GOLF YARDAGE GUIDE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

This invention relates generally to golf yardage guides and more particularly to customized golf yardage guides.

2. State of the Art

Golf is a sport in which participants rely upon several factors in order to determine the type of club to swing and the shot to perform to reach the desired result. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the yardage to the hole from various locations on a particular fairway leading to the hole, fairway and green contours, hazards along the fairway and/or green, elevation changes and fairway and green shapes. Golf yardage guides have been implemented to address such factors.

Conventional golf yardage guides include, but are not limited to, the display of information with respect to the yardage to the hole from various locations on a particular fairway leading to the hole, fairway and green contours, hazards along the fairway and/or green, elevation changes and fairway and green shapes. As is common in the sport of golf, particular holes are changed from time to time for such reasons as to provide greater challenge to the golfers, to renovate a worn or run down hole, or out of necessity. With conventional yardage guides, however, the guides reflecting the golf course before particular changes take place must be discarded and replaced with a guide that reflects the current state of the golf course.

Golf yardage guides also provide a form of advertisement for the golf course club house, the restaurant or third parties associated with the golf course. It also enables the golf course to provide customized guides for special events, to make announcements

about the course or even to provide a brief history of the course. Conventional guides, however, do not allow easy modification to the guide in order to obtain the desired customized yardage guide, such as by adding pages or replacing pages once the guide has been formed.

Presently, if a yardage guide needs to be altered, for example, to change a hole description, there are two primary options. First, new yardage guides can be ordered. Secondly, if the guide binding allows, the binding can be removed, a page or pages substituted and the, guide rebound. Both of the present solutions are costly and time consuming. Furthermore, if a binding is replaced, the process can damage other pages from the guide or the binding itself may be damaged

Accordingly, what is needed is a golf yardage guide that has the ability to replace and/or add pages to in order to update or customize the guide.

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DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a golf yardage guide with removably securable pages inserted after the guide is assembled.

An aspect of the present invention includes a golf yardage guide comprising a plurality of pages coupled together and removably securable pages configured to be at least one of removed from and/or added to the plurality of pages coupled together. A portion of the plurality of pages may display advertisements.

Another aspect of the present invention includes a golf yardage guide comprising a plurality of pages coupled together with a binding, wherein each page displays one of yardage of golf holes on a golf course, information associated with the golf course, an advertisement and any combination thereof. The golf yardage guide further comprises at least one removably securable page comprising an open slit, wherein the at least one removably securable page is coupled to the binding by use of the slit.

Further, another aspect of the present invention includes a golf yardage guide comprising a plurality of pages coupled together, wherein each page displays one of yardage of golf holes on a golf course, information associated with the golf course, an advertisement and any combination thereof. The golf yardage guide further comprises a double wire binding coupling the plurality of pages together and at least one removably securable page comprising an open slit; wherein the at least one removable securable page is coupled to the binding through the slit.

The removably securable pages of the various aspects of the present invention may display yardage of golf holes that have been altered, a coupon, a course description, a course history, advertisement, menu and any combination thereof. The removably securable pages may be configured to be additional pages to the guide, to replace current pages of the guide and be removed from a guide previously inserted into.

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The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the particular embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a removably securable page;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a removably securable in association with a golf yardage guide according to a particular embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

As discussed above, embodiments of the present invention relate to a golf yardage guide with removably securable pages inserted after the guide is assembled. The removably securable pages are provided for additions to, replacement of pages or removal from the golf yardage guide.

As shown in FIGs. 1 and 2, particular embodiments of the present invention comprise a removably securable page 10 and a golf yardage guide 20. The guide 20 comprises a plurality of pages 22 and a binding 24 that couples the pages 22 together to form a book or guide. The removably securable page 10 includes a plurality of slits 12 that extend from corresponding binding apertures 14 to an edge of removably securable page 10, wherein the slits 12 create catches 16. The removably securable page 10 may be added to the yardage guide 20 by use of the slits 12 and catches 16. The binding 24 is inserted through the slits 12 and into the binding apertures 14. The catches 16 are sufficiently close so as to retain the binding 24 within the binding apertures 14, thereby securely holding removably securable page 10 within the guide 20. The slits 12 are of a size and shape that the page may be inserted, while retaining the page coupled with the yardage guide 20 after insertion. In particular aspects of the present invention, the slits 12 do not remove any portion or material of the removably securable page 10, but rather just cuts the page 10. The catches 16 created by these types of slits 12 are virtually touching and provide greater ability to secure the removably securable page 10 within the guide 20. In particular aspects the removably securable page 10 may be combed into the

