TST Talks with GAME Golf

[iacas]

As I mentioned in the thread linked below, I recently asked GAME Golf to send a representative here to the site to participate by responding to some feedback our members have.

I'm happy to announce today that two members of GAME Golf will be joining us. They'll be using the same account - @GAME Golf - and they are:

David Kelly

Marketing Manager

Jacob Crisp

GAME Golf Resident Pro

As I said they'll both share the same @GAME Golf profile, so perhaps they'll help us out by adding their name to the individual posts when they make them.

This thread exists for TST members to engage with GAME Golf. You can ask questions or share feedback. For bugs or course corrections, please continue to use existing channels . I know some of you have a long list of questions to ask, and I ask that you submit them one or two at a time. If you have more questions, you're welcome to ask them after your first one(s) have been answered. Also, if a few questions have piled up, please let David or Jacob answer before posting your own (even if the questions in the pile are not yours).

---

Here's the long-standing thread in which @mvmac and I (as well as countless others) "investigated" and continue to share our thoughts on the GAME Golf units.

Here's my profile:

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/iacas

And Mike's:

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/mvmac83

[toursauce]

I"ve been a Game Golf user for some time.  I love my device but to be honest i'm getting statistics envy when comparing to my friends who are using Arccos.  Two areas that Game Golf needs ASAP:

Strokes Gained/Lost

Putts/GIR

Given that there are only so many stats that tracking systems can implement, I would assume that Game Golf will want to have the same statistical options as Arccos.  By doing this the differentiating feature between the two systems would be method of tracking (i.e. tapping) and price.  Game Golf owns the price right now but is lacking in data.

Your thoughts.

Thanks

[fr0sty]

Welcome David and Jacob,

By Hole analysis:

Currently if I want to see how I played a certain hole at my course last year I have to go into each round individually, navigate to that hole, and cycle back and forth between half a dozen tabs to compare. The procedure is similarly cumbersome if I want to compare my play against others who have played the same hole. Would it be possible to have a "by hole" analysis feature where you could overlay multiple traces on a single map? Being able to filter by club selection, hole score, date, players, player HDCP, and see aggregate stats (GIR, Scoring Avg. Putts/GIR, Sand saves, etc.) would be great too.

Pace Of Play:

Something else I would like to see is "Pace of Play" information for my rounds. The data should be there, and the calculations are very simple to do, could that be included somewhere on the round summary?

Thanks for being willing to answer questions here. I've enjoyed the product so far and am looking forward to the start of a new season.

[mchepp]

Welcome David and Jacob,

By Hole analysis:

Currently if I want to see how I played a certain hole at my course last year I have to go into each round individually, navigate to that hole, and cycle back and forth between half a dozen tabs to compare. The procedure is similarly cumbersome if I want to compare my play against others who have played the same hole. Would it be possible to have a "by hole" analysis feature where you could overlay multiple traces on a single map? Being able to filter by club selection, hole score, date, players, player HDCP, and see aggregate stats (GIR, Scoring Avg. Putts/GIR, Sand saves, etc.) would be great too.

To take this one step further, what I would like to see on my home course is a miss bias. What I mean is if I am playing this hole hitting my driver in the right rough all the time, or hitting my approach to a particular bunker, or something along these lines. So for example letting me see my driving performance or approach performance on specific holes at my home course.

[Dave2512]

To take this one step further, what I would like to see on my home course is a miss bias. What I mean is if I am playing this hole hitting my driver in the right rough all the time, or hitting my approach to a particular bunker, or something along these lines. So for example letting me see my driving performance or approach performance on specific holes at my home course.

This could also be helpful for identifying mapping errors. I often don't catch them until I've signed a round because I may miss a fairway but not by as much as the performance of the tee analysis identifies. As I mentioned earlier I had one drive that missed the fairway long by a couple feet that recorded as 91 yards off right edge due to a split fairway.

At my home course the same thing happens on some holes. It's not the FIR stats I care about but looking at the performance off the tee graph a couple red dots that shouldn't be red dots and are off by several yards don't give an accurate analysis of what the left/right miss % is.

