reviews On
the Range
Richard Punyer reviews Game Golf’s Digital Tracking System
Overview: • Playing golf should be exactly that—playing. With Game Golf, game tracking happens in the background, so you can focus on playing instead of note taking. • All you have to do is power up, put on the device, and play your game. Install the unique tags into each of your clubs and simply tag each club to the device before you take your shot. That’s it. Game Golf logs what club you use and where on the course you use it. By combining these observations, your game is visualized like never before.
Verdict: I was exceptionally eager to trial the Game Golf
system. Backed by the PGA of America, and sporting ambassadors such as major winner Graeme McDowell, Game Golf has certainly arrived with a sound pedigree. The packaging is very professional and well
thought out with a simple list of instructions telling you how to get started. But how does it actually work? Well, firstly you have to ‘tag’ all your clubs. You
simply screw in the red tags, which are numbered 1 – 18, into the top of the grip via the drain hole, in itself, an easy process. You then have to visit
www.gamegolf.com/start and open an account. This let’s you into your home area, where you then have to label each tag to its corresponding club on your dashboard. Follow this procedure with all clubs so the Tag number on the end of the club corresponds with the same tag and club description on your dashboard. This is crucial as it is the core of how the device identifies which club you use and the resultant stats it produces.
Once you have completed this process (approximately 20 minutes), all that’s needed is to charge up the Game Golf sensor and you’re ready to go! The GameGolf sensor fits neatly onto your belt and is turned on by a pressure switch on top of the unit. When switched on it will vibrate and green and white buttons will flash together indicating the device is trying to locate a satellite signal. This takes a few minutes and when the unit has successfully acquired, a steady green light remains on. To start recording your shots you simply ‘tap’
the tag of the club you are using to the bottom of the unit. This will be met with a small bleep and a vibrate, indicating the device is ready to record the shot. You then walk to where your shot finished, select the club for your second shot, tap it against the unit, and fire once again. If you’re lucky enough to hit the green, tap the putter to the unit and repeat until you get the ball into the hole. Back home you simply connect the unit to
your PC/laptop, select ‘upload round’ on your home page, then sit back while the course you have played magically appears on the screen, showing where each of your shots was hit from, where it landed, how far it went, and what club it was. It can then tell you percentages of accuracy for drives, second shots, putts, giving great information on strengths, weaknesses and areas you need to work on. It all sounds great, and for the most part it is.
However, there are a couple of issues. Firstly, I have yet to complete a round where I have managed to remember to ‘tag’ every shot. This creates issues when you come to review your
round, as you cannot do so without first filling in the ‘blanks.’ You have to manually go in and select club and distance, which is rather cumbersome. You have to remember all your shots in order
to get an accurate set of results, which is not always easy. At the time of writing I believe new soſtware is being downloaded to users. It will counter this issue by the system recognising a blank and, from your previous rounds and average distance per club, identify the club you are most likely to have hit and entering it for you at the ‘upload’ stage (not ideal as it doesn’t take account of conditions or type of shot hit). Also, in my view the time taken to review each round is rather too long, and the information could be delivered in a simpler and direct way. The other issue which pops up periodically is
the accuracy of the GPS positioning. For example, it once showed me missing a green on a par 3 by 10 yards – the green itself is only 18 yards wide – and I had actually hit the shot quite close. Obviously this has an effect on your stats in the review, as well as possibly giving give false readings for distance etc.
Summary: The concept itself is wonderful, and will appeal
to golfers who want to get better by analysing their whole game, because it certainly does highlight areas, both good and bad, with the small caveat of the points of concern detailed above. A worthwhile investment – yes. With more development – exceptional.
If you would like your product innovation reviewed, please contact Alex Fordham at
afordham@datateam.co.uk SGBGOLF 41
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