TOPEKA, Kan. — The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and with that information a college student from Topeka has invented a golf training tool meant to help players hit their ball straighter.
Harry Briggs, 24, is a senior at Washburn University, and the inventor of Sight Ball. It’s a standard golf ball marked with sights, which are similar to those on a firearm.
Briggs says when the sights are lined up to the flagstick; the tool is proving to lower scores by helping golfers hit it straight.
Briggs came up with the idea after working as a club house assistant at a golf course. The top sights on the ball line up to the golfer’s eyes.
“It helps out quite a bit on an actual golf ball because you’re looking at some things,” Briggs said. “You have something to look at when you’re aiming the ball.”
The ones on the bottom of the ball can be read while the ball rolls to the hole.
“You have something to look at when you’re aiming the ball,” Briggs said. “Not that a ball is very big, but it gives you a purpose when you’re hitting the ball.”
Briggs says he developed the idea three years ago, and professors at the Washburn University Small Business Development Center helped him turn a prototype into a product.
“He came up with what I and others thought was a pretty good idea,” Randy Arnold, Briggs’ friend and business associate, said.
“Now, I don’t have to look so hard for something to line up. I’ve got a lot better object to line up.”
“I hope someday to grow this business into more than just one product,” Briggs said. “I hope to create other products to help golfers improve their game. I hope to make this a full-time business.”
Briggs says he’s sold several hundred packages of Sight Balls and he’s already working on the next training tool. What that might be remains his secret.
Sight Ball is sold through this website for the time being. Briggs says he’s talking with golf retailers in the metro, in hopes of selling them in stores.
Follow Sean on Twitter — @seannymaconair
Click here for Sean’s FOX 4 Facebook page.
Got a story idea? Call Sean directly (816) 868-5543.
Sean plays hand-crafted forged irons by Miura Golf.