[tlester3672]

This could also be helpful for identifying mapping errors. I often don't catch them until I've signed a round because I may miss a fairway but not by as much as the performance of the tee analysis identifies. As I mentioned earlier I had one drive that missed the fairway long by a couple feet that recorded as 91 yards off right edge due to a split fairway.

At my home course the same thing happens on some holes. It's not the FIR stats I care about but looking at the performance off the tee graph a couple red dots that shouldn't be red dots and are off by several yards don't give an accurate analysis of what the left/right miss % is.

I think it would be awesome if they had an overlay on the map that shows the boundaries of the tee boxes, greens, fairways, hazards, etc.  That way it would be very easy to see when your shot had been marked improperly before signing your round.  I assume that this file has been created with some sort of graphics software so i am sure the vectored lineworks exist, they would just need to find a way to show them on the website.

[kpaulhus]

I think it would be awesome if they had an overlay on the map that shows the boundaries of the tee boxes, greens, fairways, hazards, etc.  That way it would be very easy to see when your shot had been marked improperly before signing your round.  I assume that this file has been created with some sort of graphics software so i am sure the vectored lineworks exist, they would just need to find a way to show them on the website.

I still mark a scorecard with my score, FIR and putts, so when I miss a fairway I know to double check vs GAME Golf until it shows that I missed the fairway.

[tlester3672]

I still mark a scorecard with my score, FIR and putts, so when I miss a fairway I know to double check vs GAME Golf until it shows that I missed the fairway.

I am the opposite.  I like using Game Golf so I don't have to think about keeping score, FIR, GIR, Putts, etc.  I have found that the less I know about my score, the better my score gets.

[Dave2512]

A few things I'd like to see

-more lick to edit features in round editing

-ability to flag shots and send that info to GG to tech support directly from the round edit

-ability to PM followers

-a way to hide clubs in club performance if you use more than one set of irons/tags ( I have several drivers, two iron sets with different specs etc)

-way to hide punch shots, unusual shots from stats

[Missouri Swede]

I’ve played a few rounds with the android app.  I’ve got a few questions/comments regarding the phone app:

• On starting the app, the selector for a new round (“Play Golf”) is subdued, and I can't see it in daylight outdoors. I clicked the area where I remembered it should be (which worked), but it would be nice to be able to read it. (Why have any of the top row buttons subdued? The subduing doesn’t seem to serve a purpose, since the active button is highlighted with an orange bar.)

• During one round the app froze up. I was trying to add in a penalty shot for tee shot that went OB. I messed up somehow and couldn't figure out how to get it to resume the round.  I continued on with pencil and paper. (This isn’t really a question, nor is it intended as a complaint; more of just an “incident report” in case you see it happening.)

• When I’ve made corrections online after the round, some of the corrections don’t make it back to the phone app.  Examples:
  • (a) The app recorded a tee shot location on the cart path halfway to the previous green.  Online, I moved it up to the correct teebox.  A few days later when I was looking at the phone app, it still showed the incorrect location.
  • (b) I forgot to tag a putt on a hole.  I added the extra putt after the round.  But on looking at the data for that round (under “My Rounds”) on my phone, it still showed the incorrect score and putts for the round.  I logged out from the phone app, then logged in again: still incorrect. I logged out, deleted the two log data files from the phone, restarted the phone, then logged in again: still incorrect.  Finally (and successfully), I uninstalled the app, deleted the log files, then restarted the phone, reinstalled the app, then logged in again: this time, it was correct.

Thanks.

[mvmac]

Welcome David and Jacob!

[Slowcelica]

Excitement and then crickets!

I would like to know how game golf calculates handicap and how it differs from the usga?

[TD22057]

I've really been enjoying using my Game Golf device this year.  The best feature for me are the club stats that show dispersions and averages.   Knowing what my normal dispersion is with a mid-iron for example really teaches me about where I need to be aiming to maximize my scoring (which is really minimizing big numbers for me).   The current problem w/ these stats is that you have to play a lot of rounds to get good numbers and a few wild/bad/crazy shots can throw off the stats.  So what I'd like to see are:

- A way to manually remove a shot from the stats.  double click, right click, or click "remove shots" and the click all the ones to remove.  It needs to be fast (1 click, not 3) and easy.

