Track Your Golf Score On A Mac, PC, And iPhone

My Mac is my nocturnal passion. I crank away on my MacBook Pro late into the night. During the day I get paid to make computers work. Since most of that effort is on Windows PCs, I’m usually busy and have good job security.

On days when I’m free, my passion is golf. Now that I’m under triple digits for a day of flogging on the golf course, I’ve taken up a new habit. Tracking my scores for posterity’s sake. On my Mac. As a permanent reminder why g-o-l-f spelled backwards is f-l-o-g.

Passion Scores

My view of golf changed as my handicap dropped. As my passion increased so did my requirement for better accessories, new clubs, golf tip DVDs, and a way to track my performance.

Performance tracked is performance improved. It’s just that with golf, the process is so slow.

Recently, I decided to make a formal tracking system and picked up Scorecard for my Mac and iPhone (there’s also a Windows PC version, but PC users are not as much fun to add to a foursome—too tense).

Shanked, Hooked, Graphed

Scorecard is an application for your Mac that simply records what you do at each hole, through 9-hole rounds, and per golf course.

There’s no more guessing as to your handicap, your averages, or anything else that can be analyzed via statistics. Scorecard graphs your stats over time so you can see how much you’ve improved or how bad you’ve become.

For example, what’s your average number of putts per hole? Average first putt distance? Fairways hit? Most of the time we just guess. Scorecard records the details and eliminates the guessing game (or, conversely, puts holes in your bragging ability and stuffs them with facts).

Bragging Rights

Assuming you use Scorecard and your scores improve, there’s even a way to export your rounds to a web page so everyone else you’ve ever competed against can feel your wrath or your pain.

The problem with Scorecard is simple. It’s on your Mac. Netbooks are popular because they’re cheap and light. But when was the last time you saw someone toting their Mac around the links?

Enter the free iPhone version of Scorecard. It’s the perfect companion to keep in touch when you’re flogging away and trying to remember what comes after a quadruple bogey, but also a way to keep score on each hole, take notes, and auto sync all the stats back to your Mac or PC.

Something interesting happens to your golf game when you see stats in an entirely different light. Instead of using your memory and imagination, Scorecard cuts straight to the chase with facts, neatly arranged, graphed over time, and gives you an extra incentive to improve your score.