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
Excellent stuff Chris.. The integration of Google maps into the app is exactly what I was hoping for. Awesome.
By: Rich H. on March 23, 2009
at 4:18 am
Chris,
Has there been in battery testing? Will I be able to get through 18 holes running GPS the whole time?
By: Kevin Harwood on March 23, 2009
at 6:54 am
I am doing some of that now. Some developers have reported that it takes less power to keep the GPS running than it does to turn it on and off.
I’ll be trying this out some more in my upcoming rounds. Either way, the user is in control of when they turn on and off the GPS so if the battery starts draining faster than they want, they can always fall back to the yardage markers for tracking their shot distances.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on March 23, 2009
at 8:07 am
I am doing some of that now. Some developers have reported that it takes less power to keep the GPS running than it does to turn it on and off.
I’ll be trying this out some more in my upcoming rounds. Either way, the user is in control of when they turn on and off the GPS so if the battery starts draining faster than they want, they can always fall back to the yardage markers for tracking their shot distances.
-Chris
Should mention great post! Looking forward to reading your next one!
By: teeshotlive on March 23, 2009
at 12:53 pm
great post. Really looking forward to this…It is unfortunate it won’t be out by Saturday when i go out. but hey i got a lot of golf in me.
By: Mr. Danforth on March 25, 2009
at 6:36 am
Hi Chris one question, I deleted a round from oobgolf, now I want to reload it from teeshot, but it is not possible, it just doesn’t upload it, why ?
By: Mike on March 25, 2009
at 9:15 am
This looks really impressive. Will 2.0 be a free upgrade? Any idea on when it might be available? I’d like to purchase this app, but would like to have the 2.0 features, so trying to decide if I should buy now or wait.
By: David on March 25, 2009
at 11:25 am
Chris! this is awesome! i am an ipod touch user and i have been wanting this in a golf app for a long time! i dont know if this was a result from one of our lengthy email conversations or not, but thanks!
Zack
By: Zack Pyle on March 25, 2009
at 4:20 pm
sounds and looks very promising.
Is the google maps integration done with the 3.0 SDK?
in other words, are we going to have to wait until iPhone OS 3.0 is available?
But I don’t mind waiting for goods thing in life
By: Jonny8 on March 26, 2009
at 12:16 pm
This stuff looks great Chris! For the comments about the battery, I purchase an extended battery in case the round is taking a while and has come in handy a couple of times. The Mophie Juice Pack works great. Check it out at
http://store.theiphoneblog.com/mophie-juice-pack-battery-packcase/8A37A4116.htm
By: John in FL on March 26, 2009
at 6:24 pm
Looks great Chris. I was considering a uPro gps, but after looking at the screen shots Teeshot may do all I need. Is 2.0 coming soon. Golf season started in Illinois yesterday. Hope we’re not going to have to wait for the 3.0 release. FYI, I’m running the 3.0 beta 2 firmware if you need a beta tester.
Kevin
By: Kevin in IL on April 2, 2009
at 7:15 am
Hi Kevin,
No, we don’t need to wait for iPhone 3.0 but there are still a couple more things that I need to get done before I release it. One of the big ones is a license from Google for using their maps API on the phone before 3.0 ships.
By: teeshotlive on April 3, 2009
at 6:44 am
Really like Teeshot – great app!
Could you look at having an eclectic feature by course – ie a best score on each hole on a particular course between given dates?
I would also like to see different scoring options – eg team scoring – better ball, skins, fourball, matches (stroke & stableford scoring) etc – would that be possible in future updates ? I used to use Intelligolf on a Palm and it had a number of scoring options.
Also, could the stats be split by course – i would like to see progress on my home course separately from other courses ?
Regards
Emma
By: Emma on April 6, 2009
at 1:15 pm
Hi Emma,
Great suggestion. There have been lots of requests for more side games like that. The real trick is keeping it still simple to use and score but we have definitely been looking at more features like that.
