Sports Tech

Sky Golf GPS has been around for quite a few years and was one of the first companies to offer a hand held GPS device for golfers. Once you purchase the device you can download golf courses that they have mapped from their website. So if your traveling to play golf or you want to know everything about your existing golf course the Sky Golf GPS maybe the device for you.

The SG5 Pro is for golfers who want a hand held GPS with advanced features such as a large color display and a long-lasting rechargeable battery. SkyGolf's advanced GPS technology is integrated with the very best Swiss engineering to provide unmatched reliability.

The SG5 Pro includes SkyGolf's patented IntelliGreen® technology, enabling golfers to measure the full depth and shape of the green from any angle of approach and shows distances for all targets and hazards on any of SkyGolf's many thousands of professionally mapped courses. Its vibrant color display features automatic backlighting to ensure easy readability indoors and outdoors.

For more detailed information and pricing go to SkyGolfGPS

(Credit: Nokia)

Pro Session Golf, a video analysis application for your phone, is now available worldwide. You can download the software to several Nseries Nokia phones, by simply going to Pro Session Golf and selecting the Buy Now tab.

The software enables you to capture your golf swing using the camera on your phone. You can use the software's split screen and drawing tools to analyze your swing. The software even gives you the ability to send your golf swing from your phone to the Internet or to another phone.

It comes with some sample swings and some video content from the Titleist Performance Institute MyTPI, that will help you determine if your swing fault may be caused by a physical limitation.

It is a great little application for your Nokia N95, N93i, N93, or N73 phone and is easy to download.

Casio may have the answer to every sport enthusiast's prayers. A camera that won't miss any of the action. With 60 frames per second and the ability to record and playback video at 300 frames per second, this could very well be the ultimate sports camera.

Casio showed off the as-yet-nameless prototype at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin. I must admit, I am a little giddy that this may actually be a real product. As a golf professional, I can't tell you how valuable this is. When trying to view a golf swing that takes about 1.5 seconds with a club moving at over 100 mph, you need features like this to really analyze a golf swing.

The one feature that Casio has built in which I think will be fantastic is the Pre Shot Burst Mode. This Ultra-high speed continuous shooting of action actually occurs before the shutter button is pressed. It uses an image buffer that is constantly refreshed with images of the action that occur in front of the camera's lens. Then when you press the shutter button, the images in the image buffer are recorded, ensuring that you never miss any of those special moments because you pressed the shutter button too late.

(Credit: casio)

The video capability of CASIO's next-generation camera shoots VGA-equivalent movies at a speed of 300 frames per second. This means that you can easily shoot ultra slow-motion movies at speeds that have until now been available only on professional level high speed cameras. Not only does this open up a whole new world of motion that is not apparent to the naked eye, it also provides a valuable tool for analysis of sports events and fast-moving action.

Casio does not have a date yet as to when it will be available, or a price, I just hope all this tech packed into a basic camera is not to good to be true. See more photos at Casio's site.

In the past five years artificial turf has benefited from new technology using rubber compounds and synthetic fibers to create some very realistic turf. This new turf is now finding its way onto golf courses. This new synthetic turf not only saves money by eliminating the use of water and fertilizers, it does not get affected by disease or weather conditions.

In Australia, by the Great Barrier Reef, the drought-plagued city of Rockhampton has begun construction on the world's first 18-hole synthetic golf course at Zilzie Bay on the Capricorn Coast. The par 70 Reef Palms course on the doorstep to the reef will feature 18 fully synthetic greens and surrounds and 18 synthetic tee boxes.

Golfers will be able to play the course in perfect condition every day regardless of the time of year or the weather. A number of the world's best golfers have synthetic greens built in their homes to practice on during breaks from the PGA Tour.

Just think, the 2020 U.S. Open may one day be played on a Synthetic Golf Course. The golf gods will surely revolt, but with maintenance budgets in excess of a million dollars a year at many golf courses, this may be the sign of things to come.

If you just can't figure out how to use that pencil that comes with your golf scorecard, or your handwriting is not quite up to par, then there's always the iPhone golf scorecard.

This application allows you to keep scores for up to four players. You simply tap the names of your foursome into your iPhone and then tap in the corresponding scores. Your iPhone keeps everything nice and neat. Then just add up your score at the end of the round.

If you are the ultimate iPhone geek (and an avid golfer), this is the application for you. Fire up your Safari browser, and log on to iphone18.