oobgolf scoring for the iPhone FORE! app is live!

http://www.iphonefore.com/

Great launch, guys. Glad to see. Price is a bit high though - especially for those unfamiliar with oobgolf. You will get hammered on the reviews. I don't mind paying for both the support of oobgolf and ongoing development of the app. Suggest you start a forum section just for the iPhone. Let us help you develop and debug it.


Issues and Questions:

Need Instructions - at least on site.

"i" button does not work.

If you quit, then continue a round, the landscape card layout view doesn't work.

One of my courses - Fairview Farm Golf Course - says can't find yardage, but White Tees are populated on oobgolf.

"Next" arrow after last hole crashes app - should go to menu

Once a score has been uploaded, subsequent uploads should be prevented or overwritten. Currently a new score is added.

What happens to the score of a golfer not a member of oob?

Features Requested:

Option to delete current or archived rounds.

Option to have multiple rounds started/set up in advance - ie: for tourneys over several days on different courses. Also ability to select courses from favorites, not just located by geo-location in case out of cell range.

Total Strokes +/- Par cumulative for round in addition to total score.

GPS Functionality?? Or should that remain a separate app? There are several that look like good ones just launched for the iPhone. Has anybody had any luck so far with any or any favorites??

Option for live scoring hole by hole when you move off current hole like with www.smartscorecard.com.

Would be nice to see historic score stats for the course being played.

Great start. Look forward to updates and improvements!

Other Feature Request:

- Color code birdies and bogies like on oobgolf.

- Add ability to mark penalty strokes & sand traps

Other Issues:

- Score is uploaded as a Practice round, not Standard

I believe thet standard vs practice issue is resolved.

Just to clarify, Fore! for the iphone is an application developed by a third party, not by oobgolf. It was done using an api into our system. This api is open to any developers that might be interested.

Hi all, I created Fore! for the iPhone. Thanks for the feedback so far. I just submitted version 2.1 to Apple last night and it's now under review. I don't know how long it will take Apple to accept it, it could be 2 days or 2 weeks. Here's the 2.1 change list:

NEW!

- Show over/under par on main score screen
- 9-Hole scores accepted
- Easier to hit notes button
- Ability to delete archived rounds

FIXES!

- Scorecard flip works as expected
- Rounds no longer upload as "Practice"
- Fairway hits upload correctly
- Courses with incomplete data can now be downloaded
- Uploading error handling much more robust
- Fixed rare crash when uploading

If the iPhone can eventually be used as a golf GPS unit AND scorecard app linked to oobgolf, I would switch carriers and buy the iPhone in a second!

With the built in GPS and software capabilities it has, I can see it being a supercharged product with overhead satellite shots of the holes ala the UPro GPS! This seems easy! You could also have previous notes or hints pop up if you had played the course before, with pin placement yardage averages on Par 3's telling you what club you used, what the wind speed and direction might be, how you may had played a shot in the past from a particular area of the hole if you have hit into trouble, topographic views of the greens helping you with reading and again telling you how you have played that particular green in the past from a particular spot. It would automatically keep track of shot distances with the touch of the screen, including driver and full irons. It could also tell you your average full shot distance when stepping up to the ball and suggesting a club to hit taking into account wind conditions.

This would all work seamlessly on the touch screen without having to scan through menus like on the current one button GPS systems like the skycaddie and igolf, etc. It would be a true GPS "caddie". Hey if pro's can have human caddies who do all of this for them, why can't we have a computer that does it for us?

Im sure everyone would add more great ideas like these. We need apple and more open source guys like the one who developed FORE! to get working on this! Enough with multiple electronic devices. Apple wants their product to be the only product you need to carry then they need to develop stuff like this. I don't need to carry my cellphone AND my golf gps! lol

OK! Now make it happen people.... <waiting.....>

what you are describing is GolfTraxx application. all the features you describe are in its main version. the iphone version doesn't do club selection yet, but you should check it out.

it would be awesome to upload my rounds from it to oobgolf automatically.

oh yeah, it a bit expensive. $35, but there's a beta test/trial. send them an email

We implemented range finding in Fore! using the iPhone GPS. However when we tested it out in the field we found that the iPhone's GPS was just too inaccurate to be used as a range finder. The best it can give you is about 10 yard accuracy. We didn't feel that was very useful when 10 yards can be 2 club lengths for many golfers. It would be misleading to try to sell any range finding app on the iPhone, so we removed it.

ooo27,

Thanks for the updates and fixes. I'll test out on my next round. Suggestion - when scoring multiple players need greater distinction. Several times I found myself putting scores in for the wrong player. Perhaps bold color change when switching between players or display names on scorecard. There seems to be decent real estate for it.

Regarding your comments on the GPS. Yes, much desired. I understand and trust your comments regarding the accuracy issue. There are several other GPS apps so far and this one is getting fairly good reviews with users testing against Skycaddy. Accuracy seems to be less of an issue. I'm sure you've looked at it. Greenfinder http://www.itinerantsoftware.com/

Wow didn't think accuracy would be an issue for the iPhone GPS. I believe you though. I wonder how many satellites it connects to to find your location.

Couple of general questions to the developer:

How do you enter notes on a hole? I can't locate any function like that.

What is the "i" in the lower right for? Usually there is information on that link. Mine does not function.

How do we know what version of the app we are running?

Will live scoring be coming on this app?

The version is 2.0 even though iTunes may be reporting it incorrectly as 1.0 in some places. Version 1.0 was only released to a small group of beta testers.

The notes screen is accessed using that little "i" in the lower right corner. In version 2.0 it's just really hard to hit! I fixed that in the upcoming 2.1 release. Just keep mashing it, you'll get it eventually.

Honestly, I don't see the attraction to live scoring. Is this something people really want/use?

I've been on both ends of the live scoring. I like to follow friends play, and i like to get comments from friends while i'm playing. It's not a must for me...

I have not purchased/used Fore! yet.

i play with my wife and another couple every weekend. they all have oobgolf accounts. i like the ability to enter their scores while we're playing, but that's not a must either. i usually take the scorecard and enter them later.

speaking of... how would i enter their scores? do i need their passwords, or can i enter their scores if they allow me to in their oobgolf profile?

Tee Shot Club/Distance and comments per hole are MUSTS though. i'll continue to use http://mobile.oobgolf.com until an iPhone app has these features.

Fore! supports two kinds of notes:
* Course Notes: For remembering how the course plays. When you finish a round, the course notes are saved and connected to that course. The next time you being a new round on that same course, the notes are loaded.

* Round Notes: These are notes for just the round only. For example, what club you used for your approach shot. These notes are not saved with the course, only with the round. You can load up old rounds in Fore to re-examine your notes.

At some point I'm hoping to have an API to load/save notes with Oob. I need to talk to Kevin about that

For multiple users being tracked on the same iPhone you simply enter each persons login/password as it's uploading. I typically just hand my phone to each person and they type their own account info in.

ooo27,

I agree with ForeKris - live scoring is nice, but not necessary, but we are used to it and like it and it would be a give up for many. I'd err on the side of caution and put it in.

..."Tee Shot Club/Distance and comments per hole are MUSTS though." ... Agree also.

For players that are not oob users - seemed like I had to delete them before uploading my score. Can you handle that automatically?

re: "What is the "i" in the lower right for? Usually there is information on that link. Mine does not function. " Got mine working like you said - took a "sledgefinger" Glad you fixed it. Will Hole Notes be coming?

Actually the "round notes" are hole by hole notes. So are the course notes.