Anyone using bebrassie?

[the bishop]

Clicked on the on the site here. I'm intrigued but wondering if anyone had some real-world experience using it they could share.

[bouldergolfer]

I've been using it for a while. I've tried (or looked at) pretty much every stat tracking app out there, including correspondence with many. I've tracked my stats seriously for about five years and it's very very hard to find an unobtrusive way to do this that provides actionable data. I used strokeaverage.com for a couple of years but the time spent entering a round killed it for me in the end. They probably still have the most robust and flexible information processing back end (they have their own version of strokes gained developed prior to its widespread use). I had to record my round on paper and enter it after. It took a long time for anyone to develop an app for a phone that could limit the time at a computer post round. There isn't a perfect app out there but Bebrassie is as close as I have seen. To get the best information you are going to have to do some post editing but until pins are equipped with some sort of gps, that will always be the case. If you want approach proximity data, and useful putting information you have to have at least first putt distance and that is very difficult to automate. They seem very responsive and have been making pretty constant improvement to the product. The shot detection isn't perfect but the gps trail around the course shows you where you went and it's easy to edit. The one feature I would like is the ability to change the lie type, especially around the green where the automatic gps goes straight from green to rough and doesn't give you an option to select fairway/fringe/etc. I've even talked to them about a methodology to adjust for altitude - I live in a Colorado so my strokes gained on driving and long game are artificially inflated by the 10% distance bump. My rounds here make me look like a tour player for those stats. When I head down to sea level, the numbers are pretty different! Not an issue with their system as it would be a problem with any system. But they are looking at a fix - it would have to be something that would adjust distances on shots where altitude has an impact (tee shots and long game). I'm planning on sticking with it through the year to get a robust set of data,

[jdl]

I was lucky enough to win a year of use from a giveaway here on GolfWRX. I didn't use it on my trip to Florida a few weeks back because I didn't know the courses and thought it might be too difficult to try and use a new app on a trip. Since getting back home, I've used it for 4 rounds and here are my thoughts. Just for an FYI, I own a GameGolf Classic and used it for a couple of seasons, so I'm familiar with that kind of tracking system. I also use GolfShot for a phone GPS app.

 

Pros:

• Easy to use
  
• GPS seems accurate and reliable
  
• Battery impact doesn't seem too bad, I've gone from 100% to maybe 75% after 18 holes
  
• I need to get more rounds in, but the stats look really interesting. But as noted by bouldergolfer, unless you really keep detailed track of putt distances, that part is going to be suspect. Hard to remember when editing exactly where the flag was or where your putts were.
  

Cons:

• Shot tracker doesn't pick up many of my shots. Maybe 20-25%? I have an older Droid Turbo phone, maybe that's part of the cause? It's not too hard when editing to add in the shots, but sometimes you might forget and it's additional work to do after. If I don't edit a round very soon afterwards, I'd probably have a tough time getting all the shots mapped. I've tried keeping my phone in my front pocket, back pocket, doesn't seem to matter.
  
• The "birdiemaker" part of the app is nice to try and figure out a layup yardage or how far it is to carry a hazard, but it's kind of awkward to use, at least on my phone. Need to play with it a bit more perhaps.
  
• Might need to have some more filtering done on the club distances, I use my lob wedge a lot around the greens and it seems to reduce the shot averages for that club more than it should. Not a big deal for me since I really don't need this data as I've already "learned" about my distances previously with GG.
  

I'm going to keep using it mainly since I'm interested to see what I can glean from the stats with more rounds entered. And to get some rounds from playing in something less than 20 MPH winds. :)

[bouldergolfer]

JDL, I had the same issue you mentioned about the club distances. I hit a good number of "half shots" on my home course (1/2 sand wedge goes about 75 yards). The way I have worked around that (with advice from Bebrassie support) is to describe those shots (and only those shots) as pitch shots when editing. You have several options for what kind of shot you are hitting including tee, shot to green, pitch, bunker, lob, chip, putt, transport (layup on par 5), recovery, etc. When I have a full shot with a club I call it a "shot to green", when it's a partial shot, it's a pitch. I use lob for anything in the air around the green or what I would consider short game - turns out to be anything about 40 yards and in. I use chip for what I feel are chips.

 

I've also started considering any putt from the fringe or fairway as a putt from the green. The app frequently rings the green with rough, so my choice would be to record a putt from the rough, or to artificially move myself on to the green. I chose to move my approach on the green because it's probably a more accurate way to record that stat anyway. If I three putt from the fringe/fairway, I'd rather consider it a three putt since I should be able to two putt once I have a putter in my hands.

 

I track my rounds on a scorecard - a habit I picked up when using strokeaverage.com. So I have a record of clubs, distances and putt lengths to edit my round when I upload it to the computer. Then I edit the round later on my computer. This has been as painless a way of getting good stats as I have found. Many sites take longer to update and the Bebrassie GPS trail really helps you figure out where you hit from. In my opinion, there isn't much point trying to track detailed stats unless you are recording putt distances. That's the only way you can determine whether it's your approach shots or your putting that are costing you strokes. GIR without putt distances really doesn't tell you much. That's a big reason I have never gone to the gamegolf or arccos systems - you really need the putting data.

[jdl]

Yeah, I have been changing the shot types all along. Not a big deal to me as I don't need to track club distances, just think that the app could do more on its own like GG does.

 

Agree on the putting data, that's still the weakness of many of these tracking apps. And having to manually track it all defeats the purpose (or at least the appeal) of having one in the first place.