Silver Springs to offer virtual golf, racing

Golf lovers and potential players of the game forced to compromise on their passion owing to shortage of membership in elite clubs with dedicated golf course can take heart.

Silver Spring, a joint venture company of the West Bengal government and Bengal Silver Spring Projects Ltd (BSSPL), has tied up with a Singapore based company to offer virtual golf.

Being installed over an area of just 300 square feet at the Silver Spring Club, the virtual golf course claims to be very real in a special way.

Golfers will in fact be able to take their favourite shot virtually created by the Singapore based company but without having to go for a walk around the course. In real golfing, walking is the tiring part, says the company.

"This however does not mean that a player can discount factors like the direction of air, its speed and slopes in a golf course, not to mention the obstacles like tree or water holes while taking his shot," explained Sanjay Bhavishi, director BSSPL.

"With membership for golf clubs in Kolkata being very difficult to get and costly too, golf lovers will have their full dose of fun at the virtual arena," he added.

What more, one can also choose the type of course, weather condition, the air speed and other finer details of the course to play on.

Once a player takes his shot, the equipment will calculate the force and the angle at which the ball was hit, measured with the virtual wind speed and direction and the obstructions if any in the course and come up with the location where the ball would land, until he completes the game.

"We plan to create a slot of 20 minutes for each golfer, and the arena will also have space for golfers to take their turn," Bhavishi added.

The club has also firmed up plans of installing a virtual motor race and a virtual biking arena for the young at heart.

"Although the motor racing and the biking games are more like in the video game parlour, these will have added features like the full feel of a motor car with a steering wheel, a clutch, a gear, accelerator and a brake," the director added.