FAQ
ForumDesigning the Perfect Club Tracker Software
Howdy fellow golfer,
Today is a special day.
We are officially kicking off development of our Club Tracker module. It will integrate with the Swing by Swing range finder to track distances of your clubs, and help you determine which club to hit while on the course.
Everything we do at Swing by Swing is driven by our huge community of golfers.
YOU.
In the spirit of community involvement, we want your feedback.
IF YOU WERE DESIGNING A CLUB TRACKER MODULE FOR YOURSELF, WHAT FEATURES WOULD IT INCLUDE?
After one week, we’ll pick our favorite response and give away a FREE lifetime membership to our upcoming SbS PRO club. It will include free access to every module we ever develop, along with priority dedicated support, unbelievable back-end golfing tools, and more.
To create your perfect golf software, drive the future of Swing by Swing, and enter the contest, just leave a comment below by answering the question:
IF YOU WERE DESIGNING A CLUB TRACKER MODULE FOR YOURSELF, WHAT FEATURES WOULD IT INCLUDE?
Thanks!
Travis
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208 comments »
I’ll go first!
In my perfect Club Tracking module, playability always comes first. Don’t interfere with my golf game! The ability to measure shots should be accomplished in just a few clicks. (I don’t want other golfers waiting on me to fiddle around with my phone…)
I’d like a tight integration between the range finder and the club tracker, so I can use the club distance information on the range finder view.
I want to have strong support on the website to include tools like “what’s in my bag”, “pre-round planning of shot placement”, “course flyovers of my rounds”, etc…
Now – YOUR TURN!
What’s your perfect club tracker module like?
What features and functionality would it include?
What should it NOT include?
What back-end tools would you like to support it?
As stated above it should be fast and easy.
I would also need a way to adjust the club distance using a real shot in a match . The tracker should then use the average of all shots recorder.
I love the club tracker idea and that fact that it will tell me what club to use. The problem is that everybodys strenghts are diffrent. Keep the club suggestion idea but then intergrate a box thats lets you input the club that you actually used. This way the system will be more personalized for the golfer that is using the system.
I would like to see a way to compare clubs. Let’s say I bought a new sand wedge. I would like to be able to call it soothing different so I cam easily compare it to the results I was getting with my old sand wedge. I would like an option for it to automated to reduce time. All I need to do is tell it what club I am hitting and go.
Greetings,
Great idea, but to keep it simple. Have a set up with estimated distances for each club for the user. Then use that for calculations on the course.
If the user sticks with the clubs recommended and the location of the shot is recored (one or no clicks). Then if there is a discrepancy between estimated set up and actual, provide a post game update function.
One issue is how to ‘not count’ duffs. Looking forward to this dialog!!
Cheers,
JeffP
I would have a button labeled “Mark this shot” if pushed it would hold that Lat/Long, you then hit what ever club you want and when you get to your ball, you would hit the button again (maybe change the name) then you would have the distance.
Finally I would ask what club you used which would be in a list of what is your bag (which is set up in advance on the website) and there you would have it.
In another place on the app (maybe a button) you would have a place to see the average distance a club is hit that is in your bag, all of them. This is your reference before you hit you would select based on how far your average is with a club.
On the website I would have the ability to enter what you have in your bag (14 only naturally). You might not want to put in a putter but you could, just couldn’t measure the distance with GPS.
I would NOT recommend which club to use based on the distance from the green or anything like that. Your average 5 iron may be 150 yards but if your going over water or some other hazard it might only be 140 with a 10 yard roll so you will end in the drink!! Let the golfer think a little too.
This should not get in the way while golfing. If you don’t use it you wouldn’t have to. If you did you would hit the button twice and enter the club and that would be it.
Hope this help.
Jim R
how many of us really know our hitting distance for a particular club? There is uphill, downhill, wind, bunkers around, etc to consider. But to the center of the green, other things being equal, the best “estimate” of the “correct” club should be an average of 10-15 previously hit shots during range practice. This average distance for a given club would represent the most likely distance we are likely to hit–on average. For me, i’d like to have a little module i could access that would compute these averages. Yes, it will take time to gather the basic info, and it would only require once for each club, but then we would have our own personal distance value for each club. Then, the program would call upon these average scores for each club for use in the program. I also think downsizing by one club for the front edge of the green would allow for roll to the hole, rather than the center, and if the ball goes to the back of the green, possibly necessitating a downhill put. For me, i’d like the program to spit out 2 clubs–one for the center and one front of the green taking into consideration uphill and downhill flight and bunkers to right and left of green. BTW, if you took lessons and got better, then there should be a way to redo the average calculations for the lookup table in the program calculations.
When using the shot link technology at pro events, capuring the lie as well as the distance is important to club selection. They account for sand, buried sand, 1st cut rough and deep rough and fairway. So, when using SbS computed distance, the lie should be included when suggesting a club.
Keep the data entry to a minimum and leave the computational work to your servers.
Fundamentally, the user experience should be as simple or as complicated as the user wishes (via operational preferences). Essentially I would like to be able to put in my selected club, hit the ball and the go to where my ball is and press a button. Simple enough. Once recorded, I do it all again.
My need comes after I play my round. I would like to be able to Keep a history of each club that I have hit. Times hit club per round, distance per hit. I would also like to keep track of this data so I can correlate over some period of the season round per round and across the season. This way I can either see what I need to work on (statistically). Even though we all know that golf is a head game and over thinking keeps me from hitting my best.
Entry of the club into the phone should simply be a number or letters to indicate the club.
Ciao
Rob
If I were to make this module, I would make it in two parts.
Part 1 … Club measuring.
This is a module for using on the range / practise area. (it would work on course too, but would only record one shot at a time) I set my start point and the club I am using, hit 10, 15, 20 balls, then walk to each ball selecting its end position. The module will calculate the distance of each shot via gps from the start position to the end position. Using a start and end position, you can get an accurate distance of many shots.
If you were to only use total distance from start point, walking to each ball would add extra distance and be inaccurate.
The average of the set of balls is then set as my distance for that club.
(manual input of club distances should also be available)
Module 2 … Club recommendation.
I don’t want to be pressing any additional keys when on the course. What is great about the swing by swing app, is if you don’t use the scorecard addon, you do not have to press a single button on your phone during the full round (and only 3 per hole for scorecard usage)
As the phone knows my distances, I don’t need it tracking them while playing a round of golf. (though this will still be possible for users who wish to do it this way as stated above)
I would then make the app show the recommended club in the top right corner where the yardage to green is displayed along with the clubs yardage. Additionally, the app could do a calculation, to give a percentage required to reach the green centre, this would be most helpful for shots under 100 yards.
EG
75 y
PW (110y)
72%
The same recommendations (club and its relevant distance and percentage) should also be displayed when selecting a hazard with the cursor on the hole map.
I would like to have the ability to change/reset my distances. Lets say that I put the money together to see a pro then come back hitting the ball 20 yards further on every club do to proper setup, I want to be able to make that adjustment for going forward. When I started hitting my 9 iron it was about 90-100yds. Today is was at around 150yds. This was a major change in setup and would cause a huge discrepancy in yardage. I really like JimReid’s ideas also.
If I were designing a club tracker system, it would start with measuring shot distance. If I decided to save the distance I would have 2 options: which club, and type of swing (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full swings). This would allow for calculating shortest, longest and average of each swing type.
I think ideally you want something which gives you your estimated carry rather than distance overall. This requires more effort in set up I accept but its fine saying I hit a 5 iron 185 ish but as mentioned above in current conditions there could be 3 yards of roll on that so its useless to fly the water at 170 yards. Likewise with greens softer and stopping much quicker than fairways a ball which lands 2 yards short of the green will often end up a lot further the past the hole than one which pitches on the short stuff. For me its not about how far it goes total but how far it flies that determines my club selection.
Most consistent golfers work up and down from a club that has a sure yardage e.g. 6 iron = 150 yds in normal conditions. The tracker should work to an input from the main user and then work it out from there. Also, i play on a windy course and that makes a huge difference in club selection – could there be a wind direction and strength function for the course (input by user) that the tracker would factor in.
A windage feature you can get to by pressing a “wind” button. Like two up arrows and two down arrows for mild and strong wind that would add or subtract a club or two.
In calculating the distance there are two factors that need to be considered. 1) Was the shot up or downhill. This can affect the calculated distance. 2) Was the shot hit well or mis hit. Due to lies, conditions or the quality that the ball was struck, I may not want the shot to be calculated in my average distances. If I am able to sort out these two factors, I would probably get a truer average of my shots.
Great idea, but try to keep it simple. Just as when you are mapping a new course have each user set up their base distance for each club in their bag. There are far too many variables that can affect distance of a club. A 10.5 degree driver doesn’t carry as far a 9.5 degree driver. A traditional blade iron vs. an oversized or cavity back iron. Hybrids vs standard clubs. Even the ball we use (we’ve all seen the commercials). Now most of us base our distance on what we do on the driving range. This addresses having to build an average distance per club/per user and recommending a 3 iron for a person who may have to use a 2 Hybrid. Then use that for calculations on the course. Add a caveat for us that addresses the problem with the driving ranges use higher compression golf balls or limited distance golf balls that take 10-15 yards off our actual distance so you might want to make the golfer aware during setup.
If someone takes lessons and improves their distance they can go in and edit their settings just as if they were adding a new club.
During play, allow the user to override the club selection based on the lie with an option to record the distance used on the shot. Then you don’t have to worry about someone hitting a 7-iron punch shot 50 yds and having that calculated into their average for that club.
This should not hinder or slow down play. If you don’t use it you wouldn’t have to. Look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Great idea. I have a sonocaddie and it is just great – however it does not help if and when the green is higher or lower. A tool to choose the club is just the thing.
“linking u’r gps 4 a club 2 club 2 green 2 putt”
Will it be legal?
NIco van Wyk
Sorry, kinda long, but I’ve wanted this for a long time.
You should be able to go to settings and select what features you want and have an option to “input online” for the all the features except club selection and distance. By doing this, you let the user decide how long he/she wants to spend on his stats during the round. Also, during the round, you should be able to click a button that shows all your clubs with the average distances that you have hit them during that round or the last 5 rounds. For duffs, just don’t record a distance – which means it won’t be included in your club averages
The hole should play out like this example (Par 4) – 2 different ways
First way – Probably too many clicks during hole:
Select what club you are using before the shot – Driver
Press start distance or yardage/last shot – whatever you want
Press end distance when you get to the ball
Select Fairway, rough, sand, green -> good lie (ex light rough) bad lie (ex deep rough, buried) – this will only take a second to select if set up properly.
Select club
Press start distance
Press end distance
Select Fairway, rough, sand, green -> good lie (ex light rough) bad lie (ex deep rough, buried)
2nd way:
Select Driver and click start distance
click end distance, select PW, start distance
end distance.
After the hole, click next – screen comes up with driver – Select Fairway, rough, sand, green -> good lie (ex light rough) bad lie (ex deep rough, buried)
Click next – screen comes up with PW
Select Fairway, rough, sand, green -> good lie (ex light rough) bad lie (ex deep rough, buried)
You could have this done before you reach the next tee box.
-To make things flow together better, you could incorporate the scorecard into this. Assuming option 2 – Right after the hole, select score, # of putts, then continue with the club statistics.
I like the idea of a club tracker. I agree with most of the responses. A average or range in yards for each club would be ideal. To often the conditions of the course are changing and your swing may change. Having a average distance for each club will allow for an easier club selection. While still allowing the golfer to account for wind, and ball placement, and green speeds. If we could input an average range of shots for each club and then be able to select the right club based on those averages.
I would like the program to record the distance for each club and to keep a running aveage. This could be over ridden as neccessary. The program could have an option to recommend a club or just tell you the distance. It would be nice if it had an asterisk to point out the degree of a hill – up or down. Distance to hazards and various points on the green should also be displayed.
I would like to be able to keep track of fairways hit and greens in regulation. It would also be nice to keep track of puts.
If all of this could tie into a computer interface to graph or tabulte the results that would be great also. It would also have a spot where you could make brief notes.
The program should be able to keep 4 scores on a score card and have a spot to keep bets.
How about a feature to add notes to each hole, I would like to add some notes about shot placement, optimal ball placement on greens based on pin position so I do not have to carry a notepad to track shots. It would be easy enough to key in while waiting for next shot. Also, should be able to click a spot on screen and select a club to track each shot and distance
I like the club tracker and my ideal is to do sometthing like the video games do and show a location where my shot should fall and let me change my club selection by moving the location to where i would like to hit it to. Sometimes you need to lay up a shot. This would help with that and as well as like others have noted to be able to adjust club selection to my abilities as well!
The main thing is keeping it simple or most will not use it. I would like having the club selection being posted next to the yardage in the upper right corner. You can make this module as specific and complex or simple and useful. I also think you will need a reset function as we get better and distances increase or we get worse and the distances decrease, God forbid on the latter. I think it should be designed with none or very few buttons to push. I have found myself disabling the scorecard for that reason. Looking forward to the end result, thanks for the hard work.
When suggesting clubs, there should be options. For example; pitch shot, bump and run, or full shot. It could also tell you to take a 3 quarter swing with this club etc.
Simple, Quick.
Only uses the last 10 hits so that as you improve, so do your distances.
Optional ability to record lie, distance in air vs roll.
Optional spot for notes. That way I could review a round and see how I did with my 7 iron. What went wrong or right. Maybe even a way to record notes after the round.
I like the idea of creating sets of clubs so that you can compare a new driver to an old one.
All great ideas above.
