You can buy the Game Golf System here.
Every since I first heard about the Game Golf system nearly a year ago, I was so excited to try it out.
During their IndieGoGo campaign they had a demo that made this thing look like the average golfers new best friend.
Simply put on the device, play your round, and get world class stats in the process – that was the promise.
Nearly 6 months later, I finally received my copy of the Game Golf in December, and I had the pleasure of getting to test it out as a beta member for the past couple of months.
This is a fully hands on review. I’ve played close to a dozen rounds with it, have spent at least a few hours working through the system reviewing rounds or looking at stats, and know it well enough that I think I my conclusions are pretty accurate of where the product sits today.
Disclaimer: Because I was a beta tester, I’ve been through multiple software updates. That being said, everything stated here is representative of my experience with where the product sits today, after the initial launch.
Build Quality and Unpacking
When I first pulled the Game Golf out of the box, I have to admit, I was impressed. They did an excellent job with the packing and presentation, and it really made me feel that I’d made a good choice in purchasing what is really a pretty high end device, at around $250.
Here’s what came inside:
- Game Golf Device
- Mini USB Cord
- Game Golf Carry Pouch
- 18 Tabs for Tracking
- Instructions
The pouch was a nice touch, although I must admit, I really haven’t used it a whole lot.
Everything on this bad boy feels high end, while it’s all plastic, you don’t ever feel like you’re going to break it. The device fits on your belt very comfortably and is much less obtrusive than I’d expected it to be.
Setting up your clubs correctly is also pretty easy as well. Simply screw the tag into the little hole on the top of each club, and then tell Game Golf what club it is via their useful online app. Took me maybe 20 minutes from start to finish to get the whole thing setup – most of which was just screwing the tags into my clubs.
First round
I headed out to my home course on a cold December morning to play my first round. Had the whole course to myself, so I figured it’d give me a chance to see what this thing was all about.
I put it on, powered it up, and stepped up to the first tee.
Tap.
Nothing happened.
Push button again and again.
Tap.
Nothing happens.
Hmmm, alright well guess I should have read the instructions.
Hit my ball, walk down the fairway, pull a club, and try and tab again.
Buzzzzzzzz.
Ah, that’s more like it.
When using the Game Golf, you need to remember that it takes a few minutes for the GPS to locate the satellite. It blinks red and white together while this is happening, once it goes solid white, you’re good to go.
It’s actually pretty impressive that it can automatically detect what course you’re on. However, it doesn’t break it down to tee boxes, so if you decide to step back to the blues one day, and play the best round of your life, your Game Golf system won’t recognize that.
I made my way around 9 holes and was excited to get back and plug it in.
Overall for that first round, the system worked great. It didn’t get in the way, I was relaxed and remembered to tag on most of my shots, and I could definitely see the potential in the device.
Transferring the Information
I got back to the clubhouse, grabbed a beer and plugged the Game in to get my info. It took a little bit longer than expected to download the information, and then brought up a screen that said “review”.
I selected it and it took me to an aerial view of my course with all of my shots along the way – pretty cool.
I then spent the next 20 minutes editing my round.
TWENTY MINUTES.
Sure there was a little first time learning curve there, but I was pretty surprised by just how much work this took.
Why?
Well first off, I wanted everything to be exactly right.
I had to go back and compare my tracked round to my scorecard.
For instance on 6 where I had to punch it out from the trees, and then recover from the sand – I was frustrated and didn’t tag the shots.
So I had to walk through all the holes to figure out why my score wasn’t what it said it was on the scorecard.
Then I had to add the shots, guess distances, and wait for it to refresh after every new shot.
To say that the round review process is cumbersome would be giving it a lot of credit.
As the rounds went on, you get better at it, but if you don’t do it immediately after, good luck remembering every single shot you hit.
Bonus point for the fact that this thing attracts a lot of attention. Whether it’s while I’m reviewing my round or when I’m on the course, I’ve had no less than a dozen people ask me what the thing is all about. So if you like being the one with the new cool gadget, definitely get this now.
Stat Tracking
This is one of the things I was most excited to see. I’ve been waiting for a product to not only do basic stat tracking really well, but also do the gamification really well.
So far, I’ve found the stats to be a bit lacking.
You see the GPS isn’t always 100% accurate. Often it will have you in the rough when you’re in the fairway and vice versa. I’ve seen it off by as much as 25 yards – which completely defeats the purpose of using the device in the first place.
Now, when it’s right, it’s awesome, but I don’t know that I’ve had a round that nails it on every shot.
The most useful stat I’ve found has been driving distance – and when I say useful, I mostly just mean from an ego perspective. Because how cool is it to see this:
Which, I must add according to the system is farther than both Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell’s farthest drives 🙂
Along with driver distance, they do a good job of visually representing shots from all of the clubs in your bag. It’s a bit humbling to see how far you’re really hitting it. 
