New GameGolf has me pumped

[DirtyBirdie11]

Just got a new GameGolf for Christmas. Pretty excited to get out and start using it. Feel like it'll give me some motivation now that I'll have hard data to look at. How has your experience been if you've used it before?

[Geaux Gators]

Huge thread on this already.. It has lots of good insight and lots of complaints.

 

My one thing to you would be this. DO NOT expect it to be something its not. Its a great tool for learning your game. and a great way to remember special places that you play. It is NOT a Shotlink system. Consumer GPS is only allowed to be so accurate by the government for security reasons. Take the stats with a grain of salt as it cannot accurately generate putting stats unless you put the pin in the EXACT spot.

 

You should get used to tagging the shots before you step into the ball in my opinion, and I would suggest putting a dab of superglue under each tag. if you hit a thin shot, the way that the iron reacts, tends to try to push the tag out of the club a bit, and you can lose a tag that way. If you use just a small bit of super glue, SMALL, it will help keep this from happening.

 

Also, anytime you have issues with editing a round, or a golf course is not "accurate".. just send them an email. they have always been Johnny on the spot with fixing any issues i have ever had. I have used one since about 3 months after they were introduced.

 

I hope that helps, and enjoy!

[North Butte]

For their version of Strokes Gained (not totally comparable to the version in Broadie's book) you need to combine "tee" and "approach" strokes gained and just consider that a combined tee-to-green summary stat. Game Golf does not correctly apportion strokes between their tee and approach categories. If you drive the ball into the trees and must chip out sideways (or backwards) Game Golf considers that to be like a tee shot in the rough followed by a duffed second shot. It does not know from "obstructed" or "recovery" and if you drive it crooked no but long it will tell you your strokes gained "tee" is great when it is not.

 

But back combining those two categories into tee-to-green it is actually reasonably accurate. I would also suggest you come by on the other two categories of Strokes Gained because it it tough to edit the hole locations accurately enough be sure exactly what is putting and what is short game. But if you get the hole locations pretty exact (by editing after each round) the putting and short game strokes will be pretty close to correct.

 

Speaking of post round editing, do that from a web browser on a Windows computer with a mouse. Precise post round editing is very tricky on a phone screen.

 

The absolute golden feature of Game Golf is the way it will show you graphics and numbers describing the distance and left, right, long, short dispersion of your shots with each club. Unlike the pseudo-Strokes-Gained stuff the each-club distance and dispersion feature is right on the money usually. My one caution for that part of it is to let it collect eight or 10 rounds before you look too closely at the results for each club. It takes a while to build up a true picture of both your good and bad shots especially with clubs you might only get a couple times a round. Especially after about 20 rounds you can really drill down and found out a lot of things you would not have necessarily thought about your game.

 

And of course it is great for comparing your actual results when trying out new clubs! To me seeing what happened with a new club over several rounds of golf, comparing distance and dispersion with the old club, is far more useful then something like launch monitor data or hitting into a net.

[jmar87]

Looks cool, might give it a shot as well.

[miamigolfman]

i might make the plunge as well... pretty novel idea and can be had at a nice discount right now

[jbandalo]

Bought one second hand for $140 cdn. Not bad and excited to try it. Just need to wait until spring.

[richmscott]

Just purchased one from a member can't wait to give it a go.

[Geaux Gators]

its a good tool

[YNWACY]

Huge thread on this already.. It has lots of good insight and lots of complaints.

 

My one thing to you would be this. DO NOT expect it to be something its not. Its a great tool for learning your game. and a great way to remember special places that you play. It is NOT a Shotlink system. Consumer GPS is only allowed to be so accurate by the government for security reasons. Take the stats with a grain of salt as it cannot accurately generate putting stats unless you put the pin in the EXACT spot.

 

You should get used to tagging the shots before you step into the ball in my opinion, and I would suggest putting a dab of superglue under each tag. if you hit a thin shot, the way that the iron reacts, tends to try to push the tag out of the club a bit, and you can lose a tag that way. If you use just a small bit of super glue, SMALL, it will help keep this from happening.

