Executive Par 3 Golf Game Complete with Electronic Scoreboard

Last month, creator “gcall1979” published a write-up on his putting game fashioned after a Skee-Ball machine. Instead of rolling balls up a ramp, you do the same thing with a putter and golf balls, hopefully propelling them to land in the top cup section. It’s quite the “why didn’t I think of that idea,” and while executed quite well, what was missing was an electronic scoreboard. As you’re reading this on Hackster, gcall1979 has now added an electronic scorekeeping system, making things easier and a lot more colorful!

For this new functionality, an IR break beam sensor setup is implemented for each hole. This tells its new Arduino Mega controller whether the golfer got a perfect hole-in-one, or a mere four-stroke bogey at the bottom of the scoring trough. A freestanding control pedestal includes arcade buttons to start a new game, another to select between one player or two, and a red button of shame for when you hit the ball out of bounds and receive a double bogey.

The scoreboard resides behind the cups, and houses two 4-digit 7-segment displays to show scores. A single-digit seven-segment unit used to display the hole number. Individual LEDs indicate the shot you made (ace, birdie, bar, or bogey), as well as if a new game is being played, and if there are two players on the "course."