Because of the automatic nature of the stats, it’s a bit difficult to track. I can’t just select a box or enter in a number for sand shots, GIRs, Fairways etc. I’d like to be able to more easily override what it gives me. And I can, but then I have to change the tag for that shot, which again, turns into a guessing game.
The stats also aren’t displayed in the most user friendly way. This is where I’d really like to see them kill it with the gamification.
Show me a page that has something like this:
- Best Round
- Longest Drive
- Most Birdies
- Most Pars
- Most Double Bogey +
- Favorite Club
- Favorite Course
- Average compared to friends
- Most GIRS
- Most Fairways
- Average GIR
- Average Fairway
You get the idea. They have a ton of information for stats that would be really easy to compare to friends for bragging rights, and it just isn’t displayed in a way that makes this very conducive. 
I should make it clear that they do seem to recognize this. When I review my round activity it will tell me if I beat a record. For instance in this one “Sean beat his ‘Highest Fairway’ accuracy record with a 62% round at Bali Hai Golf Club”. It wouldn’t be hard to give me an easy way to access all of those records – so I cam compare with friends.
I’ve also found myself not wanting to spend 10-15 minutes after every round combing through every single shot to get an accurate representation of my day – so I get the score right, and then ignore things like fairways, greens etc.
It also appears to be calculating GIRs based on every time I use my putter. For anyone who has played a course like Pacific Dunes, or any other links course, you know that you might be putting from 30 yards out on every hole – I’d love to see a way to manually edit this.
Game Golf Moving Forward
I want to love the Game Golf system. I think it’s a great idea, and I’m huge on stat tracking and comparing to my friends.
But at this point, it feels like it still has a little bit of growing to do.
The post game review takes too long, and even though the whole goal of the device is to not get in the way of your round, I’ve found it to be much more intrusive than using the Golfshot App – which can more or less give me most of the same information.
The difference is with Golfshot, I take 7 seconds after every hole to enter in my info. With Game Golf, I have to remember to tag before every single shot. No one is going to do this, especially, I’ve found, if your game starts to go downhill.
I then find myself questioning, “did I already tag this?” Hmm. I don’t remember. And regardless of whether I double tag, or don’t tag it at all, I’ll have some work to do after the round.
I had a few friends ask me about iPhone and Android compatibility. In my mind, this is kind of a non-issue. I know they have iPhone support, and they either currently have, or will have Android support soon. However to be honest, the only time I’ve used the phone app is when I took that screenshot above.
Considering you have to download it to your computer after every round, I don’t see a huge reason to use the app. (If I’m missing something, someone please tell me).
I think if they can really play up the “game” part of the system, it will make up for sometimes inaccurate GPS readings and a long post-round review period. I’m talking badges, bets, head to head competitions, and more. If a friend has one of these, I want to make it as fun an competitive as I can.
However as it sits right now, Game Golf doesn’t give me much new information compared to Golfshot, and it’s much more obtrusive and time consuming during and after my round.
Have a Game Golf? What do you think? Also, my username is “Sean” so I’d love to find a few more friends on there to compare scores with.
57 Comments
How are hazards scored? For example what if you dunk one in the water.
You pretty much have to remember there was a hazard and enter it in after the fact. Often you can just double tag it as a reminder, but not exactly the best solution in practice.
I was an indiegogo investor so I got the GAME unit last week. Your review is pretty much spot on (I’ve only had one round with it), although I like reviewing my round shot-by-shot afterwards. My main complaint is that they had the scorecard for my course all worng (par 82? Two par 6’s?). That problem alone messes up all of my scoring stats
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Your assessment is pretty much right on. I purchased the gamegolf unit, and played one round with it. When I came home, plugged the unit in, and received a USB error. It said I had a firmware error, and asked me to update my firmware. I tried following the prompts on their website, but it wouldn’t upgrade. I contacted their support center and worked with a technician who advised me how to correct the problem, that didn’t work either and eventually I lost contact with the technician. I decided at that time it is a nice product, with a lot of potential, but I don’t think it’s ready for prime time. I purchased it to eliminate the aggravation of input while playing, which detracts from the focus on the round. the game golf does that. I think the equipment and the software needed additional testing before it was released on the public.
I was also a beta tester and I’d have to disagree with some of your comments. The first thing I did when I got my device was took a look at their support page. It really is a great tool to answer any questions you have and guide you through playing your first round. Also, considering this only launched a month ago, I’ve been very impressed with my first few rounds using the device. They truly have established a gaming platform that will revolutionize the game of golf.
It allow us to improve our game and share our stats with friends and family around the world. I think the fact that you could actually compare your Driving distance (or GIR, Fairway Accuracy, Scrambling etc..) with the likes of Graeme McDowell and then have the ability go on Twitter and share your stats with him is a fantastic feature.
