Several thousand casual golfers throughout North America and Europe are employing an RFID system that could spare them time otherwise spent wandering around golf courses searching for balls. The system, known as Prazza Golf Ball Finder—developed by a Netherlands startup known as Prazza Group—consists of a 2.4 GHz RFID reader called a finder, as well as two golf balls with built-in battery-powered RFID tags. Golfers can use the finder to direct them to the location of a ball they have hit, and presumably save minutes or even hours of time they might have previously spent searching for that ball. The device also reduces the number of balls that end up lost, Prazza reports, since golfers often abandon balls that land in the rough, or completely off a course. According to the company, 500 million golf balls are lost annually on courses worldwide.
The Prazza Golf Ball Finder system was envisioned approximately two-and-a-half years ago by one of Prazza Group’s founders who is a golfing enthusiast, says Jan Dewaard, the company’s president. The firm’s challenge was to develop technology that would provide a sufficient read range to capture a ball’s tag at great distances. The solution developed consists of hardware manufactured by Prazza, including an RFID reader built into a handset about the size and form factor of a smartphone. The device, powered by a lithium polymer battery, has three antennas built into it, as well as electronics that boost its read range. While the first prototype of this technology had a range of approximately 20 meters to 30 meters (66 feet to 98 feet), Dewaard says, the commercially released version can read a tag at a distance of up to 100 meters (330 feet).
Each ball comes with a built-in RFID tag powered by a lithium battery. The tag automatically switches off its transmissions about 50 minutes after the ball stops moving, thereby conserving battery life.
Upon receiving the kit, a golfer can first use an outlet or USB cord to charge the finder, then utilize the handset to read the two balls included with the kit, in order to save their unique identifiers in the reader’s memory. In that way, the handset will recognize the unique ID number transmitted by each ball’s RFID tag, but will not respond to transmissions from other balls with different RFID numbers. However, Dewaard notes, additional balls can be purchased and added to the finder’s firmware at any time.
On the course, as the golfer hits the ball, its tag begins transmitting its unique ID via a proprietary air-interface protocol. The player can then turn on the finder by pressing a button, and the device will immediately begin receiving transmissions. Prazza’s firmware determines the direction from which that signal is being received, then displays an arrow on an LCD screen on the device’s face, indicating the ball’s direction. An image of a golf ball is also displayed, which grows larger as the finder approaches that tag. The handset can also be set to emit an audible beep that becomes louder as the device gets closer to the ball.
One challenge in developing the system, Dewaard says, involved ensuring that the RFID tag would not be damaged in the process of manufacturing the balls. Golf ball manufacturing, he notes, is performed at temperatures as high as 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit), and requires the application of high pressure to form the ball. To ensure that the hardware is not damaged in the process, Prazza created a protective coating over the tag. Once inside the ball, he says, the technology can continue to transmit despite the impact of being hit on a golf course—what’s more, it will not be damaged by water, though the tag will not transmit effectively if the ball is entirely submerged in a liquid.
The product is designed for casual golfers, rather than those playing the sport competitively. It is slightly harder than a standard golf ball, but responds similarly to a standard ball in terms of how it travels when struck. Prazza’s golf ball has been tested by the United States Golf Association (USGA), and was found to meet that organization’s specifications regarding size, weight and other requirements.
The kit is currently being sold by such resellers as InTheHoleGolf.com, in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom. InTheHoleGolf.com sells a kit containing the finder and two balls for $299, and a sleeve of three additional balls for $39.95. The kit is also being marketed by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which purchases the kits from Prazza Group and sells them directly to its business travelers—either on-board, or through an online service from Holland Herald, KLM’s in-house magazine—after which the kit is provided to each traveler as that individual reaches his or her destination airport. Prazza is now in discussions with several golf-ball manufacturers, Dewaard says, which could lead to mass production of the RFID-enabled balls—which would, in turn, lower the cost of the final product.
Other companies have offered similar solutions, including RadarGolf, which utilized a passive RFID solution with an approximate read range of 30 feet to 100 feet (see RFID Is a Winner in the Sports Arena). That system is no longer being marketed, though the company indicates that it plans to develop an enhanced version of the technology in the future.