Yuri Gadow

I feel your pain (or rather, felt) since I got so frustrated with the hassle of getting rounds together a while ago I ended up, metaphorically, disappearing into the garage for over a year to build a web app to help: Teeboxer . I'll shoot you a PM with a free year to give it a go; hopefully it'll help. It's a pretty new app so I don't expect it'll fit the way you want to plan perfectly just yet: so let me know where it does and doesn't help your planning and I'll work on getting your approaches (and pains) with planning covered...

"Rodents fed saccharin compared with those fed glucose showed diminished calorie compensation ability, increased calorie intake, and increased body weight. [...] They found that most animals, including those with prior cocaine exposure, selected the lever that dispensed saccharin over the lever that dispensed cocaine" What it’s worth, I couldn’t say. Sounds good though. (Or bad depending on one’s perspective.) Source: Artificially Sweetened Beverages: Cause for Concern [PDF]

Thanks iacas, I like to think it works that well—but then nothing survives first contact for long, so I'm looking forward adapting Teeboxer to the feedback. And, I'll second that a golf business equals less golf, I've never had so little time to play as after I decided to build Teeboxer. Sort of ironic, but also good motivation to eat my own dog food, i.e., use my own creation to squeeze a round in with people who don't mind that I have to skip the occasional hole to take a support call.

Yep. Plenty. And, I've not noticed how much I sweat changing due to any fabric, but then the difference one shirt will make to your core body temperature is small to none. That seems primarily a function of fitness v. exertion, humidity, and a little bit due to ambient temperature. I have noticed small differences from the design and color, e.g., how well wind is caught and flowed through the garment. The big difference for me is how the fabrics dry. Cotton soaks through and stays wet for an hour or more after I stop sweating, which keeps me cooler but less comfortable and less able to regulate my own temperature. Good synthetics accumulate the moisture on the outside of the garment where it evaporates and falls away faster, which probably makes me sweat more but I'm less aware of it and I can stop and go without alternately freezing and roasting. As for breathability, I'm familiar with the term in context of waterproof clothing, e.g., Goretex. If you're thinking about airflow through the material, I'd bet most non-waterproof clothing like golf shirts are going to be roughly the same—the big variable being how quickly they dry since a wet fabric allows less air to pass through.

Hello all, I'd like to introduce you to Teeboxer , an app I'm building to help busy golfers (including me) get rounds together faster and easier and to help all golfers find more opportunities to play and people to play with. I recently opened the public beta and want to invite Sand Trappers to use it and to let fly with any comments, suggestions, and criticisms you have; especially anything I could change or add to Teeboxer to make it useful to you specifically. In a nutshell : Teeboxer helps you spend more of your golf time playing by handling planning for you: gathering preferences from everyone, letting people discover and join your rounds (only if you want,) and figuring out the best choices for play. And, Teeboxer has a course directory…with a few twists: you can add more courses, edit courses, and post your own photos. And, every course has a community around it you can join and open your rounds to, find other players there, and join others' rounds. It works as a web app both on your computer and on a smart phone, and I've built in a good bit of functionality for planning and updates by text message and voice, so it'll work with most anyone and anywhere. Please give it a try and share what helps you and what doesn't, varnished or not. Teeboxer (web and mobile): http://teeboxer.com

Or maybe don't walk at all: User Propelled Golf Cart

Depends on how you look at it: they say the tissue in one pound of body fat makes about 3500 calories available to your body, i.e., a deficit of 3500 over some period will result in shedding a pound temporarily (how to make it stay off is a matter of debate these days.) I believe the theory is that all tissue uses calories to sustain itself and, moreover, your body has to work to move its weight around. That said, if you think you're fairly far off what a male would be with a body fat of 10-15%, e.g., 185lbs at 6'0, then I'd be very surprised if the standard BMR equation would produce a number even remotely close to what your actual BMR is—as it's just a way of expressing a set of past observations in the language of math. Your GP (family doc) will know one way or the other on things like that and have the results of studies they can give you that'll the basis for why they think X or Y (always ask for the facts.) Whereas the rest of us in the peanut gallery are just guessing or repeating hearsay (and by rest I mean all of those you talk to who can't immediately point to their framed medical doctorate, including The Google.)

If you're looking for a ballpark figure: a way to start is with a Basal Metabolic Rate calculator that takes in your height, weight, and age and throws out a guess at how many calories your body will use in a 24 hour period without activity and add to that the calorie guesstimates you find for the activities you're doing each day. If you're looking to lose weight; I'd spend a few bucks to have a sit down with your GP about getting it right and what a healthy calorie deficit for you would be. Seems like a hassle, what with The Google these days, but I think it's a good investment. As an example, I had to lose a few some time ago (I use the term "few" in the loosest sense) and I found I had plenty of energy to think and play with a budgeted deficit of 300 - 600 per day, but never below my BMR of roughly 1800, and that using rough estimates for my intake was plenty to keep the scale on the downward swing when averaged weekly. And, golf was always a welcome addition to the equation because it increases the days budget by quite a bit without tiring you out so much "normal" exercise is a problem that day.

