Golf Expo Visitors in Swing of Things

You could call it club Nirvana.

The fifth annual Golf Expo, being held this weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center, is a high-tech paradise for dedicated swingers hoping to drive farther and putt straighter or just looking for few new toys to help them better enjoy their favorite sport.

From laser-guided putting aides to computerized golf courses, the Golf Expo offers a wide range of golfing gadgets for amateurs and professionals alike.

The three-day event, sponsored by the Southern California Professional Golfers’ Assn., runs through Sunday evening. It features displays by 125 purveyors of golf supplies, clothes, resort and golf course information, country club memberships and the latest in practice equipment.

Some of the stuff is small enough to be used at home, such as a battery-powered putting green with features that include an automatic ball return. Other pieces of equipment, on the other hand, are designed to bring the outdoors inside and wouldn’t fit in most homes.

One of those, taking up a corner of the convention hall, is a computerized practice machine programmed to simulate the world’s toniest golf courses. After the golfer hits a special ball toward the green depicted on a large video screen, the on-board computer determines how far and straight the ball traveled down the fairway.

It even comes with sound effects, like twittering birds, to complete the illusion.