Patent ID: 8866613

Claim:
A ball separation device for a golf range target system comprising: a golf range target comprising a golf ball delivery shaft; a gravity fed ball isolation system that includes a partial disc within the golf ball delivery shaft configured to rotate to temporarily trap a golf ball within the shaft, wherein the partial disc is rotatable and the ball is temporarily trapped within a cutout of the partial disc; an RFID reader; an actuator configured to change the configuration of a gate, the gate configured to control the routing of the golf ball released from the ball isolation system; a ball separation control system configured to query the RFID reader when the ball is isolated in the ball isolation system; the ball separation control system configured to communicate with the RFID reader and determine if the trapped ball is an RFID golf ball, and then route the ball to an RFID ball collector; the ball separation control system configured to communicate with the RFID reader and determine if the trapped ball is not an RFID golf ball, and then route the ball to a secondary location; and the ball isolation system further configured to release the ball after the control system has made a routing determination.