Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
The hardest part for the machine would be the intricacies of the game. How does it calculate for a spike mark in the line of the putt? How does it account for a mudball in the middle of the fairway? How can it judge what lie will produce a flyer and which one won't?
For example, if you took a hole like 18 at Hoylake yesterday, there isn't a way to stop the ball within 10 feet of the hole without a tremendous amount of luck because you are hitting into a pin tucked behind a front bunker with a hard landing area. A slight variation in the hook spin necessary to get the ball close could just as easily cause it to dive in the front bunker.
12 at Augusta is completely random. The wind patterns are, literally, chaotic. You have to pick a club and hope.
If the machine doesn't hole out with an approach shot (randomness) and plays no driveable par 4's, then the lowest it could score on a Par 72 course even if it one-putted every green would be 50. Assuming it drives half the par fours on the course, then the best it could score with all one-putts would be a 45. Bring in further randomness of putting and green conditions into the fray and that number creeps up by another handful of shots.
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These guys are basically presuming that off the tee, the robot will probably get within a few yards of the pin, which would eliminate most of these complications.
I don't think it will, and comparisons to tanks or mortars are not good ones. There's a huge difference between swinging a club at a ball on the ground and firing a shot through a precisely-rifled barrel.
The swing and the contact introduce a lot of random complexity. Even when you eventually get to the green, its not going to one-putt everything. This isn't going to be a perfectly-solved mini golf hole in an indoor control setting, the robot has to eyeball an unfamiliar green and give its best putt.