Skip to content

Simple invention solves annoying problem in the game of golf

We all have pet-peeves, those small things that annoy us or seem unnecessarily complicated.  What if instead of letting your aggravation build up, you used obnoxious things in life to inspire you to create, innovate and strategize? Event for something like the game of golf. That’s exactly what Aran

Phil McKinney
Phil McKinney
2 min read
golf frustration innovation

We all have pet-peeves, those small things that annoy us or seem unnecessarily complicated.  What if instead of letting your aggravation build up, you used obnoxious things in life to inspire you to create, innovate and strategize? Event for something like the game of golf.

That's exactly what Aran Aleamoni did, when he created a simple solution to a very common annoyance in a game of golf.  If you've played much golf you've probably experienced having to work around someone's ball marker in order to make your putt.  Ball markers, even as small as dimes, stick up from the course and can impede the path of other player's balls.  Aleamoni had encountered this a lot because he worked as a caddy at a golf course in Arizona.

Aleamoni's invention is incredibly simple, but it solves a real problem so efficiently that it's sure to be a successful business venture. Aleamoni created a ball marking system that uses baking soda to make a mark on the grass itself.  When the round is finished, the baking soda can be brushed off leaving the green exactly as it started, but in the meantime the ball placement is marked with nothing protruding from the surface of the green.

To be an innovation, the idea doesn't have to be high-tech or involve a lot of scientific breakthrough.

Phil McKinney

When Aleamoni was interviewed by his local news station, he talked about how often people think of solutions to problems but never take the next steps.  His product, the promark ballmarker is for sale online.

Aleamoni's story is the perfect example of how great inventions don't have to be high-tech or involve a lot of scientific breakthrough.  You don't have to have special expertise or industrial know-how to invent a product that people will love.  Big inventions can be the result of training yourself to think differently about the little annoyances you experience in every day life. If you want to learn how to innovate solutions, please contact us, we believe everyone can learn how to think like an inventor.

BlogdesignHow TofrustrationgolfinnovateInnovationkiller ideapromark.golf

Phil McKinney Twitter

Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.

Comments


Related Posts

How To Think for Yourself When Everyone Disagrees With You

When neuroscientists scanned the brains of people going along with a group, they expected to find lying. What they found instead was something far stranger. The group wasn't changing people's answers. It was changing what they actually saw. We'll get to that study in

Protect Your Independent Thinking When Everyone Disagrees

How to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure

"We need an answer by the end of the day." Ten words. And the moment you hear them, something shifts inside your chest. Your pulse ticks up. Your focus narrows. Careful thinking stops. The clock starts. You probably haven't even asked the most important question yet.

Better Decision Making Under Pressure

Thinking 101: A Pause, A Reflection, And What Might Come Next

Twenty-one years. That's how long I've been doing this. Producing content. Showing up. Week after week, with only a handful of exceptions—most of them involving hospitals and cardiac surgeons, but that's another story. After twenty-one years, you learn what lands and what doesn&

Thinking 101 - Pause and Reflect