You just have to take a look at the people backing this project (PGA of America, Golf Channel, GMAC, Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk) to get a real sense of the ambition and vision that GAME GOLF has. I was at the PGA show in Orlando and everyone was talking about them. I’ve already interacted with other users on the Community page on their website. It really gives you a sense that this is the beginning of something extraordinary as GAME GOLF have already been listening to people ideas and will be releasing new features. Bringing golf into the 21st century.
Daithi, Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Really cool to hear you’ve had such a positive experience with the device so far.
I looked at the support page as well, but once you get on the course some things can slip your mind ha.
I also totally agree with you about the people behind the company. John McGuire has been totally upfront about the development of the device since day one, their team has been extremely responsive, and they’ve got the support of some world class athletes. I think they have a really bright future ahead of them – one which I really want to support however I can (I’ve been excited about this thing for nearly a year).
That being said, just because you have an incredible team behind something doesn’t mean the product isn’t without its growing pains. This is version 1 of a game changing device (no pun intended), and so of course there are going to be things that don’t work as perfectly as you’d like – that’s just the nature of tech development. I tried to be as unbiased and upfront as I could about my experience with the device, both the great, and the things I’d like to see improved.
That being said, I’d love to hear some of the things you disagree with about my assessment. What are some of the specifics about about your experience?
Hey Sean, thanks for the response. The points that I was addressing related to the accuracy of the GPS. In my own experience, I’ve found the GPS to be very accurate and have never experienced anything like the 25 yard inaccuracy you mentioned.
The other thing, I’ve found it very easy to use the ‘edit your round’ tool. Again, the support page and ‘How to Upload & Edit Rounds’ tutorial videos definitely saved me some time but I’ve even noticed that they’ve updated their software again so that the web page does not need to refresh after a shot is edited which is great. It took me less than 5 minutes to edit and sign my last round.
This is a great conversation by the way! I love discussing new technology in sport . I do honestly believe GAME GOLF will revolutionize the game of golf as we know and love it today and it’s only going to get better. I wonder do they have plans to expand into different sports in the future?
Sean,
Is it possible to program one of the “geography” tags as a “penalty shot” for hazards or will the system only allow programming 14 clubs per round?
Thanks.
JLK
That’s actually not a bad idea. I believe you can use as many tags as you have clubs for. So even if you just took one of the extra tags, kept it in your pocket, and tagged it on penalty shots, that could definitely work as far as I can tell.
I am wondering when these will be on sale. Also what will happen when I hole out from 150 yards and the next hole is a par 3 110yard shot?? I suppose I have to go in and edit or does the GPS assume I didn’t shank one onto the next tee box??? My biggest question is when are they going to be on sale if ever. I read in a review somewhere I could get one for $150.oo but now all I can find is the official website charging $ 250.00???
I love the concept just worried I will be more concerned with how this is actually tracking my game instead of just remembering to tap right before my shot.
Also, why don’t they make a pin tag that all golf courses could install on the pins so their location is realized by the GPS??
I believe they’re on sale now on the website for $250. I don’t know where you saw the $150 number, but from the beginning I’m pretty sure retail was always planned to be $250.
It wouldn’t surprise me as technology advances and more devices are out there like this, that we start seeing GPS for pin locations – but it realistically just isn’t feasible right now, or at least I wouldn’t expect it to be. It’s also an expense most courses wouldn’t see a ton of value investing in.
Even after chipping in, I’ve never had issues with it not recognizing the right shots – so I dont think thats too much of a concern. And if you’re dunking one from 150 – I think that is probably the last thing you’d be concerned with 🙂
If you hole out from 150, besides the celebration guess what? Gamegolf knows it too and once you leave the green area will consider that you holed out. This could also mean you hit the rough short of the green, chipped on, then three putted, that is if you don’t tag the last four shots. Your first shot if tagged on the par 3 will be just fine.
Everyone seems to thing this thing helps you ON the course and the only reason it’s legal under the rules of golf is that it can’t. I’ve had mine a couple of months and the software is getting better. The only errors with GPS have been parallel to the actual path, like it marked multiple shots together just fine but there were about 5-10 yards right on the approach, it appeared my last putt that was in was near the fringe. Not all errors are the devices fault, it could be an error when the geofence the course. That is when Gamegolf folks use Google or Bing maps to outline boundaries of the hole, fairway, rough, green. I know this because a local NW FL course is almost done with major renovations and GG says the can’t map the new layout until satellite maps update.
If you have any good ideas, recommend doing like I have, add them to their support site and they are very good and responding and sending them an email usually gets a reply next biz day. I was using a tag specifically for a penalty but there’s no point because during review you can do it on screen by button. The only other feature I wish they had was a shot type selector for use during editing. For instance, more often than not, I use my 5i to punch out a low runner or get out of trouble below treelines. Although GG use the mean (middle) shot for distance calculations, my 5i is well below the 6i distance wise because of the way I use it. If you had a punch, chip, norm/full (recommended default) it could keep from throwing off averages when it looks at your spread.
