Quick Dips

Golf Graphics to the Fore

Dunedin's Animation Research Limited (ARL) made the tactics of America's Cup racing intelligible to even the most armchair-bound land lubber, and is now making golf spectator-friendly.

Funding from Technology New Zealand has helped ARL undertake a feasibility study of new techniques that will get away from the traditional coverage of tee and green shots, or aerials of hard-to-spot balls.

Birds-eye view coverage of golf has historically been achieved by flying helicopters over fairways, but ARL has produced the same sort of views by constructing the entire golf course in 3D. It has done so with the aid of stereoscopic aerial photogrammetry provided by New Zealand Aerial Mapping. By overlaying the 3D model with actual aerial photography, ARL can create photorealistic imagery. A computer-created model of the golf course has made it possible to "fly" all the fairways with a greater level of control than was possible by helicopter and to add graphics to the fairways themselves.

"This gives us the ability to place extremely accurate distance markers anywhere we choose to on the fairway as well as providing sponsor logos on the course," says ARL managing director, Ian Taylor.

Taylor says by using technology similar to that used in the America's Cup coverage, and working with Christchurch's Trimble Navigation, ARL can position golf balls on the fairways, bunkers or rough to within half a metre in accuracy.

"This tells viewers not only how far the ball has been hit and how far it is to the pin but also shows them exactly where on the course the ball has landed in relation to the bunkers, trees and the green," he says.

On the strength of the company's success in covering the New Zealand Open, ARL has been commissioned to provide the system for three tournaments in Australia. ARL hopes to provide the system at the World Championships of Golf in Auckland later this year.