I carry my bag and so can't offer any help with a cart recommendation. What I can offer is that I've noticed the people I play with are a big factor in how much I feel like a round was a workout with a challenging sport vs. a long, slow walk punctuated with failure. I won't guess about cause and effect, just want to say that trying to get out there and move through a round like you mean it by finding people to play with who enjoy that style might help you get more out of your cart. Good luck, I'll be rootin' for ya. PS Starting a journal somewhere sounds like a great idea; losing weight by intent usually can have some lousy feeling days and a little external accountability and cheering might help get through them in good humor—good thinking!

That's some good humor; perfect correction for this particular Monday. Thanks guys!

Very true. I think there's some in audience that can benefit: responsible, but green golfers and responsible golfers who've mostly played with "irresponsible" golfers can be in need of telling. When I first started playing, I was told by a variety of unrelated folks that competitive play was always from the back, men always from the next forward (but good, male golfers were allowed to hit from back if they really wanted to), seniors forward of that, etc. I probably had a dozen rounds in before I even got an clue that one was allowed to choose (and that from a solo fourth who walked up to join our threesome) and a few more after that before it sunk in I should choose for sake of pace and enjoyment. One of those things that's embarrassingly obvious once you have a feel for things, but obscure to the beginner focused on getting out of the bunker with a shred of dignity.

To a limited extent, round planning apps can help with this. The one I'm building, Teeboxer , has course communities you can use to open a round to everyone else who belongs to a course's community, meaning they can see you're planning to play a round and add themselves to it on their own (or you could see their round and join it.) That way you can reserve a tee time for several. That said, it's brand new and covered in wet paint, so looking for people for your round using course communities right now would run you into the chicken and egg problem, i.e., it's pretty unlikely the course community you'd open your round to would have any number of members in it yet. But, adding yourself to a community would allow you to see when others start joining it too and opening their rounds to the communities. For those trying it out or wanting to tell me what to add/change to help them as singles, drop me a line here and I'll set you up with a free account with unlimited round plans (everything else, like joining course communities, is already free.) I think the communities feature is the only one in planning apps that will help when you're not looking to play with anyone you know. But, if you do want to try getting a second from your friends first, general round planning apps— Teeboxer , Scrambl , FullFoursome , etc.—also make it easier to find players from the people you do know.

Often wondered this myself as someone in the industry. What I have noticed is that most courses' sites seem to be put together by relatives or graphic designers; neither category really getting involved with the course to help it meaningfully interact with us (the players)—creating a web site tool that allows non-tech staff to upload static photos being a bare minimum, integrating and showing off our photos a nice step up. Presumably its mainly the standard combination of limited time available to understand all the marketing options, money available to experiment, and mostly unanswered questions about return on investment. (Even mediocre designers can blow 10-30K of a course's dollars on an unimpressive, static website.) Maybe as courses experiment with interacting with people over things like Facebook and Twitter, and the newer golf-specific platforms, their approach will change (since the price variable is being eliminated and the time required to experiment is coming down.)

What struck me when I took up golf a few years ago: new golfers are seen by courses and some players as a problem to be fixed on a good day, and as a pain in the proverbial on a bad. At the time I took up golf I was also learning rock climbing and remember the contrast very clearly. Every week I'd go to a course or range and feel a pretty icy breeze or to an instructor and just feel lost. I'd go the local climbing spots and people would come over and encourage me, offer the occasional bit of wisdom, tell me about climbing etiquette, or knots, etc. Today if someone asked me for advice on how they could try out and/or learn golf, I'd have to shrug—I don't know of any friendly way to learn what golf is, how to play it, and just how to get going as a (temporary) outsider and I know none of my golf partners do either. I do know of pro's who can dive right into some great swing analysis, but some way to learn how to get around the course at a pace that's fun for you and the people behind you, to learn how to become part of and enjoy the culture? No. Does every other sport I do have that either formally or informally? Yes. (Mountain biking, scuba diving, soaring, rock climbing, mountaineering, and trail running.) I'd guess problems experienced golfers face now have little much of an impact on industry revenues; churn is always present and I haven't seen numbers (yet anyway) saying that regular golfers are leaving the sport in significantly higher numbers today than yesterday. If that 90 million in the article has the same basis as most I see in the industry, e.g., "have you ever tried golf? do you play now?," I wouldn't consider it representative of regular golfers departing but of people who try to get into golf and walk (or run) away because it's hard and there's nothing but our own stubborness to help us get through the first year or two of confusion and cold shoulders. In other words, I'd guess it's a decrease in golfers trying and then sticking around that's hurting—emphasis on guess. How we could improve that situation that is a very interesting question—I love the experience of a good round and wish people could find ways access that enjoyment without having to go uphill both ways. And this is another problem; I find it far easier getting out for any other activity than to get four people into a good (and available) tee time for two or four hours of being unavailable to the world. This at least is getting some attention because technology can help with these kinds of coordination and networking problems; I've started Teeboxer to work on solutions for this (though it's by no means a silver bullet...yet) and other tech startups are cropping up with related tools. But, for the biggest bang for buck in increasing the regular, happy player base: I'd still put my money on making golf a more accessible activity, culturally speaking, than changing the rules or other ways of helping people already playing have better scores.