TeeShot 2.0 does let you look at your stats on a course by course basis, so that you will get soon
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on April 7, 2009
at 10:38 pm
Great app, now it might be my fault but,
I set my handicap in the player profile. When i type my rounds the handicap in the statistics goes down. I lock the rounds i type in. When i change my handicap in the player profile to it new level, all my previous rounds are affected by the new hanidcap. Which shouldnt be the case, any ideas on what im doing wrong.
Thanks
By: Phil on April 12, 2009
at 7:47 pm
What a great app . . . more expensive than some but it does more and is well worth it. I downloaded it and used it for the first time on Friday and thought about some extra things that would be nice if it could do – you seem to be putting all these into V2
Any ideas on a release date? I can’t wait
PS. i’m also running 3.0 so could beat test any new versions if you need a hand
By: Adam Reynolds on April 13, 2009
at 4:11 am
FYI. The last 2 rounds that I uploaded to US Handicap showed up under the wrong course (score was correct). Contacted US Handicap the first time it happened and the only thing they could do was delete the round. Not sure if it’s a problem with Teeshot or with US Handicap, but it needs to be corrected. Thanks.
Kevin
By: Kevin Jones on April 15, 2009
at 8:28 pm
Hi Kevin,
We pass them our course information but they are generally the ones who map it to their own course list. If the information in TeeShot correct for the course you are playing, that is the information we upload to them.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on April 15, 2009
at 8:55 pm
Hi Chris
I’m thinking about buying an app for golf scoring an stats, but there is one thing that is keeping me from buying teeshot. Can you in course builder put a map (shot map) in together with the golf courses scorecard for every hole??? can seem to find any info on this. Or is it not even possible to see the map yet?
By: Mario on April 16, 2009
at 12:16 am
Hi Mario,
In TeeShot 2.0 you can see the shot map for each hole. We don’t yet have the ability to show your shot map with the scorecard but with 2.0 we will have the ability to put that together on the website.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on April 16, 2009
at 8:35 am
Any ETA on Teeshot 2.0 in the Appstore? or another preview up on here? I am getting antsy!
By: Mr. Danforth on April 16, 2009
at 6:28 pm
Hi Chris
Great app, now it might be my fault but,
I set my handicap in the player profile. When i type my rounds the handicap in the statistics goes down. I lock the rounds i type in. When i change my handicap in the player profile to it new level, all my previous rounds are affected by the new hanidcap. Which shouldnt be the case, any ideas on what im doing wrong.
Thanks
By: Phil on April 17, 2009
at 2:08 am
Hi Phil,
Yep, we don’t lock the handicap on the round when it is edited and your handicap is based upon some calculations that take your handicap into account (strange circular algorithms…). I’ll be looking at adding the ability to make sure your handicap that you played with is stored with the round so that it doesn’t change as time goes by.
As for release date, there is one more pretty big feature that is coming that I will post about as soon as I can but once that is ready, we can post the update to the App Store.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on April 17, 2009
at 8:56 am
Hey, looks great, can’t wait for it.
Could you please adjust the clickable area of the Fairway/Sand Save/Up&Down menu? Remove it from the top of the written text and instead make bigger where the ;G;F;Yes;No fields are. I don’t know if I am the only one, but very often when i scroll or edit some other stuff I accidentally click somewhere so that the wrong stuff gets changed. And I don’t have clumsy fingers
By: Mindz on May 2, 2009
at 6:24 am
Moreover,
please make the add a player process easier. At the moment it’s a pain and not intuitive. You always have to repress “Start round” what seems a little bit odd.
By: Mindz on May 2, 2009
at 6:28 am
Looking forward to your post on the new features…
By: Kasper Lyskjær on May 2, 2009
at 11:02 am
Mindz,
Yes, version 2.0 makes the fairway/sand save/up&down area easier to tap in group scoring by making it 2 lines. I’ve also made it easier to start a new round by getting rid of a step or two for both the first player and adding additional players.
I think we’re getting pretty close on shipping 2.0. I was going to release it a little while ago, but then a very cool new set of features popped up and I also discovered that I needed to license the Google Maps APIs to do the shot mapping features so rather than waiting until the next version of the iPhone software came out, I started that process. It has taken longer than expected, but I think the overall improvements in both the application and TeeShotLive will be very worth the wait.
Stay tuned!
