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Suburban Man Invents New Game And 'Club' For Golfers With Bad Backs

FRANKFORT, Ill. (CBS) -- A 72-year old south suburban man has invented a new game that's a variation of golf, but without the chance for a backache.

WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports Dino Kapadia, of Frankfort, has invented "walkolf," a game played on a golf course with only one club, known as a "drutter." It's a combination of a driver and putter and everything else in between.

The drutter is basically a pole attached to a slingshot.

"That is for people like me who want to walk around on the golf course, and enjoy just the beauty of it, and not to have the anxiety and the angst and the aches of the traditional game," Kapadia said.

Man Invents New Golf Game 'Club'

The slingshot at the top of the club is used to send the ball flying down the fairway. Kapadia said people can shoot the ball up to 100 yards with it. The angle of the slingshot can be adjusted for shallower or steeper angles. It also has two spikes on the base to keep it stable when using the slingshot.

The base of the drutter is a putter head, and the pole telescopes to the needed length for putting.

Walkolf also has another non-traditional rule: Once you get to the green, you don't have to get the ball in the hole. Once you get within one drutter's length of the hole, you're considered in – a gimme every time.

Kapadia said he invented the game out of necessity, after a friend of his invited him to a driving range, but he couldn't go because of a bad back.

"That's when I began to think about how can I still enjoy the beauty and the scenery and the landscaping of golf courses, without having to swing a club?" he said.

Kapadia said he's not sure how much he'd charge for a drutter, but it would cost more than a regular club because it's essentially 14 clubs in one.

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