*NOW LIVE* - Updated Player Profiles!

[GolfSpy BOS]

Coming Soon - Updated Player Profiles!

**Player Profile Update is now Live**

Hey everyone!  Today I’m excited to announce that you’re going to see some new Player Profile questions going live.  We’ve made some updates to existing questions and added some more so that we can better utilize this information for member testing this upcoming season.

There are now eight questions around our golfer demographics:

• AGE: Simple enough, just a drop down with some age ranges.  I hope no one here needs assistance determining which group to go into here!
• SWING SPEED:  How fast do you swing your driver?  Broken down into 4 ranges.  If you’ve never been measured before you can use this as an estimate:
  • 90 MPH or Less – Average drive of less than 230 yards
  • 91-100 MPH – Average drive 230 to 260 yards
  • 101-110 MPH – Average drive of 260 to 285 yards
  • 111+ MPH – Average drive greater than 285 yards
•  HANDICAP:  If you have an official one, great!  If you have an estimate, great too!  This field allows you to enter your handicap as a number with one decimal place.  If you try to enter something that is not formatted correctly you will get an error.  Examples of acceptable handicaps are:
  • 6.4
  • 26.0
  • 0.7
  • And for the rare breed of “plus” guys and gals out there +3.2 will work as well.
• FREQUENCY OF PLAY/PRACTICE:  This should include rounds and things like range sessions, lessons, or outdoor/simulator practice.  As much as I’d like to call myself a “daily” golfer I don’t think I should include putting practice while on work calls as a real practice session.
• PLAYER TYPE:  How would you characterize your style of play?
  • Casual – Are you casual and out there for the sunshine, fresh air, and experience?
  • Competitive – Are you driven to compete against others, or working to shoot lower scores?
  • Tour – Do you compete on an actual professional level?
  • Weekend Golfer – Are you a weekend warrior somewhere between casual and competitive?
• BIGGEST STRENGTH/WEAKNESS:  Where are you strongest and weakest?  Broken down into Driving, Approach, Short Game, and Putting like you see on most shot tracking apps out there.
• FITTED FOR CLUBS:  This is a simple yes/no.  Are you typically fit for your clubs? 

Why should you care?

Your user profile is going to be leveraged heavily in the testing platform to be able to help everyone group, sort, and identify official member test reviews on these criteria.  This will help everyone find the reviews that may be of most interest to them based on similar golfer profiles.  Also, I think it will help everyone learn a little bit more about each other and our personal approach to this game we all love. 
 
Ok, so how do I update it?

Great Question!  First, you may be asked to update your info the first time you login after the update is made (I’ll add a post here when it’s live).  After that, if you want to make an update here’s how to get there:  

From the top of any forum page click on your username in the upper right corner of the page and select Profile.

This will take you to your main profile page and on the top right of your profile cover photo you will see an Edit Profile button.  Click that and a window will show up that has the profile questions there.

Two quick videos from iPhone and iPad on how to get to edit:

 

Anything else I need to know?

Why actually yes, there is one more thing!  Since these profile questions are going to be used with member testing this season you will find that these questions, and maybe even a few additional questions, will still be on the testing applications.  Fret not however, as your current profile details will be auto populated in the testing application!
Also, any updates to your profile made while filling out a testing application will be pushed to your Player Profile, so the most up to date information will always be saved there.

Comments, questions, or concerns?  

Sound off below and we’ll be here to answer them.  We have tested these updates in our test environment, but if you’re running into any issues, please let me know in this thread so we can make any changes needed! 
 

[russtopherb]

11 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BOS said:

Why actually yes, there is one more thing!  Since these profile questions are going to be used with member testing this season you will find that these questions, and maybe even a few additional questions, will still be on the testing applications.  Fret not however, as your current profile details will be auto populated in the testing application!
Also, any updates to your profile made while filling out a testing application will be pushed to your Player Profile, so the most up to date information will always be saved there.

OK that's pretty cool right there. 

[GolfSpy TCB]

LOVE THIS!!

[Bucky CC]

Really cool update.  At first glance everything seems pretty simple.  The only question that came to mind is how often you would like people to update their handicap?  Do you want it updated every time it changes; once a month, or just whenever there are large moves in either direction?

Thanks!