Just an off the cuff follow-on to zeg's comment about asking: flip the situation around in your head, if a person who was trying to learn to play better came in and asked if you minded if they use your practice facilities while they get good enough to be a regular customer at a better course, like yours, what would you do? Realize that a potential customer learning to use your product/service better and more enjoyably is a heck of a thing to invest in and hand him a few free bucket tokens as thanks for asking and maybe even have the local pro stop by and offer a friendly tip, for a really happy, future customer. In other words, it's in courses' financial interest to help their players get better and new players looking to get good enough to be regulars are gold. So, while I tend to be of the camp that gets it done now asks for forgiveness later, this is a case where I think talking to folks can only help and I'd apply it to your second question as well, i.e., just call the folks at your course and tell them you're learning and looking for the best time to play without impacting their rate of play (which will probably be weekday twilight rates, since there won't be groups behind you to slow down—being the last group can be a great time to learn if you've got light enough.)

For me a putter cover is worth it, but only because I carry my bag and tend to walk fast enough to get the everything clanking around a good bit and being a dawn patroller I really don't like the noise. So I have covers for all my clubs, but tend to leave them off my commonly used clubs after their first use; having even half the clubs covered cuts down that "wandering iron monger" racket plenty. That said, my putter cover is magnetic and so easy to take off/on that I tend to keep the putter covered just because it's no more time consuming than not If pushed my bag, I doubt I'd cover any of them—outside an airport.

I've only been playing for a few years—so instead of the grain of salt you might want the shaker. I've been in a few discouraging periods where I wondered if I'd ever learn what to do or if maybe I was just not wired for golf. I also do several other sports, mainly mountain biking (all-mountain and downhill) and flying gliders. I've found the mental crossover to be really helpful. I'd bet almost any other hard, technical sport would be helpful, though in trying to think of any help scuba has given me in golf, other than a much improved attitude, I can't—but then I haven't done any technically hard dives. In my case other sports have helped me learn how to learn to execute physically (that is, how I, uniquely, learn, not anyone else) and given me a bunch of different perspectives on what's going on when my mind and body are and are not working together (the brain can complete a surprising amount of self-reflection in a few meters of flying beside a bike instead of on it.) Maybe setting aside regular golf for a season and learning something new and o utside your comfort zone would have you coming back next season with new potential... Just a thought.

From one beginner to another, i.e., the blind leading the... What I did was read a bunch of reviews and figure out a great set to piece together by buying "nearly new" clubs from GolfClubExchange (now defunct) and EBay. Ended up with a very expensive set for about half off with no wear I cared about. I bought my irons as a set but really shouldn't have, mostly useless (but not as easy to find as separates.) At the end of the day, my recommendation is: don't do that. What I wish I had done was take a few lessons from a pro before buying anything and asked him or her to recommend the minimum set I should carry (not what to buy, but which clubs I will actually want to carry as a beginner.) For example, a putter, one wedge, only a few irons, a wood or hybrid, and a driver (and I bet they'd have told me to skip the driver for a while too.) If you go that route, you can also get expert help with sizing because they are not one size fits all.

@noahl, I used to use a few discount sites until I realized, like @anotherday, that only a portion of the tee times are made available to the brokers for resale—for GolfNow that's Golf Channel Solutions , while GolfSwitch backs GolfHub (each also sells through many affiliate sites.) Since that portion is sometimes only what the course thinks it can't sell normally, e.g., by phone or through their own online booking site, I find I really have to talk to them to find the best fit for time (and at I've never had a problem getting, at the very least, the same deal as shown online when the time is the same.) It's definitely a problem still looking for a great solution. I think that great solution will have to combine complete tee time inventory with planning and social tools that increase the connection between players and all courses—not just the 15% or so that have signed up with a middleman that further disconnects player and course. If I may make a self-serving suggestion, how about also looking into the startups just now coming out with round planning web sites and apps that also help, from a different angle, people get the best tee time for their round. For example, Teeboxer (full disclosure, that's my creation), ClubDivot , TeeTimeBuddy , and FullFoursome . And, there's another site you might look at that's doing interesting things by opening private club tee times to non-members: Boxgroove . Regardless of whether that's too far off track for your story, feel free to get in touch if you want more background info (not that I'm a font of it, but always glad to help where I can.)