A simple, computerised topographical model of the course layout is made available at the clubhouse, delivered via WAP to your mobile 'phone or PDA.

Once out on the course you give the ball an almighty wallop and watch it head bush. A few prompts as to direction of travel last noted, angle of attack, fade, slice, etc. need to be input. A history of your driving capability already entered to the program gives probable distance to the point of impact (most courses have distance markers on the fairways to boost or deflate your ego. These may also be used as a guide to determine that variable.)

Run the program and it returns a schematic of the immediate vicinity, showing probable position of the ball, based on slopes and obstacles around the likely point of impact. This will save the average mug golfer like me about 4 months of my life I would otherwise spend searching for lost golf balls for myself or my playing partner.

In the event of you finding the water hazard you had hoped to avoid with a new $10 ball, it just shows a goldfish with a surprised look and a ball stuffed in its mouth.

By the way, putting a transmitter inside the ball has been tried. The impact of a club accelerating the ball to 70 m/s, almost instantly, destroys almost any sort of device embedded in the ball. Those that do work cost a lot to hit into water hazards.