 

Also, anytime you have issues with editing a round, or a golf course is not "accurate".. just send them an email. they have always been Johnny on the spot with fixing any issues i have ever had. I have used one since about 3 months after they were introduced.

 

I hope that helps, and enjoy!

 

Just got 1. Got the link to the huge thread? I've been searching for it but can't find it.

[Geaux Gators]

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/958359-game-golf-tracking-system-merged/

[tourbrassie]

I've developed a tracking app for golf and at the start I've done a lot of tests with GameGolf and other systems. GameGolf works quite well. But my issues with it were:

 

1) the battery holds for a few rounds but when it was empty, I forgot to load it, so I missed a lot of rounds for my statistics - and I didn't get them into the system afterwards, because there was no editing platform

2) I'm carrying my bag on the right side (or over both shoulders), but I'd like to do the tagging also on the right side - :-( it's not a good feeling with the device in between right hip and bag.

3) I always had to edit the round afterwards and had to change the spots of the shots to get the correct lie (e.g. GPS shows ball in the green side bunker but it was on the green)

4) and the device looks on the hip bourgeois

 

But it works and it gives me good statistics.

But at the end I developed a software to edit rounds and for the better editing process I created a app which records the round without any action on the course. So that the only thing you need to use the solution is a smartphone for the tracking and/or tablet or computer for editing the round.

 

It would be interesting for me to read what you think about bebrassie and gimme some feedback.

[Geaux Gators]

Received an email from the Game Golf team that is heading to the PGA store. They are apparently releasing some new features, or so the lead me to believe. I was planning on going to the PGA show in orlando, but now I am not able to attend. But the were going to set up a meeting to go over the new year's upcoming additions.

 

looks like more goodies from game golf.

[ZachJ]

I know this is a Game Golf thread, but how does it compare to its main competitor Arccos? My home course sits in a river valley where there is no cell service except in the clubhouse, so putting your phone on airplane mode or turning it off is almost required. Does anyone know if either works well without a GPS connection? Or is that the whole premise of them? I don't need live stats during the round but I would like to review everything at home after if that's possible.

[manhattan01]

I know this is a Game Golf thread, but how does it compare to its main competitor Arccos? My home course sits in a river valley where there is no cell service except in the clubhouse, so putting your phone on airplane mode or turning it off is almost required. Does anyone know if either works well without a GPS connection? Or is that the whole premise of them? I don't need live stats during the round but I would like to review everything at home after if that's possible.

 

Pretty sure it needs a GPS signal as does Arccos. I've used GameGolf for about 2 years now and I love it because I'm a data geek. But in the end, I just use it to track distances and a few other percentages. The hardest part of the whole thing for me was baking the tap of the tag onto the sensor into my pre-shot routine. If you forget (and I do forget), you can go in and edit your round after. I still keep track of my score on my scorecard as I do penalties because GG isn't great at handling those. Despite that, I still love the thing.

[Geaux Gators]

If you use the belt unit, it does not require anything of your cellphone.

 

it works standalone.

[BlackDiamondPar5]

Huge thread on this already.. It has lots of good insight and lots of complaints.

 

My one thing to you would be this. DO NOT expect it to be something its not. Its a great tool for learning your game. and a great way to remember special places that you play. It is NOT a Shotlink system. Consumer GPS is only allowed to be so accurate by the government for security reasons. Take the stats with a grain of salt as it cannot accurately generate putting stats unless you put the pin in the EXACT spot.

 

You should get used to tagging the shots before you step into the ball in my opinion, and I would suggest putting a dab of superglue under each tag. if you hit a thin shot, the way that the iron reacts, tends to try to push the tag out of the club a bit, and you can lose a tag that way. If you use just a small bit of super glue, SMALL, it will help keep this from happening.