Need it to be on screen, fast and easy; maybe show 3 closest avg club distances, as the need to club up/down is necessary when factoring in elevation and wind.
Have a way to make changes if new clubs are acquired and what clubs are being carried.
Also have a tendencies option. Ex: from 145 out 85% of the time you’ve hit a pw, 5% a 9iron and 10% a 7 iron punch and with what success.
Keep it simple on the mobile device but allow for details and analysis on the computer back home.
PS: A community board. Show what clubs and distances other users are using, at what courses and elements (temp, rain, etc.) And allow some kind of forum or conversation board among users to communicate.
I’m sure this has been touched on in some variation but I would like for it to tell me what club to use based upon distance and my history of hitting certain clubs. To accomplish this we’d need to be able to enter what club we hit and then it would somehow keep track of avg hitting dist. with that club. The more rounds you play, the better tracking of avg distances hit w/your clubs. Not sure how to account for duffed shots, and I have plenty of those, but I’m sure theres a way.
Like many of the above comments keep it simple. When it shows the distance at the same time show which club is the best.
I would like to see the Club Tracker accumulate the distances of each club so I would be able to take a quick glance at the average distance I get from a given club. It would have an average on where the ball lands on the course. Left, Right, or center for each club much the same as with the tee shot.
Give me the option to touch into the phone, when I walk up to my ball in the fairway it showes me the distance to the pin from where I am standing in the form of a blue yardage marker. If I tap that marker It will tell me which club I should use. Now to find club and match with the operator of the club, have a seperate section that I use when I go to the range.
There should be a page at the begging of a round where you insert your honest average yardage per club you carry in your bag, this would speed up the GPS per shot on each hole. Also most average golfers are short to the green so honesty will help them reach at least the center of greens, a huge plus! The hole lay out should take into effect the elevations of greens and tees and carry distance of bunkers and hazards. The golfer will have to think how the wind will effect his ball flight unless you can also build into the unit real time wind with directional features, i.e.; head wind or left to right and so on.
The one major thing that will keep me fom using any “App-assisted” golf scorer will be time. If it takes longer than a pencil and scorecard, then I am less likely to use it.
That being said, first and foremost, all selctions should be options. (ie: if all I want is my suggested club for the yardage I’m at, that’s all that I should have to see / do).
Bottom line – no two hits, no two courses, wind conditions, roll conditions, grass conditions, weather conditions, mental conditions, golfer conditions are going to be the same. The best we can hope for is a very good suggestion on an average.
Many of the ideas thus far are great. Here’s what I’m looking for:
1. Ease – No more buttons than using the GPS. Everything should be an option if you want it to show up or if it requires more button pushing.
2. Might show up as a % of club (ex: 100yds for PW, 80yds would show 80% PW).
3. Possibility of adding an override (ie: I use a 6I instead of 7I) this would help keep track of distances for clubs.
4. User input for each club.
5. Give you the option (after a round not during play) to use average distance, last 10, user input etc. to update your clubs distances.
6. Along with the above, some type of over-ride to “not count” those annoying duff shots. Again, not during play, maybe similar to the drive or putt count screen.
7. Practice calculator – Allow me to go to the range and zero in my clubs.
So many thoughts and options. Good luck!
I agree it should be simple and not hold up the pace of play. a simple depression of a touch key should start the calculation from where you are standing and a second depression when you arrive at the ball should bring up a club selection from the club data stored in the program and show the distance from point A to Point B. After club selection it should be stored.
At the end of the round the user should be able to bring up a table showing each club, the longest distance and the average distance for each club.
If you wish to get a little more sophisticated, after several rounds of averaging for each club, upon starting a new round for every distance on each hole the program could give the distances and a suggested club based on the averages. For each round thereafter the suggested club would be updated by the new calculated averages.
I have been using SbS with scorecard for a few weeks now and find it excellent except it takes time to dial in the distance … small price to pay for the price i paid.
It helped me get an 79 today.
As i know what club to use (after determining wind and slope and lie), my only “like to have” items are:
1. faster distance resolution
2. move to next tee every time, when i approach the tee
3. allow me to enter club used for each shot and analyze and suggest club for next shot (based on no wind and flat fairway lie)
4. provide success stats for club used (every club used)
I mainly play Bushwood in Markham Ontario and i entered all four sets of tees.
My iPhone goes to auto-lock after 1 minute and i use approx 80% brightness. The battery reads approx 55% remaining after a round.
I feel SbS is the best golf tool (for the price) available today … period.
I also am really impressed with how quickly they respond to any concern I have.
Excellent business model guys!
The ability to turn it off.
This tool should be adjustible for each individual golfer. I am not a long hitter, so what might be a 8 iron for some might be a 5 iron for myself. Of course, it needs to be easy to use. I like a fast pace to my round. I don’t want the help to slow me down.
keep it simple. Don’t allow touch screen phones to change portrait verse landscape which wastes time. Estimate club to use but allow user to easily adjust up or down based upon their selection preference. It should be fast to select and move along in order to keep play moving. Stats later on should show how you played historically. Great work and love what you are doing.
Obviously the simpler the better, this is a great idea providing the player knows his or her exact yardages, could we not map driving ranges to establish proper distances to make the range finder even easier to use.
Great product all the same
Like most of the other posts, I would want it to be simple. I don’t think I would want it to give me an average per club, but instead I would want it to give me what I’m most likely to hit. For example, you may have a hit that is perfect to the sweet spot on a club that you normally hit 150 yds, but because you hit it perfectly, it goes 170. The next time up you chilli dip the thing it it goes 20 yds. Average that, 95 yds when you’re more likely to hit the club 150. Instead of average (median), you would really want the mode. This way the system can accurately club you a lot more accurately. Of course the golfer would still need to know the layout, whether an uphill lie needing a little extra club, in to the wind, etc. There would be some data gathering that would have to be collected by the system, but I really think once you got the system trained, you would have a system that could take a little of the guess work out on what your real capabilities are so that you can make faster, better decisions on what club to hit.
I suggest the following:
1. Let the user input his/her own yardage into the app for each of 14 clubs initially
2. As rounds are played, the app should statistically average the yardage hit for each club
3. The display should show the yardage to the hole, recommended club to hit, but allow alternate club selection as well
4. For ease of use, allow one tap to accept recommended club or one other button to tap for alternate club selection
My ideal club tracker feature would be like this: When you choose a hole, it should display a screen which contains:
1. A drop down menu to select the club you actually hit
2. The distance you hit with that club
3. A button that says: “Suggest Club” based on the distance you have from your position to the center of the green.
4. A diagram that shows a left arrow, a right arrow, an up arrow (for a long shot) a down arrow (for short shots) a fairway button (for straight shots into the fairway) and a green button (for approach shots that reach the green).
The feature 1, above would allow you to record what club you actually played at each shot and feature 2, the distance you achieved. The software will then use these recordings to suggest feature 3, what club to hit depending on the distance to the center of the green. And feature 4 allows you to dispaly statistics about fairways hit and percentage of shots missed left, right, long or short. This will help to analyze our game later on and decide what issue to concentrate on in the next practice session. I know for some people it may be a lot to track when playing a round, therefore it should not be mandatory, you could leave it blank if so you desire, but for some of us it is not that cumbersome compared to the benefits of recording your actual performance at the course and improve your practice sessions.
Looking forward to see the module rolled out!
Club tracker should be fast, so not holding up play, and be allowed to turn the function on and off if not needed on a well known course or if batteries are running low and trying to conserve. There should be shortcut keys for manual club selection or option to scroll up or down from app’s suggested club through list of clubs registered in bag in order of club’s average distance. It should be easy to use with indication of expected lie after hit with selected club shown on the rangefinder map of the hole.
Users should be able to enter known or estimated club lengths from either the website or smartphone app for each club registered in bag prior to starting first round, if desired, with the app using those distances as a starting point in calculating ongoing averages on distance. This average should be tracked over each saved round. If data is not entered prior to the first round using the club selector, the app should use average club distances based on user’s sex, at a minimum; but could include estimates based on things such as age and experience level, as well.
It would be helpful have option to track average amount of slice or hook with given club, if user opts to turn on the feature. The amount of hook or slice may need to be manually entered as an estimate by the user, as distance from center of fairway may not be accurate if one is aiming to one side of the fairway or other to avoid trouble.
It would be useful if elevations of holes could be mapped to help account for selecting up or down clubs based on current location’s elevation vs. elevation of green or expected landing area.
It would be really cool to include wind direction and speed from one of the weather websites in calculating which club to use and perhaps show wind speed and direction in the corner of the screen.
It would also be helpful to be able to adjust percent of swing strength to see how estimated next lie is affected for selected club on the rangefinder map. This could include information such as type of swing, i.e. full swing, punch, chip, etc.
A place for saving notes on each hole for each round would be handy.
So much for conducting business with a client on a golf course…you’ll be to busy inputing data….just like the user lays out his own golf course (if it isn’t already a pre-entered course), the user should develop his own distance selection club. Go to a driving range (would be great if ranges were included or you can mapout your own) and take 10 shots (adjustable user entry) from each club in your bag (that you want to record)…any duff shots you delete….take your time to develop it (garbage in will give you garbage out)……….as far as wind, lie etc…forget it you are not trying to develop a robotic partner in the cart……the golfer is required to have some level of intelligence to determine if wind is in his face or at his back OR go to the range when it is windy and put an entry in the driving range routine for wind…..chances are the weekend warriors won’t take the time so why give them an excuse to slow the game down when they finally put their beer down and get out of the cart to shoot…………….Simply, have the distance shown as you do now (which is great cause that does speed up the game) then just show the club that is recommended for that distance. If the serious golfer did go to the range when it was windy then have an adjustment come up to enter the wind speed (medium/high) that was developed at the range……….Lets not slow the game down…global warming is doing that for us
Sounds like a great project!
Would it be possible to not need a WI-FI connection so Ipod Touch uses can take this handy tool out to the golf course?
Thanks
Something like, at your ball click a button so that it records where your hitting from, then select a club. Hit, get to your ball and click to say that’s where it landed. Show those markers and club used on that hole everytime you play the hole
There should also be an option to have more than one set of markers per hole for different conditions (an input for course conditions -dry, wet, rainy – and for wind direction and magnitude – light, medium,high winds) or a different style of play (one for laying up, one to go for it).
Each time you play the hole, allow scrolling through the sets of markers by title (maybe ‘lay up’ or ‘go for it), and select your final choice. Then mark success, satisfactory or failure depending on results. This to give a shot percentage.
Then, using that data for average distances it should recommend a club for every shot, given conditions, so that you can use it if your unsure or if you haven’t played that shot or course before.
And of course this should all be a process of one-click options to make for no time wasted and avoid holding of other players.
This is not going to be an easy one… good luck. First, I would like the opportunity to input my average length of shot per club in optimum conditions on the driving range. Then input wet or dry conditions. Aprox wind strength to add or subtract a club, and the lie that you are in – long or short grass. As this will get very complicated and slow perhaps so these should be input before the round.
The club selection could gives the optimum and 1 up and down for wind, wetness and lie (perhaps on a separate screen).
Good luck with this one.
This is a great idea if implemented properly, and a great method for developing the idea by asking users for suggestions. Sorry for the long post.
There are three overarching concepts that should be employed in the development:
1) The user should be able to turn off all suggestions and club measurement functionality
2) The suggestions should be discrete and not clutter the screen
3) There should be minimal button presses during the round (button presses during the round may have a negative impact on your game)
Firstly, let me explain how I use SBS, as this would help in understanding my suggestions. This is from my perspective, and therefore other golfers may not agree. That is fine. I currently play once per week, and play of a 6 handicap.
In my buggy seat I store my phone and a golf distance card. The golf distance card has a “on the full” distance for every club in my bag for each hole on the course. The distance (say for a 5 iron) will be greater for downhill holes and shorter for uphill holes. I have just estimated the distances and the uphill or downhill effect (as a percentage). They must be reasonable in distances as I have been using the same card for two and a half years.
On any given shot:
1) I open my buggy seat
2) Get the GPS distance to the middle of the green from SBS
3) Subtract off half of the length of the green to get the measurement to the front of the green (that is also on my distance card for each green)
4) Select the club which ensures I get there on the full by at least a couple of metres. I would also consider the wind and the pin position in the calculation, but generally it is the shortest club that will get me there on the full.
For me then, a club selection (e.g. 7 iron) on a particular shot would not really be useful as I am not sure it the club would land on the front, middle or back and whether it considered the wind. I have tried other GPS software that suggests clubs, even with a “7–“ or a “7++” indicating soft or strong, but just doesn’t help me be confident (which is what I desire to make a solid confident regular tempo swing on every shot).
Now you understand my method, there are two functional things that should be included:
1) The ability to measure my clubs during a round
2) The suggestion of what club to hit at any given time (which may be different off the tee compared to approaching the green).
The ability to measure clubs during a round will be hard to do discretely. At the very least you will need your phone in you pocket so you can measure the distance once you are on the green. Probably the best way is to enter “club distance mode” at the beginning of the round which puts a number of buttons (one for each club) on the left hand side of the screen. The user presses a “mark” button at the tee shot, then at each new position, presses the club the used to get there. A “finish” button will be required to go to the next hole (or press the “mark” button again on the next tee.
All distances and holes should be stored in the phone. An analysis and club distance module (used off the course) should give the user the ability to see the average and the distribution of each club (together or on each hole separately). They then set what distance they want on each hole (or globally). Yes, this is fairly advanced. For me I would set the distance for each club on each hole, not as the average, but my worst (10-20th percentile for example).
