I was contacted by the author John Coyne awhile back and he asked me to do a book review. I had never read one of his books before but I did know that he was generally a horror fiction writer. He said he had written a couple of golf books and would I mind doing a review.
I’m not a book reviewer, in fact this is my very first one. Keep that in mind as I stumble along.
About a week later I received a copy of ‘The caddy who played with hickory”. I have to admit that the title seemed a little awkward but on I went.
It was surprisingly different.
It takes place at the Midlothian Country Club in the 1946 and while it’s a novel the history and golf lore are superb. The history of hickory play is something that I found very interesting because it’s something I really knew nothing about and Mr. Coyne tells the tale in a way that is interesting and not at all plodding as some historic tales can be.
In a nutshell, it’s a fictional story about how a teenager who is a caddie at Midlothian comes to play the great Walter Hagen in Hagen’s final match with a prized set of hickory clubs. It is fun and it’s quick. I finished it a weekend.
Have application developers killed expensive GPS units?
Kiss your sky caddy good bye. Tee droid is here! Many of us have Blackberry’s and Iphone’s, now there is a tool you can install on your smart phone to track your golf game in ways you have previously only imagined.
The name of the application for your phone is Teedroid.
I put it on my iphone and took it to the course.
TeeDroid Caddy, a golf caddying application for mobile phones and the TeeDroid website are all part of the TeeDroid golf system. Together they give you access to unprecedented statistics as well as the TeeDroid golfers network.
Get access to professional level statistics and tracking of your golf game
On course distances to front, middle, and back of the green, and landmarks
Synchronizes phone data with the TeeDroid website
Multiple scoring modes: Play-by-Play and Direct/Manual entry (Blackberry)
Once you get used to the interface it is nothing short of incredible. This application will track every aspect of your game. The GPS aspect is easily as accurate as skycaddie. Frankly, accuracy within 10 yards would be good enough for me. I watched the yardage change as I walked toward my ball.
Initially I found myself distracted while entering the stats. I also had the scorecard, which I probably would have been better off handing to my partner. I had some operator errors along the way, like keeping live scoring on and having the battery die after the 17th hole and not taking care to mark my ball on the device where it lay. I tended to enter it after I hit or after I made the next shot. This ruined the club distance aspect ( I hit my longest drive 23 miles) but I think that as I use it more, the easier it will be.
The stats are deep. Real deep.
Access to your golf rounds with hole by hole, play by play information
Round statistics such as Greens in Regulation, Fairways Hit/Driving Accuracy, Driving Distance, Longest Drive, Putts Per GIR, Scrambling, and Sand Saves
Putting statistics - distribution such as short of hole, past hole, and putts made by distance
Club distances - longest and average distance you hit your clubs
Mapping of rounds - see strokes overlaid on a satellite map
All stored on the phone and on the teedroid website for access later. This will be a huge benefit to finally realize that you hit a lot of shots into the woods and maybe you need to work on that a bit.
There is a nice database of courses. 559 courses worth so far. You can map your own and receive reward points towards the annual subscription or you can request course mapping from the developers. I had one done in about 3 days.
Supported phones;
Currently the mobile application is available for Blackberry 8000+ series phones (Pearl/81x0, Curve/83x0, 88x0, 9x00).
Development is underway to release the TeeDroid Caddy mobile application for:
iPhone 3G - available through Apple Appstore!
Android/Google Phones ready for when phones are released.
J2ME - application for Java compatible/enabled phones such as Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson.
Internet access and GPS receiver (built-in or bluetooth GPS receiver/puck) are necessary, provider internet charges may apply.
The best part?
Price.
$19.95
That’s it. Less than $20 for all this functionality. You cannot go wrong. It’s a no brainer.
Shot Talk - Golf Forum
