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“Golf is the only sport I know of where a player pays for every mistake. A man can muff a serve in tennis, miss a strike in baseball, or throw an incomplete pass in football and still have another chance to square himself. In golf, every swing counts against you.”Lloyd Mangrum

I love golf. I love to coach golf. I love to watch golf and I love to read about golf. I almost love everything about golf. The only thing I can’t stand is how golf makes me feel when I haven’t achieved my goals after my round. Knowing that I must wait another week until I can come back out on the course kills me. The above quote from Lloyd Mangrum, PGA tour player from the mid 1900’s really sticks in my mind. I wait all week to play and if on the first hole I score a double or worse (like I did last week) I can’t erase it and my target goes out the window before I have even begun. Unlike any other sport, golf mistakes haunt you. Getting any sort of edge in the game is something I welcome. I have a number of different tools that I use and wanted to share my thoughts on two tech tool that I have had in my bag for a year or two.

Golf shot is an amazing app that helps track a players stats throughout a round. The stats are then processed and can be analysed to determine areas of the game that need addressing. You can look through historical stats over all time or last five rounds. Some of the best features of the app include;

• GPS tracking
• Course mapping
• Putting tracking
• GIR stats
• Recover stats
• Handicap generation

The way the starts are presented are really easy to read. You can quickly see if your tee shots tend to go left or right, your putting success rate or even how long you hit each club. The app will even take these stats and suggest drills that you should try to improve your game. These drills come with videos so is super easy and convenient.

I was using Golf Shot religiously for a year but recently I have found that I am so focused on my game that I find it difficult to record my stats. It’s not that it is difficult to input I just want to focus on each shot rather than record the last hole. The stats are beneficial and I do need them to drive my practice.

I plan on using it with my golf team to collect data for each player over a season. Having me collect for each player will allow them to focus on the current round and also benefit from the stats created. It does come with a cost around $25 a year which I think is well worth it.

My Golf Buddy LR5 range finder is something I cannot live without on the course. This handheld device can tell me how far away I am from the pin to 1 meter of accuracy. Having used it for about a year now I know with confidence which club I should be using at different positions on the course. This isn’t ground breaking new technology to the golfing world. Range finds have been around for a number of years. But I do feel it takes time working with a particular brand to build up a mental profile of what club to use at what range.

I also find it really useful to use in my pre-shot routine. Looking through the scope and getting a reading helps settles the nerves and has me focus on the target at hand. I have been working on pre-shot routine with my students and will try to encourage them to make their range finder part of theres.

Most range finders retail for around $200-$400.

Golfers love to spend money and find ways to improve their game. Both these have value to me and I encourage them to be used.