For the suggestion of clubs during a round, a simple selection will not cut the mustard so to speak, but I have an idea which should work really well: Radial lines from the current point for each club. Therefore an 8 iron may sweep just short of the green, a 7 iron may sweep through the middle and a 6 iron may sweep through the rear part of the green. A tail wind may mean a golfer may choose the 8 as they know it is just short and the wind will be enough to get it on easily.
The radial lines do not need to go 360 degrees, maybe just between the current position and the pin (20 metres each side of the green) (like the RSS logo). To minimise clutter, only intelligent suggestions should be given (3 or 4 clubs only).
What is great is this same method could be used off the tee. For example, if there is no hope in reaching the green (e.g. par 4 or 5), put radial lines for Driver, 3W, 3 and 4 iron from the tee. The user can see the bunkers and work out if they can carry them or lay up short. The radial lines may need to be wider to account for doglegs and such.
Pressing the button on the fairway will yield one set of radial lines from the current position and one set from the selected position (maybe a different colour).
Well, that probably is a lot to read, but I hope you consider these suggestions in your development. Thanks.
Guy.
Who comes up with this stuff who ever it is this man or woman should get a promotion and the swing by swing industry is most definatly the best in the besness Keep up the magneficent work guys 3 cheers for swing by swing hooray hip hip hooray and hippy dippy hooray.
Wow! A lot of great ideas and considerations for the club selection project. Along with wind, lie, slope, elevation, temperature, humidity, sex, moon shape, age and looks of the beverage cart gal, etc., another variable to consider is the “beer factor”. I’ve noticed that after a beer or two, I’m more relaxed and hitting the ball pure. However, with none or too much beer I’m chunking and spraying balls. In addition to the club selection, perhaps the module can advise me when to have another beer. Wouldn’t it be more fun if a message popped up that told you to “grab a wedge and crack open another ice cold Bud”? Keep it simple and have fun!
I keep a written list of what distant I hit each club. I’d like the ability to input that information into SbS and then have it quickly displayed at the touch of one button when I require it. Have it from a point where your standing as to where every relevant club would land you if your aiming at the center of the green. Keep it simple, keep it fun.
I agree with the first statement “I don’t want other golfers waiting on me as I fiddle with my phone”.
The only thing I might require would be able to track what club I used and distance the ball traveled and how far left to the pin.
Based off all the previous comments, it would appear that this new app must be capable of doing everything (including the miracles).
I might argue to keep the first software release simple and to-the-point: It should be able to learn quickly the players data from actual course play and GPS accuracy is going to be challenging. The users must be able to input immediately after the shot, how the shot was hit (example 1/2, 1/4, etc) in order not to skew the data). It might almost be best to limit the application up front to having the user calibrate the clubs in some fashion wither through course play or driving range play to get full swing data to start and then let the course play recommend clubs for full swing ranges. I would get concerned that a partial swing data set might get corrupt after sometime and real club knowledge lost since partial swings are player specific.
Food for thought…..
Travis and Staff,
There are certain obstacles to overcome that don’t seem insurmountable. Would it be possible to cross reference topography software that would take elevation changes into consideration? Maybe each player could record their club selections over a few rounds to later be uploaded for analysis. Then he/she would have a good idea what club they normally choose versus what they ‘should’ choose. It would make this module much more accurate and useful in my humble opion. Keep up the good work!!!! Thanks.
The first thing I want in a club tracker is not necessarily club recommendations, but an easily accessible database of my average club distances. Recommendations would always vary due to wind, uphill/downhill, rough, etc.
First, during registration (or at any time), the user should be able to (or be prompted to) create his or her golf bag, specifying the clubs he or she has. The golf bag should be able to be edited at any time as should the names of the clubs (and maybe even more information like make, model, shaft, loft, etc.?)
While playing a round, there should always be an icon somewhere in a corner that is a link to the shot tracker function.
When the link is selected, it show all the clubs in the user’s “golf bag”.
The user selects the club used for the shot, then a button appears on screen to “begin recording”.
The user selects this when he or she is standing where the ball was or is to be hit from, and the device saves that location and begins recording the distance. A button appears to “end recording” or “save shot”.
When that button is selected where the ball came to rest, the shot distance should be displayed and saved in the application. There should be an option to “undo” that function in case the user touched the button by accident or by the wrong ball so that the shot would continue to record from the previously specified distance and the shot information would not be lost.
Once the shot is saved, it should be averaged with other shots made with the selected club, and it should also save the date, golf course name, and hole number that the shot took place on.
It should be easy to access the “golf bag”. When you select a club, it will display the average, longest, and shortest shots recorded for that club. There should also be a button to show all recorded shots for that club.
The last thing I would create is a “practice mode” option on the main menu where I could record a shot distance without being in an active round. I sometimes like to practice in a field near my house and would like to know distances to targets.
Simple is best.
A club recommendation is a great idea. So is the ability to find out how you hit your shots.
I think you start by having a “settings” prior to the round. The user should be responsible for entering each one of his clubs from driver to putter (14 clubs max). Allow them to enter four #s per club. Min distance, min carry, max distance, & max carry. The user is responsible for knowing all 4 #s (go to a driving range & you’ll get a good idea). They should be able to edit this info at any time. Even during a round. Ex – 8 iron min total distance = 95 yds, min carry = 88 yds, max distance = 125 yards, max carry = 118 yards. Do that for every club in your bag. During the round the ap could give you the 2 or 3 best club selections based on your bag. In my example if you are 120 yards from the hole, it would probably suggesting hitting an 8 iron at 83.33% power (120-95)/(125-95) . This gives you a feel for the swing you need w/ this club. And it should tell you the expected carry is something like 110 yds. Likewise, the second club it might represent would be your 7 iron @ something like 55% power (obviously the real numbers would be based on your personal 7 iron settings (the 4 #s for that club).
People can apply common sense to all else. If you’re in the rough, or there’s wind, or there’s a tree in your way, you’re downhill, uphill, ect… then use some common sense when you see these “recommendations” & tweak them accordingly. The app isn’t supposed to play golf for you. Just to act as a semi-knowledgable caddy. If you bog the app down w/ too much info trying to account for all this other stuff, you’re taking away the best part of the app – it’s simplicity. Plus holding up your buddies.
Lastly, you def need to add a shot measuring feature. You could do it one of two ways. When the app suggests an 8 iron or a 7iron, you simply slect the one you’re about to use & give you a CHOICE to hit a button called “mark shot”. Then you walk up to the ball & click “Stop marking”. In the background somewhere the app should track all these marked shots (if you chose to do so) & at the end of the round it shows how far you hit each club. In turn, this helps you tweak your club settings for next round. And if you didn’t choose to mark each shot, so be it.
But ultimately, I visualize the screen showing two or 3 club selections, total distance & carry for each one, then you touch the screen & select which one you are actually using, which in turn simply creates another pop-up option to “mark shot” or “do not mark shot”. If you marked it, then you walk up to your ball after you hit it, & click “end mark shot.” That then pops up 3 new club selections from your new spot & you do it all over again.
As long as you’re only hitting one or two buttons per shot, I don’t think it will make your round that much longer. Plus, you have the option not to mark your shot.
One more quick thought on marking shots in my suggestion. When you get to your ball & hit “End mark”, you should be given the option to save the marked shot, or not save it.
No one wants to skew their “end of round” statistics because they hit a 5 iron “fat” one time & it went 75 yards instead of 175 yards.
Just a thought.
When I take out SbS rangefinder to check distance to the hole I want to see a club recommendation based on my average distances of clubs.
Measuring club distance should be done with as few key presses as possible
Launch the distance tool
Mark the starting point
Select the club (pre-selected based on the recommendation from averages)
reach the ball
end marking spot
classify if the hit was good, OK, or bad
Averages calculated by Classification
I want to be able to manually update my average distance based on the calculated averages (displayed next to the club. If my hybrid hits are too inconsistent (which they are) I can choose to enter whatever value is reasonable.
Just make it simple. Don’t help make my very occasional 5.5hr round an every time event. I won’t carry or have my Iphone from the cart to the ball, especially on the green. I should be able to pre-enter my club yardage, mostly estimates anyway. Make a club selection with conditions – 1/2, 3/4, full swing, chock-down, punch. Enter go!, stop!, done! I can go to the website to adjust my round to account for mis-hits. Further, I can only have access to stats AFTER round completion, or at least after 9 & 18. Stats could include averages, long and short for groups of clubs, ie long irons, middle, wedges.
Greetings from India.
Another great idea. Would like to have some sort of guidance on club selection. However, the should be achieved with minimal interference with my game.
Along with the club selection, if an arc of play for a particular club could included, would help a lot in cases of miss hits. Would prove as an advance warning.
Regards
It needs to be as simple as possible.
i.e. do all the setup before or after your round, e.g. course conditions, weather, etc.
while on the course, it should be as quick as possible to enter data.
possibly use a wizard to enter data,
Select club (recommend club) –>
Select Lie (tee, rough, fairway, sand,etc) –>
Select shot type (punch,pitch, full, etc) –>
Start (from shot) –>
End (at ball) –>
Next or Finish.
the most important thing, is to not take up too much time while at your ball.
To SBS, great idea.
Good luck, as their are a multitude of things to consider.
Would have to be a simple to use app, otherwise it could ruin a round of golf. Ideally, I would pre-input my range for each club, then have the app suggest a club. I could then use that one (one press) or choose a different one (two presses). App could track my distances of the shots, and then AFTER the round I could assess if my distances were correct, and make any necessary changes. That way I would have minimum disruption to both myself, and more importantly my playing partners. Also, afterwards, I would need to be able to remove any shots from the calculations (25 yards with a three iron!) that may give inaccurate estimates.
Let me repeat, it needs to be simple and quick to use on the course, with any setup and configuration done before and after the round.
Forget the club tracker, I want a module that will find all the balls I lose every round!!!
The club tracker sounds like a great idea and I’m really looking forward to using it when it is finally developed.
The two main things I will say (which have been already mentioned) are 1. Ease of use … nobody wants to stand on the fairway looking at someone fiddling around with their smart phone when they are meant to be playing golf and 2. Accurate information. A way to input if you are hitting into a head wind or if you duffed a shot so the module will know to discount that particular shot.
I can’t wait for this to go live so I can try it out and be the envy of my golfing buddies when I’m able to find all my lost balls (erm, I mean track the distance of each club)
Hello
I would like the app to be easy to use..
My idea is that the app knows when its in the tee spot and therefore knows when the drive is beeing hit.. andcan therefore calculate the drive as when you stop the next time.. after you start walk after hitting the ball, the app should ask to tap when you are where the ball is..
thx for a great app..
Regards from Norway
I have read many of the comments above about club tracking etc and your club distances. As we are all amatuers I think that the idea of tracking your club distance etc is a good gadgety thing to have but not essential. I can hit my 8 iron anything between 130 and 180 depending on conditions so whatever the app says your average distance is your still have to make a judgement based upon the conditions right in front of you at the moment in time. That said an average distance in a practice mode would be good. But not in a competition mode.
One of the main things I think we need to get correct is to make sure the device is well within the R&A rules so a competition mode and a practice mode is a must. See below for the R&A interpretation of use of electronic devices:
As provided in the Etiquette Section, players should ensure that any electronic device taken onto the course does not distract other players.
The use of an electronic device such as a mobile phone, hand-held computer,calculator, television or radio is not of itself a breach of Rule 14-3. For example, the following uses of an electronic device during a stipulated round are not a breach of the Rules:
Using the device for matters unrelated to golf (e.g. to call home);
Using the device to access information on advice-related matters that was produced prior to the start of the player’s round (e.g. an electronic yardage book, swing tips);
Using the device to access (but not interpret or process) playing information from previous rounds (e.g. driving distances, individual club yardages, etc); or
Using the device to obtain information related to the competition being played (e.g. the leader board or projected “cut”).
However, examples of uses of an electronic device during a stipulated round that are a breach of Rule 14-3, for which the penalty is disqualification, include:
Using the device (e.g. a television or radio) to watch or listen to a broadcast of the competition being played;
Using the device to ask for or give advice in breach of Rule 8-1 (e.g. calling a swing coach);
Using the device to access information on advice-related matters that was not produced prior to the start of his round (e.g. analysis of strokes made during that round); or
Using the device to interpret or process any playing information obtained from current or previous rounds (e.g. driving distances, individual club yardages, etc.) or to assist in calculating the effective distance between two points (i.e. distance after considering gradient, wind speed and/or direction, temperature or other environmental factors).
That all said, I think that a Zoom to green view would be good, especially one which one can move the pin point so if the stick is at the back etc it adds on more yards.
A line in would be handy aswell so if you are off the fairway a long way (we have all been there!!!) then it would aid if playing a blind shot.
Lastly the addition to add new hazards/bunkers to the course. Currently all the course planners use google images which maybe several years old. For instance my club last year added new bunkers and took out old ones and these are not available on my course planner so I still have to sometimes refer to a handbook.
Hope this is useful.
