greens (20) each have a hole (21) which can be marked by a pin (22). The greens (20) also have markings (23) to indicate distance from each hole.

A game can be played on the course (1) as follows. A player (not shown) is supplied with a card (not shown) giving the distance to each of eighteen"holes".

For example, the distance from the tee to the green of the first"hole"could be 400 metres. The player tees up in a playing area (2) on a fairway zone (4) and drives the ball into the range (3). The distance the ball is hit can be judged from the markers (15). If the ball is hit into the rough (8) of the range (3) then the player drops his ball on a zone of rough (5) in the playing area (2) and hits again.

Assuming the player hits the first ball a distance of 250 metres and the second ball a distance of 100 metres then, in theory, he would be lying approximately 50 metres from the green. If the second ball landed on the fairway (7) area of the range (3) then the player hits his third shot from the fairway (4) zone of the playing area (2) and aims for the green (12) of a target (11) which is demarcated as being 50 metres from the playing area (2). If the balls lands in a bunker (9), then the player can play out of the sandtrap (6) zone on the playing area (2) onto a green (12) in front of the playing area (2). If the ball now lands close to the pin (13), then the player moves to a putting green (20) at the rear of the playing area (2) and drops a ball the distance from the hole (21) that his previous ball landed from the pin (13). When the player has putted his ball into the hole (21) his total number of strokes is recorde. In this way a game of golf can be played which very closely resembles playing on a conventional golf course, even to the extent that players can form two to four balls, without walking any great distances. Also, a relatively small tract of land is necessary to establish a golf course according the invention.

It will be appreciated however, that many other embodiments of a golf course exist which fall within the scope of the invention. The distance a ball is hit can be determined by electronic measuring devices and the playing areas could have more than three different playing surfaces. Furthermore, a very large number of layouts for the playing areas, range and putting greens exist. Also, the whole golf course could be located indoors and natural or artificial surfaces used. Where the range is indoors, electronic means could be used to determine the direction and distance a ball is hit.