- A way to automatically remove shots from the stats by distance.  Set a minimum distance as a function of club and if the shot is below that, remove it from the stats.

- Show all the shots on the screen and color code the ones that are not included in the stats (current white color for used, maybe black for unused?)

It would also be really nice if there was a club summary table.  I'd like to see a table with all of the clubs down the left side and columns showing data for each club:

- total number of shots taken

- average number of shots per round

- average length (yards)

- length dispersion (std deviation in yards)

- direction dispersion (std deviation in yards)

- % of shots left and right of target (fairway or green center line)

Having that kind of information in a nice summary would help me see general miss statistics (left vs right) as well as how much accuracy I can expect from each club so I can plan my aim points appropriately.

Other misc ideas:

- Modify the scoring web pages - they have very little information density.  I have to click through menus to see par 3, 4, and 5 performance.  All of that information that's in the scoring menus should be on one page.  I never look at this page because it's too much of a pain to click through each item.

- Course statistics on a hole by hole basic.  Show me which holes I'm playing well on and which I'm not.

- Course summary table.  Table w/ course names down the left and for each show average score, hi/lo score, avg par 3, 4, 5 score, putts, etc.

[GAME GOLF]

Hi Guys,

Glad to be officially a part of this fantastic community!  As you may already know, we launched our new Tracking App last week for iPhone or Android and were heavily focused on ensuring a successful launch with that. We'll start answering questions and posting interesting feedback today (as you can imagine with the east coast thawing out things have been busy here these days but we'll do our absolute best to accommodate everyone's questions).

As always feel free to contact our customer support team for any issues you have and they'll respond ASAP at gamegolfsupport.com

For feature requests, ideas, suggestions, etc. we are happy to discuss them here but please consider adding them in our user forum at http://myexperience.gamegolf.com/ for our product team to evaluate. We take these requests very seriously and check the forums on a daily basis to get a feel for what our community's needs are. Most of our recent feature updates have come from requests made in the forum so feel free to add any ideas you have as they are very much appreciated!

All the best,

Jacob & David

[GAME GOLF]

I"ve been a Game Golf user for some time.  I love my device but to be honest i'm getting statistics envy when comparing to my friends who are using Arccos.  Two areas that Game Golf needs ASAP:

Strokes Gained/Lost

Putts/GIR

Given that there are only so many stats that tracking systems can implement, I would assume that Game Golf will want to have the same statistical options as Arccos.  By doing this the differentiating feature between the two systems would be method of tracking (i.e. tapping) and price.  Game Golf owns the price right now but is lacking in data.

Your thoughts.

Thanks

Putting stats are definitely top of mind.  During our Beta testing before launch we initially had a putts made by distance feature that we ended up pulling from the platform because unlike the PGA Tour's Shotlink system which uses multiple lasers for more precise putting distances, we have access to the highest grade GPS within realistic pricing means of course (spec'd higher grade than a phone's GPS) that depending on GPS conditions could mark a 5 foot putt as 5 feet but could also mark it as 12 feet - which just didn't seem like a viable option when our goal is to provide users with the greatest possible benefit to their game.

That said we have a team member who studied under Mark Broadie (father of the strokes gained theory) who is working on some really interesting features for the entire GAME GOLF platform.

- Jacob

[GAME GOLF]

Welcome David and Jacob,

By Hole analysis:

Currently if I want to see how I played a certain hole at my course last year I have to go into each round individually, navigate to that hole, and cycle back and forth between half a dozen tabs to compare. The procedure is similarly cumbersome if I want to compare my play against others who have played the same hole. Would it be possible to have a "by hole" analysis feature where you could overlay multiple traces on a single map? Being able to filter by club selection, hole score, date, players, player HDCP, and see aggregate stats (GIR, Scoring Avg. Putts/GIR, Sand saves, etc.) would be great too.

Pace Of Play:

Something else I would like to see is "Pace of Play" information for my rounds. The data should be there, and the calculations are very simple to do, could that be included somewhere on the round summary?

