GameGolf promises to help you “take the guessing out of golf” and, in the main, it does. It’s a PC/smartphone system with a red widget you wear on your belt that allows you to scan the club you’ve chosen to use and logs every shot you play via GPRS – Barack Obama has been spotted using one.
When you get home, to the White House or wherever, you can indulge your inner golf-geek: you can download your round and fastidiously study where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Every shot and putt are there for you to see and compare with previous rounds.
GameGolf works on a “knowledge is power” basis which tells you what you need to work on most. Even after only two rounds I could see consistent patterns in my play: I come up short in the 50- to-100-yard range; I’m longer with the mid-irons than I used to be; I three-putt far too much. It’s not rocket science, but lowering your handicap isn’t either, I guess.
Now, the practicalities. If you’re going to spend £160 on this gadget you should be the kind of person who reads instruction manuals from start to finish. I didn’t. I’m a wrapping paper-ripper and it took me nearly four rounds to understand what this gadget does.
The biggest realisation is that (with the exception of live, yard-perfect GPRS maps of each hole via the app) this doesn’t give you data while you’re on the course. There is no on-course syncing from belt-sensor to iPhone. This is a retrospective tool that allows you to review your round and learn about your game (I don’t think this is because they can’t make the technology, more that syncing would arguably break R&A rules re on-course aids).
I have a few minor gripes: this gadget doesn’t give the option to score rounds under the Stableford system, which tells me how near my handicap I am, or how near I am to improving it ; GameGolf requires you to log EVERY shot played in your round (like a medal scoring format), which doesn’t allow for histrionics in the bunkers, stropping off the green or a disastrous hole or two – something that happens often with amateur golfers, particularly higher handicappers.
I also think that most golfers play the same course week in week out and it would be helpful to be able to compare single holes – to see how you’ve played the par five 17th in the last 20 attempts, for example. Logging of penalty shots, lost balls, blob holes etc is a bit complicated and GPRS running in the background uses a lot of iPhone battery on and off the course.
Because I have a short attention span, I sometimes forgot to scan my club and, occasionally, forgot whether I had logged a shot or not, meaning I ended up scanning it twice, so maybe a per-hole shot counter would be helpful.
Finally, my GameGolf.com profile is public – I’d rather be able to say yes to followers (as on Facebook) and share my golf data with whom I want, not everybody.
Despite this, I like the gadget and I’ve set myself the challenge of losing six shots from my 18 handicap by next autumn. Shame GameGolf can’t make me practise my putting more.
americangolf.co.uk or amazon.co.uk, £159.95