Rich
there are a lot of great ideas so far. as for what i would do diffent is have a multiple ball tracking so i could track up to 6 or more balls at one time.
that way i could eather save time by going after twilight tee time starts, so that i can use more then one ball on the tee off. now u can track up to 6 balls, you can hit 6 diffent clubs our use one to two clubs and hit 3 balls each to get a better average per club so that way you know to use the 7 iron instead of the 8. other things i would have is voice comand with a bluetooth headset so you can get the info you need for your shot, or by a touch of a button it will give you the hole layout in a color picture that you can zoom in and out on the hazards ahead of you, as well as talking to you tell you what club to use and how far to hazards and the green. somewhat like your cars turn by turn gps. so after setup at home and on the course, it can be hands free, voice command, and just like having a pro caddy right there with you on every part of the course helping you on the hard shots and even the easy ones, lowering your scores and winning more games with you friends.
hope you like my ideas on a perfect club tracker would be.
thank you , james
For me I would go the whole hog and have the program suggest clubs based on selected tee distance to the centre of the green based of user club distance as measured by the user.
This would allow the user to use or discard the suggestion based on weather and actual course hazards depending on how teh course is playing. This would be invaluable to new golfers to learn course managment and club distances.
Also some way of updating the maps to graphic as opposed o google maps which are only acurate at the time of the picture being taken as is the case on my course where it has had some major changes regarding hazards
As stated before me all functions should only be available in Practice mode and all features should be clearly confirmed as to being legal with the R&A with appropriate disclaimers.
I agree with all of the suggestions i.e. fast, easy, facility to change distances, takes swing into account i.e. 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full swing. This is a feature I would love to have and I have been requesting this from numerous manufacturers, including Swing by Swing. However not to spoil the party, when in contact with various manufacturers, I was told that it is against USPGA / R&A rules to have a device which recommends club selection. Hopefully this is not the case, and if it is that Swing by Swing can find some loop hole to jump through. Can someone find out what the official position is on devices which suggest club selection?
All i want to be shown on the screen is a simple arcing line (with the suggested club on it somewhere) showing where my 9 iron or whatever i am hitting is going to land. This way if i pull it or push it i will have a decent idea of where my shot is going to end up, not just if i flush it. Also the option to quickly go forward and back club selection to explore other ways of playing the hole, ie laying up, or going long to avoid a hazard etc.
A lot of good ideas above on how to get your actual club yardages into the system. I think using GPS to start and then hitting balls and marking how far that club went is the best idea. Then the app can recommend that club to me once i save it.
I don’t think it needs to accommodate for wind, lie or slopes. You can work that out quite simply yourself.
I would like the ability to place the pins (on the green) for the day. then be able to place a range circle of my choice for my favourite club, say 90 yards from all the pins; then i want to be able to pick a spot on the circle to hit to. So as I approach the green, my range to that spot will be known and then I will be able to select or the app will be able to recommend a club for me to use based on my personal club range database.
Knowing the depth of the green and the pin placement is important to me. Break the placement down by 6 zones front middle back right and left. Then I would want to factor a hard or soft ground and green condition. Other then that I am good to go.
Bob
I think that a stat recorder for the club tracker would be very helpful. Given that there are many similar par 4′s on one course, recording your percentage under or over par for when the same two or three clubs are used to reach the green would be a great learning tool. It would certainly help me determine which clubs I would be better off hitting on a short par 4 or a long par 5. Recomended clubs could pop up given the par and distance of the hole based on your previous success or failure when hitting certaian clubs.
This is a fantastic tool to begin with, so thanks for striving to make it even better!
Great idea guys!!!
I think the club tracker should have the option of putting what type of lie that you might have, however this should be just an option as it can sometimes take a long time to decide what u would call the grass your ball has landed by.
Thanks!
I personally wouldn’t use the lie feature, as that plays more into keeping track of your round, rather than club distance…
I would use the tracker feature like this:
– walk up to the tee, switch software to the current hole (if not done already), tap ‘Tracker’, select club, tap ‘Track’…
– hit the ball, walk to ball, bring up software, tap ‘Tracker’, it should bring up screen that shows shot distance of current club (for giggles) and a club selector to pick next club and then click ‘Track’, software goes away…
– rinse, repeat, as needed.
– offer a ‘Cancel’ feature as well as they may forget to bring up software before heading to next hole (or not have time) and distance would be compromised.
The main thing I want to do when on the course is … select club, hit ball, walk to ball, check distance (of previous shot, for giggles, and next shot), select club, repeat.
If you get any more complicated, then you have to monitor which stroke the player is on, what if they forget to come back in and select the next club? etc… if the player wants to track clubs, they need to click “Tracker –> Begin” on a new hole or “Tracker –> Next” on a subsequent shot. They aren’t required to track every shot and if they move to next hole, it should just forget about the currently tracked shot, as they will more than likely be walking to the next hole already and distance would be compromised. If you start monitoring lies, you get into round tracking again and personally, I’m not into that… although I would maybe use a program like that if it were easy, but I haven’t found that one yet.
I do like the screen shot above where you show the club in the distances on the screen based on the tracked distances.
Thanks
Rocky
First-Please make it available for the Droid phones! I just changed from my BB Storm to a Droid X and miss Swing by Swing!
Ease of use is always key.
Showing past shots played on a course could be good to help make better decisions during your current round.
Playing conditions (extreme wind, rain, soggy, desert dry) are a must! The course was sooo dry in my last round that I hit a five iron 230 yards!!!! Aberrant shots like that need to taken into account.
To the point. The features should allow for each individual to enter his or her yardages for each club and what club that might be (be specific instead of lob wedge it would be better to put 60 deg, or 64 deg). Secondly you should be able to tell the ap if you are left or right handed (this will be important for the next feature). Thirdly if a shot says 6 iron and your 6 iron yardage is 185-195, and you are a right handed player a hatched area on the screen should show a diagnal “window” of say 15 yards to either side of the target. This diagnal line would be an approximation but it would show where the ball will land if you miss the by slicing it or drawing it so it would look like \ \ because a draw would be longer than a fade and for a right handed golfer that would mean the farther left you hit it the farther the ball would carry. I think this is important to show because when I look at an aim point I am setting up for a certain shot (draw or Fade), so I want to have some approximation of what happens if I over cook a draw or turn a fade into a slice. Thanks for the hard work on this. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
A wish list but also trying to be realistic – With there being so many variables it might be easier to make suggestions based on knowing the software capabilities. My ideas would be as follows: Having a basic a option that would allow one to enter a club and next take a shot. Go to shot and hit a button that would mark the shot. Just as handicaps are established, this function should create the average distance for a particular club. Of course it would be nice to indicate a club based on lie but this could get really detailed and time consuming. As for the wind, it would be nice to have a small image of some sort to show the direction of North or a basic compass. Online weather reports show wind speed and direction > Sure it would be great to show this on screen. Now, for the elevation of greens, tee boxes and fairways – There are topographical maps online that could be linked to the program to show elevations. I would be nice to have the club suggestion reflect this but really not necessary if you are aware of the elevation. One thing I would like to see in the Swing-by- Swing program is the option to plot a course as you are playing it to allow more accurate plotting.
I totally agree that you can get carried away with detail regarding the lie feature, however 3 options would b avalible as follows; fairway, semi-rough & rough. I think the lie can determintes the contact you make with the ball and therefore influincing the distance.
Another feature I think that should be considered is a GPS feature that has a number of “big” courses already plotted but also as covered above by Rodger the ability to plot your local course.
Thanks!
Didn’t take the time to read all of the responses… so this may be a duplicate.
Seems like it should be pretty simple interface that you can use during your golf round. This would make the tool have the advantage of being able to get true distances, as well as be able to give you information about how well you hit each club. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to mark the fairways so that the GPS can determine whether your shots are in the fairway or not.
Before every shot you click the menu button and hit “Record Shot”.
It would prompt for Club and Lie at minimum – other variables could be controlled by “golf round options”, or a “detail” menu item (uphill, downhill, punch, obstacle, etc.)
If fairways were marked, this action would add the benefit of knowing where the previous shot landed… the downside is that it would require you to carry your phone to the shot… so you may have to account for people that leave their phone in the cart while making a shot.
If you simply record all of the shots on your servers, then you can run all kinds of statistics about each club… however, I would shy away from “suggesting” a club.. unless it was just the “default” presented for each shot – knowing distance to green and your average club distances..
I hope that all makes sense..
And… by recording each shot on the course, you would be able to keep this information on your servers to be able to look back through the round after you’ve played it.
Martin the “Tin Man”
Now THAT is a GREAT feature! I agree as well.. when I play in scrambles with some of my regulars, they help “regulate” my consumption in just that way… 1 beer per 3-5 holes depending on conditions and speed of play!
Some really great ideas here everyone, cheers!
Everyone has different ideas about what the right club is for any shot on the course. Some like to open up a lofty iron and some like to use a 85% shot with an under club. I really like the idea of entering your own yardage for each club then having the system use that info. The “Mark the shot” idea is something that other range finders do have. (Droid phone uses the pin but no hole diagrams)
Can’t wait for the new feature
James
I would like to see an option , say your at the midway point between 100 and 125, three club options come up, you pick the one your gut tells you, punch it in and the system remembers what club you used at what yardage for a personalized feel, the next time you stop at that yardage , the SBS module shows you the club you used the last time you hit from that yardage.
I would like to “mark a shot” and find the distance that i hit that shot. also the club i used would be nice if added. My predicament is, sometimes on other apps. i find that i hit a shot and if i didn’t hit the “mark a shot” button i can’t track back to where i approx. hit the shot and get the distance from there. as an example, sometimes my drive ends up farther than where i expected, and it would be nice to know the distance from the teeing area still even if i didn’t hit the button from the start. could you mark the shot and backtrack back to the tee box (or approx. area) by moving a line with your finger on the map back?
my request might be not explained right, but if you email me, i’ll try to explain better.
Tnx, Mike
I think this is very difficult going so far down on the list as so many good ideas have been taken. To me above all else, it needs to be easy anad a few clicks. As one of the earliest people said you dont want your group or worse yet people behind you waiting. I would also like to see a learn feature. We all think we hit a club a certain distance, but that changes over time or season. I would love to see our distances recorded, and possibly interface weather to impact which club you should use. I dont know if this is possible or mentioned already but maybe a plays like feature and also, and I do beleive I did see this already a type of shot feature. So if you are recording your shots you could also record how far you punch a 7 iron, and how far you swing a 7 iron.
- enter club, club speed (1-11, 11 being a ‘kill shot’) and lie when/where shot
- ‘mark’ ball where landed, and display two buttons: 1) track shot 2) track shot and distance. This allows you to still store data for the round, but allows you to opt out of adding the shot to the club distance algorithm in case it wasn’t an ideal shot. A third option might be to ignore the shot altogether.
Keep it simple. Have the user enter the distances they hit their clubs in the set-up page. When using the GPS give the yardage and the club that would match the distance. THe player can then club up or down depending on pin placement, wind, lie, etc. Give the option to mark a spot on the course where the shot was taken and where it ended up just so the player can tweak their yardage chart as needed.
I would like to see this function also give players advice on the preferred play (where and how: lay-up, punch, play this ball like Phil (gamble) or Vijay (minimize risk), effectively becoming a virtual caddy. Depending on how the function is setup, users then could rate whether the advice was beneficial or not and become a social network linking players who know courses and those just learning, which could vastly reduce frustrations in learning the game, therefore increasing the interest in actually playing the game rather than watching and saying, I wish I could hit the ball like …
I like the idea of offering a recommended club to track your averages, but it should be a 1 or 2 click option. The data could help ypu get you average yardages, but it should have an over-ride. Sometimes I will use my 5 iron to bump and run from the fringe. I also like the idea of a mulligan button.
in the perfect world (in the future) my golf bag would be electronically connected to my golf bag to act as a caddy. It would automatically pick the club I should hit (with an override button obviously for the times im feeling extra strong) and send a signal to my bag to slide out the preferred club from a specified slot…THE ELECTRONIC CADDY!
After reading some of the great ideas, I agreed with most. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to read through them all. One suggestion that I have is to somehow consider the exhaustion factor. Yes a beer or two or three can perk a guy up but after 9, 10, 15 holes (especially, if you are walking) a person begins to tire which will obviously have an affect on one’s game. Could “the ELECTRONIC CADDY” help with that?
Will the proposed club tracker help me “track” the clubs that my teenage son leaves at the driving range, by the green, or in the clubhouse?
Most of us know how far we hit each club. The fine tuning is in the difference between a normal shot versus choking up on the grip or gripping the club way at the end for a little bit longer shot.
When you are faced with a certain distance it would be cool to know the “other” yardages the way the pro’s do.
‘Soft’ 8 iron 147
Normal 8 iron 150
‘Hard 8 iron 153
This is presuming that you have the ability to program SBS for which shot you hit.
Made my comments know above but after reviewing some of the comments and suggestions, I have to add more to what i said before.
1. Several comments on duff shots and shots you don’t want to count. In my recommendation you click on ‘Measure this shot”, hit the ball and walk to where it is and hit the button again to get the distance. If you don’t hit the button the second time you don’t record the distance and that shot is eliminated.
2. Club selection. You should always be able to go to a screen that has your averages per club. so if you standing 175 yard out, you can look at all the clubs listed and see if you need a 5I or a 5W depending on the averages of your recorded shots.
Obviously if you don’t click on the ‘measure this shot’ button you won’t be using this feature so it would be out of the way. I agree that if you don’t use it keep it out of the way.
Just last minute things.
I would also like to see that we could edit our rounds on the webpage also, Setup what is in our bag (what equipment) and view our average distances for each club. I would also like on the web page to be able to go back to old rounds and either delete them or modify them any way I want and have them recalculate the scores. Several times I have run out of batter life before finishing and finished on paper hoping to put in the scores on the website. Luckily I could do it on the phone when it got charged but it would be easier on the website if it was available.
Finally, could we have the same userid and password on all contacts with SBS? The club house has one and the main website has another. This gets confusing after awhile and then you forget which is which and which is for the phone app.