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yardage guide 20 by use of a device. Further, the slits 12 while shown in FIGs. 1 and 2 to be located at an upper edge of the removably securable page 10, may be located on any edge of the page 10 wherein that edge is the binding edge.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the binding may be any type of binding, including, but not limited to, double wire binding, single wire binding and comb binding. For the exemplary purpose of this disclosure, and without limitation, particular embodiments of the present invention are particularly suited for use with a double wire, binding. With a double wire binding, two wires of the binding 24 are inserted within each of the binding apertures of the pages 22 of the guide 20. The removably securable page 10, when being inserted into the guide 20, is placed in a position such that each catch 16 engages one of the wires and the slit 12 is in between the wires. A device or applicator comb may be used to comb the removably securable page 10 into the guide 20, such that two wires are in each binding aperture 14. Each catch 16 remains engaged with one wire of the double wire binding 24, wherein the slit 12 is between the wires. This configuration places the removably securable page 10 in a more secured position, wherein the slit 12 does not engage any wire and substantially reducing accidental removal of any removably securable page 10.

The content displayed on the plurality pages of the yardage golf guide 20 may include golf course information, yardage information for holes on the course, coupons, advertisements, rules, and customer customizations. Further, the removably securable pages 10 may also display the same types of information. For the exemplary purposes of this disclosure and without limitation, the following are examples of the types of content displayed on the pages.

1. Custom daily hole location;

2. Custom daily range diagram;

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ό. custom tournament page, such as, but not limited to, logos, dates and sponsors, wherein the page may be inserted once or multiple times, such as between each page displaying hole information;

4. Merchandise coupons, such as, but not limited to, free sleeve of golf balls after the round or discount on specific merchandise;

5. Food and beverage coupons such as free soft-drink with the meal or a discounted rate for a particular food item;

6. Outside or third party advertisers of affiliated properties, such as, but not limited to, real estate, banks, car dealerships, restaurants and casinos;

7. Player loyalty page such as, but not limited to, frequent player card, frequent range user card, lessons, merchandise and food and beverage;

8. Award or recognition pages such as, but not limited to, low round or other significant accomplishments in an event;

9. Tournament scorecard and local rules;

10. Daily scorecard;

11. Custom covers;

12. Replacement pages for reasons such as, but not limited to, course changes, marketing changes, which may include new marketing focus, new owners, etc. and forgotten pages;

13. Welcome pages such as, but not limited to, a personalized page that welcomes an individual player to the course; and

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14. Customer satisfaction or customer survey cards which allow the player to give feedback to the course and allows the course to target a specific player demographic by season or rate charged.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various sizes of pages may be used for each of the plurality of pages 22 in the yardage guide 20 and the removably securable page 10. For example, and without limitation, the pages may be: 4 inches by 5.5 inches with round corners and 3 to 1 ratio square binding apertures 14 along the 4 inch edge with slits 12 extending from the apertures 14 to the 4 inch edge; 4 inches by 6.25 inches with round corners and 3 to 1 ratio square binding apertures 14 along the 4 inch edge with slits 12 extending from the apertures 14 to the 4 inch edge; 4.25 inches by 6.25 inches with round corners and 3 to 1 ratio square binding apertures 14 along the 6.25 inch edge with slits 12 extending from the apertures 14 to the 6.25 inch edge; 4.25 inches by 7 inches with round corners and 3 to 1 ratio square binding apertures 14 along the 7 inch edge with slits 12 extending from the apertures 14 to the 7 inch edge; and any other size desired by the customer.

