Game Golf -- the App!

[jdiddyesquire]

Let's start this off right. I have no interest in the Game Golf equipment. I have no patience for things on my belt. In fact, I hate wearing a belt, and, on a muni course, I frequently don't tuck in my shirt. Furthermore, I am limited on my golf budget per my wife. She's sort of like Gandalf in Lord of the Rings standing at the edge of the bridge.

 

 

With that in mind, I was delighted to learn that Game Golf was releasing their app for free. Using the location service on my iPhone, I could easily track my round. Or that's the theory anyway, I put it to the test. Of course, my wife asked...

 

 

 

We compromised. She went to Neimans with the kids, and I went to Northern Hills Golf Club, a lower tier course (read: pretty cheap). This actually worked out quite well on two counts. Number one, I received no phone calls while on the golf course. Number two, Northern Hills has very few holes where a ball is going to get lost. Thus, for shot tracking purposes, it's pretty great.

 

 

As for the app, it's very intuitive and easy to use. First stop, the landing "page" when you open the app. Click on "Play Golf", find your course of choice, pick your tee boxes, and start your round.

 

 

Once you're on the first tee box, the app will pick up where you are relative to the pin. You can "aim" on the fairway to check your distance. Game Golf, if nothing else, is a really easy to use phone based range finder. It's the easiest I've used (and it's free).

 

 

Now that you know what club to hit, click the + sign in the bottom left, and choose your implement of torture.

 

 

You've got your stick in hand, your phone in your back pocket, and now you're ready to hit. Those three dots next to the D indicate just that.

 

 

After you hit, get back in the cart or sling your bag on your shoulder, and find your ball. Once you're there, identify your club, pick it on your phone, and swing away. Once you reach the green you can either track your putts, or simply add how many putts it took you to hole out.

 

Once the hole is over, you get this pretty visual representation, both on the phone and your desktop, of where you went wrong.

 

 

As you can see on the first hole of the day, I hooked my tee shot rather severely. I was aiming for that place some people call "the fairway". All things considered though it was a relatively playable shot. I poked it back toward the fairway, easily carrying 40 yards further than it needed to and found myself in some trees. What should have been a nice easy sand wedge to the green turned out to be a nasty push. I saved it with a nice lob shot from the trees. Double bogey.

 

 

Here I am on another par 5, 660 yards. You can see the solid drive, missing to the right this time. I hit a knockdown 7 iron back on to the fairway, then a 9 iron, which carried the green into the bunker behind it (bladed it!). Through the online portal I can add a shots if I forgot them, both from the tee or around the green. Once the round is over, I can then dive into the data, which shows me accurate clubs lengths and where my misses are happening.

 

For example, I now know I hit my 8-iron around 165 religiously, which should (theoretically) allow me to have a pretty good understanding of what my other clubs will do. Compare that to my six iron, which I hit once off the tee, and my gaps look "about" right. I also know I'm missing long... a lot. I flew most of the greens I had a shot at in regulation.

 

The only problem I have with the app is that it drains the battery pretty heavily. I use an iPhone 6. I had a 50% charge at the start of the round and used it for no other purpose. I ran dead on the 11th hole. While with a 100% charge I could have finished tracking the whole round, I still probably couldn't have used for phone for any other purpose.

 

Also, of course, there's no way to determine ball flight. All we're seeing is where the ball started, where it landed, and how far those points are between one another. It's incredible helpful, but still limited. To really leverage the app to its highest and best use, it would require some note taking on the part of the player to identify *how* you ended up where you did. Am I 50 yards right of the fairway because I sliced or because I was misaligned or because I pushed the ball? Or did I fall short of the pin on purpose? Or did I miss right because of a bunker in front of the green? Etc.

 

Finally, what's it like playing with a phone in hand? For me, it wasn't *awful* nor is it *ideal*. I was riding that day, which meant my phone was in my back pocket or on the cart. If I forgot the phone at the cart, I had to go back and get it to mark my shot. I feel pretty strongly that the phone problem would be largely resolved by walking. The bag is never far from my side and I wouldn't have to worry about sitting on my phone, or leaving it in the cup holder.

 

Overall, I think the app is tremendous. It's easy to use, incredibly informative about your play, and useful during a round for range finding and hole layouts. Although I began the review by saying I would never consider buying the actual Game Golf system, I'm probably taking that statement back. I would consider buying the equipment, tucking my shirt in, and wearing a belt, if it means consistently being able to deliver this kind of data about my game to the ol' Google machine.

 

I highly recommend giving the app a shot. It'll either convince you that a game tracking system is worth your time and money, or the whole concept is an annoying hassle for you. For me, I find the whole "social media" aspect of it fairly absurd and useless. But the ability to compare my play over months, across courses? I'm all in, brother.

[Bogey in The Woods]

Wow. Thanks man. Made me want to give it a try this weekend. Thanks for the insight. 

[hckymeyer]

Very cool, might just use it a couple rounds to verify distances with mid irons and hybrids.

[Aotearoa_Brad]

This is fantastic jdiddy! I'm keen to try this out now as well - thanks for the great write-up!

[hckymeyer]

I spent some time playing around with it last night and setting up my clubs.  I was surprised at how few clubs are already in the database, but it's easy enough to add yours in anyway.  The app did crash 3 or 4 times on me just while trying to enter my stuff.

 

I have a feeling this is something I will remember to do maybe a couple times a round.  But even with just that little usage i think it's a really nice tool to help track distances.  I didn't use it all in today's round though because there is no point trying to see how far you hit a club in a 20mph wind.

[revkev]

Nice I'm thinking of giving it a try also.

[jdiddyesquire]

I spent some time playing around with it last night and setting up my clubs.  I was surprised at how few clubs are already in the database, but it's easy enough to add yours in anyway.  The app did crash 3 or 4 times on me just while trying to enter my stuff.

 

I have a feeling this is something I will remember to do maybe a couple times a round.  But even with just that little usage i think it's a really nice tool to help track distances.  I didn't use it all in today's round though because there is no point trying to see how far you hit a club in a 20mph wind.

It never crashed on me once. So, dunno. You on a newer phone?

 

I agree on distances. I would argue it's probably its best feature. Real demonstrable AVERAGE OVER TIME proof of your distances. I just wish there was some way to tag a shot with what my expectations are.... like...

 

I'm hitting my lob wedge with a half swing. So I can build averages for swing types as well as clubs. Ya know?

[hckymeyer]

It never crashed on me once. So, dunno. You on a newer phone?

 

I agree on distances. I would argue it's probably its best feature. Real demonstrable AVERAGE OVER TIME proof of your distances. I just wish there was some way to tag a shot with what my expectations are.... like...

 

I'm hitting my lob wedge with a half swing. So I can build averages for swing types as well as clubs. Ya know?

That should be doable. Just create a new club and call it 1/2 swing lob. Then every time you hit that shot select that club.

 

Since we aren't using the sensors we aren't limited by how many clubs we can have listed. That is my assumption anyway, I haven't tried it

[dhayse32]

HAHA great review!  My buddy bought the whole system and seems to like it, but he forgets to tap hit belt most of time so it proved rather useless for a whole round.  Just downloaded the app so IF the wife will let me, I will try to test it out.