Thanks for a great product.
Jim
Simple and quick, one click before your shot and while standing over your ball. As said above, I wouldn’t use one or want to play with someone that would require alot of fiddeling.
Something that you could track online and print (I like holding results). That’s about it, just easy to use and see.
Thanks for the opertuinity to share.
I want the club tracker to track clubs on each course that I play. For example, a 7 iron used at sea level will be used at altitude (i.e. Vegas). Also like to track success of club (I.e. On green in regulation)
I’ll bring up bunkers, my sand game is pretty good but I would love to know the depth of all bunkers. My reasoning for this is that I’m the kind of golfer that likes to take chances and flirt with hazards and others dangers on the course. If I knew the fairway bunker on the right side was deep, I would choose a different club. But if it isn’t too deep I’ll take my chances. As well as green side; I’ll attack the pin if I know that the bunker isn’t very deep.
You read my mind with the club selection guide. I keep trying to refer to websites for some guidance but I think it will take sometime before I know for sure what to select. I’m assuming this app would require us to manually input what we hit for which distance and the conditions? Then it would store it for future similiar shots..
I have red comments from 1to 100 and they all sound great but no one taught about putting tea stops along the course for. Swing by swing golfers to tee on
This is what I would like
a – Have a club measurement function that is outside the game. Basically if I want to calculate distances for pitch shots etc I can hit a ball and then walk to it and measure the distance.
b – When I am playing I should be able to pick very easily the club I am hitting on that shot. I should have the ability to ignore shot (for e.g. if I chunked it I don’t think that shot should get counted for averages etc). I would like the ability to look up the average distance and the individual distances for each club
Also when I have at least X shots with the club, it should at the top corner recommend a club based on the distance. As a golfer I can account for the slope wind etc and decide on what I want to use
It also should record direction to show if I am slicking or hooking (and how badly I am doing it). Maybe a visual.
I would say the perfect addition would be an estimator for the number of beers required per hole based off of the ama estimate for moderate to heavy drinkers keep em straight and cold!!!!
Inevitably there will have to be loading screens. There should be either tips and tricks associated with the previous or upcoming club, or funny blurbs about golf to keep the mood light if the player is having a rough day.
It could also provide a ball type suggestion based on the players information such as skill level, gender, budget, etc.
A scorecard feature is well needed for people like me who constantly forget to grab. One in the clubhouse.
Lastly, we must not forget nutrition. How about a restaurant locator so the winner can take the loser out for a drink and some lunch, or vise versa.
Uphill and downhill lies.
I would also like my phone’s battery to last the round!
Telling me to hit a 5 iron for 150 yards is really asking a lot. I am know to hit 150 with a 5 but I have also hit 120 and 160. The point being having a tool like a club tracker for average users that gives suggestion based on PGA standards is useless.
I would like to see this tool in two parts – Shot Tracker and Club Suggestion.
As suggested in a previous post there should be a way to measure and maintain the users shots. This will build a database of the range the user can hit with a specific club. This information will build/mature over time.
The second part will simply use the information from the above tracking to suggest a club for the distance. Now in the beginning this will be providing the standard suggestions but over time you will start seeing custom recommendations based on the users game.
Another component that can be added to this is tracking user performance on the same/frequently played course. I have noticed that as I get more familiar with a course I hit better shots! Since we have the capability to store where the user is hitting the shots from this particular piece of information can be stored and used to give even more customized club suggestions.
The greatest gift to have in golf is consistency, so if the app could also calculate wind speed and diirection, this would be useful when playing into a 3 club wind!
above all, simplicitity is needed!
).
after that, for all the factors above if ‘simplicity’ and ‘readability’ can not be achieved some controls to allow for ‘less logic’. let’s not worry so much about lie conditions, elevation, etc. and let the golfer know if he should ‘club up/down’. (you can always use an exclamation mark as a footnote
and…i really want the lifetime prize!!!
If you do end up using a “shot tracker” to do this (which I completely agree with), you should probably use a 5-yard statistical mean instead of a straight average (and include a weighted “default distance” that the user can specify) … so that all of the “duffs, punches, etc” are all ruled out in any recommendations, but the strokes still count on the card. Ultimately, it should do both functions… fill out the score card as you go, and record the shots/clubs/distances/coordinates that you hit.
It would be interesting if Swing by swing showed your hadicap and the course slope and rating to identify or suggest the tee’s the golfer should play from based on the length and hardness of the course. Or a pro comment tip for the length of shot and hazards on the hole.
We all hit the ball with different swings and swing speeds, so the tracker will have to be designed to fit and individual player’s game. That can be accomplished with some history with each club. What can’t be factored in is wind, altitude and terrain. If the module could ask for the wind direction, and speed and the altitude of the course before starting the round those factors could be taken into account automatically by the software. However, sometimes we’re hitting into a green that’s well above or below the hitting position. Some rangefinders have a slope compensator for this purpose. The Google Earth software has altitude/elevation information which could be used for this purpose.
BTW, I completely agree with the calculated handicaps!
OK – here goes:
1. Make it possible to add clubs i.e. I might have 2 5 irons and am trying to figure out which one works better, I also might have some custom club you couldn’t even know about LOL
2. Tracking the distance each time I hit is great, showing me the range and average shows me which club needs more practice, and which one (i.e driver) to leave in the bag or at home.
3. Showing me which club I hit straight vs slicing or hooking helps too.
4. Perhaps the program seeing my game deteriorate would tell me when to go the 19th hole and bag it for the day….:-)
5. Allowing me to Beta test this option would REALLY make me happy as I really enjoyed beta testing the BB version.
THANKS FOR ASKING… IF I THINK OF MORE I’LL BE SURE TO LET YOU KNOW….. BOB
I would want to be able to track which club I used and how far I hit the ball with that club. The app should work as follows:
1. Stand over the ball and select the club – this starts the distance counter
2. when you get to the ball for the next shot, hit end distance and select the next club to start the counter again,
I would even count and measure chip shots and putts so that this can be used for your overall score.
The unit shold show distance to flag, hazards etc, on one page keep it simple, the next page could show everyting from club selection to distance hit to the size of the beverage cart girl’s bra.
The second page could be as complicated as one would like to make it. the first page would be for the duffers like me , the question i hear most often is how far is it to the hole? that seems to be what matters,
for all the computer programmers out there , give them the second page with every insignificant piece of information one could process, club selection, distance to the trees , depth of the water hazard, This will enable them to hit the ball into the water hazard with authority.
good Luck
dave
What’s in my bag is a must – online funtionality for this should include average distance ranges for each club. on the course having the app automatically chose the club from your range as a default would be great. Then it would you the default unless told otherwise. no buttons to push. I think this range should be derived from a certain amount of your latest shots. lets say the last 20. with this in mind being to throw out fliers would be important.
above all – the less buttons to push – the better
I would like, as a lot of them have already mentioned, to be able to determine the length of the shot of every club in my bag.
If it saves that, then it becomes a lot easier for me to decide which club to use. Of course, if the software can determine my lie, and the topography of the intended shot, that would be just perfect.
I have a card that i use while golfing telling me how far i hit the ball in the air and then the distance after it rolls out. It is good when you need to know how far to fly the ball when avoiding hazards ie. lakes, sand. i would like the club tracker to do the same if possible. thanks. Nolesbl
Hi, an option that would be nice is the ability to enter our ranges for each club so that it will give us a more realistic value and the software could calculate it for us as well.
-Another option would be the ability to add “custom” clubs and be able to change the description/name of the clubs.
-If the software calculates the distance of each club for us we should be able to enter the percentage of the force we used to “swing” the club. When chipping we are not necessarily hitting full force!
That’s all I can think of right now.
I would like to track the distance I hit after the shot has been executed. Wind, lie, elevation, of course are all factors but if I could input the club I used & the distance it traveled, I would have a history for my course on a hole by hole basis. The ideal thing to know would be CARRY distances, but I don’t see how this could be done. Since I play the majority of my rounds at my home course, a history of how I played each hole, distance hit off the tee, propensities of the tee shot (left, right, center), club used for approaches etc. would be of the most benefit. For example, history might dictate that on a particular hole I should leave my driver in the bag, or use more club on the approach etc. Since the prevailing wind prevails most of the time (that is of course why it is the prevailing wind) on average the conditions should be somewhat similar over an extended period of time. Of course pin position changes would dictate club selection too (more club for back etc) but this too would average out over time.
No matter what the feedback is from a club tracker system, only the player has the “feel” to select the right club on a particular shot on that particular day. The same shot under the exact conditions might lead to a different club selection on another day based on feel or how you are hitting the ball that day.
If I were going to add a feature into a Club Tracking system, I would want the program to almost act like a caddy for me and give me a club selection. However, if the “caddy” doesn’t know anything about your swing or distances, the “caddy” cannot give you an accurate response. I would try to incorporate a function that would allow you to lock in a GPS starting point (where you are hitting your ball from), select which club you have chosen to hit, and then when you are done hitting the ball and you have come to where it lies, have it record your distance for that club. After you have played a few rounds and had the opportunity to hit all the clubs in your bag, I would have the program average out your distances to give you an accurate representation of your distances with each club and therefore be able to give you a good suggestion as to what club you need to hit. If you wanted to get more in depth, you could also have different suggestions for the type of swing power such as I hit a 5 iron 185 yds. at 100% but I hit it 160 yds. at 75% power. We all know the game of golf is all about consistency and there wouldn’t be anything better, in my opinion, than a program to take all those numbers out of your head and put them in front of you and tell you that you hit an 8 iron an average of 160 yds and have it give you that club suggestion relative to your position to the green or your position from fairway to hazard.
Have the app automatically keep track of the distance of your shot without pushing a button every time. Then the app via gps knows when you are on the tee and then knows when you are at the spot where you drove the ball to. There should be no need to hit a button every time. Maybe one click on what club you used.
I think the name of clubs in your bag should be left blank and be entered by the golfer. I would like to enter the club # and the loft and maybe lie and swing weight manually. I happen to carry 5 wedges. It would be nice to be able to enter: 49* wedge, 53* wedge, 58* wedge, 64* wedge etc…
It would be nice for testing a couple new drivers also. You could manually enter Driver 1, Driver 2, Driver 3 etc…
I also think it would helpful if the app showed the golfer and over view of the hole being played with transparent colored circles with the club # in the middle, indicating the expected landing distance of each of your clubs after entering and calculating the average distance you hit each club prior to playing. Most of the circles would have a slight overlap ie. an easy 8 iron and a firm 9 iron etc…
This would help you to decide what club to hit. For example: If you had a brisk cross wind you could opt for the easy 8 iron to keep the ball under the wind instead of a firm 9 iron up in the wind. It would also let you know which club will almost certainly clear a hazard or stay short of a hazard just by looking to see if the transparent colored club range circle is overlapping either side of the hazard. You pick the club range circle that is completely short of the hazard or completely past and clear of the hazard.
If the club range circles were movable while keeping the position of your ball equidistant, you could actually put your finger on the specific club circle and move the circle to find the optimal aiming point or line.
I have many more ideas, but I will let you digest those for now.
Seriously an awesome idea and the, “Club Tracker” would make this already above par app even better.
KISS people KISS! (Keep It Simple Stupid)
1. Select Club
2. Select “Start Distance” when over the ball
3. Select “End Distance” when over the ball for the second time
Must haves:
1. Ability to quickly view a table showing my clubs and average distances
2. Ability to determine if I want shot track to “track this shot” or not based on shot result. (Shank, skull, etc.)
3. Ability to determine course conditions b4 shot. (Into wind, downhill, etc.)
After a few rounds of tracking shots, I see this option as more of a reference than something I would constantly update.
Really looking forward to the final product and willing to beta test!3
Cheers!
JH
I would like to be able to use the tracker to identify what club I used on each hole and what kind of distances I got from them.
I generally play the same courses and if I could build a database over time of what I used previously(maybe averaged) and based on that give me something to work on later or use the next time I go out.
In addition, if the software could actual use the GPS feature to tell me direction of my drives and other shots on holes it ultimately could help with course management. If I know I am hitting my drive right or always in trouble with my driver on a particular hole then I can change up how I play the hole next time I go out.
The interface could be intuitive like hitting the d key then a club selector for your drive. Also the feature could be an optional (shot tracking) for users who want to do more than keep score.
I’m always leaving a club on the green, how about a club that signals when it’s laying on the ground or some sort of homing beep to the cart or bag.
How about the ability to record the swing and play back in slow motion, for phones that have video capability.
Would also be nice to have analysis of the swing for the players to try and perfect the way they stand grip and control the way they play the game.
Great app, see you soon on the links.
s3s
Need ability to not include topped or fat shots so club length is based on anticipated shot.
After looking over some of the comments , I see you have your work cut out for you. Please please keep this software easy to use!!
My idea for the club tracker is to have a large club selector on the screen for us visually impared users. I can’t wear my glasses while golfing.
And also. Have a button to mark the ball location after we arrive at the ball so you can gain the gps location and critical data. The “MARK” button needs to be large and easily accessable.
A bit off topic, could you consider having our current location white dot blink while in the fairways?
thanks
Drew
Ease of use is number one. I want it to aid my game not take time away from concentrating on it… Give me the hazards, distance to front, center, and rear green and I’m a happy man. Thanks for a wonderful product!
Ok – I read a few and almost everything I thought of and some I didn’t are in there.