 

Also, anytime you have issues with editing a round, or a golf course is not "accurate".. just send them an email. they have always been Johnny on the spot with fixing any issues i have ever had. I have used one since about 3 months after they were introduced.

 

I hope that helps, and enjoy!

 

I know nothing about GameGolf but figured I'd help by clearing up what you said above.-- Selective Availability, which was the purposeful degradation of GPS accuracy for non-US military, ended in May 2000. The only limitation on accuracy is now within the GPS device itself, and for consumer grade is typically ~3 yards.

[North Butte]

The drifting and inaccuracy endemic to all this GPS watches, Game Golf, mobile phones, etc. is due to the rather basic implementation of GPS chips in consumer devices. Getting better accuracy consistently would require equipment that you can't really shrink down to a fraction of a square inch of circuitry. As BDP5 points out, the Selective Availability thing was a Cold War relic and has not been used in ages. Consumer GPS is just not accurate to the nearest foot or even the nearest yard and it tends to drift somewhat from moment to moment.

[matchavez]

Huge thread on this already.. It has lots of good insight and lots of complaints.

 

My one thing to you would be this. DO NOT expect it to be something its not. Its a great tool for learning your game. and a great way to remember special places that you play. It is NOT a Shotlink system. Consumer GPS is only allowed to be so accurate by the government for security reasons. Take the stats with a grain of salt as it cannot accurately generate putting stats unless you put the pin in the EXACT spot.

 

You should get used to tagging the shots before you step into the ball in my opinion, and I would suggest putting a dab of superglue under each tag. if you hit a thin shot, the way that the iron reacts, tends to try to push the tag out of the club a bit, and you can lose a tag that way. If you use just a small bit of super glue, SMALL, it will help keep this from happening.

 

Also, anytime you have issues with editing a round, or a golf course is not "accurate".. just send them an email. they have always been Johnny on the spot with fixing any issues i have ever had. I have used one since about 3 months after they were introduced.

 

I hope that helps, and enjoy!

 

I know nothing about GameGolf but figured I'd help by clearing up what you said above.-- Selective Availability, which was the purposeful degradation of GPS accuracy for non-US military, ended in May 2000. The only limitation on accuracy is now within the GPS device itself, and for consumer grade is typically ~3 yards.

 

Heh... learn something new everyday. I didn't know that was off either. Nice.

[Geaux Gators]

huh, That is news to me as well, which is cool.

 

I have always been told it could only be so accurate because of regulations.

[coreymcl]

Received an email from the Game Golf team that is heading to the PGA store. They are apparently releasing some new features, or so the lead me to believe. I was planning on going to the PGA show in orlando, but now I am not able to attend. But the were going to set up a meeting to go over the new year's upcoming additions.

 

looks like more goodies from game golf.

 

I've been watching for any press releases but haven't seen any. Tomorrow is the last day so I'm curious to see what they announce, if anything.

[dcmidnight]

huh, That is news to me as well, which is cool.

 

I have always been told it could only be so accurate because of regulations.

 

This is one reason I think they should allow you to manually enter your putt length in feet. Pacing it off is going to be way more accurate than GPS tagging. But I requested this as a feature over two years ago so I wont hold my breath LOL.

 

But its now the last day of the PGA show and now word from GG on any new features or updates to the website. With Arcos coming out with new features and new versions - along with some cross marketing with companies like Cobra - I'm really starting to wonder about GG.

[Geaux Gators]

Yeah, I haven't seen anything. Nothing, zilch, nunca, ZERO. The email, insinuated that they were going to release features aimed a teaching pros. The way my email read, they mistook me for that. (I at no point made any claims to be such, I only asked what they were going to release, upgrades or new hardware at the show) I was going to try to go for the club our GM no longer goes, but my schedule will not allow me too.

 

So i don't know.

Also, it took a week or so to respond whereas normal response time is less than a day from all my other requests.

[Geaux Gators]

huh, That is news to me as well, which is cool.

 

I have always been told it could only be so accurate because of regulations.

