Golf GPS for Iphone

Been reading up on various iPhone golf GPS and bought GolfShot last night. Looks pretty good and will game it later this week to see how well it performs

hi guys..

i'm getting my iphone pretty soon and really hoping to try out these software..

so far freecaddie sounds good.

ghoonnk, please let us know how is GolfShot performing....thanks

snowman

the problem with running golf apps on the 3G was the horrible time it took to get a lock on. I'm also using a HTC Hero and the lock-on is really quite (a matter of seconds), while the 3G took at least a minute

The one thing I wish Golfshot has is integration to oobgolf.com. That site is seriously good for tracking strengths and weaknesses, etc

Okay, just fired up my GolfShot. Registration screen came up, entered my username, email address, choice of password, handicap, and REGION. After that, it started syncing courses from the main server into my selected region. I just added 2 more regions, Singapore and Malaysia and it synced again to add the courses list from these countries. Quite smart.

After that, I pressed Play Round, and it requested to use the GPS, and almost immediately, it figured out that I was in Dubai, and presented a list of courses, including the distance from where I am (in office) to the golf course.

Looks pretty straightforward and intelligent so far, no fidding around with settings, etc. Considering that I have tried several iPhone golf apps in the past, this one wins on ease of use and intelligence so far.

Check out the user guide to get an idea of how the setup works, and the kind of functionality available.

More to follow as soon as my boos goes on his annual leave (which means I can siam off for a lunch time round at The Montgomerie or the Jebel Ali Golf Club )

Looks like I'll be able to post some feedback on Golfshot tomorrow. Got a 12.48 pm tee time at The Els Club, one ball

Since they have just completed overseeding, it's going to be buggy on track, with no stake markers, so this will be an excellent opportunity to actually have to rely on the iPhone golf GPS

Here's a review I found that might be useful reading: http://gps.about.com/od/mobilephonegps/fr/golfshot_review.htm

thanks bro

looking forward to your feedback

snowman

Update #1 : got bored last night, noticed they didn't have the GPS mapping distances for The Els Club and I went to Google Maps and tagged each hole, then sent them the link to my maps on Google Maps. went to sleep, woke up, and found an email from them that they just finished mapping it and asked me to sync the course to my phone again (select Account, click Sync). will see how good it is later

Okay, back from the round.

My feedback: GolfShot is VERY good as a GPS rangefinder. The company that did the software was able to turnaround my request LITERALLY overnight and I was able to use the GPS markers for The Els Club today.

Some features I found really useful:

1. It can calculate the length of any shot. Let's say you just hit a shot (e.g. drive) and you think WAHHHH, SO FAR, but wonder really HOW FAR? Just mark where you just hit the ball from, go to where the ball is, and tap to mark again and it will show you how far. In fact, the yardage from the 1st mark is displayed dynamically on the screen.

2. Easy to enter and count score. One thing I really hate is to enter numbers on my scorecard. I have a bad habit of counting my score on the go, and end up putting undue pressure to play better instead of just playing the current shot. Tap on score, enter your score (it shows numbers AND score type - albatross, eagle, birdie, par, bogey, etc), enter number of putts, then on the next screen you can enter the club used to tee off, number of sand saves, and number of penalties. All these consolidate into a stats sheet at the end of the round, from which I can see where I screwed up.

3. On the fly GPS yardage to pin, 100 layup, 125 layup, 150 layup, 200 layup, to bunkers hazards, etc. No more guessing if you can clear the bunker. In fact, one useful feature I used a lot today was firing to layup positions instead of just chionging. As a result, no more funny yardages on my approach shots, e.g. 30 yds, 40 yds. I was able to play to my 100 yd layup position and from there play a comfortable gap wedge to land the ball on the green.

4. Getting yardage to intermediate positions -- want to cut tiger line over water but not sure how far it really is and how far you'll have left to the hole? Just tap and hold on the Arial view screen and drag the marker around the hole/fairway, and you can see how far to the desired location, and how far from the desired location to the pin. VERY useful.