Thanks for being willing to answer questions here. I've enjoyed the product so far and am looking forward to the start of a new season.

Love both of these ideas - you may be interested to see what other folks added in our user forums around the stats by hole analysis feature at http://myexperience.gamegolf.com/forums/236342-feature-requests/suggestions/6446030-advanced-course-hole-analysis   Some great feedback there for sure if you would like to learn from other suggestions and possibly piggyback off what they had to say and combine your thoughts as well.  It has become quite the popular request which we tend to do lots of investigation around so the more feedback you can provide around the specific type of analysis you'd like would help us get a strong feel for what is best when considering integration.

As for POP there are lots of fun things we can do here besides just the speed of your round.  Coming from North Carolina I had the luxury of wide open courses where I could speed around in 1.5 hours but after moving to San Francisco I truly know what a crowded golf courses looks like so Pace of Play is a high friction point at the moment :)

- Jacob  (if anyone wants to follow me on GG  http://www.gamegolf.com/player/Jacob - I mainly upload all of my rounds to our testing grounds these days so you may not see me upload many rounds to our live platform ---butttttt I follow back!)

[GAME GOLF]

A few things I'd like to see

-more lick to edit features in round editing

-ability to flag shots and send that info to GG to tech support directly from the round edit

-ability to PM followers

-a way to hide clubs in club performance if you use more than one set of irons/tags ( I have several drivers, two iron sets with different specs etc)

-way to hide punch shots, unusual shots from stats

Lots of feedback so far in these areas at http://myexperience.gamegolf.com/ (if you'd like to piggy back of users thoughts or add your own for our product team to review) especially in the club performance section.  You'll see that in our next web update (should release by the end of this week) that more of your unusual shots will be eliminated from the club performance "typical distance" algorithm.

This will continue to improve as we get smarter about the data we are analyzing and figure out ways to automatically filter out unusual shots.

- Jacob

[GAME GOLF]

I’ve played a few rounds with the android app.  I’ve got a few questions/comments regarding the phone app:

On starting the app, the selector for a new round (“Play Golf”) is subdued, and I can't see it in daylight outdoors. I clicked the area where I remembered it should be (which worked), but it would be nice to be able to read it. (Why have any of the top row buttons subdued? The subduing doesn’t seem to serve a purpose, since the active button is highlighted with an orange bar.)

During one round the app froze up. I was trying to add in a penalty shot for tee shot that went OB. I messed up somehow and couldn't figure out how to get it to resume the round.  I continued on with pencil and paper. (This isn’t really a question, nor is it intended as a complaint; more of just an “incident report” in case you see it happening.)

When I’ve made corrections online after the round, some of the corrections don’t make it back to the phone app.  Examples:

(a) The app recorded a tee shot location on the cart path halfway to the previous green.  Online, I moved it up to the correct teebox.  A few days later when I was looking at the phone app, it still showed the incorrect location.

(b) I forgot to tag a putt on a hole.  I added the extra putt after the round.  But on looking at the data for that round (under “My Rounds”) on my phone, it still showed the incorrect score and putts for the round.  I logged out from the phone app, then logged in again: still incorrect. I logged out, deleted the two log data files from the phone, restarted the phone, then logged in again: still incorrect.  Finally (and successfully), I uninstalled the app, deleted the log files, then restarted the phone, reinstalled the app, then logged in again: this time, it was correct.

Thanks.

If you could visit the support center at gamegolfsupport.com and submit a ticket(s) for our team to answer that would be quite helpful.  I'd especially like to figure out the subdued screen as I haven't seen this in any testing thus far on the various Android devices in the office (possibly it may be related to your display settings, but without seeing it in person or with a screen shot I can't say with any certainty - and you're going to hate me here but besides testing on Android, I'm an iPhone user so my Droid chops aren't what they used to be).  Make sure to send in screen shots to the support team with your ticket if you think they are applicable.

As with any new app there will be issues along the way, and just about every 1-2 weeks you'll see an update (on iPhone and Android) with bug fixes and new feature releases (lots of new features coming soon btw).

- Jacob