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on May 2, 2009
at 12:46 pm
Hiya, after using Teeshot for several rounds I was wondering if you’re planning to make any changes to the way you record shot-by-shot details in the app. I find it a little restrictive atm in that, if I play an approach that misses the green, then a chip that runs off the other side (as i did last weekend, not a great round) I can’t enter another chip. I can enter the shot but only by rejigging the other shots on that hole.
Also, it would be nice to be able to pick from multiple options for the result of the shot, eg. long, bunker or short and right and misshit (or topped, fat etc)
It is by far the best golf app available atm though – keep it up
By: Adam Reynolds on May 6, 2009
at 2:59 pm
Hi Adam,
Thanks! Yes in the next version you can add as many shots as you would like and you can choose the shot type for each one.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on May 6, 2009
at 9:20 pm
Hey Chris
Keep up the good work!! Im glad I choose teeshot over Birdie. One of the main reasons is it seems you are always here to help and listen. Thx a lot for taking so much time to do this.
Last time I was on the course I was thinking if you change the shot by shot, so when u typed in a shot and length etc. you could make kinda like an enter button, which will take you back to your scorecard or take you to the next shot if your finished with the hole yet. This would make it much faster and easier to use the very important shot by shot feature.
By: Mario on May 7, 2009
at 2:26 pm
Hey Chris – Will the next version be delayed at all by 3.0? I saw some stories about new apps needing to be 3.0 to get approval.
By: Rich H. on May 7, 2009
at 5:49 pm
Hi Rich,
I don’t think that will be a problem. I have tested TeeShot on 3.0 and it works fine though I need to keep verifying it as new betas come out.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on May 7, 2009
at 9:40 pm
Hey Chris,
When I upload my rounds to Oobgolf, I’m noticing its not tracking club used, distance, and other metrics per hole.
Is this something that will be fixed/added? Or am I doing something wrong.
thanks and can’t wait for the next version!
By: Richard on May 11, 2009
at 11:34 am
Hi Richard,
The API that oobgolf provides for us does not let us upload shot by shot information, only hole by hole.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on May 11, 2009
at 11:01 pm
I realise you’re working hard on the new version and there are going to be some great features in it but can you give us any idea when we’re likely to see it?
By: Adam Reynolds on May 14, 2009
at 12:47 am
Hi Adam,
Soon?
Seriously, we started doing some big work on the service side which is going to be hugely useful with the next release but we need to get that all tested before we can submit to the store. We also need to get a license from Google for the mapping feature and we’re waiting for that to finalize. We are done with new features and just getting everything locked down, then we’ll be ready to go.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on May 14, 2009
at 4:08 pm
Hi Chris,
Lovin Teeshot, great app. I have a query regarding the handicap that it calculated for me. On the stats page after 5 rounds it calculated a handicap of 10.2 but I have just noticed the handicap says +oo after a few more rounds. Is this a bug or have I messed up?
Hope you can help.
Nick
By: Nick Kirk on May 20, 2009
at 8:27 am
Does TeeShot allow the calculation of the index automatically and out connetion ?
By: Douglas on May 20, 2009
at 10:30 am
Is there any way to add uploading to stracka.com?
By: Sean on May 22, 2009
at 3:09 am
Hi Sean,
Not currently. We do have some very cool stuff coming for TeeShotLive in 2.0 — soon
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on May 22, 2009
at 9:06 am
When ?
By: Mike on May 22, 2009
at 12:14 pm
Hi Chris,
I was just checking how you would enter GPS co-ordinates for your course. The course builder programme you provide allows it but in a cumbersome way. Would it be possible to import Google custom Maps (a kml file?). If you define a naming convention (e.g. Hole1_Centre, Hole1_Front, Hole1_Back) then we could start creating the maps for our courses and import them once the new version is out.
Here is an example of such a google custom map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=51.266386,-0.169805&spn=0.001123,0.002393&t=h&z=19&msid=113972592062207837536.00046b5e06c20031be86d
By: Immo on June 2, 2009
at 7:28 am
We do have an updated course creation tool coming with 2.0. It should be pretty easy to integrate Google Maps so you don’t need to copy the latitude and longitude values once we have that tool up and live.