Another nice touch is that Golfshot emails your scorecard to you after the round. I think it can do the same for other golfers in your flight but I have not tried this yet. It's also stored online -- you can see my scorecard from today's game here: http://www.golfshot.com/rounds/detail/357-466984-467355 to get an idea of what it covers

What GolfShot does not do:

1. it does not build a yardage table of how far you hit each club
(will add more as I continue to use it)

Accuracy : pretty decent. Golf carts at The Els Club are GPS-equipped, and I was able to compare yardages between their GPS and mine. On the whole, yardages only differed by 1 to 2 yards, probably because of how they program tee and pin positions.

I was playing one ball, and finished my round in just over 3 hours (due to traffic on course). Despite using the GPS a lot on my iPhone 3GS, battery life dropped by only 10 to 15%. One thing I really liked about this app is that it does not take long to enter your score and details., while it works well as a rangefinder between tee and green.

Well worth the USD30, a one-time fee, and has Malaysia courses and Singapore courses as well. Not sure how this fares against a laser rangefinder like a Bushnell 1600 TE, but this works for me so far

Think there is some good SW for Windows Mobile too..... Any recommendation?

How does golfshot compare to freecaddie?

With golfshot, i can yardages to

front of green
back of green
center of green
100 yds layup
125 yd layup
150 yd layip
200 yd layup
to each individual hazard

Freecaddie doesnt do that.

Sounds very impressive. Thanks for the detailed review and comparison. It's seem worth the money it cost. Just a note on using the iPhone on the course, the only known material to scratch the glass easily is another piece of glass and sand (which is abundant where we play), so use a screen protector or take note of sand in your pockets.

Edwin wrote:

Think there is some good SW for Windows Mobile too..... Any recommendation?

Intelligolf

peterpur wrote:

Sounds very impressive. Thanks for the detailed review and comparison. It's seem worth the money it cost. Just a note on using the iPhone on the course, the only known material to scratch the glass easily is another piece of glass and sand (which is abundant where we play), so use a screen protector or take note of sand in your pockets.

Agreed. Got to be careful with the iPhone and not drop it as well. It is especially useful on courses where you do not have GPS in the buggy, and don't want to trust your eyes too much. It would be useful to get a belt case, one that fits securely and WITHOUT magnetic clasp (as it WILL screw up the digital compass), so as to avoid sand scratching the glass

Tried GolfCard. Waste of USD8 for me since they don't have the range mapped out for any of the courses here in Dubai, unlike GolfShot, which has the GPS rangefinder. Extremely disappointed, especially since there is no way to contact them to get them to add the necessary info.

Played a round using GolfShot yesterday, and was once again impressed with the range finder. Was on a long Par 5 and used it to calculate distance remaining to 100 yds, played a 6i and landed it 103 yds from pin, then hit GIR with a PW but missed par due to bad putting. Definitely a very useful tool, but as all such apps go, useless unless you have a data plan and 3G connectivity

Whats the data usage like in a game? 100mb in a game?

No idea. Am on unlimited data plan here, never bothered to check, but I'm venturing to guess that it's several MB. Makes me wonder if there are prepaid mobile data lines for Malaysian telcos.

golf card courses are taken from OOBGolf isn't it? i got it too.Have not used golf shot before.

OOBgolf uses MapQuest and the aerial imaging isn't as updated as Google's, so the courses in Dubai cannot be mapped. As for GolfShot, their customer support was amazing -- 12 hour turnaround in getting me the yardages for The Els Club.

publica wrote:

I use Freecaddie. It's free. It has all the course you listed above except for Horizon hills.
I just started using it last month and use it at sembawang....it's good.

hi just like to ask if this software for Iphone only?? or you can also use it with other phones?

Good news for those using golfshot.

I just realized that there is no data roaming for gps overseas. Hence, you'll be able to use this software in Malaysia or Indonesia. Just remeber to sync golf courses before you go overseas

most GPS apps can use mobile base towers to triangulate your ESTIMATED position.
the use of data is only when the underlying map is not available in your phone like google map.

for most gps apps, just need to sync the map before u play (mentioned earlier).
u can sync using the wifi at home so no data charge.

not sure what is the margin of error thou, so you might want to control your excitement if you see that you hit a 400m drive on the phone

Was looking for an app to record score on the android platform and came to know about this app. Checked their course database and realised that they do not have the data for NSRCC Par 3 course sianz 1/2

Anyone has other good golf apps for android to recommend?