 

This is one reason I think they should allow you to manually enter your putt length in feet. Pacing it off is going to be way more accurate than GPS tagging. But I requested this as a feature over two years ago so I wont hold my breath LOL.

 

But its now the last day of the PGA show and now word from GG on any new features or updates to the website. With Arcos coming out with new features and new versions - along with some cross marketing with companies like Cobra - I'm really starting to wonder about GG.

 

I think the manual putt length is a really good idea. I mean if you take the time to keep track of that during your round, then you ACTUALLY want to track that during the season. That makes perfect sense.

 

I have gotten a lot of use out of my game golf, until I switched grips. I switched to a PURE DTX and the butt-hole... yes i actually had to think about that when I typed it, is a tiny bit larger than the same sphincter (i might as well run with it) of the Golf Pride Multicompounds I was using. So I started losing tags left and right (i literally lost one on the left side of a hole, and then the right side of the same par 5)

 

I am a little OCD about my grips and things that I can "feel", so I would rather have my grip than a tiny butthole on a grip that I don't want to use. I have tried everything from plumbers tape, to Gorilla glue. Game Golf was really cool about it. When I explained my "angst," after having replaced a box of tags, they sent me 1 of everything I had lost, plus a full box of tags. I have since lost all of my irons, and 2 of the wedges. and I refuse to ask them for more, because I feel like a wingwang. I love the device, and one of my buddies has the Arcos system, and honestly, I truly feel that it is far inferior to the Game Golf. he has lost a tag, IIRC, and his stats don't seem to be really accurate. It is automatic, but I see him fiddle with his phone way more than I would ever want to.

 

just my two $0.0000002

[matchavez]

huh, That is news to me as well, which is cool.

 

I have always been told it could only be so accurate because of regulations.

 

This is one reason I think they should allow you to manually enter your putt length in feet. Pacing it off is going to be way more accurate than GPS tagging. But I requested this as a feature over two years ago so I wont hold my breath LOL.

 

But its now the last day of the PGA show and now word from GG on any new features or updates to the website. With Arcos coming out with new features and new versions - along with some cross marketing with companies like Cobra - I'm really starting to wonder about GG.

 

I think the manual putt length is a really good idea. I mean if you take the time to keep track of that during your round, then you ACTUALLY want to track that during the season. That makes perfect sense.

 

I have gotten a lot of use out of my game golf, until I switched grips. I switched to a PURE DTX and the butt-hole... yes i actually had to think about that when I typed it, is a tiny bit larger than the same sphincter (i might as well run with it) of the Golf Pride Multicompounds I was using. So I started losing tags left and right (i literally lost one on the left side of a hole, and then the right side of the same par 5)

 

I am a little OCD about my grips and things that I can "feel", so I would rather have my grip than a tiny butthole on a grip that I don't want to use. I have tried everything from plumbers tape, to Gorilla glue. Game Golf was really cool about it. When I explained my "angst," after having replaced a box of tags, they sent me 1 of everything I had lost, plus a full box of tags. I have since lost all of my irons, and 2 of the wedges. and I refuse to ask them for more, because I feel like a wingwang. I love the device, and one of my buddies has the Arcos system, and honestly, I truly feel that it is far inferior to the Game Golf. he has lost a tag, IIRC, and his stats don't seem to be really accurate. It is automatic, but I see him fiddle with his phone way more than I would ever want to.

 

just my two $0.0000002

 

First, this was awesome.

 

You're right; it is inherently inferior. I think that's because GameGolf has always maintained up front that it wanted to be a legal device, or at least now one that could be one with no phone app still. All other devices said F the rules, so they have a leg up.

 

The other thing is that GameGolf still doesn't use its stats in a way that's terribly helpful. You still can't overlay a first shot pattern on a course. If you play the same course a few times, it would be really helpful to see where you're spraying. That, among several other stats that could be helpful for your game, but they don't give. Tendencies over time... like do you end up left or right of target based on time of day? Fade more in the late afternoon, or duck hook as you get tired? Simple stuff like what are the percentages of greens you hit from 10-20, 20-30, 180-190. What's your GIR per iron?