Thanks for the review Sean. I was also a beta tester and have more than 20 rounds captured to date. I always make a habit of turning on my device while waiting on line to check in and have not had any issues with the GPS registering. In terms of accuracy I have found the performance to be excellent, on the rare occasion of small discrepancies the editing tool easily allowed me to make corrections. This brings me to the editing. I am surprised to hear it took you 20 minutes to edit. I am by no means a tech savant and I found that after getting the hang of editing my first few holes I am now able to edit in 3 or 4 minutes. All in all I am a very enthusiastic user and like you I too hope to break 80 someday!
Kevin,
This is great to hear! Yeah I’ve gotten in the habit of turning it on usually when I show up at the course or shortly after and it’s now always good to go when I’m ready to tee it up.
When mine worked and the accuracy was right, it was a breeze and great to use.
But at least with my device, I found the accuracy to be a little too far off a little too often. So that combined with a few missed tags here and there, are what contributed to the long editing times.
I’m still using the device (although weather here has been a little dicey, so I havent wanted to use it in the rain), so as I continue to use it, I’ll be updating as I go.
I just got “Game”. Used it yesterday and didn’t remember to tag before each shot. Downloaded the round without a problem. Played again today and made tagging part of the pre-shot routine and didn’t miss one tag. I was excited to download the round and show the family the picture of my play around the course. However when I clicked on the round it said It would take a few minutes but after 45mins it still wasn’t downloaded. I checked out of the transfer and tried again. This time the transfer mode said there was no round to download. Very disappointed. Probably should just go back to writing the round in my notebook. This has worked for me for 50 years and seems to be OK for the pros.
Basically they went about this backwards. They should have started by building an app like golf shot or the other similar ones you can use as a ~rangefinder/scorecard while you play, but that allows interaction with the club attachments directly, allowing you to quickly enter shot info as you go.
I was one of many sponsors of this on Kickstarter. I’ve tried the system and I don’t like it. I’ve actually de-installed it from my clubs. Here’s why:
1. I am an avid but poor golfer. Reliving my round that’s full of errant/OB drives, 3 putts (or worse), duffed fairway shots, chili-dipped chips, etc., is not as much fun as I thought it would be. For me golf is an excuse to get outside and hang out with my friends. I want to remember the few good shots I hit, the good weather, a few laughs, etc…not relieve the (sometimes) triple digit horror of my actual golf game.
2. No real-time interface with my smartphone. So no way to live edit for OB shots, penalties, other on-course events. So it tracks my game but doesn’t keep my score real-time. I can’t use it to settle up my bets on the 19th hole.
3. Knowing that I really hit a 7 iron 140 instead of the 150 I think I do is not a game changer.
4. It’s more useful to me to know how far I am from the green than how far I hit my last shot. The system doesn’t tell you how far you are from the green.
5. I don’t like the look and feel of the bright red buttons installed on the butt of every club. And if you have a grip (like my putter) in which the hole is off-center, then the button actually overhangs your club grip, which interferes with the feel of the club.
6. Because the buttons are on the butt of your club, they get scraped and dirty from contacting the bottom of your bag. I like to keep my clubs clean and my bag neat.
7. The social media aspect (making your round public and sharing with other friends and users) is not appealing, given my high handicap. A shot-by-shot record of my round is not something I want to send to the world.
8. My life is full of technology, and golf is something I do to get away from that. One player in my regular foursome has a GPS watch, and he calls off our yardages on approach shots. The rest is pencil, scorecard, jokes, bets, and beer.
Tried to push 4 rounds through this thing and just filed the RMA after round #4 today 🙁
Concept is AMAZING, but man does it need some work. The biggest issue for me was accuracy. If it isn’t accurate, then what’s the point????
My phone apps can do the same thing and do it better without a gadget on my belt. You can get used to the club tagging so that’s not a huge setback. But the post round editing is absolutely absurd!! I even emailed support and they told me “it is the best we are working with at this time”.
I agree with this review, hopefully the learning curve is kind to the GAMEGolf company and it’s device.
Maybe another comes in and does the same thing better with a different piece of tech? Hopefully something that will completely eliminate the need for a scorecard and give us golfers all those amazing tasty stats they so desperately want but don’t need to see.
Just tried downloading my third round. First time, went smoothly. Last two attempts nothing. I think the technology is great, just too early! I have tried contacting technical support via email, no word back yet. I would not buy this device until a year or two from now. Not impressed! DO NOT BUY THIS DEVICE!
