While TeeShot has supported GPS distance tracking since version 1.5, there have always been a few things that made it tough to use and even when you did use the GPS to track your shots, users often wondered where the extra goodness was that GPS should offer. TeeShot 2.0 has several enhancements to make it easier and faster to use the GPS features on the iPhone 3G as well as a couple of new views that make it much more useful (and fun!) to track your shot locations.
First, the speed issue. While it still takes a while for the iPhone to figure out your location when you turn on the GPS tracker, it is much better at getting an accurate reading if you keep the GPS on for a longer period of time. TeeShot 2.0 now has the ability to turn on the GPS tracking and to keep it on as you move about the application. You can enable or disable GPS tracking on the home page as well as any page that lets you use a GPS location, such as the hole and group scoring page (for seeing your distance to the green) or the shot scoring page. Just tap the target button on the left side to toggle the GPS tracking on or off.
The button to enable or disable GPS in TeeShot 2.0
The best time to do this is at the start of a hole when you want to set the tee box’s location. You can turn GPS on at and then let it get an accurate location and save that location. Before TeeShot 2.0, TeeShot would turn off the GPS as soon as you saved the location, but in 2.0 it stays on so you can hit your shot and start walking towards your ball. When you get to the ball, TeeShot has been tracking you as you were walking so it already has a much better idea of where you are and you can see that as the distance to the green has been going down and the distance from your last shot is going up.
The Shot Scoring screen in TeeShot 2.0 featuring updated GPS shot distance tracking. In this case, GPS is not currently tracking your location but you can see where you are relative to the tee, green and your last shot.
So now TeeShot is much easier to use for tracking your shot locations with GPS on an iPhone 3G. But what else can you do now that you have set these locations? Well, now you can tap the Display shot map option on the hole scoring page to see a map of exactly where each shot went from the tee to the green, overlayed on a Google Map of your course, all right within TeeShot.
The TeeShot 2.0 shot map shows you the location of each shot on a hole, right from the tee to the green.
Similarly, you can see the hole location and an overview of this hole by tapping the distance to green button on the group or hole scoring page.
So what about the folks who don’t have GPS and yet want easier measuring of shot distance? TeeShot 2.0 has something for you too. Just change the new Shot Distance Calculation setting from “GPS” to “markers” and you can enter the distance remaining to the green at the start of each shot and TeeShot will calculate the distance of your last shot. You can figure this out by looking at nearby yardage markers and then entering it in the new Shot Measurement feature on the shot by shot page which takes the place of the GPS features when you change this setting.
Tap the distance to green button to enter your remaining distance to the green before this shot and TeeShot 2.0 will calculate how long your previous shot was. This is great for anyone who can't or doesn't want to use GPS to mark each shot location.
So there you have it. A few more updates to make it much easier and more satisfying to track your shots in TeeShot 2.0.
But hmmm… someone who is looking closely at the screenshots above may notice something different in the shot tracking page. The next button is sometimes an arrow and sometimes a plus. What could that mean? It means that the previews are not yet done and there are still more interesting things to post about TeeShot 2.0. I’ll try to get the next post out quicker than I got this one out.
In the meantime, I’ll see you on the first tee!
-Chris
