Patent ID: 8257189

Claim:
In a system for characterizing the movement of a golf ball assembly on a golf range having lateral extents, a method comprising: configuring the golf ball assembly for transmitting a ball signal at least from a landing impact location on the golf range based on a detected proximity of the golf ball assembly to a surface of the ground and for monitoring proximity to the surface of the ground to generate a ground proximity signal and indicating a flight status of the golf ball based on a capacitance that changes responsive to a current distance between the golf ball assembly and the surface of the ground at least to Indicate that the surface of the ground has been hit; distributing a plurality of at least four ground transceivers across the lateral extents of the golf range; determining positional coordinates of at least the four ground transceivers such that the four ground transceivers form a group of ground transceivers that are at known locations; receiving the ball signal at each one of the ground transceivers in timed relation to one another; identifying a selected one of the ground transceivers as a reference transceiver such that the arrival time of the ball signal at the selected ground transceiver serves as a reference arrival time; establishing a set of arrival time differences including a difference in arrival time of the ball signal at each of the other three ground transceivers as compared to the reference arrival time at the reference ground transceiver; and determining a landing position of the golf ball assembly in two dimensions with respect to the lateral extents of the golf range based on the set of arrival time differences.