I was a contributor at indiegogo and got the first release of the product. I think this may be where the cost confusion comes from. If memory severs, when I contributed to project it was $150. Not surprised that they are selling for more as the packaging and design of the product is superb, websites and software developers are not cheap. The future of this product will lie in how well they improve the mobile/web experience.
I think Sean’s review is very good, very fair.
My experience after a few rounds is that the behavioral change of tagging before shots is not as easy as it sounds but should be achievable in time (I.e. Become habit, part of pre-shot). When you forget to tag, this generates some of that extra work needed to edit your round. For me, 20 mins for round editing was similar. The interface for editing had some issues, forcing me to refresh page several times to complete the task.
My biggest end issue was that there is currently no way to add a hole you for got to tag. This bit me when I didn’t tag on a par 3 tee box, got to the green and thought “oh weell, I will add later”. Didn’t tag any shot for that hole. Wrong! Now I have a round saved that is less than 18 holes. Comments on their website have already complained about this.
Once your round looks right, it is kinda cool to see it overlaid on your course, shre with friends, etc.
Stats is an area that needs huge improvement. My biggest issue, that I don’t think anyone mentioned, is there is no way to account for partial shots ( knock downs, using longer irons for chips around greens). This would seem to mess up your stats. I use 7,8,9. For chip and runs on my course with some frequency. Would like to throw those out of my full shot stats for those clubs.
I think the opportunity for this product to be great is very real. They need to make serious improvement to their interfaces.
If Golfshot is paying attention, they could improve their product (in the area of shot / stats tracking) and make it a very comparable offering. (I.e. More granularity on stats they capture, open up more for analysis).
When I think about marrying Game Golf with a capability like GameBook, which we use at our club for group games (sometimes), you would get a ‘Mack daddy’ of real time tracking that would be like the pgatour.com live tracking feature. Our GameBook usage suffers because some people don’t like the data entry. Game Golf fixes this but, today, is missing the real time feed.
Back to reality – Game Golf is a 1.0 release of an ambitious capability. I love the concept and I am pulling for them to get it sorted out so that they deliver the vision of effortlessly tracking your rounds, understanding your game in finite detail, delivering an accurate picture of all stats, tracking the inevitable trends that ebb and flow in our pursuit of game excellence.
Folks,
Love the comments and the detailed review. I was about to pull the trigger and order one of these yet it sounds like I may want to wait just a bit until some of the bugs are worked out. Question I have is with regards to putting: If you are 40ft away from the pin and hit a 35ft put, then tap and drain the 5 footer, does the software track your putting distance accurately? I would be curious to know how accurate I am inside of 10ft or how good my lag putting might be. Comments appreciated; I am playing Pebble Beach in 3 weeks and thought it might be cool to have a record of this since I doubt I will ever play it again.
Putting is still one area that they haven’t quite figured out. Unlike on the other shots, you do not get a distance on your putts. It used to have a short, medium, long designation, but they got rid of that in a previous update.
It’s been about a month since I played a round with my GG, so I’m hoping to get back out this next week and see if they’ve made any major updates to the software. I’ll report back!
These reviews are incredibly helpful. I am really interested in purchasing this product, but it sounds like waiting for a few more updates is in my best interest. Has the company given a timeline for upcoming updates?
Similar to a number of comments, it seems the software is in alpha, or maybe beta status – immature.
I tried to set up my account, adding a photo or avatar. When doing either, you get the photo up, but then no way to save it or complete the process.
Like others, sounds like some further maturing is necessary before taking on the frustrations. I too like to enjoy my round, and not be fiddling excessively with an immature software product.
All,
Your comments sound fair and I hope all will be updated. For now, I’ve had no problems whatsoever with the product so far. The feedback it gives is very nice and helps me a lot improving my game.
Don’t be tight fisted and go for it!
I used this for the first time today…WOW! This product is awesome. I have struggled with what I want to hit my clubs, what I think I hit my clubs and what I actually hit my clubs. This has been great for me for the one round, can’t wait to get a few rounds on and get some good data.
I bought the system a month ago and have not been able to get it to work yet. When I contacted GameGolf, they said they would get back to me in 24 or 48 hours. I’m not getting a good feeling about this system or their customer service.
Did you ever hear back from them?
Les, I agree with your assessment. I Had a similar problem, and had trouble contacting tech support. After I finally received email, I followed their advice, but still didn’t work. after two or three email conversations, I got no further response from the technician. I think the concept is great, and eventually this may well be a great product. As for now, I think it was released before it was ready. I sent mine back.
Sean, you still use your GG?
GPS is it better than before?
I wish to take GG but with all these comments I doubt now.
Stay on your position?
Thank you in advance for your answers
Sean, you still use your GG?
GPS is it better than before?
I wish to take GG but with all these comments I doubt now.
Do you stay on your position?
