What do I want Google Glass to do for my golf game?
I was recently invited to participate in the Google Glass Explorer program. Not sure if I will spend the $1500 to participate or not, but it got me thinking about how it might be used on the golf course. It seems like not too long ago we were wishing there would be some way to accurately read the distance to the hole and along came the laser range finder. Then the dedicated hand-held golf GPS. Soon after followed the GPS app for smartphones. Now I have a Garmin GPS golf watch (Garmin Approach S1 GPS Golf Watch). My golfing buddies often ask, “What does your wrist say”? Brainstorming about what I would like to see for the ultimate Google Glass Ultimate Golf App, here is what I came up with: Wind If the wind speed and direction are not available from the local weather source, maybe golf courses could be “Glass Enabled” offering hole-by-hole wind speed and direction. A 3D wind model with local Doppler radar would be a very nice to have. Distance to hole This is a no brainer, using standard GPS, you should be able to get distance to the front, middle, and back of the green. The green doesn’t change size very often, but the hole does. If the golf course was “Glass Enabled” they could provide a more accurate pin placement for the day. Pre-shot routine One of the best things I ever did for my golf game is to develop a pre-shot routine or for me a thought process. I mentally go through not only the motions of a routine, but also the one or two things I need to think about during my swing. I learned long ago, too many swing thoughts is a bad idea. I use the pre-shot routine to clear my head. If Glass would provide me with a short bullet-ed list of what I should remember it would be most helpful Show me the putting line This might be my favorite. A lot of technology would be needed for this to work correctly. I want to “see the line” when I look down at my ball. I want an augmented reality and see the actual line including distance to putt to overlaid on my vision. Log my score to the cloud I learned so much about my game when I started writing down what happened on each shot. I learned I need to practice more with my wedges inside of 75 yards. I learned my fairway 3 wood was an issue. I also learned that waiting for players in front of me destroyed my game. If Glass could...
Swing Thoughts – What do you see when you are swinging?
Introducing the “yellow arrow”. Here is a tip that dropped several strokes off my round. A few years ago I noticed that my ball striking was OK, I didn’t lift my head up (to be covered soon) and I made solid contact with the ball. I was very inconsistent in the ball direction. I was aiming my feet, shoulders and rest of my body correctly, but the ball would go a little left, or a little right of where I was aiming. Nothing drastic, but just not consistent. Here is what I found, while I was aiming my body, I wasn’t aiming the ball. Besides finding a repeatable pre-shot routine, I developed an imaginary yellow arrow that helps me understand what the club will be doing at and after impact. Prior to using this technique, I realized that I was going to hit the ball, but after that I really didn’t know what was going on. By envisioning this yellow arrow as my club head path, it creates a direction for the ball to follow. You will still hit the ball, but by imagining the club head continuing down this path you will tend to hit the ball more down the intended target line. This graphic is mainly for iron shots. In another post I will bring back the yellow arrow and discuss my swing for a drive. ...