Record Scores via Mobile

Macca07

How many of you would find this service useful or handy.
Basically, u set up an online account, then download this application onto your phone and when u play a round of golf, u enter the scores into this application, when ur finished, u send it, the website gets it and u can view it on ur online account and print it off.

I'm doing it for a college project and just wondering if anyone would find it useful

Sandwich

Technically, sounds like a nice fun project to do - so have a go unless you need to make some money from it.

Practical problems could be :
- most people can keep their scores in their heads
- its one case where the old card and pencil is just quick and easy, hard to see the convenience being bettered by the mobile phone
- mobile phones are frowned on on golf courses. If not out and out banned.
- have seen some handheld electronic gizmos about that would record scores and other shot details. But they remain just that. Gizmos. And have never seen someone use one in the real world.
- Most clubs (all?) now use the golfnet system so you type your score into a PC after your round. Any rounds entered are available to browse on the net, and include such round info as CSS, qualifying comp, winter rules etc.


Dont mean to put you off your idea - as an exercise it sounds very good.

ShriekingSheet

All of what Sandwich says is true IMO.

That said, as college projects go, it's not a bad idea. Maybe think about the benefits. What problems do golfers have, and what solutions can you provide?

At the moment, golfers don't really have a problem writing down scores or entering scores to GolfNet. For further analysis they have HowDidIDo.com. So you're not really offering any solutions there. Plus, on a rainy day, the last thing i'd want is my flashy 3G phone getting soaked in the bag, let alone having to take it out every 5 mins.

But one problem a lot of serious golfers do have is keeping their stats. It is hard to remember how many fairways and greens you hit, how many putts and up & downs, sand saves etc. It is quite arduous to "embellish" rounds on HowDidIdo or your own Excel record, trying to think back to each hole, maybe a few days later. Even if you've marked your stats on the card it can be a pain to type them all in.

So what if on every hole you hit the fairway you clicked "F". And hitting the green you clicked "G" or something like that. The level of detail could be configurable so you could go so far as to record each club you used too.

GPS yardage gadgets are becoming more and more popular - phone sized devices tagged on to the bag which has a hole-by-hole map of the course and gives your yardage to the front and back of greens as you roll along. Why not think of tagging your idea in with this, as well as, or instead of, with a phone? This could even add further benefit as the yardages could be easily stored for every shot with one click (because it would already be displayed on the dial).

At the opposite end of the project you'd need to have a good, user-friendly web/PC experience where stats could be collated, graphed and analysed easily.

So you could say, problems good golfers have are collecting stats, analysing them and putting them to use. Guys can also be unsure from time to time exactly how far they hit each club. This device provides a solution that can spit out stats for every 8 iron you've hit all season, how far it went, did it hit the green. Fair enough you've got wind and punch shots to account for but there's something in that.

A few cons - It's pretty niche. Any kind of data going over a phone network will cost, usually 99c a day (O2, VF & Met). Insisting on an account with a credit card will limit who could avail of this... maybe doing a deal with the mobile networks to bill on their bill or via their credit? They would take a cut this way however.


Anyway, I'd say don't rule it out as an idea. You're marked more on the structure of your work, business case and marketing plan as opposed to the idea having to be ground-breaking.

Once you can say some people have a problem and I have a solution - you have an idea. After that, the three key things are making it easy to use, as inexpensive as possible and making the market aware of it's existance and it's benefits.

Good luck!

Sheet

copacetic

if you wrote an iphone app for it, it could be popular if you get the GUI right.

Setting up an account shouldn't be needed. Set it up so that the app is standalone, stores all your scores and lets you do stats too.

Already a few out there:
http://www.appsafari.com/utilities/943/iphone-golf/

slumped

as someone who has worked as a competitions secretary, it would be great to have SMS score reporting after every hole for each competitor.

Captain's Prize for example - you could have live scoring in the bar - always great craic.

S

ShriekingSheet

slumped wrote: »

as someone who has worked as a competitions secretary, it would be great to have SMS score reporting after every hole for each competitor.

Captain's Prize for example - you could have live scoring in the bar - always great craic.

S

Yeah there's some company in Europe (possibly Sweden?) company you can get to come out and do it for a given day. Each group gets a GPRS gadget with a SIM card in it. Type in your scores after each hole.

There's a digital scoreboard in the club house but also on every third hole so you can see how you're doing.

Macca07

Thanks for the feedback on this subject, didn't know there was one available for iPhones, will help though

catweazle

Their is an Irish company that offers automatic scoreboards for the punters as well.I remember it worked well for Galway Scratch Cup,lashed rain all day so everyone huddleded over the tv in the bar and the live scores were fed through. It worked very well

www.sportsmanager.ie

Mister Sifter

Here's another one that has been on the go since 2004...

www.igolfscorer.com