Patent ID: 7118487

Claim:
A golf ball arresting structure for supporting a net and inhibiting ricochet of a golf ball driven into the structure, the structure comprising: an inflatable multi-pod, including at least a tri-pod, mounted on a flexible planar base for placement on the ground; said multi-pod including a pneumatically resilient first pair of legs defining, when said multi-pod is inflated, an entrance lying substantially in an entrance plane and supported in an upward inclination by at least one brace leg, said at least one brace leg also pneumatically resilient, upper ends of said first pair of legs and said at least one brace leg meeting at a vertex of said multi-pod, lower ends of said first pair of legs and said at least one brace leg, opposite said upper ends, mounted to opposite sides of said base, a flexible net mounted by suspension means so as to be suspended between said legs so as to drape said net completely across a cavity of said structure defined by said first pair of legs and said at least one brace leg so that said net is substantially parallel to a front edge of said base lying in said entrance plane, said suspension means transmitting energy, from impact of a golf ball driven into said net through said entrance, from said net to said multi-pod for energy-absorbing and/or energy attenuating deformation of said net, and said multi-pod, wherein, said net is of larger area than the area defined by said entrance so as to have, when relaxed until struck by the golf ball, a portion of said net lying loosely in folds on a base plane containing said base when said base is on the ground, and wherein said net is loosely draped so as to hang down within said cavity and so as to be free to deflect and deform rearwardly of said entrance and rearwardly across said cavity upon entry of the golf ball through said entrance and impact of the golf ball with said net.