Thank you in advance for your answers
Derek,
To be honest, I haven’t used my GG in a few months. I took the sensors off so that I could beta test Arccos Golf, and to be honest, there hasn’t been a good reason to go back.
The hardest part for me was remembering to tag all the shots, and then the cumbersome post round editing. Last I used it, it was getting better, but still wasn’t quite where I’d like it to be.
Other users have just said it’s my own fault for not remembering to tag shots. Well sure, but for a system that’s supposed to just let you not think and play your round, it got in the way a lot for me.
It’s a great system for the right person, but simply for the reason I dont have to tag every shot Arccos has worked better.
Sean, What can you tell me about Arccos?
This review sums it up pretty well: http://breakingeighty.com/arccos-golf-pre-release-review
I’ve played 15 or so rounds with it, and while it does have the occasional quirk, the fact I can more or less put it in my pocket and just play – and still have accurate tracking is pretty remarkable.
It sounds like a waste of time and money. Wouldn’t it be simpler and more accurate just to mark your stats on your scorecard in the empty columns? And if you don’t suffer from dementia, you should be able to remember every shot of a round for at least a day. And as far as club distance goes, spend your money on a range finder instead. It’s much more useful.
Purchased Gamegolf with great excitement only to find out it does not work unless you can devote a USB port to it. The device has a technical glitch and does not work with hubs (even powered). I will be taking it back.
Hopefully more thought will be in the next version and they will fix the issue. Also, Gamegolf never warned this is a problem, which makes me believe there are other skeletons in the closet they do not disclose. It is a shame they are not more forthright with consumers.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience! Definitely hoping V2 tightens things up a little bit.
Hi…just bought GG (new here in Europe) but somehow missed Arccoss….so just learned about it after having bought GG. Now I am really curious about my experience concerning tagging. Concerning the cumbersome after round donwload work…I assume that this will improve over time and V2, 3, etc. will be better. (As well as the central and more meaningful Dashboard which Sean would like to see.)
Anyway the 200$ difference, no need for an iPhone (Have a Windows Phone, otherwise the Price difference gets a lot bigger…) and the 1 instead of 14 batteries are for the moment the arguments to go with GG . Curious to see what other Innovation will pop up in the coming years considering the Internet of things and sensors.
Basically, I’m seeing both those who support and those who are questioning basic areas. Out of curiosity, do you have ratings summarized from the people who have contacted? Does the product have an annual fee?
Would you like to have an older golfer (72) test the product for a year and then share results? If not, I think that when you can report results from people who have used it for a time (more than 2 – 3 weeks) and golfers with relatively high handicaps (31.2 in my case) who can USE the product and show the results produced over a period of time will serve the golfing public (and buyers more so than what I have read so far.
Thanks for sharing,
GPB
I’ve been using it for about a month, and I’m going to return it. Much like the article describes I do not like “posting” the round, it takes forever and you have to take serious notes to ensure accuracy.
I think it’s gotten in the way, because I’m always concerned how something is going to affect my stats, or did I tag that shot, and oh shit I didn’t tag in that bunker….
I like looking at distances but that’s about it, but that doesn’t really reflect your round either. I’ve been playing in 20mph head winds where I only get 230 off the tee, but I go back and look and think wtf happened here…
Nice idea but a lot of work
I have now played 8 rounds with Game Golf and find the experience ranges from extreme frustration to very, very helpful. Frustration is that I will forget to “tap” from time to time, (especially when my game goes down hill) AND, in 8 rounds the unit has fallen off of my belt 14 times. I’ve tried thinner, thicker, leather, and am still trying to find a workable solution. on a positive note, my game is better than before and am thinking my way around the course as I have a better idea which club to use. Hopefully in the long term, improvement trumps frustration.
I am fascinated by the range of comments on this forum. I have Game Golf for a very specific reason, namely that I want to improve my golf. This means finding my yardages more accurately, finding out where I typically miss my shots, finding if certain clubs are less use than I think, finding out how club performance differs out of the rough and off the fairway and so forth. To this extent it is a very good tool. If it is for bragging rights and comparing notes with your mates, forget it – just phone them up and say “I shot a 76 today, so there”. This is a game improvement tool, full stop. Because of that, the very fact that you are using it to work your stats will mean that (a) you will get used to tagging the GPS, (b) you will remember your rounds and where you were at the time of each shot and how many shots you took and (c) you will be absolutely gagging to get back to your PC and upload and edit your round, 20 minutes or otherwise (not actually 20 minutes – that’s overstating the case by a distance). What I am going to do is to work with my stats. Why on earth would I worry about 5 -10 minutes uploading and editing. If that’s too much time putting your stats in order then you obviously aren’t interested in the stats, are you?
