In the hunt for the new in Google Earth content, here is another one that’s obvious after the fact as soon as you hear it: Google Earth-enhanced golf courses. Daniel Herring and Mickey Mellen are the guys behind golfnation.org:

Me and a friend are putting together a new site with golf course information. We’ve started in Atlanta (USA) and we’re going to slowly spread around to more cities.

There are a lot of sites that have this info, but ours has a twist – Google Earth. :) We’ve taken screenshots for every hole on the site (around 500 so far) and have a downloadable KML for each course that shows the course layout, hole information, and usually a polygon or two for the clubhouse.

They’re asking for suggestions as to how else they could improve coverage using Google Earth. As I don’t have a clue about golf, let me be bold: Sell GPS-enabled golf balls! And get Tiger’s arcing shots into Google Earth — if not live, then as a library of great games. And why not put those upcoming Volkswagen/Google Earth mini consoles in golf carts on a wifi-enabled course, so that you can check out the course as you play, or perhaps even fly along with your ball? Individual players on the course should definitely wear little GPS devices, so that course managers can better coordinate fast and slow players.

I’m guessing 3D virtual globes will need to get to the next generation before golfers can truly benefit, with a much ameliorated 3D mesh for the course, and also “real” trees. Or maybe there is money to be made today from add-on packs? Any suggestions from people who actually play?

(BTW, Mickey Mellen’s other Google Earth brainchildren? Google Earth Hacks and GEWar. And we know how those turned out…)