Computerised games of golf that include maps of golf courses that exist in reality and where the player himself/herself selects an appropriate club and strikes a golf ball by press- ing a key on a keyboard or some corresponding device are known to the art. In all of these computerised games, the player is able to choose the direction of the shot played and the force with which the ball is hit, by appropriate key selection, mouse clicking or some corresponding action. The game is thus more or less sophisticated, although despite these possible variations in the game, the result of the golf stroke is determined by parameters included in the computer program, these parameters being influenced to some extent by the information entered by the player. The golfing expertise and strategic ability of the player can thus influence the results to some degree although the actual prowess of the player on the actual golf course has no influence on the result of the game, which depends solely on the ability of the player to operate the computer program. Consequently, the game gives no actual feedback to the player with respect to how he/she shall strike the ball in order to improve the result.

There is known, inter alia, from the International Patent Application PCT/SE00/01319 a golf player indicator with which a golfer is able to record his/her strokes during a round of golf. This indicator includes an apparatus that has a map of

the golf course concerned and, with the aid of a built-in GPS receiver, is adapted to display the map on its display screen and to store in the apparatus the place where the golf ball has landed, in response to activation of the apparatus by the user in order to show his position on the course and the place where the golf ball has landed. The user is also able to make fine adjustments to the displayed location. The stored results can then be taken out and shown to a trainer or coach, a so-called professional, who is then able to ad- vise the player of how the shot should have been played in order to achieve a better result.

Such an apparatus enables the results of many rounds of golf to be saved, so that the trainer or coach is able to see and compare the results and therewith follow the development of the player and give him/her further advice. However, the apparatus is unable to help the player improve his skills.

The object of the present invention is to provide a novel golf computer game that overcomes the aforesaid drawbacks, so as to enable a golfer to practice prior to actually playing on a real golf course, by playing on the same course in the computerised game and therewith obtain a feel for how he/she should play if the game was being played on said real golf course.

This object of the invention is achieved with a computerised game of golf that is intended to be played on a computer and that includes information relating to at least one golf course, wherewith this information can be displayed on a screen in the form of a map of the golf course selected, and wherewith the player is able to select an appropriate golf club and mark where he/she intends to strike the ball, where-

after the player carries out a golf stroke. According to the invention, the computerised game may also include statistic information relating to the player's game on actual golf courses, and is adapted to calculate the result of the player's golf stroke on the basis of the statistic informa- tion.

The computerised golf game therewith enables the player to obtain an idea of what his result would have been if he had played on the actual course instead of playing the computer- ised game, and therewith enable the player to test other clubs and/or strike directions, so that he can more readily decide which club to use and in which direction the ball shall be hit and, with the aid of the computerised golf game, the distance through which the ball shall be driven on the actual golf course, in order to overcome the hazards and traps that are in play.

The inventive computerised golf game is thus designed to enable the actual game of the player stored in the aforesaid apparatus to be entered into the computerised golf game as a statistic basis for the golf computer so that the result of a golf stroke made in the computerised game can be calculated.

The entered statistical information is not used"immediately" in the golf game, and the game will preferably include some form of random number function which selects a stroke dis- tance and a stroke direction on the basis of information obtained with respect to a usual stroke distance and a usual stroke direction, and generate a probable stroke for the player concerned in this way. If the player normally has a wide variation in the distance achieved with the club se- lected, the result in the golf game will also show a wide

variation in stroke distance, although in the vicinity the values normal for the player concerned. The same applies to a player who normally has a wide spread in his stroke angle relative to the intended angle. On the other hand, if the player is normally more even with respect to the result in his/her game, the results obtained in the computerised game will also be more even. The results can then be used by the player/golfer to try different clubs, different stroke direc- tions and different distances on one and the same hole, so as to establish which of these parameters would be most suitable for him to reach the hole in the fewest number of strokes.

The invention will now be described in more detail with ref- erence to a non-limiting embodiment and with reference to the accompanying drawing which illustrates schematically the various components of the game.