[GolfSpy BOS]

12 minutes ago, Bucky CC said:

Really cool update.  At first glance everything seems pretty simple.  The only question that came to mind is how often you would like people to update their handicap?  Do you want it updated every time it changes; once a month, or just whenever there are large moves in either direction?

Thanks!

Great question!  The simple answer is as often as you'd like, which I would imagine for some might be every time it drops a tenth and for others once a season.  The good thing is that you'll have the opportunity to update it when applying for a testing opportunity so it's as accurate and recent as possible there.

The goal of maintaining it is such that if you're reading reviews and want to go to members of similar overall skill level you can get there.  Personally I like to keep mine updated, but It also has been rather consistent as of late.  

[azstu324]

This is a dyn-O-mite idea! Love the constant evolution and striving for betterment! 

Cant wait to see what 2022 has in store for MGS testing!

[Kenny B]

I have an issue with Player type...   

• Competitive – Are you driven to compete against others, or working to shoot lower scores?

I don't see these two attributes as being the same and lumped into a Competitive player type.  I can see that one could view a person working on lowering their scores as competitive within themselves, but that's a different person from one that enjoys the competition against other players for quarters in a gangsome or tournament setting.

I am not a competitive person in golf; I was many years ago, but that time has passed.  However, I still strive to make improvements, and I enjoy the feeling properly executing a shot.  However, I do not view my Player Type as a "Weekend Golfer" - a weekend warrior somewhere between casual and competitive.  I generally play or practice daily.  

To me, the Tour Player type is just a Competitive Player type, just at a different level.

I would like to see something like this...

• Competitive – Are you driven to compete against others, and/or Do you compete on an actual professional level?
• Dedicated –  Are you driven to improve, and working to shoot lower scores?

 

[tony@CIC]

Great idea and follow up comments. How about location? I know that a number of members have listed where they're located or play - but quite a few don't. Maybe use a more refined(localized)  version of what @GolfSpy MBP set up in the 'introduce yourself' threads. Note - this would be especially helpful for those of us that have 'get togethers' , especially since member map is no longer updated. And if you decide to do this - also have an alternate location for us snowbirds. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

Personal opinion the handicap question being used for choosing testers doesn’t make sense. The field for strength and weakness covers this.

Theres low handicaps that can’t play a blade or even something in a cb style head and their handicap comes from not losing balls off the tee and a good short game while there’s a mid handicap who can’t drive the ball well but has length and has good iron game and ok short game.  Eliminating this and just using the strength/weakness is better approach imo.

Similar with swing speed. Only addresses one aspect of driver. Where is what type of spin and launch is a player, or do they fade, slice, draw or hook the ball.

[GolfSpy_APH]

20 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Personal opinion the handicap question being used for choosing testers doesn’t make sense. The field for strength and weakness covers this.

Theres low handicaps that can’t play a blade or even something in a cb style head and their handicap comes from not losing balls off the tee and a good short game while there’s a mid handicap who can’t drive the ball well but has length and has good iron game and ok short game.  Eliminating this and just using the strength/weakness is better approach imo.

Similar with swing speed. Only addresses one aspect of driver. Where is what type of spin and launch is a player, or do they fade, slice, draw or hook the ball.

Keep in mind that quite often several of these categories are ones that OEM's look for. Example we want/prefer players with these handicap ranges. Or we want to get several in these swing speed groups (super speed) so a lot of this is directly in line with that. 

The rest is for intros and reviews!

[RickyBobby_PR]

4 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Keep in mind that quite often several of these categories are ones that OEM's look for. Example we want/prefer players with these handicap ranges. Or we want to get several in these swing speed groups (super speed) so a lot of this is directly in line with that. 

The rest is for intros and reviews!

That’s fine but not including the kind of ball flight or spin has leaves out half the picture. Those categories aren’t even useful for comparing two players against each other for any reason. If there’s going to be some sort of swing/game criteria used it should be inclusive of all aspects of the swing and game

[GolfSpy BOS]

34 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Personal opinion the handicap question being used for choosing testers doesn’t make sense. The field for strength and weakness covers this.

Theres low handicaps that can’t play a blade or even something in a cb style head and their handicap comes from not losing balls off the tee and a good short game while there’s a mid handicap who can’t drive the ball well but has length and has good iron game and ok short game.  Eliminating this and just using the strength/weakness is better approach imo.