I see comments about Arccos. I don’t have one of these but I would be keen to know exactly how it decides the difference between an airshot and a practice swing or a practice swing and the real thing, or you knocking a practice ball back on to the range with your wedge as you stroll up the 9th and a chip on to the green, or you belting your bag in frustration when you stuff one up. Also, the most important thing to me is to get competition data in hand. Arccos gives real time feedback and that means you can’t use it in competitions. Not just that, but the kit are likely to be treated like range finders with ‘slope’ that can be turned off. You can’t just turn off the ‘slope’ and carry on – they are banned and you can’t even take them on the course. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had to unscrew all your Arcoss tags before playing a comp or face a DQ.
What if you play off the blue tees and have the round of your life, someone says…. Well GG knows where you took your shots from – that’s the whole point of it. Maybe in beta it didn’t have the ‘pick your tee boxes’ bit, but even so, it does know where you are standing at any point in time.
As I say, this is not for people who simply want to sit back and admire their achievement, so if that’s what you want to do (and don’t we all from time to time?) then get something else. This bit of kit is for doing work on your game. it is actually a shame it is a good looking bit of kit because it makes people want to talk about it. I wear mine under clothing so it’s not obvious when I use it. Oh and it is almost impossible to get off even when I’m trying, so how it fell off someone’s belt ’14 times in 8 rounds’ is a complete mystery.
I will also find it a lot harder to use on a course other than my own, because when I see my shots on my own course, I know exactly how far wrong the GPS was in positioning me. On an ‘away’ course this will be less easy. However I generally disagree with the idea that you have to take serious notes to make it worth using. GG is a ‘serious’ bit of kit for people working at their game. If you don’t want to take serious notes, you shouldn’t spend $200 or whatever it costs buying the wretched thing. The ‘bragging rights’ bit of GG is a bit of a marketing tool so you can see that G-Mac and Westwood use it, but for me it’s a distraction. If I want to boast about a round I just get on and boast about it.
There are some great improvements they could make and mostly these are simply software upgrades (e.g. if you could put in a 10 mph wind from the South West over a round, the software could divide up your 6-irons into upwind, downwind and cross wind – not difficult) and I am hoping that GG gets the customer base it needs to start upping the software. Currently the ‘desktop app’ is a bit basic, but it does the job I want it to, so I’m happy to wait.
Great writing. Thank you for your insight. I plan on using mine for the exact reason(s) you stated. I’m looking forward to using mine soon. Thanks again. Ed
Hello Sean;
I’m a postgraduate student undertaking the MSc Digital Marketing in the University of Southampton. I’m working on my dissertation which is about the consumption of wearable tech devices as fashion and I would be very interested to get some viewpoints from wearable tech users from different countries and cultures toward their adoption on wearables. So I need some perceptions of wearable tech users all around the world and need to do some interviews with the users about their experience with these devices. I read your review about Game Golf and thought that it would be great to talk about your experience with it and it would be an interesting example for my dissertation as wearable tech become fashionable. I’m aware that you may have limited time and other obligations as well. However, if you can give me some information about your experience with Game Golf, that would be much appreciated and it’d be very efficient to talk with someone who really experience these kind of devices. The interview will be made on Skype or another video chat platforms which preferred by you. If you are interested, could you get in contact with me from this email address? Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward hearing from you soon.
Kind Regards,
Atakan Baran Akgul
Hello Sean
Quick question now it has been a year and a half since your 1st review how would you say you have got on with it up to date. Have they had many updates and if so what differences have they made. I’m a 28 handicap playing 8 months now and looking into options to help improve my game ie gps devices and distance devices so I know how far I hit my clubs etc. I like the look of this as it would give me data on course distances
Kind regards
Tony
I thought I’d chime in since the review was done so long ago. I bought the unit in Sept of 2014, and have more than 100 rounds in it (they count a 9 hole score as a “round”).
While GG isn’t perfect, I think it’s much better than the original review. First, there has been an update to the GG firmware which can detect where you actually made a shot on the course (based on accelerometer in the unit), and if you forgot to tag the shot, it will still know where you hit from, and it’s just up to you to choose the club you used for that shot when editing your round.
A note on editing… maybe it’s just me, but I can remember every shot I hit. In fact, I can go back a month and tell you every shot I hit. My wife says it’s the only thing I can remember… lol. OK, maybe… but if you have to edit to add a forgotten tag (such as a gimme), it doesn’t take much time at all. I can do one round in about 5 minutes. I’ve gotten into the habit of having 3 or 4 rounds on the device before uploading.
The website has also been updated a number of times for new stats, and just yesterday they announced they will have Strokes Gained in their website once their new device, which does live tracking (if you want a phone on while playing).
To get a decent report on stats, I think you need at least 20 rounds in the system before things start to make sense. I was surprised, for instance, how infrequently I hit my 7 iron. Like *maybe* twice a round. So if you’re looking to get a good sample from 5 rounds, you just won’t get it. Not the fault of the device, just the fact that you’re generally going to have about 30% of your shots with putts, and maybe another 15% with the driver. So that leaves about 50% of your shots with 12 other clubs in the bag.