Thanks for the suggestion, there is definitely some work we can do to make it easier to tag green locations.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on June 2, 2009
at 7:43 am
Chris,
Is there an easy way to switch the nines for a course within Teeshot? I would prefer to not have to re-enter all 18 holes?
Some of the course I play have a tendency to switch the front nine and the back nine more than once.
By: Howard on June 3, 2009
at 3:02 am
Hi Howard,
Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to do that. It would be a nice feature to add for a future release, though. I’ll add it to the request list.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on June 6, 2009
at 10:35 pm
I play several of my rounds of golf in the UK and not all of the courses have the slope rating yet. It would be useful if SSS could be used instead for those courses when calculating stableford
By: Anders on June 16, 2009
at 3:56 am
It would be useful if it would be posible to note if the tee shot was lost and that a second tee shot was made and that ball was played.
By: Anders on June 16, 2009
at 4:00 am
Hi Anders,
You can mark the first shot as a penalty and if you’re tracking each shot you can mark it as “Hazard” or “Out of bounds” as the shot result. In version 2.0, you will also be able to set your shot type for the second shot to be a tee shot, which should make that a bit clearer.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on June 17, 2009
at 9:33 pm
hi chris,
dont know if this has been mentioned before, but will there be a way to customize your clubs. I only noticed today, i have 7 hybrid, 7 iron and 3 & 4 hybrids, and i cant distinguish between them for stats, ta
By: Phil on June 19, 2009
at 5:22 am
Hi Phil,
That is on our feature request list. You’ll start to see some stuff related to that coming soon in 2.0.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on June 22, 2009
at 5:48 pm
When is version 2.0 likely for release as it has been some time now?
By: Andy on June 24, 2009
at 6:07 pm
It sure has! We are down to the last bug and after one more test round, we should be ready to upload version 2.0 to Apple for verification.
Sorry it has been taking so long, but when you see the whole release, I think you will understand what a big release this is!
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on June 24, 2009
at 8:53 pm
Can’t wait!
Good news.
By: Kasper on June 26, 2009
at 3:03 am
Hi. Would it be possible to at least get another 2.0 update on the blog with some additional screenshots??
Also, with the addition of the google maps to Teeshot, will it be possible to request GPS mapping of courses? Other iphone software such as Airvue and Golf09 take course requests for GPS mapping and turn around the requests usually in less than a week.
I did a search on the Teeshot database and currently only 17 of the 277 courses in Illinois are mapped for GPS.
Looking forward to 2.0
Kevin
By: Kevin Jones on July 6, 2009
at 8:37 am
Hi
why can’t Teeshot use the course database
from oobgolf. Golfcard (another app) advertises that it uses
oobgolf’s course database.
Immo
looking forward to the new release
By: Immo on July 6, 2009
at 9:54 am
Hi,
I’ve got another question. Is it (or will it) be possible to upload scores for friends to oobgolf as well? Other applications seem to be able to do so (if the friend specifies on oobgolf that you can enter scores for him)
Regards
Immo
By: Immo on July 7, 2009
at 5:48 am
Hi Immo,
TeeShot can’t use oobgolf’s courses because we also have our own course database and the oobgolf guys didn’t want there to be some way for us to import their database list so we agreed that being able to upload rounds was a good start.
They don’t currently have a method for uploading your friend’s rounds with your own rounds though we do have a solution for that coming very soon
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on July 7, 2009
at 6:54 am
Hi Kevin,
You can already GPS tag the greens using CourseBuilder (or TeeShot itself). Check out the CourseBuilder page at http://www.teeshotlive.com/coursebuilder for the details on how to do this today.
As for another update on 2.0, I would love to and I am working on getting the official details from Marketing for that. Yes, there is now a Marketing group and that might be a hint right there
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on July 7, 2009
at 7:03 am
That is a bit odd as oobgolf allows access to their database to other competing products (Golfcard, Fore)
I find it a bit annoying that I always have to associate rounds to courses in oobgolf as there is no link between the courses in Teeshot and oobgolf.
