FOREWARD THINKING LOCALS AMONG THOSE WHO WILL PITCH INVENTIONS TO THE GOLF CHANNEL.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

These are the people who think outside the tee box.

Darren Newberry of Granada Hills decided he had been sitting on his idea long enough. It was time to get off the bumper of his car and take action.

Bruce Stern of Chatsworth, an inventor by trade, thought he was plumb out of ideas until he drilled a hole through the handle of his putter.

Vicky Peterson of Westlake Village wanted to get her foot in the door with a concept for a new shoe. By the time she was done, she was singing a new tune.

Inspired to take things to the next level by a new Golf Channel reality series called "Fore Inventors Only," which debuts Tuesday, don't be stunned if Newberry's "Trunk Chair," Stern's "Plumb-Bob Putter" or Peterson's CD featuring a song called "Fairways and Greens" end up as your next impulse buy at the local golf store.

The show concept itself seems brilliant enough: What golfer isn't in perpetual pursuit of the instant-gratification gizmo that'll magically fix his or her game? At the very least, they're looking for something to one-up their friends.

Tapping into that built-in right-brained audience that represents some of the estimated 30million golfers in the U.S. these days that spend some $3 billion on equipment, the Golf Channel announced plans for an inventor's show late last year with some simple on-air mentions and a Web site posting. It received more than 1,000 applications.

The field was weeded out to 103 contestants -- including Newberry, Stern and Peterson -- who'll appear on the first three episodes, pitching their ideas to an "American Idol"-like panel of PGA Tour pro Fulton Allem, golf instructor Bill Harmon and Golf for Women senior editor Stina Sternberg. From there, the products will be field-tested and consumer scrutinized before the cut to a final five. Viewers then cast the decisive votes on a live Sept. 4 finale hosted by Vince Cellini. The winner gets shelf space for a year at all Golfsmith retailers, a fully-developed infomercial and $50,000 worth of commercial time on the Golf Channel.

Jay Kossoff, the show's executive producer, said the series idea came after a senior producer doing research stumbled across the fact that there were more than 8,000 golf patent applications placed in the past year.

"That's almost insane," Kossoff said. "But they're all made by real people, all thinking they had the next big thing. It just sort of clicked that we should start finding them and seeing what they had."

Some have invested just a few bucks into their dreams. One inventor in Canada claims to have already sunk $1million into his gadget. But it's not the money that matters as much as the pitch.

"For a lot of these, you find yourself saying, 'Why didn't I think of that?'" Kossoff said. "But what also is true is that simplicity works best. Things you can use in a living room or bring to the range tend to be the most attractive. If the panel has to ask too many questions, then it won't jump off the shelves."

Newberry's "Trunk Chair" wasn't a hard sell. The 37-year-old general manager of an automotive superstore, he was about to play a round at nearby Knollwood Country Club with his dad about two years ago when he started the normal routine of sitting on his bumper to change into his soft-spike shoes.

"I looked around and there was about nine others doing the same thing," Newberry said. "I said, 'We need some kind of chair so we don't have to sit here and get our pants dirty.' My dad said, 'Let's do it.' I jumped into the garage and started playing around with ideas."

Having invested about $2,000 so far on two versions of the lightweight padded stadium-chair seat -- one that rests on the bumper and hooks under the back of the trunk, and another that slides onto a tow hitch -- Newberry now sees this expanding to a tailgating crowd (with team logos and colors), or sold in a camouflage d(hrt)cor for hunters. He has a $39 price point for it.

"I've been getting good feedback on it," Newberry said. "The great thing about the show was that we were all able to network and find guys in the same boat."

Stern, a 51-year-old semi-retired sales and marketing man who has been playing golf for 30 years, has made his income on other inventions such as specialized flower planters, bird feeders and large water-bottle handles. His plumb-bob putter idea came from watching those trying to find a line between the ball and the hole by holding their putter up and eyeballing the situation.

Stern put a quarter-inch slot down the handle, so golfers could see the ball at the bottom and the hole (or the break on the green) at the top, memorize the line, then try to reproduce it with the stroke.

"My problem was the USGA said it has a rule where a shaft has to go through the center of a grip handle all the way to the end," said Stern, who then made a second version with slots on the outside of the grip and thinks he can sell them for about $99. "But for any average hacker looking for a better way to line up a putt, I think it works."

Among those hoping to quick-fix someone's game, no one else had something they could sing out loud for their few moments of TV exposure.

Except for Peterson.

The 38-year-old Agoura High grad is a self-employed musician who performs regularly at the Elephant Bar in Simi Valley and Azar's Red Robin in Newbury Park, covering songs by the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac, plus mixing in original compositions.

A frequent player at Lindero Country Club in Agoura Hills, Peterson had an idea for a modified golf shoe that wasn't much beyond the drawing-board stage. When the show's producers saw that she really needed a prototype to go forward, Peterson asked if she instead could come back and play this song she'd written. Returning with an acoustic guitar, she started:

"I've got tees in my pocket and Titleists on the floor,

Thinking about 18, and lowering my score.

The Zen of the Green balances the challenges of the mind,

And the links draw me back to a place of no time. ...

Fairways and greens... in my dreams, keep me awake at night"

"The music is a reflection of the rhythm and tempo of golf," said Peterson, now trying to put a compilation CD of golf songs together with the hopes someday of joining other golfers who dabble in music such as Peter Jacobson, John Daly and Luke Donald.

But does a song qualify as invention? Peterson said she simply opened up a dictionary for clarification.

"In Webster's (dictionary), it says an invention is 'something contrived, and produced, devised and made; something constructed by the originator that did not exist before; something framed by the imagination,'" Peterson said. "That inspired me."

That's just some more fore-ward thinking.

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Vicky Peterson of Westlake Village came up with a song for the golf inventors' contest for the Golf Channel.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(2) Granada Hills resident Darren Newberry invented the Trunk Chair, which attaches to the bumper or trailer hitch to help golfers more easily change their shoes in the parking lot.

Box:

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