The best ideas are (in my humble opinion):
1. Simple – don’t want this to be a job – golfing is fun (right???)
2. Set up distances before you go out on the web (you may have to guess or HOPE! for the first few rounds)
3. Recording the distance you hit with a certain club (input club used and input when you get to the ball to record the distance) – after a while you will have stats that you could then adjust your distances based on your experience.
That’s it – but I do like the idea that someone tells me when to grab another beer (I would have an excuse, not that I need it) – my Blackberry tells me to do just about everything else these days!
All good stuff but I would like to see one thing added to the standard unit. Memory of the last 5 to 10 golf courses that I have played without having to search for them.
I would like to hear a club selection talked out. Hit a button that tells the gps where you are and then hear “7 iron” come from the gps. Having the gps keep a avg of hit distance for eash club would be nice too. I have used another one that told me the distance to carry a hazard as well, that is a very nice feature, it helps you from trying to hit over the bunker 275 yards off the tee.
A simplified way to track if the results were good even if the shot was poor and also if the shot was good but poor results. Also a way to indicate when you hit the shot perfectly flush so you could track which clubs you hit the best.
Sorry I forgot this. You could put the club thing on the satellite screen. Like this; when you put the curser where you want to shoot, the screen ask you what club you are using. When you get there to hit your next shot and do it again it records how far you hit it and ask for the next club. After you play one round it will offer a suggested club based on you average shot with that club. Also put a record distance without recording club. Because sometimes you hit it badly or play in wind and the shot does not reflect how far you hit it but you still want to know how far. So if where I am I is(A) and where I want to go is (B) and that is 190 yards the program would ask me what club (5 iron), I get there and check for point (C) , it records I hit it 180 yards and my next shot is whatever until I reach the green.
A little farfetched but a green reader would be phenomenal. Alternatively a quite time consuming activity but a pin placement feature would be great for approach shots. Both related to putting but on another note you could always strike a deal with the weather channel to supply wind strengths and directions as the old chucking torn up grass in the air is very innacurate. By the way… Oadby Golf Course in Leicester has a fault on the 2nd hole. Respect for the whole app though its taken many a shot off of my game. Especially the emails of tips. Even though I know its more sensible to play out of danger I needed a 2nd opinion! Thank you SBS! G
I wouldn’t ask for much but what would be nice is to be able to input on an average what you actually hit each club in length. As you play each round and you input what club was used, it will adjust accordingly and then next time out, it will tell you what club is recommended. Any other features would be just icing on the cake for me.
A club selector app for me would be very simple. If your on the fairway have it make a recomendation and have an alternate suggestion if your not on the fairway. My biggest problem at this stage is selecting what should be the club I should be using from this distance.
The club tracker should be able to suggest different clubs based upon yardage left along with taking the wind into account. You should be able to input yardages for different swing types, fades, draws, low punches and obviously the straight shot with the wind taken of your shot length.
I want to have the club tracker not only tell me what club to use but also how full the swing should be. So if I could make it to the green with a perfect shot with my nine iron but then chose the 8 iron what percentage of my swing to get to the green. Following your previous tips given of “more club, less swing, better consistency on shots made” I want it to improve my overall game not cause me to miss shots because I don’t take enough club with me.
I would like to keep it simple! The GPS gives you the distance add a button with a dropdown menu listing all standard clubs from the driver to the pitching wedge in your bag and for those who might carry more wedges and other clubs you should be able to add and remove clubs from the dropdown menu. Once you select the club from the menu it automatically saves the distance for that club. Then add one more button for the saved information with maybe a little golf club on it. Playing conditions ( Rain/Dry ect. ) should be also tracked as a reference with a button and different conditions to select from because we all know that wet grass will affect ball distance.
Agree with all of the above that the app should be simple. Below are my specific suggestions:
1. shot measurement should be very simple. suggestion: step 1- select the club you hit, step 2- hit button at origin of shot, step 3- hit same button again where the ball landed, step 4- save/record
2. use the distances recorded to set up a personal club distance record to be used in the club suggestion module – in website and/or in app. plus the ability to record and save up to 10-20 shots per club to get a good average
3. simple button activated adjustments after club selection or lie, lie angle, wind, uphill/downhill, sand, etc.
that is it. simply record actual shot distance, keep a log of distances, personalize club record, get a club suggestion, adjust for issues that will impact club distance, and hit ‘em long and straight. simple.
good luck and can’t wait for the new app.
In addition to the great ideas listed above I would like the ability to see my shot history. I could use it on the course to improve on previous games and use it at home to identify trends so I can pinpoint areas for improvement.
I have a suggestion not quite related to the topic but it has some commonality. When you are anywhere inside say 150 years approaching the green, I would like an option of just viewing the entire green on my screen (I use the BB Storm) and then anywhere I tap or place the cursor, that would give me my distance to that particular part of the green from my ball. As some greens can be up to 25-50 yards in length, this would be a valuable tool in club selection or at least swing speed if you only happen to be within 20-50 yards away from the green. I know you can sort of do this now but it’s extremely difficult and not terribly accurrate.
I would focus the program more on distance to a target first and second on club selection. I use a golf buddy and it is simple, but too much so. What is needed is a smarter device that is easy to operate.
For one, each shot needs a target distance to LAND, then roll. So when we hit a tee shot, an approach over water or bunker, we need to know the carry distance first, pin distance second or third.
For two, carry is a function of the conditions, so a quick set up at the start of a round to input sun or rain, northern wind of 1 or 2 clubs, etc would be a good start. Then show carry and prompt key points like wind, lie, rough. I would utilize a measure scenario at practice to produce a club selection and not complicate the round with measurements. A good program to let users so inclined to post clubs after the round will provide great data and limit slow play. Good luck cause we need a “next generation” device and yours could be it!
A club tacker feature should, first and foremost, do just that. i.e., track the distance of clubs used. The key is to have a smoothly functioning module that doesn’t hold up play or doesn’t hang up the program for those that do not want to use it. I envision a radio button that, first of all, initiates the ball tracker module. Then when I start it, is starts recording the distance until I stop it. The club value is entered at STOP. The reason for this is if you hit a “non-optimal” shot (OB, water hazard, or just a duff) with a certain club, you should have the option of stopping it without entering a club value so that it is not recorded. I believe this is important. So, only if you are satisfied with the shot, should you able to record the value of the club associated with the distance. This way I can upload and view my club distances for each shot per hole and as an average of each club for the round. I don’t really need a club recommendation, because, let’s face it – almost all of us know how far we hit our clubs. I’m almost never going to go with a software recommendation for my distances (which can vary with terrain). Thanks for building a product based on end user wants — this is how all technology should progress.
Unlike my golf game I want to keep this simple:
Will it help me break 100
I don’t know if it is possible but green slopes would be nice.
This is a great golf toolk. It takes all the guessing about whoere i am and how to play the next shot.
May I suggest, that one way to take all the fiddling out would to include a voice module. Once the system is engaged in the phone, it should and could constantly track the position. Then on request (the home button?) it records your position and your distance, and then useds its voice module to tell you the distance to the hole and maybe even the traps and hazards btween me and the hole. Also, there could be a fast way to put the club used on that last shot – after it is made (walking or riding along) so as not to hold up the field.
In the mean time – I will fiddle.
I have several golf GPS apps but none has the following features:-
It will be cool just before hitting a shot to press a button on the app to record the co-ordinates where the ball lies. Then push a scroll wheel to indicate the club chosen for next shot. These co-ordinates are then stored in the iphone memory. At the end of the round, a map can be drawn of the entire round (like iMapMyRun app). Over several rounds, statistics can be evaluated such as average distances of each the clubs in the bag, % fairway hit, putting distances etc.
I like your interaction with your app users and trust you will one day develop a golf GPS app so unique, friendly and informative that it will be the only one I wish on my iPhone.
I’d like to see one of the setup choices offer up to 3 clubs at a time when offered a club recommendation. For example, you would be offered a 7 iron, showing a range of 160-165, a 6 with a range of 163-168, and a 5 with a range of 166 – 171. So you could consider other factors like wind, speed of greens, and angle of entry to the green.
I have read most of the comments and agree… but I still don’t know how everybody think they can keep their gps open all through the game. Please tell me how you battery will last a whole game
I don’t want to spend more time turning on my ephone and tracking my game than I spend playing… It would be distracting.
One more thing, I don’t want to have to wear my reading glasses… I can’t play with them on.
So no matter what great idea you come up with, it won’t help if my battery runs down and if I have to wear my glasses…
Adjustability is key. Have a module for suggested club use and be able to enter actual club use and get averages from the actual use information. after entering the club you will use for the next shot the GPS can measure the actual distance of the shot which is how it can generate averages.
I love this program just the way it is. i’ve had 2 great rounds in a row using it. I have shaved off at least 3-5 strokes just by knowing how far i have left. Now just imagine if you can know which club to use (if your like me and have trouble knowing how far you hit you clubs), that would shave off even more. maybe even be ready for the PGA Tour. Well maybe not but there’s always dreaming.
One of the earlier entries suggested knowing the slope of the greens. I would say no to that one because reading the greens is part of the fun of showing off to your friends that you read a 30′er and sank it. It’s a great feeling. But if you know before hand that your going to sink it, then it’s not as satisfying.
Thanks for the app. I love it. (pick me – pick me).
I have been using another app for my scorecard for years and the info that you can put into it for EVERY SHOT is incredible. However, you can end up spending too much time entering info on every shot instead of actually playing and enjoing the game of golf. I would say (to add to my earlier comment) club selection and shot averages via GPS would make it simple but not take away from the enjoyment of the game.
One of the later comments was said that the approach shot to the green within 20-50yds from the hole was not very accurate. I MUST disagree. this app mindblowingly (if that’s a word) accurate. I put it up against my cousins $400 GPS unit (that he has to pay $30 or $40 per year for usage) and it was more accurate than his unit. needless to say he was not happy about it. And his battery died so he couldn’t use it for the rest of the round. That didn’t help matters any.
I’ve been telling everyone that plays with me or on the next tee box about it and they are very interested. Keep up the good work.
I don’t think that there really needs to be too much detail. Similar to the version I have on my Bold 9700 I would like to see a “Google Map” version of the hole but I think that distance to the hole is probably the most important thing. And, in addition, I’d like the distance to the front, middle, and back of the green, not just to the center.
If you start putting too much, it can clutter the screen and make the software look terrible and too cheap. Keep it simple. A “club selector” function is worthless in my opinion because I will hit a 60 degree wedge on a 40-yard shot on a day where there is little wind and would probably use a sand wedge on a day that it was windier or if the ground was more saturated. That’s of course MY style, which is probably unique.
Information that should always be displayed (in my opinion): Course name, Par, Current Hole, map of current hole, and distances from red, white, blue (and black or gold if present).
There should be some configurable setting that will range (by drawing an arc) a pre-defined yardage from the teebox. I can reliably hit my driver 295 on a good day, so I would probably set my “arc” at 290 on a par 4 or 5 hole so that I can quickly see if using my driver is going to land me in the water or has a chance of landing me in a bunker (which I would then possibly choose another club if there is a dogleg, etc.). Obviously a par 3 would need no such thing.
Showing an updated dot on the map that gives your current location is important, but what you need to display as far as “distances to stuff” go needs to utilize some common sense. If I am 150 yards away from the pin and there is a fairway bunker about 20 yards ahead of me, I could care less if it was 22 yards or 28 yards. Actually I could really care less how far away it is at all because I’m not going to be hitting into it. But, that greenside bunker that is 122 yards away from me I definitely care about its specs.
If a course has a live GPS receiver in the cup, I’d like this swing by swing software to recognize that and use that number in addition to a front and back green distance (in this case, I could care less what it was to the middle of the green). I’d also like to know if there was someone ahead of me around that dogleg and if it is safe for me to shoot. In other words, I’d either like to know: 1. Where is that person’s cart? (some have GPS receivers in them); and/or 2. If someone else is playing with the swing by swing software loaded, I want THEIR LOCATION to show up realtime on my screen if they’re within 300 yards of me.
I’d like to have a distance tracker so that I can accurately measure the distance of my drives. There should be some kind of way to “mark” your current location (i.e. when you’re in the teebox) and then when you drive to your ball and get out of the cart, be able to hold the phone over your ball and push an “End Tracking” button that will give me my shot distance.
I would like to have the following information ready with a single button or two button push: 1. The phone number to the course I’m playing with an option to one push/touch dial; 2. The phone number to the local police department (yes, I’ve had to call the police once when the father of someone I was paired up with had a heart attack in the middle of the round); 3. Age of course; 4. Designer (this matters when you’re trying to decide which clubs to put in the bag); 5. Total yardage of the course with information on number of Par 3/4/5 and Handicap list that is actually able to be updated; 6. Website to the course so that I can collect more information and/or make online reservations.
Or you could integrate a reservations system into the software itself so that I don’t have to worry about number 6. Having an entire reservations section where I can sort by course, sort by tee time availability, sort by tee time FEES….would be really really nice.
I like to have real time GPS updates on my yardage to the pin at all times (even when I’m driving in the cart), and yes, on the Blackberry Bold 9700, a real-time updating software will only use about 20% of my fully charged battery (at the most). The current app is very battery friendly in its current state. The Iphone has always been horrible with battery life to begin with, but with a GPS program it will continue to be horrible, so you may want to have a function that turns off GPS as you’re driving on the Iphone so that those people only have to recharge their phones at the turn
OK, so I hope that I’ve given you some good ideas, and when I think of more stuff on Saturday and/or Sunday when I’m playing, I’ll let you know.
Good job on the current software. Works amazing on the Blackberry.
