Golf GPS on Your Phone?

My first experience with GPS technology for golf occurred a little more than a decade ago. I was playing a nice but long-forgotten golf course with some friends. We had opted to splurge on a motorized golf cart and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it contained a magical video screen that displayed your current location on the golf course and yardages to important landmarks. I was amazed at the amount of accurate and useful information provided by this technology.

The only problem with golf GPS technology was access to it. At first it was only found in golf carts. Eventually, it made its way into handheld units. However, I found these units too costly to be worthwhile. While technological advancements and market forces over time have greatly improved the value proposition of these devices, I still never felt comfortable dropping several Benjamins on one.

But having recently joined the modern age by buying my first smartphone, I discovered that its embedded GPS receivers can transform it into a golf GPS device. With several golf GPS iPhone apps available, I hit the Internet to find the best one. I read through many relevant threads on the main golf message forums and one name kept cropping up: the $19.99 Golfshot: Golf GPS. I installed it on my iPhone 5 and hit the course!

Golfshot is a full-featured golf GPS app that replicates the primary features of a dedicated unit. The company has over 40,000 worldwide course maps available for download without a subscription fee. There are two main screens that are easily toggled while playing. One is the aerial screen that displays your location on an overhead map of the hole with basic yardage information. There's a target reticle that you can drag with your finger to pinpoint a location on the map to discover the distance to that point and the distance from that point to the middle of the green. The second screen is the GPS list view and displays detailed yardages from your current location such as distances to hole landmarks and the front, middle and back green locations. Both screens have access to a sub-menu where you can take notes, snap photos, and, most importantly, track club distances. Once you finish playing a hole, you can enter your score on the electronic scorecard.

After playing several rounds with Golfshot, I'm thoroughly impressed. Initially, my main concern was accuracy. However, I compared the Golfshot yardages alongside those from golfers in my foursome who used dedicated laser and GPS handheld devices and found that they were always within a few yards of each other. While the aerial screen is nice visually, the GPS list view is the most useful. In fact, if you're already familiar with a course, you probably won't ever need to access the aerial screen. The swing tracking function is an easy way to track your true club distances and accuracy. Golfshot will store this data and give you valuable statistics on your clubs. Be sure to only track full swings, otherwise you'll skew the data lower. In any case, don't be surprised if your true club distances aren't as far as you think. Try as I might, those 300 yard bombs in my mind never quite registered much more than 250!

I didn't expect much from Golfshot's electronic scorecard, but I ended up pleasantly surprised. It asks for your score, putts, the club used on the tee, location of the tee shot, sand shots, and penalty strokes for each hole. Once I became familiar with the input screen, I found it faster and more convenient to use than the old-school paper version. Once the scorecard is completed, Golfshot emails the scorecard and a link to the Golfshot website where you can view more detailed stats that are presented in useful charts and graphs. Very cool stuff.

So the question remains, can a smartphone golf GPS app take the place of a dedicated golf GPS device? For the vast majority of golfers, I say "yes" for the following reasons:

• Accuracy: While some dedicated golf GPS devices boast "sub-meter precision", that level of accuracy is just not needed for 99% of golfers. Golfshot was more than accurate enough for me.
• Inexpensive: If you already own a smartphone, the cost difference between a smartphone golf GPS app and a dedicated golf GPS device can be several hundred dollars.
• No added weight or bulk: Software is massless. When you're lugging around over 20 lbs. on your back, every gram counts.

However, if you're a very serious golfer, you'll still want a dedicated golf rangefinder because of the military grade accuracy and the fact that most smartphones are not legal for tournament play.

P.S. If you're too cheap to drop $20 on a golf GPS app, try Swing by Swing.  Among the free apps, it's the best because there are no annoying ads.  But like all of the free apps, it doesn't offer much beyond distance to the middle of the green.

Yelling "Mashed Potatoes"?!

The term "polite golf clap" arose from the type of applause that golf fans traditionally showered onto golfers during a live tournament. It was a light clapping of the hands meant to show appreciation for a golfer's shot while at the same time not disrupting the quiet serenity thought to be needed for the golfers to play at their best. However, "polite golf clapping" is being increasingly drowned out by "rude golf yelling".

All the way up through the Hogan era, anything louder than a light applause was considered verboten on the golf course. With the emergence of Arnie's Army and Jack Nicklaus, respectful cheers were added to the mix. But the floodgates really opened up when Tiger Woods grabbed the torch from Jack. He seemed to attract a much broader audience and that audience brought a different element to the golf course. Words shouted from the gallery began being heard distinctly within television broadcasts. It started with words of encouragement such as "get in the hole!" and "be the ball!". Soon yelling "you da man!" became the hip thing to do after every golf shot. That remained the norm for a good decade or so.

However, over the last year, yelling utter nonsense has reigned supreme. Sometimes it's an inside joke. For example, "Baba Booey!" is a calling card for shockjock Howard Stern fans and it's often heard after Stern superfan Keegan Bradley hits a shot. But more times than not, there are yells that make no sense whatsoever. One that keeps cropping up is "mashed potatoes". WTF? Why the heck would someone yell that at a golf course, let alone anywhere for that matter? At first I thought that it must refer to some creative marketing campaign. But I looked all over the Internet and found zilch. Maybe the yeller believes he is yelling something creative, witty or funny? For the life of me I can see none of those qualities in "mashed potatoes". After thinking about it for far too long, I've concluded that the only logical reason for someone yelling "mashed potatoes" is that they are a potato farmer trying to boost demand for his crop. Nothing else makes sense! Listen to it for yourself and let us know your theories:

Random Ryder Cup Thoughts...

