I finally got out yesterday with my Game Golf. I bought it through the original Indiegogo funding so I have had it for about six weeks.
The unit was easy to set up. I installed the software on my Macbook Pro, iPhone, and iPad. The device plugs into the Macbook via USB to charge and also download rounds. Once downloaded, the rounds will show up on your iPad or iPhone app. The tags were easy to install by screwing into the hole on the end of the grip. You get 18 tags.
On the course everything worked fine. I clipped the device onto my right hip (I'm right handed) and it did not get in the way. I have a slim waist, larger folks might notice it more. The device has a blinking red light until it gets a good signal and then has a slow blinking white light to let you know it has a good signal.
I managed to make it through the round without forgetting to tag a shot. When you tap the end of your club on the device it makes a barely audible beep and vibrates. I found that I liked tagging my ball location first and then going through my pre shot routine.
One issue with the system that I had read about was with chipping and sand shots. If you chip the ball from just off the green with say your 9 iron, that shot will be included in your performance average for that club. There is no way to designate the shot as a chip and not a full swing. To get around this, one guy online suggested using two tags, one for Chip and one for Sand. I took two of the wildcard tags (Circle for Chip and Star for Sand) and screwed them into wine corks and kept them in my pocket. When I hit a chip or sand shot I just pulled out the correct wine cork and marked my club with that rather than the club I was using.
The other issue is marking the pin location. I made one long putt and chipped in from off the green once. When I did that, I walked up the the hole and tagged my putter to mark the hole location. I just edited out that final stroke after the game.
Once I got home, I plugged the device into my Mac and it fired up the software and downloaded my round. I played out at Pine Forest Country Club in Houston. Pine Forest has 3 nines. Instead of combining my two nines into one round, it loaded it as two separate rounds. There was no way to combine them, which is a big drawback. I'm a member out at Kingwood CC, so won't be a big issue for me, but i wouldn't like this if Pine Forest was my home club.
I edited the first round on the Mac. It took me about ten minutes for 9 holes. I noticed that a lot of the shots were slightly off. All of the shots seemed to be off in the same direction, so i am wondering if there could be projection issues between the map and the device data. I had a few penalty shots which are handled by adding penalty strokes in the post game editing. It is good to have your scorecard handy during editing. Once you edit the round, you have to sign the scorecard. After signing a round, you can no longer edit it which I am not sure I like. I edited the second round using my iPad. I liked this better, although somehow I deleted hole 3 in the process. I was able to recreat it though so not a big deal.
The stats were pretty nice. You can look at club performance by round or total. You get a little graph per club with all of you shot distances posted and then labels on the minimum, median, and maximum. You also get stats on fairways hit, putts, scrambling, GIR. It does not track putt distance, I assume due to accuracy.
Overall, I am pretty pleased with the device. It is a bit of work after the round and there is a lot more that could be done with the stats. It was fun to sit down with my iPad to go over the round. I think it would also be a good training device for course management. You could log your rounds and then review them with your coach to understand what things you might do differently.
I'll try to post some screenshots later, never posted pics to Texags before and don't have an online photo account anywhere.