 

Think of it this way...

 

For every shot you take where either:

 

-You're on the green

-Get to within 30y of the green (or) is next shot a putt

 

What % is on the green?

 

You hit the green 45% with your 6-iron...

54 with your 7

63 with your 8

57 with your 9

79 with your PW

 

Oh, look! I guess you need some 9-iron work.

 

(Inside 100 is way too vague when they know what club you have.)

 

That is what is most disappointing. This isn't lack of data. They have that data. We input it. They just don't give us value when they don't bother to return these statistics.

[Jungleland]

Seeing that game golf doesn't appear to be evolving much with this system and that Arccos 360 is a buggy mess we seem to be left to app's like Golf Shots and Grint, among others, for statistical tracking. Last year I bought ClubHub and that was a disaster, the merits of these types of systems are great on paper but no one seems to be able to pull off anything that provides meaningful training data to better your game. It's just stats.

[dcmidnight]

That is what is most disappointing. This isn't lack of data. They have that data. We input it. They just don't give us value when they don't bother to return these statistics.

 

GG has repeatedly shown that they dont care what their users think.For example from Day 1 people have been asking for them to use a GIR stat when it comes to their stats breakdowns. Why dont they? They can certainly measure them in your scorecard view - so we know they are tracking it. But when it comes to breaking down various clubs and shots they use their insanely useless "distance circle". Who cares about a distance circle? GIR is already tracked so why cant you show me that?

 

I noticed that at the GG booth at the PGA show they seemed to have the exact same posters and advertisements that they have had the last couple shows - IE no updates and no new features.I'm thinking about finding some sort of Strokes Gained app and tracking all my distances manually. With the garmin S1 its relatively easy to measure shots and for things like putts it has to be much more worthwhile.

[North Butte]

Yeah the analytical portion of GG had about a few months beta/rollout phase where they did implement a handful of improvements but now two years later they obviously consider it a "mature" application.

 

The only so-called improvements they are interested in now are social media oriented sharing and whatever the term is for that compete with your buddies online type of junk. I'd imagine that's where their future revenue stream is from gathering and selling data from the sharing "features".

 

But the web based legacy stuff remains great for finding your club distances etc. and you can get used GG belt units for next to nothing now. So it's a good low-end option. I mean really, how much analytical capability do you need to justify a $70 used Classic and then free access to the web based tracking stuff?

[matchavez]

That is what is most disappointing. This isn't lack of data. They have that data. We input it. They just don't give us value when they don't bother to return these statistics.

 

GG has repeatedly shown that they dont care what their users think.For example from Day 1 people have been asking for them to use a GIR stat when it comes to their stats breakdowns. Why dont they? They can certainly measure them in your scorecard view - so we know they are tracking it. But when it comes to breaking down various clubs and shots they use their insanely useless "distance circle". Who cares about a distance circle? GIR is already tracked so why cant you show me that?

 

I noticed that at the GG booth at the PGA show they seemed to have the exact same posters and advertisements that they have had the last couple shows - IE no updates and no new features.I'm thinking about finding some sort of Strokes Gained app and tracking all my distances manually. With the garmin S1 its relatively easy to measure shots and for things like putts it has to be much more worthwhile.

 

Yep. I'd say funding dried up, and this might be in "maintenance mode". I'm saving any tech spending for Mevo, and I'll start looking for another shot tracker option.

[tourbrassie]

I know this is a Game Golf thread, but how does it compare to its main competitor Arccos? My home course sits in a river valley where there is no cell service except in the clubhouse, so putting your phone on airplane mode or turning it off is almost required. Does anyone know if either works well without a GPS connection? Or is that the whole premise of them? I don't need live stats during the round but I would like to review everything at home after if that's possible.

 

With bebrassie it would work without data connection. bebrassie works just with the cell phone and the phones's GPS. GPS is always available - even if you got no connection.