The Scottsdale golf tournament is among the oldest and most important ones. But this year, Scottsdale got an unexpected successful participant. You can watch it hit a hole-in-one here:
The Launch Directional Robot Intelligent Circuitry robot's name is pronounced "Eldrick" — as in Eldrick "Tiger" Woods. LDRIC wasn't a proper contestant as robots aren't allowed in the PGA tour yet, but that didn't stop it from impressing the crowd and gaining beer showers from them.
The robot takes the wind and surface of the green into consideration before making the shot. The robot's purpose is actually to test golf equipment and thankfully for human golfers, there's no need to panic yet - LDRIC is built to also replicate the mistakes of typical players.
Golf Digest describes LDRIC as "the go-to device for equipment and ball-testing in the golf industry. Not only is its swing sound and fluid, but it can replicate hooks, slices and other flaws inherent to the average golfer."