Here in Florida golf courses are fairly abundant, considering the ability to play year around. However, I typically only play a few courses. Why? I lack information, such as, fees, amenities and directions. Because of this I miss some great golfing opportunities. In comes, Where to Golf, by Carpe Diem Ventures. It’s a great app for dedicated golfers and novices alike. The application finds and provides fact filled info on golf courses near and far.
Launch the app and the main screen presents a nice golf motif interface. Four red golf tees labeled City, Golf Course name, Zip code and My location allow for basic search functions. I’m a big fan of GPS so I tapped the My location tee and in a few seconds was presented a list of 20 nearby golf course. The list is ordered nearest to farthest and provides icons showing the clubs amenities, such as food, alcohol, carts, and fees. A tap of the course name slides over a new screen with more detailed info on the course itself. I found a nearby (3.31miles) par 71, 6451 yard, rated 71.0, with a 122 slope course that I hadn’t played (now on my list of things to do). The bottom of the screen provides buttons to get directions in Google Maps, read reviews, in depth course details, and a line to instantly phone the course.
I was impressed by the extent of the detail that was provided on some courses. Everything from course designer, year built, to the golf pro’s name may be shown. The details are mostly user provided, via a submission form (Add Course) in the app. Many courses lack some of the detailed info, probably due to the newness of the app and it not being golf season in most parts of the country. However, for my area the information was complete for many courses.
Back to the home screen, via a button in the upper left, and I tried the other search functions and they all worked flawlessly. The home screen also provides access via three buttons on the bottom of the screen to the Settings screen, the Add a Course submission screen and lastly Updates. Settings are straight forward and allow you to filter and sort the course displayed by distance in miles (default is 100) or Kh and number of courses shown (default is 20) in the list. Two additional buttons allow you to turn on/off searches for private clubs and using current location. The only minor nit here is the text is too small to read easily. A larger, darker, or bolder font would be much clearer.
The Updates button works two ways. It downloads any updates directly to the program and uploads any revisions or information you’ve added to the course descriptions. Updates is a great feature and in my usage, I am getting updates of courses every day.
If you ever find info on any of the courses is incorrect, or missing the Add Course button allows you to make corrections and additions to current course listing. After the data is added (over 40 different fields) a save button, saves the data until the next Update. In this way data can be added even you aren’t ready to upload at the moment.
This application is well thought out, easy to use and makes a great addition for any golfer. It came in handy when I had out of town friends looking for a public course near their hotel. In less than a minute I had a list of courses, fees, directions and phone numbers. This would have taken considerably longer with a phone book or even Google. My only complaints are the fonts, mentioned above, and the lack of information on some courses. In my area of Florida the info was very good. However, when I searched different zip codes I found that while basic info was listed, detailed information was lacking on many courses. I recommend this for all levels of golfers and rate it 4 Stars.
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