Golf practice apparatus

Golf practice apparatus is for use in the practice of chip shots. The apparatus includes a bin formed of a fabric or fabric-like material, and wings which extend laterally to either side of the bin which are designed as catch fences for wayward balls. A frame is provided for supporting the bin in an erected condition, and the apparatus may be collapsed and rolled up into a bundle for storage when not in use.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION 
THIS invention relates to a golf practice apparatus, and more particularly, 
to practice apparatus with which a user can practice his or her chipping. 
Golf nets are well known and are used by golfers to practice their swings. 
Such nets are generally adapted to absorb impact of a firmly struck golf 
ball to thereby retain the golf ball and prevent it causing damage or 
becoming lost in confined or built-up areas. 
A problem with conventional golf nets is that a user has no real way of 
knowing how the ball will travel or fly after it has been struck. As any 
golfer will know, a golf ball struck with any lateral spin will tend to 
veer off to the left or right resulting in a ball which has apparently 
been well struck ending up way off the intended line of flight. 
Many persons who would like to practice golf have insufficient space to 
enable them to practice relatively short golf shots such as would be used, 
in a game, to chip onto the golf green from adjacent areas. Chipping is, 
of course, an important feature of the game golf and the player who can 
chip well will generally score well. In order to practice chipping a 
player needs to be able to see the flight of the ball after it has been 
struck so that distance and accuracy of chips can be gauged. Prior art 
catch-net type practice devices are not capable of providing this visual 
feedback to the practising golfer in any meaningful way. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,939 discloses a complex clip and putting apparatus 
which is suitable for permanent installation in a golf practice facility, 
but is unsuitable for a golfer who wishes to practice chip shots at his or 
her local park or sports field with a minimum of fuss. The apparatus shown 
in that patent is also costly and accordingly unsuitable for single home 
practice usage. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Golf practice apparatus according to the invention is for use in the 
practice of chip shots by a user, the apparatus being erectable into an 
erected configuration and collapsible into a collapsed configuration, the 
apparatus comprising: 
a bin formed of a fabric or fabric-like flexible material, said bin when in 
the erected configuration being of generally rectangular shape and having 
a front wall, two side walls, a rear wall, and a base, the front wall 
being lower than the rear wall and the side walls having an upper edge 
which inclines from the front wall to the rear wall; 
a frame for supporting the bin in its erected configuration, said frame 
being formed of releasably interconnected frame elements; 
a pair of wings connected to or integral with the rear wall and when in the 
erected configuration extending laterally to each side of the bin to form 
a catch fence on either side of the bin; 
the apparatus being collapsible into its collapsed configuration by 
disconnecting the frame elements from each other and removing the bin from 
the frame to enable the bin and wings to be folded or rolled into a 
compact bundle. 
The size of the bin can vary between a small size of approximately 1 
m.sup.2 to a large size of approximately 10 m.sup.2. 
The base is preferably suspended off the ground so that balls which are 
chipped into the bin and land on the base have some of the momentum 
absorbed by the base so that the golf balls are thereby contained within 
the bin. 
An embodiment of the invention is described in detail in the following 
passages of the specification which refer to the accompanying drawings. 
The drawings, however, are merely illustrative of how the invention might 
be put into effect, so that the specific form and arrangement of the 
various features shown is not to be considered to be limiting on the 
invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring initially to FIGS. 1 and 2 golfing apparatus 1 according to the 
invention includes a bin 2 which is substantially square in plan view 
having four equal length wall of approximately 1 m in length. Thus, the 
bin 2 has a floor area of approximately 1 m.sup.2. FIG. 1 shows the 
apparatus in an erected configuration, but is easily collapsible and 
stowable as will be described in more detail below. 
The bin 2 has upstanding walls 3 which are made of an impact absorbing 
material such as fabric or netting, preferably netting, which is capable 
of having a golf ball strike a wall and have the energy of a golf ball 
absorbed by the wall material. A relatively loosely hung netting material 
will serve this function. In the preferred arrangement the netting from 
which the walls 3 are made has relatively large net openings although not 
so large as to allow a golf ball to pass through. Thus, the net openings 
will have a diameter when stressed of less than the diameter of a golf 
ball. 
The bin 2 has a front wall 4, side walls 5 and a rear wall 6. The front 
wall 4 is lower than the rear wall 6 and the side walls 5 are inclined 
upwardly from the top of the front wall 4 to the top of the rear wall 6. 
The height of the front wall 4 may be approximately 200 mm and the height 
of the rear wall 6 may be approximately 500 mm. However, it will be 
understood that different arrangements are possible and indeed the rear 
wall 6 may in practice be considerably higher than 500 mm. 
The bin is provided with a base 7 which joins to the side walls 3, at the 
lower edges of the side walls 3. The base 7 may, as shown in FIG. 2, be 
spaced away from the ground 8 so that a gap 9 is defined between the base 
7 and the ground 8. This gap 9 will ensure that when a golf ball 10 lands 
on the base 7 there will be a certain "give" in the base to thereby absorb 
the energy of the golf ball 10 and ensure that the golf ball does not 
bounce out of the bin. This would be particularly important where the bin 
was mounted on a hard surface such as a concrete slab or the like. 
The walls 3 are supported in an erect or upstanding condition by a frame. 
That frame can be of any convenient configuration and in its simplest form 
would comprise four upstanding poles 12 which have a sharpened lower tip 
13 for insertion into the ground. Preferably there are at least lower 
inter-connecting frame elements 14 which connect together the adjacent 
vertical corner members 12 and hold the assembly in its box-like form. 
FIG. 3 shows the preferred form of frame. The frame as shown comprises the 
four corner poles 12 each of which has a pair of orthogonally extending 
connecting sockets 15 near its lower end. A rectangular horizontal 
sub-frame 14 connects into the sockets 15. The sub-frame 14 is formed of 
releasably interconnectable frame elements 17 and the connection between 
the frame elements 14 and the corner poles 12. This stabilizes the 
assembly in its erected condition. 
The bin 2 has a vertically extending pocket 16 formed at each corner 
thereof on the outside of the bin. These pockets 16 are configured to 
receive the upstanding corner poles 12 so that the corner poles 12 serve 
to hold the walls erect and, preferably, the base 7 off the ground. 
The bin has a catch-net 18 associated therewith. The catch-net 18 is in the 
form of a pair of wings 19 extending laterally from each side of the rear 
wall 6 as shown and is held in its erected condition by a series of 
support poles 20 which are spaced apart along the wings 19. The support 
poles 20 may be inserted into the ground so as to form a fence which runs 
on each side of the bin 2 in order to catch wayward golf balls struck by a 
user of the apparatus which do not land within the bin. 
It is important that the whole assembly is easily and quickly stowable. The 
frame elements 14 are easily disconnectable from the corner poles 12 and 
the bin is easily removable from the frame simply by lifting it off the 
frame. The assembly thus can be collapsed in a relatively short time and 
rolled up for easy stowage. FIG. 4 shows the assembly 1 in its rolled up 
(i.e. collapsed) configuration. A carry-bag 21 is provided for easy 
transportation of the collapsed assembly. Since the frame elements 14 are 
preferably 1 m long, the bag should be of approximately that length (i.e. 
dimension line "d" shown in FIG. 4 should be slightly longer that the 
length of the frame elements 14.) The collapsed bundle in its carry-bag 21 
can easily be stowed and transported in the trunk of a motor car. 
Clearly many variations may be made to the above described embodiments 
without departing from the scope of the invention. In particular, the 
configuration of frame to hold the walls erect can differ from that 
described herein.