Similar with swing speed. Only addresses one aspect of driver. Where is what type of spin and launch is a player, or do they fade, slice, draw or hook the ball.

Thanks for the feedback, I think it’s a combination of these that helps understand the player as a whole. Looking at one metric alone does us no good, you’re right about that. 
 

but if I can see you’re a low handicap, with high swing speed, and your strength is off the tee, we can begin to see what sort of player you are. And I can see how you compare to me to see if a particular review you did would be of more interest to me. 
 

Also, I know a lot of people are proud of their indexes and want to be able to share their accomplishments with us. 

[GolfSpy BOS]

9 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

That’s fine but not including the kind of ball flight or spin has leaves out half the picture. Those categories aren’t even useful for comparing two players against each other for any reason. If there’s going to be some sort of swing/game criteria used it should be inclusive of all aspects of the swing and game

For certain tests, say a driver, there would likely be additional questions as part of the application that might go into more specific aspects of your game such a shot shape tendency too. 
 

The player profile isn’t all inclusive in that respect, but a general representation of the player and their game. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

11 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

That’s fine but not including the kind of ball flight or spin has leaves out half the picture. Those categories aren’t even useful for comparing two players against each other for any reason. If there’s going to be some sort of swing/game criteria used it should be inclusive of all aspects of the swing and game

The other thing to note is we get 4000+ applicants. The application portion of this requires simplicity. There will be several that don't know those numbers or data points. 

We can certainly look at eventually creating a more extensive player profile, however for what we need and require this fits. 

For future updates we will have these points written down and look at them. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

anyone else still getting the old format for questions?

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

11 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

anyone else still getting the old format for questions?

 

When the update goes live you will be prompted. 

May be early next week, but we wanted to give a heads up rather then surprising you with it.

[PMookie]

Awesome! Thanks, looking forward to using it throughout the year!

[RollingGreens]

Awesome! 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

4 hours ago, Kenny B said:

I have an issue with Player type...   

• Competitive – Are you driven to compete against others, or working to shoot lower scores?

I don't see these two attributes as being the same and lumped into a Competitive player type.  I can see that one could view a person working on lowering their scores as competitive within themselves, but that's a different person from one that enjoys the competition against other players for quarters in a gangsome or tournament setting.

I am not a competitive person in golf; I was many years ago, but that time has passed.  However, I still strive to make improvements, and I enjoy the feeling properly executing a shot.  However, I do not view my Player Type as a "Weekend Golfer" - a weekend warrior somewhere between casual and competitive.  I generally play or practice daily.  

To me, the Tour Player type is just a Competitive Player type, just at a different level.

I would like to see something like this...

• Competitive – Are you driven to compete against others, and/or Do you compete on an actual professional level?
• Dedicated –  Are you driven to improve, and working to shoot lower scores?

 

Bingo! My feelings exactly.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

One additional comment that crossed my mind. When there has been a testing opportunity related to putting training aids or a putter, one of the questions asked is putting a strength or weakness. If you chose strength you probably didn't qualify for testing. There should be more options. Like adding a "needs improvement" category. 

If you hit every fairway and every green in regulation and 2 putt every green you shoot even par. But you probably could use some help on your putting. That's 36 putts. 

[cnosil]

9 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

If you hit every fairway and every green in regulation and 2 putt every green you shoot even par. But you probably could use some help on your putting. That's 36 putts. 

But if all your approaches leave you 30 feet from the hole,  you are a good putter and don't need any help.  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

When the update goes live you will be prompted. 

May be early next week, but we wanted to give a heads up rather then surprising you with it.

thanks, made it sound like it happened today

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Just now, cnosil said:

But if all your approaches leave you 30 feet from the hole,  you are a good putter and don't need any help.  

Agreed at 20 to 30 feet. But what if your closer? I know my score would be better if I made more 6 to 10 foot putts. That's why I picked up a 10 foot putting mat during the holidays. I know my putting needs improvement and I'm sure there are others that feel the same way. 

But lets not get side tracked the point was to have a better profile for testing opportunities. The more detail within reason the better.

[cnosil]

6 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Agreed at 20 to 30 feet. But what if your closer? I know my score would be better if I made more 6 to 10 foot putts. That's why I picked up a 10 foot putting mat during the holidays. I know my putting needs improvement and I'm sure there are others that feel the same way. 

