Golf balls containing computer chips are about to drive a multi-million pound business. The balls are to be used in a new type of driving range that has greens fitted with sensors that can feed information on a shot straight back to the player.

It means that players can compete in practice without spending hours on a course. The first such centre opens next month in Watford, England on a 23-acre site.

The high-tech game, ideal for the indolent, took three years and £3 million to develop and the centre will cost another £3 million. In Britain alone the two brothers who developed the idea, Steve and David Joliffe, hope to sell franchises for 42 more centres over the next year at an average of £1 million each.