Patent attributes
An apparatus for dispensing one golf ball at a time onto a tee, the apparatus includes: a frame supporting a collapsible funnel shaped hopper, a lifting housing, a lifting plunger assembly and a counterweighted tubular arm. The funnel shaped hopper has a wide upper mouth to receive a plurality of golf balls and a smaller lower exit port through which golf balls roll by gravity into lifting housing. The lifting housing receives one or more golf balls via a feed port and allows one golf ball to rest against a ball stop portion of the housing wall in a chambered position. A lifting plunger prevents the golf ball from falling further into the lifting housing. The counterweighted tubular arm is pivotably attached to the frame, the arm being biased by the counterweight to hold its dispensing mouth at an elevation higher than the lifting housing dispensing port. A golfer standing in a golf stance uses a club to manually pivot the tubular arm to a dispensing position where the dispensing mouth is at a lower elevation than the lifting housing discharge port and whereby the tubular arm operates a lifting actuator to move the lifting plunger so as to cause a golf ball in the chambered position to be raised above and discharged from dispensing mouth. The dispensing mouth is shaped to dispense one golf ball through the mouth onto a tee.