But lets not get side tracked the point was to have a better profile for testing opportunities. The more detail within reason the better.

Not trying to get sidetracked,  you can track these stats to the nth degree and eventually get to a point where most people just don't track.   What is within reason?  How much information needs to be tracked.  What if I consider something to be a good but you consider it to be bad.   If more detail is needed it can be part of the application or someone can ask during the review.   I consider this a first iteration and it can always grow if necessary but what is being asked is adequate.  

[Tom the Golf Nut]

14 minutes ago, cnosil said:

 If more detail is needed it can be part of the application.

That's what my original comment was directed towards.

[Peejer]

I like the updates and think it gives you a good way to select testing pools.

One thing you may want to consider is the golfing season for someone.  You can't necessarily go off of the location, meaning even though I live in Colorado, I play year round.  I played 122 times last year, and have managed at least once a month for the past 17 years.  Granted, January-February can be challenging.  I've traveled 2 hrs each way, to get to a playable course in those months.  But maybe add a field that shows the start/stop months for when they play.

-- Peejer

[GolfSpy BOS]

15 minutes ago, Peejer said:

I like the updates and think it gives you a good way to select testing pools.

One thing you may want to consider is the golfing season for someone.  You can't necessarily go off of the location, meaning even though I live in Colorado, I play year round.  I played 122 times last year, and have managed at least once a month for the past 17 years.  Granted, January-February can be challenging.  I've traveled 2 hrs each way, to get to a playable course in those months.  But maybe add a field that shows the start/stop months for when they play.

-- Peejer

I know that region can be a consideration and although I haven’t been part of selecting testers yet I know past tests I’ve been part of like Cobra Connect have additional questions and ask about time commitments and expectations as well. 
 

[GolfSpy AFG]

12 hours ago, GolfSpy_BOS said:

Coming Soon - Updated Player Profiles!

Hey everyone!  Today I’m excited to announce that you’re going to see some new Player Profile questions going live.  We’ve made some updates to existing questions and added some more so that we can better utilize this information for member testing this upcoming season.

There are now eight questions around our golfer demographics:

• AGE: Simple enough, just a drop down with some age ranges.  I hope no one here needs assistance determining which group to go into here!
• SWING SPEED:  How fast do you swing your driver?  Broken down into 4 ranges.  If you’ve never been measured before you can use this as an estimate:
  • 90 MPH or Less – Average drive of less than 230 yards
  • 91-100 MPH – Average drive 230 to 260 yards
  • 101-110 MPH – Average drive of 260 to 285 yards
  • 111+ MPH – Average drive greater than 285 yards
•  HANDICAP:  If you have an official one, great!  If you have an estimate, great too!  This field allows you to enter your handicap as a number with one decimal place.  If you try to enter something that is not formatted correctly you will get an error.  Examples of acceptable handicaps are:
  • 6.4
  • 26.0
  • 0.7
  • And for the rare breed of “plus” guys and gals out there +3.2 will work as well.
• FREQUENCY OF PLAY/PRACTICE:  This should include rounds and things like range sessions, lessons, or outdoor/simulator practice.  As much as I’d like to call myself a “daily” golfer I don’t think I should include putting practice while on work calls as a real practice session.
• PLAYER TYPE:  How would you characterize your style of play?
  • Casual – Are you casual and out there for the sunshine, fresh air, and experience?
  • Competitive – Are you driven to compete against others, or working to shoot lower scores?
  • Tour – Do you compete on an actual professional level?
  • Weekend Golfer – Are you a weekend warrior somewhere between casual and competitive?
• BIGGEST STRENGTH/WEAKNESS:  Where are you strongest and weakest?  Broken down into Driving, Approach, Short Game, and Putting like you see on most shot tracking apps out there.
• FITTED FOR CLUBS:  This is a simple yes/no.  Are you typically fit for your clubs? 

Why should you care?

Your user profile is going to be leveraged heavily in the testing platform to be able to help everyone group, sort, and identify official member test reviews on these criteria.  This will help everyone find the reviews that may be of most interest to them based on similar golfer profiles.  Also, I think it will help everyone learn a little bit more about each other and our personal approach to this game we all love. 
 
Ok, so how do I update it?

