Upstate NY Golf Invention Joins Zoom & Amazon in Winning COVID-19

While the COVID-19 health crisis has created problems for many of us, certain businesses are experiencing a boom during the lockdown.

The obvious winners have been Zoom, Netflix and Amazon. Plus: delivery services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats, which have all profitted as food deliveries have soared 70% since this time last year.

At least one invention is also in the right space at the right time, and is paying off for a man from Western New York.

In the midst of the pandemic, golf courses have had to adopt rule changes and equipment updates in order to allow people access to play a round, while maintaining safety measures. One gizmo has made that a lot easier. It’s the Golf Ball E-Z Lyft, a unique touch-less golf ball retrieval device. It attaches to the flagstick and pops the ball out of the hole after you’ve sunk a putt (see below).

Roger Hood, from the Buffalo area, has a patent pending on this invention, which runs golf courses $500 for a set of 18, one for each hole.

Cazenovia Golf Club pro Dennis Colligan recently made the switch at his course in Cazenovia, New York. He had been using pieces of foam rubber (pool noodles) in the bottoms of cups to make it easier to simply use your putter to swipe the ball out of the shallower golf hole.

The E-Z Lyft may very well survive the pandemic and become a permanent piece of golf equipment and replace the act of bending over and using your hand to remove a golf ball from the hole.