Good to hear that you already have a solution coming up for uploading scores for friends.
Now I just need to know what ’soon’ means
Immo
By: Immo on July 7, 2009
at 7:03 am
Well, I hope 2.0 gets here soon. I was doing an app search for “golf” today and stumbled upon GolfShot. Wow, talk about a professional looking app.
By: Kevin on July 7, 2009
at 7:24 am
Chris -
I realize you can map the course yourself with Coursebuilder. The thing is, I would rather get the mapped courses included with the app, rather than spend the time myself. Based on the number of GPS mapped courses in the Teeshot database, others obviously feel the same way.
I’ve always been a fan of teeshot, but other apps are passing it by.
Kevin
By: Kevin on July 7, 2009
at 7:28 am
Chris – Do you have any update on your 2.0 release date. Its been almost 4 months since your last major blog entry regarding the product, and any comments made in client comment replies don’t shed any light on the timeframe. I’m a big supporter of your product, but you may need to shake you marketing department up a bit as their communication is somewhat lacking, as can be seen from the comments that clients are starting to look at other products.
By: Malcolm on July 13, 2009
at 9:38 pm
I concur with Malcolm… It’s been too long in coming, this 2.0 release. The beauty of the AppStore is that it brings plenty of keenly priced alternatives, and there are now plenty of alternatives to TeeShot.
I’ve been a keen TeeShot user since 2008. I’m trying to be patient, and resist the temptation to buy a competitor’s alternative. But for how long?
By: Alex on July 14, 2009
at 8:35 am
After having used GolfShot for two rounds, I can say that the Teeshot 2.0 improvements will have to be astounding for me to switch back.
By: Kevin on July 15, 2009
at 1:21 pm
I had a look at GolfShot and one feature Teeshot 2.0 would have to beat is the distance view. GolfShot shows the distance to a point as well as the distance from that point to the centre of the green. That is IMHO a very good feature as it allows you to lay up just at the right spot
By: Immo on July 16, 2009
at 3:21 am
It’s also very easy to switch from gps view to standard view, which gives you the yardage to front, back, and all hazards. Like you said, tapping and holding brings up a target that shows you the yardage to the target and from the target to the green. Scorekeeping is very elegant and makes it easy to track fairways, sand shots, penalties. Very slick looking scorecard by turning horizontally. Auto backup after the round and nice graphical scorecard with stats is emailed to you. Stats are tracked for last 5 or 20 rounds with slick looking pie charts. As you play each hole you see your average fairways hit, GIR, score and putts for previous rounds on that course. Overall amazing product.
By: Kevin on July 22, 2009
at 7:59 am
Seriously, folks. Does GolfShot not have their own blog?
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on July 22, 2009
at 8:26 am
I have been using TeeShot from the beginning and have been very happy with the progress for improvements made and from the response time from Chris related to issues. I know this release has taken a lot longer but I am not about to give up on TeeShot becuase of that and since Chris has always be very truthful about the product and all the positive things that have occured with this product. I would not take any chances on an unproven commidity when TeeShot has been positive all along!
Keep up the great work and look forward to the release of 2.0(soon we hope)
By: John in FL on July 22, 2009
at 9:34 am
Same goes for me .Dave
By: dave c on July 22, 2009
at 2:38 pm
No more about golfshot. Hoping teeshot 2.0 wins me back. We’ll see.
By: Kevin on July 23, 2009
at 11:01 am
Question:
do you supply free upgrades to 2.0 for those with version 1.7.4
and for how long are upgrades beyond 2.0 are included in the buy price of $23.99? Thx
glenn
By: glenn on August 25, 2009
at 5:15 am
Yes, the upgrade to 2.0 is free for users who already own 1.7.4. Apple doesn’t currently provide developers a way to charge for upgrades so you are pretty safe on that for a while.
-Chris
By: teeshotlive on August 25, 2009
at 7:43 am
Chris,
I will be playing a course this weekend that has 3 nines, I think. How should these courses be uploaded into teeshot. I actually have already loaded them but not sure if it is correct. Check out Pelican Preserve in Fort Myers, FL.
By: John in FL on August 27, 2009
at 8:28 pm