When the player plays a round of golf on the actual golf course 1, he notes each stroke in his indicator 2, said indi- cator suitably being of the kind described in the aforesaid publication PCT/SE00/01319. The results entered in the indi- cator can be used-conventionally by the trainer/coach to analyse the round played by the golfer, and can, furthermore, be transferred directly from the indicator to a PC 3 belong- ing to the golfer/player, or via another computer owned by the trainer or the like.

Stored in the player's PC 3 is a game program that includes software for playing a golf game. The program may initially include information relating to different golf courses, in- cluding maps over respective holes and other information, such as hazards, traps, slopes, surface variations, etc. This information is combined to provide pictures of the golf

course and is shown on the display screen of the PC 3. In the case of simpler versions, the picture or image of the golf course may be a two-dimensional image, although it will pref- erably be possible to zoom-in on the area of the course in which the golfer/the game is located at that moment in time.

In more advanced versions, the image of the golf course may be a three-dimensional image that illustrates the appearance of the course from that place in which the game is being played. Such versions, however, require considerably more basic information relating to the course concerned.

The player may conventionally make an appropriate club selec- tion, mark the spot on which he intends to strike his ball and then carry out a golf stroke, all with the aid of keys and/or other activating means. Marking of the spot at which the player intends his ball to land will preferably be marked on the display screen with the aid of the mouse or some other pointer or reference means. The game program then calculates where the ball will land on the basis of the given assump- tions and with the aid of a calculating algorithm, and pres- ents the result of this calculation to the player, who then continues with his next stroke from the calculated landing point, and thereafter continues in a corresponding manner until the ball drops into the cup.

As opposed to computerised golf games known hitherto, the inventive game does not calculate the result of a golf stroke purely on the basis of the information entered by the player and on the basis of other data belonging to the program.

Instead, the game program uses data taken from the indicator 2 and relating to earlier rounds of golf played by the player on the actual golf course concerned, when such data is avail- able. If no such data is available, there is used instead

data from earlier shots played by the player/golfer with the same club that he has now chosen to use, but on other courses. Calculations are not based solely on the results from earlier play and a certain spread is preferably sought for. The program will conveniently include a computing func- tion in this respect, controlled by a random number generator for instance. The more results the player has on one and the same golf course or with one and the same club, the more these results will influence the result of the stroke that is calculated by the game program, and the more even the earlier results of the player when playing on the actual golf course, the more uniform the result will be when playing on the com- puterised golf course, and consequently such a computing function will conveniently be included in the computerised game program, so that the skill of the player in his game on the actual golf course will be reflected in the result of his play on the computerised golf game. This results in a prob- ability assessment of where the ball struck by the player would have landed in reality, and place the result of the stroke on this spot.

Play can be continued in this way until the ball drops into the cup, and then continue with the next hole until all holes on the golf course have been completed. As will be under- stood, the player may, of course, play the same hole on the course several times and test different club selections and/or different strategies as to how the ball shall be struck, so as to see which modifications can be made to his game on the course in which he may be interested to test his game in reality and to improve the result.

The computerised golf game may also be programmed to assign to the player a handicap that differs from his own handicap,

in which case the program will be adapted to calculate the result of the golf stroke from the handicap allocated in- stead, so that the player will obtain an understanding of how his game would appear in reality if he improves his handicap.

Data can be transferred from the indicator 2 to the PC 3 via cable connections between said units or by saving data/information from the indicator 2 in the computer owned by the trainer, and by downloading said information onto a disk, via the Internet, or sent as an attached file to the player.

The computerised game may also include the game results of established players, so that the player is able to test him- self and his expertise against the expertise of the estab- lished players.

Golf course data that is required for the computerised game and that is not included in the basic game data can be ob- tained on a disk or possibly downloaded from a server 4 via the Internet or some other suitable network. Information concerning respective golf courses for use in the inventive computerised golf game may, for instance, be obtained from the respective golf courses.

It may be particularly advantageous to collect information relating to the appearance of the golf course via the Inter- net or some other network when the appearance of the golf course can vary from day to day and when information concern- ing the state of the golf course on a particular day is made available on, e. g., the Internet, therewith enabling the player to download relevant information for a particular day and to test play the golf course in the computerised golf game prior to going out onto the actual course. The weather data relevant to that day may be entered into the computer- ised game so that the player will also be influenced by said weather conditions when playing the course on his computer.