Get into the swing
11:11am Friday 18th April 2008
Practise your skills in private with these golf gadgets before heading for the lawns
AS the end of the football season nears, the sun begins to shine, and the US Masters tournament begins, the fairways of golf courses throughout the North-East and North Yorkshire become increasingly popular.
You may not know an albatross from the condor, think strokes are for swimming and would rather miss the first 18 and head straight to the infamous 19th hole that is the local pub, but there are plenty of ways to have a go at golf without going near a blade of grass. Check out this swinging selection. . .
Giant Crazy Golf Set
£189.99 www.iwantoneofthose.com
All you need for a titanic game of crazy golf and, best of all, any surface will suffice. This offers nine holes of fun, consisting of 13 funky obstacles (including a bridge, spiral and a hoop), complete with two clubs, a couple of balls and holes for your seaside reconstruction.
Desktop Crazygolf
£34.99 www.drinkstuff.com
Some of the fun of the fair here without the queuing hordes. This desk/tabletop set of golfing goodness comes complete with motorised clown bridge and windmill, sand trap, water hazards, telescopic club, putting cups, two golf balls and flags.
Doggie Driver
£16.95 www.firebox.com
Practise your fairway fling while exercising the pooch - the Doggie Driver does it all. Place your ball inside the almost comedy club and then, with all your might, swing like a winner and watch as it's launched up to 100 feet away for fido to retrieve.
Awesome Foursome
£10.95 www.sillyjokes.co.uk
Stick these in any golfer's bag, then await their return from the green. Each pack contains four comedy spheres performing the following tricks: we have the Unputtable, which jumps, skids and gyrates to avoid the putt; a Jetstreamer that ejects 15ft of streaming ribbon; an Exploder that blows up in a spectacular cloud of billowing smoke or the Phantom, which vanishes on impact into a watery mist.
Giant Golf Set
£19.99 www.iwantoneofthose.com
This super-sized golf set comes with oversized everything - ball, tee and club - making it incumbent upon you to dig an oversized hole for sinking your sphere.
We're not quite sure of the point, but you can work that out as you swing with all your might to launch the ball more than a few metres.
Chip Shotz
£9.95 www.firebox.com
Magnets inside the plastic pieces mean that with this set you can pull off the most impossible shots. One golfer, a few balls, flags, green, plastic foliage and a water hazard can make your set-up look pretty tough, but trust us, you can sink the almost