Here are some of my random thoughts after watching this year's Ryder Cup:

• An American Cop won the Cup - Rory McIlroy barely made it to his teetime on Sunday. Apparently, overzealous Golf Channel watching the night before caused him to confuse his local time zone and he left his hotel an hour late. But lucky for him, there was an Illinois State Police officer at the scene that gave him a police escort to the golf course. WTF? Do you think that if the roles were reversed and an American golfer was late to a Ryder Cup in Europe that some doughnut dipper would rush him through traffic with lights flashing and sirens 'a blazing? If I were that Smokey Bear, I would have taken Rors straight to Gino's East and told him, "You just f*cked up the Ryder Cup. Be happy that you can drown your sorrows in the world's best deep-dish pizza."
• The Ryder Cup produces the best golf of the year - I know that it's not scientific, but it just seems that there are more great golf shots produced during the Ryder Cup than any other golf tournament. It's really amazing considering all of the pressure and crowd distractions.
• Ryder Cup singles match play is the best golf day - If I could only watch one day of golf, it would have to be the final day of the Ryder Cup. It seems that no lead is safe entering the final day. Unlike other golf events where only a handful of golfers really matter during the final round, every golfer matters at the Ryder Cup. Normally when I watch a golf event, I fast forward to just my favorite players and contenders. But for the Ryder Cup, I only fast forward through the commercials. Golf and excitement are two normally mutually exclusive terms. The Ryder Cup is one of the few exceptions.
• The Ryder Cup brings out the passion - Not since David Duval has there been a more stoic persona on the PGA Tour than Jason Dufner. He rides the emotional roller coaster of a golf tournament like it's Venice canal ride. But at the Ryder Cup, the guy was pumping his fists, shouting to the crowd and even smiling! Seeing that kind of passion is what's so great about the Ryder Cup.
• I don't understand European team pride - Don't the Germans hate the Italians, the Italians hate the Spaniards, the Spaniards hate the Brits and everyone hates the French? As an American, it's easy to understand American pride and cheering for your country. But I think I'd have a hard time feeling that way for a general region that my country happens to reside. The European team shares a common currency (for now) but I don't think much more. That's why it's puzzling to me why they care for the Ryder Cup as much as they do.
• Ryder Cup Uniforms are Uniformly Awful - I have yet to watch a Ryder Cup where the outfits matched the coolness of the event. I sometimes wonder if the costume designer for "Caddyshack" found a second job dressing the Ryder Cup teams. Maybe when he dies the uniforms will improve.
  
• Pros hit shanks too - Webb Simpson hit a hoseltoved shank iron shot off the tee earlier this month at the BMW Championship. Well he did it again on the final day of the Ryder Cup at Medinah’s par-3 8th. It seems that September is shank month for Webb since he hit a shank during the 1st round at last year's BMW Championship. According to Simpson, "I probably shank one every other day on the range because one of my focuses in my swing is that I try to put as much force as I can on my downswing trying to get my weight through the ball," Simpson said. "A lot of times that club will get a little behind me and that face is open and the heel gets there first."
  
  This is a guy who has won a U.S. Open for chrissakes! As someone who suffers from the occasional shanks, it makes me feel good to know that even pros aren't immune to this horrible affliction.

Michael Weaver: The Epitome of a Student-Athlete

This year's U.S. Amateur Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club produced one of the most exciting finishes since Tiger's string of record setting wins in the 90s. Steven Fox staged a dramatic comeback win in overtime over Michael Weaver after being down two holes with two remaining in the Sunday championship match. Weaver had a shot to win it in regulation on the 18th green of the day's 36th hole of regulation with a seemingly very makeable four-foot par putt. He rolled his putt pure and true, but the ball hit a house about a foot before the hole that slung the ball wide left of its intended path. It was perhaps the cruelest divine intervention by the Golf Gods all year.

But the greatest amateur golf event also produced a refreshing reminder of what is still good in amateur sports. In a day and age when minor-league professional sports teams are basically masquerading around as "institutions of higher learning", there are still clear examples where education is still held in high regard. Michael Weaver is one such case. Not only did he prove his superb golf abilities with a runner-up finish on the biggest stage, he is also a stellar student at arguably the best public college in America, the University of California. However, what is truly amazing about Mr. Weaver is that he redshirted the 2011-12 season after already playing two full seasons. He did so to focus on academics to try to gain admission into Cal's Haas School of Business, one of the best and most rigorous business programs in the nation. Furthermore, his teammate and U.S. Amateur semifinalist, Brandon Hagy, did the same thing the year before! Clearly there are still great college athletes that rightfully put education at the same priority as sports. So Weaver may have lost the U.S. Amateur but he will win in the game called life. Also, the next time you read about a college football scandal, think about the wholesomeness still found in golf!