Great Question!  First, you may be asked to update your info the first time you login after the update is made (I’ll add a post here when it’s live).  After that, if you want to make an update here’s how to get there:  

From the top of any forum page click on your username in the upper right corner of the page and select Profile.

This will take you to your main profile page and on the top right of your profile cover photo you will see an Edit Profile button.  Click that and a window will show up that has the profile questions there.

Anything else I need to know?

Why actually yes, there is one more thing!  Since these profile questions are going to be used with member testing this season you will find that these questions, and maybe even a few additional questions, will still be on the testing applications.  Fret not however, as your current profile details will be auto populated in the testing application!
Also, any updates to your profile made while filling out a testing application will be pushed to your Player Profile, so the most up to date information will always be saved there.

Comments, questions, or concerns?  

Sound off below and we’ll be here to answer them.  We have tested these updates in our test environment, but if you’re running into any issues, please let me know in this thread so we can make any changes needed! 
 

Bravo.  Imperfect, as something like this inevitably will be, but to my mind a substantial leap forward in the tester selection process.

[azstu324]

17 hours ago, GolfSpy_BOS said:

For certain tests, say a driver, there would likely be additional questions as part of the application that might go into more specific aspects of your game such a shot shape tendency too. 
 

The player profile isn’t all inclusive in that respect, but a general representation of the player and their game

 

17 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

The other thing to note is we get 4000+ applicants. The application portion of this requires simplicity. There will be several that don't know those numbers or data points. 

We can certainly look at eventually creating a more extensive player profile, however for what we need and require this fits. 

For future updates we will have these points written down and look at them. 

What I really like about this is that this does make the process more of an application, as it should be.

For newer members, the testing is a tremendous experience! keeping the product is just happenstance.. the real opportunity is being an actual part of the OEMs decision making that goes into next year's line and you REALLY need to want to be a part of that change for that product. In addition, you learn more about your golf game in 1-2 months than most do in 1-2 years. Through the repetition required for testing, you are able to utilize that particular product to find and make drastic and substantial improvements. You're just in a different head space during the testing period that really allows you to lay out the mechanics of that part of your game and make any improvements as to get the absolute most out of the product to make a thorough analysis. Over the years, quite a few come into this looking at it like a drawing for a really cool prize. It's as far from that as anything.

Since my first testing opportunity, I've looked at this process like applying for a job. I've got a certain set of skills.. (and most definitely weaknesses), and feel that I meet certain profile criteria for "X" product so I believe I'm a good candidate. MGS is looking at each of us the same way. Does "X" candidate have the skill set, knowledge, and work ethic required for "Y" product? Will he/she adequately put in the time, work, and have the ability adequately present their work? Will they stay motivated enough to not require micromanagement? 

It's great to see that the application process is aligning more to an employment situation being that hard, dedication, and adequate knowledge.. for compensation is what we're applying for. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 hours ago, azstu324 said:

 

What I really like about this is that this does make the process more of an application, as it should be.

For newer members, the testing is a tremendous experience! keeping the product is just happenstance.. the real opportunity is being an actual part of the OEMs decision making that goes into next year's line and you REALLY need to want to be a part of that change for that product. In addition, you learn more about your golf game in 1-2 months than most do in 1-2 years. Through the repetition required for testing, you are able to utilize that particular product to find and make drastic and substantial improvements. You're just in a different head space during the testing period that really allows you to lay out the mechanics of that part of your game and make any improvements as to get the absolute most out of the product to make a thorough analysis. Over the years, quite a few come into this looking at it like a drawing for a really cool prize. It's as far from that as anything.

Since my first testing opportunity, I've looked at this process like applying for a job. I've got a certain set of skills.. (and most definitely weaknesses), and feel that I meet certain profile criteria for "X" product so I believe I'm a good candidate. MGS is looking at each of us the same way. Does "X" candidate have the skill set, knowledge, and work ethic required for "Y" product? Will he/she adequately put in the time, work, and have the ability adequately present their work? Will they stay motivated enough to not require micromanagement? 

It's great to see that the application process is aligning more to an employment situation being that hard, dedication, and adequate knowledge.. for compensation is what we're applying for. 

 

 

A lot along these lines we will soon release/re-relesse the what it takes to be a tester soon. 

As mod staff we are very open about how it works and what it takes. No secrets and want make it accessible for everyone to have the awesome opportunity of being a MGS tester.