Sometimes the accuracy can be off, but I’ve determined this is the lag with the GPS, so now I tag after I hit the shot to give the device a few seconds to “catch up”, especially when riding a cart.
I’m not sure how to address “POINTFINDER”S comments… essentially, he doesn’t like the device because it gives him feedback on his round. If he doesn’t understand the benefit of knowing that he hits his 7 iron 140 rather than his ego inflated 150, I don’t know what to tell him. This is exactly the kind of info that you DO need to improve your game.
While I already keep stats on things such as FW % and GIR%, GG gives you the benefit of filtering this info by club, distance, and round. For example, I learned that I’m no better from 80 yards than I am from about 110. And in fact, I learned that 100-110 is my money distance (and learned that I need to improve from 80).
The other benefit is learning your max distance. For example, my 2H distance is 190 ,with the bulk of shots between 170 and 210. I know that hitting over 215 is rare occurrence, so if I see a green with the back edge at, say 210, I’ll pull the 2H regardless of pin to increase chances of hitting the green on a mishit, where as in the past, I might pull the 4 iron out, expecting a perfect shot.
I haven’t had the device fall off, however I did lose one tag some time this past year, but you get 4 extra with the set, so I just substituted one for that club.
BTW, if you want to see some stats, you can check out my “insights”
http://www.gamegolf.com/player/larrybud/insights/share/6f65905033
Found your comments helpful.
Anxious to try my new GameGolf system.
Thanks.
Hi, sean im 13 years old and i was going to ask for the 150$ original game golf for christmas this year. I was looking at this review – very helpful- but not sure if i should get it or not. Is it worth 150$? Also my computer is usually always having problems, so i was worried that if i buy it, its not going to be able to download. Finally is the extra 150$ for the live neccesary for more convenience of the on course tracking, or should i keep my deal. Hope u can answer!
Frank, thanks for the comment!
I should preface this by saying, I haven’t had much experience with Game Golf over the last year or so. I know they made some pretty big updates that have really helped the usability of the hardware, and with the free version – it’s a great option for people on a budget.
I always hated the downloading, so even if it has been improved, that was one of the deal breakers for me.
I generally recommend Arccos over Game Golf due to the more in depth tracking, better app, and no lack of tapping or downloading anything. Everything is immediately available on your phone (or desktop) right after the round.
I think this year it’s going for $250, so a little bit more expensive, but definitely worth it in my mind!
Thanks sean i greatly appretiate you responding. I just have one more quick question. My handicap is around and 85-87. Is either arccos or game golf a good decision to buy or will i not find satisfaction with errant shots out of bounds or in the water. Would a 3 wood and a 5 wood be a more of A better choice or should i get the cool gadget to play with
I just received GameGolf as a Christmas present. I am reading some reviews from 2014 and just hoping that the company has taken care of a lot of the negatives comments by the beta-tester and other users. Does anyone have an update from their play during this past 2015 summer/fall?
I’ve heard they have improved the product considerably, although I’m not entirely sure where they stand on the tapping issue, which was my big problem.
I know they made it easier to make up for missed tags, but i think the system generally still relies on tapping – which is great if you can build it in to your routine. I just never did. Report back and let us know how you like it!
I have used my new Game Golf today and was a bit disappointed. I find myself agreeing with a lot of what Sean had to say.
I was disappointed as I said and these are the main issues that I had; I decided to use my Golfshot GPS app in conjunction with Game Golf to make certain I collected the data that I am interested in, after tagging a shot and looking at the app I was not seeing the data collection, I proceeded playing, tagging each shot and curious to see if the data was collected once I got home.
Once I got settled at home I sat down at my laptop and was surprised to see that I did not need to plug in the unit. When I opened the website I saw my score listed. The only data shown was that I tagged my first tee shot and no more data.
This was a bit disappointing and I hope for much better results the next time I pull this device out again.
Unfortunately the game golf live device still has continuous trouble pairing with Android. No matter how many times you reset the device, your phone or even a factory reset… it keeps buggy and faulty. So basically the updated one does exactly the same as the old one…. and that in a time when 80% of the phones are running on android…
Next to that their support isn’t really helpful (in my case) and it can take up to five (5?!) days to receive a simple reply.
Useless!
Oh and for those thinking it might be the phone I tested it on three different Android devices.
Hi. I am only playing golf 5 years. This device is very good for showing the distance for each club on the golf course. Also shows me how inconsistent I really am. Lots of improvements required but good for beginners. Glad I didn’t pay the full price for Game Golf. Looking forward to improvements such as automatic tagging. Would also like to use it on the range and not just the course.