Google Glass Will Inevitably Cause Rules Of Golf Problems

Ryan Ballengee recently took a look at Google Glass and offered this review of the futuristic glasses in the context of golf.

And now Luke Kerr-Dineen has taken the shades for a spin and offers this look at the potentially revolutionary device through the lens of the GolfSight app.

It's no coincidence that philosophy leaks into GolfSight, Goldstein's golf app, because Google worked with him as it was being developed. You launch the app with a phrase: "OK, Glass, let's start a round of golf." From there, it'll locate the course you're playing and give you yardages, tell you about any looming hazards, supply you flyover images of the holes and keep your score. And, like the camera, if it sits idle, it'll hibernate so it's not being annoying.

As I stood there hitting balls into the Chelsea Piers driving range, with exact yardages to the front, middle and back of every green in sight and barely noticing I was wearing a computer at all, I was struck by how clear it was that this, or some close variation of it, really was the future of golf.

And there was this prediction from the app developer, which should get the attention of the USGA and R&A:

He's brainstorming what to develop next: an add-on that reads greens, perhaps? Or one that helps line you up? Or how about your own personal shot tracker that will denote the flight of your ball? Who knows: one day, pros could even be wearing them while they compete. Viewers at home could be watching a live video of what it looks like through the pro's own eyes, as he lines up his putt to win the Masters.

"I like to think that pros will wear these one day," Goldstein says. "Why not? Once you start using them, you suddenly feel so disconnected when you take them off. You wonder what you were ever doing before."