Any good tips for scanning Golf Tags on the course?

Posted almost 10 years ago by Bobby R.

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Bobby R.

I absolutely love the golf tags with Golf Pad, but hate how I look on the Tee box, sticking my club out perpindicular from my body, rubbing the butt of my club on my pocket, trying to find the NFC sweet spot.

I understand the difficulties with NFC as a technology in general, but I was wondering if anyone found a good way to get the tags to scan without looking so silly, or them being so fussy?

The worst is on the tee box when everyone is standing around watching. I've considered taking my driver golf tag off, and keeping it in the pocket opposite my phone so I can pull it out and tap it, instead of doing the club rub, golf tag dance.

1 Votes

37 Comments

Cody Book posted almost 10 years ago

When I've played with the app, my group usually likes to see yardage from the tee box. So I walk up to about where I'm going to tee up and look at the yardage on my phone, this is when I would mark the GPS location. I wasn't using tags at the time but I can imagine just holding my driver in the other hand when I walk up to get the distance and tap the back. I found it didn't cause any slow down of the round or anything.

1 Votes

jeff hunter posted almost 10 years ago

I am experiencing the same issue. It usually takes 2 or 3 attempts to get it to recognize the club. It's a bit of a distraction when I am trying to set up for my shot. I'd appreciate any tips as well.

2 Votes

Thomas posted almost 10 years ago

Same issue for me. Very distracting and finally gave up tracking the round after 4-5 holes b/c of it. I agree on the tee box it could be ok, but out on the fairway tapping my club over and over again to my pocket. I was slowing down the round and looking ridiculous.

1 Votes

Bobby R. posted almost 10 years ago

I've had about 8 full rounds of tag scanning so far. On the second or third round I foudn the sweet spot on the phone in my pcoklet for scanning. I would say only one or two times a round am I unable to scan within the first try. Unfortunately I am still not completely thrilled about how I look with the club sticking straight out from my pocket. It is very odd looking and noticeable.

Since this is an NFC technology drawback, I'm not sure there is a great solution for this - it now makes sense why Game Golf designed their NFC reader the way they did at a 45* angle. I still think this is a superior product, utilizing the phone, but consideration of how to fix this would be huge.

0 Votes

Rob Litten posted almost 10 years ago

Same here, I felt like I was constantly doing a golf club thigh bump multiple times to get the app to register the club. I took off the cover ad well. Bigger issue was with my galaxy s6 edge is that the screen never unlocked easily.. When I finished a hole I tried to look at the screen easily to write down my score and it took numerous button smashing to unlock it. My phones completely stock BTW for Verizon. I sponsored the Kickstarter cause of how much I used the app. The golf pads was more for my knowledge. Also we need a better way to tag a drop. I hit a hazard and had to double register a club, maybe offer a better way to flag a drop. Idea is to not take the phone out of the pocket. As it takes forever to unlock the screen.

3 Votes

Vidar Nygaard posted almost 10 years ago

When at tee I scan the club when I'm waiting for the other players to tee off. I don't have to do that on the tee? The same for the next shots. If I'm first I hit the ball and while waiting for the others to hit their balls I scan my club holding the phone to the club.

3 Votes

Bruce DeLucenay posted almost 10 years ago

I agree with Cody. Taking out your phone, and tapping it on your club is the quickest and least stupid looking way to get it done quickly.

0 Votes

Peter Rainbow posted almost 10 years ago

I found the NFC doesn't work well with a cargo short, so now I pull out my phone, confirm distance, chose my club, tap it to the phone, then hit my shot. Much smoother timing and doesn't slow anyone down or look silly. Plus I don't want to be focusing on that tap immediately before hitting my shot.

0 Votes

Paul Fiddler posted almost 10 years ago

I agree with Peter. Make it part of your pre-shot routine and have a clear gap between messing with your toys and striking the ball. Mine:

Stand over the ball, take out my phone and check distance.
Get my club stand back over the ball tag the club, put the phone away
Take 2 steps back, get my grip, aim point etc
Step up to the ball and swing away...

You could also tag after your shot but I found I forgot and there is nothing more time wasting than going back to where you just played from and playing with your phone.

2 Votes

jeff hunter posted almost 10 years ago

Despite the work arounds in this post, I am disappointed with the gap in the actual user experience versus what is depicted in the marketing material... kind of like what a Big Mac looks like on TV versus what it actually looks like at a MacDonald's. Even with my cell phone out of pocket, it can take a few attempts to log a shot. Consequently, I've disabled my tags and will continue to use the app without them. I guess that is the risk you take with Kick Starter projects.

0 Votes

Bobby R. posted almost 10 years ago

I haven't given up but I don't agree with paul and peter. If I wanted to take my phone out I would have never even got the tags. I also use a smart watch to link up to the app, so thats another variable that makes this more frustrating. I don't mind having data on my wrist or even tapping a club to my pants - but needing to pull out my phone is unacceptable.

I've got a good pre-shot routine down that doesnt detract from the game itself, and scans accurately, but it does still look ridiculous.

0 Votes

Jpwozoo posted over 9 years ago

Just started using the tags and also having issues scanning a club. Another way I found to stop holding up play is to hit your shot first then scan your club as you're putting it away. This way the other players can resume their play while you finish messing with your app.

0 Votes

Ralf Taus posted over 9 years ago

I used the app for 1,5 years without tags. I had no routine in tagging the shot. Sometimes I took my phnoe out of the pocket before the shot sometimes after. Every time I had to unlok the screen, press for shot, press for club selection, select the club und press for return. That needed time.
Now I played 1 round with the tags, unchartet. Playing unchartet you dont have the "black screen". So I had to take out my phone again.
It loocked like
taking phone out of the pocket
pressing home button (unlook the screen)
tagging club
pressing on/off
putting phone in pocket
All this I did after the shot in less than 4 seconds, no influence in the pro-shot-routine,
Most of my flight didn´t recognize what I did.
The first 2 holes I had to think of doing this, later I did it automatically.

I can imagine, that playing a mapped course I would look at the screen, checking distance, choose my club, tagging it and than starting the pre-shot-routine. If distance does no matter (green far away) I would like my after-shot-routine.

I will see.

0 Votes

Jpwozoo posted over 9 years ago

First off, I can't believe how many of you care what you look like when your scanning your club. Are you playing in front of a large gallery? My friends have a lot more things to make fun of me with then scanning my club. You really think other golfers are playing any attention to you? Get over it. I've only used my tags 3 rounds and I think they're great. Phone in my pocket, I found the sweet spot on my phone and 1 scan, done. If you have to enter a code to unlock your phone, turn that feature off. These things are so easy to use I can't believe there are so many winers.

2 Votes