Oh yeah, and by the way, please please please utilize the Blackberry HotKeys in the software and make it configurable what key does what. Drive rangefinder option and displaying/hiding information can all be easily toggled using HotKeys.
Great app, and with this idea will only get better….but lets not forget that half the battle of the game is making decisons yourself and testing that week in week out against the course, your buddies and yourself.
Putting in too much data and asking for exact answers is not really the idea of the game to me..that is why golf is a mental game. Unlike some I don’t want slope or height or wind calculations put into the result.
Tell me how far I have to hit and make a recommendation based on user entered data for club distance. If you are hitting longer on the day then the ‘recommendation’ will need to be altered, if I over estimate my ability then that is my problem not the app and I have to reassess.
The last thing I want to hear at the end of the round is ‘had a bad day because the software couldnt work out the wind impact on my yardages’.
My recommendation KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)…
Cheers and keep up the good work
I was introduced to your product a week or so ago by my brother. I downloaded it before our game started and thoroughly enjoyed using it.
I don’t know if this is the proper way to provide feedback to you or not, but thought I’d pass along my comments for your consideration in any future release you may be planning.
#1 – The club tracker function would be a nice-to-have but not an essential thing from my point of view. However, it’s important to listen to your customers and when the majority ask about including a certain function, I can understand the need to respond!!! For more experienced players, most know what club to use for each distance they’re playing. But, a distance tracker would be helpful. So, hypothetically speaking, while you’re on the tee box of the hole you’re playing, if you could click a button that says ‘Mark’ (or something more meaningful!) and my spot is then marked (via GPS). I hit my tee shot … find my ball on the fairway … and click a button that says ‘Shot’ (or something else equally meaningful) and I get an instant read of how long my tee shot was and how far to the green I have to go. Just a thought …
#2 – this next item to me would be very useful and, I think, set Swing by Swing apart from any other competitor. I’ll do my best to explain. Most other products give you a number from where you are standing on the fairway to the front, center, and back of the green. With the aerial view of the hole, it would be so EXTREMELY useful to be able to click a button that lets me zoom the green so that I can more accurately ‘click’ on a location to give me the yardage from the fairway to that exact and precise location. I think I can do that now but I would like to be able to do that from anywhere inside 200 yards. I don’t need an exact hi-res image of the green – what you have now and using just a bigger outline of it would more than suffice. The whole front, middle, back of green yardage sort of becomes a moot point after that. This is even more important when, as many of us do I assume, play one common course many times. If the pin is middle left but over that ridge or back right but you need to play it left and safe … etc., etc. If I remember, I could sort of do this when I was inside of 40-50 yards or so but would like to be able to do the same when I am on the fairway and be able to choose a spot on the green anywhere from inside 200 yards. It’s too difficult on my Blackberry Tour 9630 screen to select any particular spot and feel that what I selected was accurate when I have to select that spot by looking at the entire hole – from tee box to green! Being able to zoom in on the green by clicking a button would allow for greater granularity and precision when hitting any approach shot into a green from inside 200 yards or so.
I’ve only used Swing by Swing once and look forward to trying it out again this weekend.
Cheers and keep up the great work.
Yes I realize my other comments had other ideas other than ClubTracker, they were more ideas for SBS pro. The only way that you can make something that can record and then recommend a club is to have it integrate current weather conditions in the zip code in which you’re playing into the module. If it shows a 15 mph east to west wind and you’re hitting a hole that is a north/south configuration, there will have to be some adjustment made – probably less than if the hole was a east-to-west hole. To get true distance measurements, the software has to be trainable. You have to be able to “train” by hitting ten shots with a club on a range and then marking all 10 shots and then repeating on a windy day, repeating on a rainy day, etc.
I know what my yardages are, but the guy I play my rounds with is a little “out there” when it comes to his yardages. He says that his 7 iron is a “190 yard club” yet I’ve barely ever seen him hit a 7-iron RELIABLY any longer than 140 yards. A part of the effectiveness of the software will rely just as much on TRUE yardage (that can only be truly achieved by training the software) as opposed to “Well, with a strong tailwind on a sunny day I can hit my 3-iron 220 yards” and then marking “3-iron – distance 220″ and getting ticked off when your shots with your 3-iron are always short and in the green-side bunker.
Some of the weather conditions (rain, windy conditions, etc) can ESTIMATE distance per club, but if the user doesn’t train his clubs in these conditions then it needs to say “5-iron, 10 yard headwind, ESTIMATED distance 170 yards. Distance to pin: 172 yards”. Of course, fancy physics can predict what your shot will be in rain going INTO a 15 mph wind vs. WITH a 15mph wind, so every scenario doesn’t necessarily need to be played out. But, it won’t be a reliable recommendation in my opinion unless the person actually trains the software in those basic weather conditions.
And again, Blackberry Hotkeys can make this a success on the BB software.
A lot of comments relating to weather, lie, etc.
Something like this needs personal input. Maybe start your shot tracker with a sub menu from the range finder where we tell you what club we hit and how (regular,lob, punch, knockdown). The next shot tracked would be the result of the first, etc. After a few rounds you then have an individual’s working average to work with to suggest clubs and ball flights for them.
This still puts variables into the golfer’s hands to deal with, without cluttering the software and slowing anybody down. not to mention battery drain.
I would for sure make a yard/meter setting available.
For none US residens.
In a perfect club tracker, I’d want it to remember distances that I hit each in each holes particular direction. So hitting a 9 iron 150 yards on a south facing hole, but only 130 on the north facing hole (wind direction) etc. This alone could save a few shots a round.
Love the golf gps. Fantastic and absolutely free.
As the first golf GPS I have used I found it easy to map my home course and when I comparred it to the Sky Caddie it was just as accurate. I love this app. I will be mapping more courses soon.
Great job!
I love the idea of the club tracker. I think it would be a great training tool!
If I were designing the club tracker I would make sure the focus was on learning how to use your clubs better, as opposed to having a program that just spits out the right answer, making the golfer essentially a robot. And of course, it should be fun and interactive.
So how do we do that?
Well, first of all, we have to personalize it to the golfer. Upon the first use of the tracker, the golfer should input what he THINKS are the distances that he hits his clubs on average. On every shot, he would input the club he is using. The tracker would pinpoint that point as the starting point of the shot, and when he gets to the next shot and inputs his next club, the tracker, by use of the GPS, would record the distance the ball travelled. The tracker would continue to record every distance for every shot and compartmentalize each club’s shots. It would use a calculation similar to the handicap calculation to adjust the actual distance the golfer can hit the club.
To make it interactive, and so the golfer could learn something from it, the golfer could guess what club he should hit before the tracker tells him the calculated suggestion. Of course, if on any shot the golfer didn’t want to guess, he could skip that and go straight to the tracker’s suggestions.
The tracker should give the golfer a couple of options based on the optimal point to aim for and those points should be movable by the golfer to adjust for hazards and the like. For instance, and this would probably be most helpful on approach shots, in addition to showing the distance to the front and back of the green, it would show two individual club’s distances and where they would land on the green if hit correctly.
Finally, there should be a shot details screen accessable between shots to input specifics such as “fairway, rough, deep rough, and sand”, and “easy, full, thin, fat, punch, or duff” so it could effectively make the calcuation for the “club handicap.” In the end, each club would essentially have its own handicap, and could suggest a club based on that.
There ya go. That’s what I think I would do. Hope that helps. I look forward to seeing the final product and using it!
Thanks!
Ideal position/lie perhaps in a gold silver bronze stylie
Many years ago, Ben Hogan was playing a small money game with some friends. A friend of a friend was in the group and inquired about the club Mr. Hogan had used to accomplish a particular shot of 145 yards that landed close to the pin. Hogan proceeded to play three shots with a 6 iron, a 7 iron and an 8 iron producing similar results; all three balls landed near the first shot, all hole high with makable birdie putts. Hogan then glared at the man and never did tell him the club he used to make the initial shot in question. First, it’s against the rules and second it is bad etiquette. The friend never uttered a word for the rest of the round and I think all who read this get my point and if there is anyone here who does not, you need to stay off a golf course and on a range practicing until you do.
This application is well intended but will have consequences opposite of its good intentions. First, a round of golf is taking too long as it is. There are several reasons for this. Golf courses are expensive to build and once completed, the need for high player throughput to meet basic costs and turn a small profit is a foreboding challenge. Even with the use of motorized carts, play is too slow because too much “tech” is being brought to the course. Finally, the popularity of the game is bringing on new golfers. This is a good thing but new golfers with high handicaps are playing courses much too hard for their present skill level. Yup…start out on the range, work yourself up to a pitch and putt, get a handicap below 25, THEN take on the harder courses in your area. Classic example; NO ONE can play the Old Course at St. Andrews with a handicap higher than 24 and YOU MUST present to the Old Course Starter, Official Proof of Handicap from a sanctioned recognized source.
OK…if you’re going to go through with this application, make it simple and make it automatic such that the the GPS automatically provides a “club recommendation” to the player and the player does not have to make ONE scroll through to find the club. Remember, the more time you take, you’re backing up golfers in back of you and one of em; might get so mad for slow play that they’ll hit one right up your derriere. I get behind groups that think they’re playing for $10 Grand, A brand new car, The US Open, and the World Championship all at one time and it never fails that some hacker in that group thinks they are Tiger.
Provide a data input so the player can record distance data AT the driving range with the understanding that range balls (for need of durability), fly anywhere from 7-15% less the distance of real golf balls. the PLAYER then can add those factors all by their lonesome and besides, they probably need the practice anyway AT THE DRIVING RANGE.
Weather and wind are huge distance factors and can (and will) be the difference between playing a 6 iron or a 3 iron, driver or three-metal, and of course what ball one plays.
Again, I cannot stress enough, KEEP IT SIMPLE. There is TOO MUCH Tech and not enough creativity and honest assessment of ability on the part of average amateur players. And what drives me (and others) FURTHER up the wall are these apps providing a score card where the player punches in the score BEFORE clearing the hole…this is horrid horrid etiquette again inviting the group behind to either call the Marshall or hit one up your…well you get the idea. SO APP developers, whatever you do, do not develop APPS that enable slow play or bad displays of etiquette.
As for myself, I’ve played a small professional mini-tour for real prize money. No, I can’t quit my day job but I did make enough money one year to finance a 10 day golf trip in considerable comfort. Thus, I do speak with some knowledge about this game having played it for 41 years. Your app can help but will only provide a golfer, their “tendencies” and will never solve the judgement and creative factors only a human brain can address. KEEP IT SIMPLE…VERY VERY SIMPLE for all the reasons (and probably more) I’ve cited.
In my perfect club tracker, I most want it to not add a half an hour to each round. Also some other ideas would be to give an idea of how far you could hit a pitch or chip, and also decide how far it can go depending on the lie, and some tips incorporated to help us hit the ball farther. Last, only tracking the last 10-15 shots so as a player improves, it doesn’t just average up, and say that a shot will go shorter than they actually can hit it. Those are all my ideas and I know will turn out to be a great new feature for Swing by Swing.
I would love for this app not to suck the life out of my IPhone before I finish one round. It seems I have to recharge after around 14 holes of golf. Thanks a bunch and I do love the program. Thanks and keep up the good work.
I want to play golf so KISS please. Hole. Lie. Club,
Swing, Result – distance and accuracy.
All above coments are great. If I were creating this program i would try to incorporate something that tells you weather to half swing or full swing, also something to put the uphill or downhill lie into contest, and try to tell you the best possible trajectory of the ball.
allow user to choose club type- long iron or hyrid
allow user to input lie of ball- ruff,fairway,fescue
allow user to input or club tracker to help choose loft of wedges
allow user to input shot type and have tracker pick club- bump and run,punch outs, etc..
For me, it would need to be able to mark and store distances for each club with 1 button to start and one button to end, as well as suggest the correct club. One other concern is battery drainage…not sure why, but it drains the phone really fast.
That will be a great assistance almost like having a caddie. If the feature could let us put in what average yaradge we hit a certain club then it could suggest the correct club. This will be a great tool for the beginner golfer. Other ideas would be what type of club debending on the lie (rough, pine straw, etc…). I am always looking at the yardage to the pin but see that the yardage is set up for the center of the green. if it had the yardage to the front and back of the green that would be great. Also it should remind us that we need to relax and that tepmpo are important. but I am asking for too much and we must keep is simple. What ever you do you will make it good.
All I can say is Wow!!! I have been reading the suggestions and just want to say that there are some great ideas listed above. As I am considerably late to this party, my ideas have already been listed, in one form or another.
I want to say that I have not used this as often as I should, but I love the simplicity, and the distances are as accurate if not more accurate than other products I have seen. I agree with the other suggestions of keeping it simple. That is the best part of the range finder and scorecard products. Hopefully you can continue that with the club tracker.
Being able to track actual distances of individual clubs will open my eyes to how far I really hit any particular club, and I believe that will be another way for me to continue to lower my scores.
Thank you for a wonderful, simple, helpful product.
Many great comments!
I like the ideas of recording distances and averaging for the individual golfer. It would really be nice if it could retain scoring, club selection, etc. for a particular course. A History–How have I played this hole/shot here before!
Just a short comment on a club tracker. Anyone who plays enough quite honestly shouldn’t need help choosing a club. There are so many factors including the all important “miss factor” that designing software to help those who need it seems a bit counter productive. That said, basic club selection based on distance is a given. The other one I woulkd like to see if I were to even use it would be a knock down type of shot club selction category. There are many times a knock down shot is the most advantageous. ie wedge at 100 yards, nine at 110 and so forth. All the other factors such as wind, himidity, hang over will just have to be done on a shot by shot basis by the one holding the club. Its always been a head game and you can’t eliminate that.