It will further be understood that depending on the intended use of the guide 20 by the customer, various types of printing states may be applied to the pages 22 and removably securable pages 10. For example and without limitation, the printing states may include: blank sheets of photographic inkjet paper for photo printing by the customer; blank sheets of coated or uncoated offset paper for the other printing by the customer; pre-printed sheets of coated or uncoated offset paper for other printing by the customer, which will be printed over by the customer (including pre-printed such as, but not limited to, backgrounds, photos, printed photo frames, watermarks, etc; and sheets printed by the guide manufacturer for replacement or addition by the customer.

The manufacturer of the yardage guide 20 may also provide the customer with: multiple templates for various applications, wherein the templates are in electronic format; a printer to handle pages of the size 4 inches by 5.5 inches, 4 inches by 6.25

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incnes, 4.zs inches by 6.25 inches and 4.25 inches by 7 inches; pre-cut, punched, and slitted sheets; applicator combs for inserting the removably securable pages 10 into the yardage guide 20; and a digital camera.

In particular embodiments of the present invention, the removably securable page 10 may be used to replace existing pages within a yardage guide 20. For example, and without limitation, a particular hole on the course may have been changed. These changes may include, without limitation, lengthening the hole from the tee to the green, adding new hazards, eliminating hazards, changing hazard type, hole orientation, green and fairway contours and green and fairway elevations. A method of replacing the pages includes the step of 1) tearing out the existing page to be replaced, 2) positioning the removably securable page 10 in a position where the slits 12 are engaging the binding 24 and the page 10 is in the proper order with respect to the yardage guide 20 and 3) using an applicator comb to insert the page 10 into the yardage guide 20. The applicator comb may comprise teeth to fit between the wires enabling the comb to secure the removably securable page 10 into the yardage guide 20. Adding a removably securable page 10 to provide additional information may utilize steps 2 and 3 in order to insert the page 10.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the slits 12 of the removably securable pages 10 may be formed after a die punch of the binding aperture 14 by use of a machine, by hand or other manner of creating a slit. Further the slits 12 may also be formed simultaneously with the binding apertures 14 by creating a die cut that includes the slits.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a myriad of possibilities and benefits, particularly to a golf course and their use of yardage guides that were not previously available. For example, as holes are changed, as they often are, reordering or rebinding of a guide is no longer needed in order to reflect changes in one or even many holes. The present invention allows for the exchange of pages, wherein the golf course need only print pages reflecting the new changes in the hole and replaces the current

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pages in the book with the changes. Further, golf courses have greens with different pin locations on the green, thereby altering the distance to the holes. Particular embodiments, for example, allow for a daily yardage guide to be added wherein each pin location on the green and the associated change in yardage is reflected in the book. Additionally, score cards can be added and/or replaced from the guide allowing the golfer to have the yardage guide and scorecard within the same book.

Further possibilities of the present invention include customizations, not just for the course itself, but for particular patrons of the course, business events and tournaments. The golf course no longer needs to order customized guides for these particular events, or may even provide a customized guide that would not have been done before. They may now order the needed customized pages and add and/or replace pages within the current guide to now have a fully customized yardage guide without the costs of ordering full guides made or rebinding the current guides. Other benefits of the particular embodiment may include advertisements easily added or exchanged. Yardage guides do not typically have advertisements; however, according to particular embodiments of the present invention, advertisements may be added. For example, many golf courses have a restaurant associated with the clubhouse. As with all restaurants, prices change as do daily specials. Particular embodiments of the present invention, for example, allows the golf course to place or replace pages that reflect price changes and or the daily special or even a coupon within the yardage guide, thereby allowing the ability of advertising the clubhouse restaurant and attracting more customers. Further, the golf course may now be able to offer advertisement space within their yardage guides to local or nearby businesses. These possibilities are a few examples of the benefits that the present invention provides and are considered a limitation. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that embodiments of the present invention may provide any form of customization, alterations to the course, changes in ownership or any change and addition of any type of information that the golf course determines to be added or replaced within their golf yardage guides.

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¹ I ^' he embodiments and examples set forth herein were presented in order to best explain the present invention and its practical application and to thereby enable those of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the foregoing description and examples have been presented for the purposes of illustration and example only. The description as set forth is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the teachings above without departing from the spirit and scope of the forthcoming claims.

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