Bullet
It would be nice to have this finally tell me, the beginner, how far I hit each club. Let it average the distance over the 10 round period that you currently track , that I hit each club. After that amount of time, then it could start suggesting clubs to use in different spots. I love your product and laugh at everyone that shows up with one of thos expensive gizmos
MBJ
It would be nice to have this finally tell me, the beginner, how far I hit each club. Let it average the distance over the 10 round period that you currently track , that I hit each club. After that amount of time, then it could start suggesting clubs to use in different spots. I love your product and laugh at everyone that shows up with one of those expensive gizmos
MBJ
Based on the trackers that I have used I would like to see San ultra simple version. Something that just “tracks” my golf game. Example. Hit buttons “hole one, white tee” then have all the clubs on the screen so I can easily pick the one I use (maybe highlight a suggested club based on my past rounds. When I select my next shot, the score is automatically updated. All I have to do is select , hole, tee, club, penalty. And maybe ,on green and number of putts. What I’m trying to say is I’d like to see fast simple tracking, no scrolling or page turning
Make the font large (or bold) enough to see without my reading glasses.
I don’t wear them to play golf so if I can’t read the text it is of no use to me.
For example, the golf trivia statements that are inserted while I am waiting for the hole “picture” is too small to read.
Each function should have an on/off switch to allow a golfer to select what is useful.
First off, I would just like your program to give me my yardages. I have had no success getting that to work on my Blackberry 8330. Other than that, club selection based on lie; uphill or downhill; carry over hazards.
How about a factor for fatigue or injury. It could simply be applied like the factor for uphill lies and add a club. Some of us are not too fit and get tired by the last few holes of a round. I notice that shots are often left short at that time so it would be nice to have that factor as an option.
I think club suggestions for front/middle/back pin placements would be helpful.
Also there is always a variation/standard deviation to distances for each club, which can be calculated from the data collected by the tracker. the program could have an option to figure that standard deviation into account and see how far a “flush, average and lousy” shot would be for the club selected. This should purely be an option as some golfers might be overwhelmed with such data.
The graphical display would display the flush, average and lousy distances in say green, yellow and red concentric circles and let the golfer decide whether to club up, go for the middle of the green, or lay up.
My advice is: since available viewable area on my BlackBerry screen is small, keep it simple by —
1. Automatically adding the distance from ball to FRONT & BACK of green [i.e., rather than now having to move the "star" pointer to the front or back before clicking enter, etc.]
2. Add feature to allow one-time entry of player’s own yardages for clubs SW to Driver in setup mode, then those yardages could be automatically added to the GPS-measured distances from ball to pin positions (with front & back included).
Any more info would be too confusing in limited viewing area.
Good luck,
Al
I’m assuming that I will input what club I’m using and that SbS will measure how far I hit with that particular club, and that it will accumulate an average of how far I hit with each club. What I would like is the ability to have you track how far I’m hitting during THIS particular round and then adjust your club suggestions accordingly, giving more weight to the more recent statistics. For instance, if I normally hit a 9 iron 100 yards, but during the early stages of this round I hit my 5 iron 10 yards shorter than average and my driver 20 yards shorter than average, etc., then SbS should suggest more club, perhaps an 8 iron, for 100 yards. Not sure if I’m saying this right, but I would like 2 suggestions on each shot – what I would normally hit, and what I would hit based on my round so far that day.
I think there should be a simple bar on the side so you can input quickly and simply the cub used for that particular shot, people use different clubs for a variety of shots and this could be usfull.
Selecting the right club would be great if it would work both from club distances that can be put in manualy and those calculated for you by the system. But in the latter you must be able to mark a hit as not being used for club distance as you always want to select a club based on the assumption that you will have a good hit, not on the “average hits” that you have actually had in the past.
Jeff
great idea, for me i would like it simple, for first set up you hit balls with each club in your bag which you walk to so the app can give a distance for each club these are stored and integrated to swing by swing and the distance of say the 2 closest clubs are displayed when the range finder tells you the distance for your next shot, a tap of the screen of where you want the next shot to land gives the distance and club need to reach that distance from the stored club distance measurement from set up
At each next tee, a message “Relax and take a breath first” might help everyone.
So ur on the range and u swing a 8 iron to start hit it perfect and ave ur phone on video 145 yards then u download 2 the site u do this wiv every club and hey presto the perfect round !!! Except for the wind, rain, sun, the odd fly buzzing around etc u get the drift happy golfing everyone ……..
Simple and easy to use so that it works with the range finder. Don’t want to take up time during the round. It needs to speed up play.
Track drives, approach shots and putts. Look at IntelliGolf program for palm treo. (http://www.intelligolf.com/shottracking.asp). On a lighter side, include the size of the wagers.
David
I know that it’s been said before, but just to reinforce it, I think club recomendation would be very helpful. I think that the most helpful suggestion I could make would be for you to create a percentage tracker, meaning that it tracks and records you efficience from a ranged distance. Ex. 100-120 yard shot, 43.5% accurate. I think it should have the starting point, your ball, and you select the ending point, then it gives you the statistics in like a corner or a transparent box on the screen. I think this will give any golfer more confidence on the course by knowing the best possible option to play, and also, you could put in another option at the home menu to show the stats, so the golfer can track the areas of his/her game that need the most inprovment.
On the lighter side, I think it should track your scores so it can keep your avg. And when your out playing one day, it’s the 15 hole and your playing 20 strokes worse then normal, a small joke or something should pop up, because golf is supposed to be enjoyable!! Something like, “see what happens when you let your wife iron your underwear?!?!” short stuff that you can read in the cart instead of feeling bad for yourself and put yourself down. Hope this helps,
see y’all later,
Blaine
I was one of the origional testers of Swing by Swing and enjoy it and appreciate it’s value (free for all). The club tracker is an excellent feature.
As many have stated it must be fast and I think it needs to be seamless, between operations from yardage to club selection. Automatic tracking and recording to upload after round is important.
Great product getting better all the time. Keep up the good work!!!
Thanks
Clarence
There are loads of good suggestions here. I would certainly go along with the idea of being able to “tailor” the application for the individual user. Being able to set up what clubs you have in your bag and then being able to set up the app with real distances, so that everyone has their own clubs set up is a fantastic idea.
Would it also be possible (via the website) to have general statistics about different makes of clubs so that if you were thinking of buying new clubs then you could get some information from the community about the different clubs.
You already have received tons of “how-to” suggestions that don’t need to be repeated by me. I am a single-digit female golfer who is looking forward to your new club tracker. I do have a couple suggestions that I don’t think are already on your quicly-growing list:
I’d like to suggest that you make this app available on the iPad. In addition to using the app during the game, I want to be able to ‘study’ the results on my ipad after the round, as it has a much bigger screen. And I wouldn’t mind carrying my ipad during a game – it’s not heavy or big.
I also hope that you won’t limit to 14, the number of clubs to be tracked. It is up to the player to ensure that there are only 14 clubs in the bag when playing a game of golf. However, I may want to try a new club and compare it to an old one, or on different courses I may choose to swap a club or two. So, I would want the system to be able to allow me to track more than 14 clubs and to be able to ‘assign’ them identities, so that I could compare, for example, 7-iron-A to 7-iron-B.
Would there be any way to include a putting tracker whereby a golfer could enter the distance of the initial putt and then have the system keep track of the distances of each putt until the ball is holed out? Over time, the golfer may see a trend such that, for example, all putts over xx feet long are always being left short of the cup by at least y feet.
Best of luck for a robust and fun system!
I would like something that could help me with my distances to the green and to be able to track and store that info. on my tracker for the moment and a history of my distances that i could look back on and bring up while playing. I also hope this could be fast and very simple to use while on the course. I could then go home download this to my computer and print out a chart with this info as a drag and drop. Do we currently have the ability to account for the wind speed , direction and to be able to bring up the last shots on the current hole i’m playing? thanks .. remember I’m a beginner so be kind.. lol. hj
Great application!
Would like to be able to have a choice of either adding more information after entering the score for the hole or going right to the range finer view for the next hole. For some reason, right after I finished playing a hole and entered the score, the app went to a screen asking me to enter the score for the next hole! Then it became difficult to get to the range finer for that hole.
As simple a set up as possible a way to input conditions before you start ie wind direction a strength than a box for each club after shot with an x or a correction mark depending on the outcome
Include an option which gives me putts which only go from right to left. How bloody hard is it to read a left to right putt (for right-handers at least)?
More practically, increase the options for type of drive – left, straight or right is a decent indicator, but an option to enter fade, draw, punch etc would be nice.
Great app, downloaded it today and can’t wait to try it out on the course.
Basic principle should follow KISS (keep it simple stupid) which is the beauty of swing by swing. Fantastic product well done.
Club tracker should have;
1) set up – one time keying of club / estimated distance per club
2) actual club used during entry of score
3) suggested club based on statistics
keep up the good work
I’m sure the Wizards at SbS could almost incorporate anything we dream of. Perhaps there should be a basic system that allows the golfer to enter yardage data off-course. Then the optional upgrade package would include sensors that attach to the clubs that identify the club and send all that golf simulator type data (club speed, face angle, impact force, etc…) via bluetooth back to the smartphone. Other options could be additional sensors for wind speed, direction, humidity, elevation, lie, etc… Then it could tell me how far I sliced it into the woods and where I should be able to find my ball. At the end of the round it would give a total “swing-by-swing” as well as which green side I left my wedge (a true club tracker). And not to forget about the “beer factor”, the John Daly upgrade option would include an integrated breathalizer and distance to the nearest Hooters. Enjoy!
Great ideas, all of them. Once the information is stored on the phone, for the statisticians among us, the real power comes in analysing the round in the vain hope that it will somehow improve our round.
Using the various club selection tracker ideas and distance recorders the gps location the shot was made is saved. We can then view the round in an overhead view of the course on our pc’s or mac’s so we can see where we hit the shot and where it landed. Couple this with export capabilities so we can upload the data into third party data analysis software like Visokio’s Omniscope and you will have cracked it.
I like the ideas that I read so far, basically I’d like to be able to have a detailed settings area that can be changed before, during and after a round. As simple as checkboxes. Also be sure that all functions work on all phones, touch screen, nontouchscreen and everything in between.
Also, if I forget to add the club and distance on a hole, maybe the ability to add only some distances for certain holes and clubs. For example if I shank or hit a ball fat, I wouldn’t want that to play into any averages of my actual distance of a club.
For the advanced settings I’d want to know the distances of fairway shots, rough, and deep rough. That can be an option on one of the settings.
I have not used the gps yet, but I am excited to check it out, based on the number of detailed responses I already know you care a great deal about your product and customers.
Keep up the great work.
Eric
It would be good to track each shot so you stand by your ball press a simple button and which club was used so you can start building up statistics for that course and see where your improving. If the app could learn how you play so it then picks clubs which suits the players distance not an average distance as some people hit further than others. This could be the leading golf app so long as the user interface is kept simple.
I love SbS:
I like the keep it simple principal. Have a pre-round set up of what clubs are currently in your bag. During your initial set up of those clubs input your estimated distance for each (ie. Driver – 250 yards, 7 iron – 150 yards, etc.) When you approach the first tee your driver (more than likely) will be suggested along with what would be needed for your next shot if hit to your estimated yardarge to the center of the fairway. Once you hit your first shot you can then measure to the point on the course the ball traveled and this will be factored into your next selection of that club. So during the course of play when you select a certain club it will begin taking actual measurements of your shots to get a true feel of your distances with each club. You can even choose to exclude certain shots if you feel it was mishit or traveled too far down the cart path (or a tree jumped in front of your shot).
Now let’s say the first hole is 395 yards so you choose to hit driver off the tee and it travels 250 yards leaving you with 145 to the hole. You select on the Sbs software your 7-iron it would then show an arc at the 150 yard range on the rangefinder on where the ball could potentially end up giving you the option of where to try to the land the ball to avoid any trouble. Sure the 7 iron could get you to the green but what if there is a front side bunker cut into the front corner of the green you are shooting for that just cuts into your 150 range. This helps you determine where to miss to. Plus this would be a great benefit to assist with laying up on certain holes where trouble cuts through the hole.
I’ve already eliminted the need for pencil and paper on the course using SbS so with the onset of a club selection tool this software is becoming more and more priceless…BRING IT ON!!!
This has probably been mentioned before, but several of the course I play use a grid system to divide the green into sections for the day’s pin position. If the particular course has large greens, this position could change the club used significantly. A green mapping tool would be very useful in the upcoming software.
I agree with he simplest of approaches for recommending the club to be used. Most of us that have been playing for a while have the club selection nailed, but it would be really helpful for newer players.
I agree with several of these suggestions (I did not read through all of them). For me, I want a way to quickly input what club I am using in addition to any club suggestion. That way, once the round is over, and after several rounds the software can learn how far I actually hit a club to provide better future recommendations.
Keep it simple. Maybe just something that pops up with the suggested club and a field for the actual club if different.
Also, it would be helpful if there were a way to track wind direction and speed, etc.
Lastly, I have not used the scorecard yet, but I would hope that there is a way to differentiate between the players so that the range finder/club selector does not think that I am hitting when I’m stopped for someone else’s shot.
Thanks y’all for your comments! This is priceless stuff… a million dollars worth of feedback.
THIS CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY OVER!
We’ll go through these entries and choose a winner pretty soon. (There’s a lot to read!)
T