I'm excited to tell you that GolfStakes.com is now a community web site. We've just uploaded our newest updates and included is our new forum section.
Everything that you would expect from a forum is here. Threads, replies, categories, etc. There is nothing more for you to do than to sign up for GolfStakes.com. Once you have made an account you will have free access to post to our forums. The forums can be found under the community tab on the main menu bar.
Hope to see you all there!
We've added our new Course Directory to the site over the weekend. You now have access to over 16,000 courses. Using a simple search by course name, GHIN number, city, state or zip code, you can see detailed information about these courses, read users comments and add them as a favorite course to your own account.
As we go forward we will begin to add new features that will allow you adjust the information found in our directory such as the name of tees, the handicaps, the distances and the names.
You can find our new course directory here.
I last spoke about some of our side games that can be played during a round of golf, but I didn't show you any pictures of what the interface looked like.
Number 1 is the area where you can set up your wagers, pick the handicaps, the point values, what type of pot this wager will be, the low hole and the high hole for the wager. This system allows you to have some flexibility in what type of wager you would like to play.
Number 2 is where you can see the types of wagers setup, who's in the wager and other pertinent information. You can edit the wager, or remove that wager from the round of golf.
The links on the left of the wager allow you to add other items such as the actual games properties, and to how players can be added to the wager.
Clicking on the top or bottom next button will finish up the wager and take you back to main round page.
Good luck and happy golfing!
So far I've been talking about Golfstakes and how to do things on the web site. Today I want take a some time and tell you a little about the side games that you can setup and score with Golfstakes.
Golfstakes currently has twelve side games that you can play while scoring a round of golf. Here's a brief description about a handful of them.
- Abilene, a GREAT game. There are 2 variations of Abilene. Some play with long drive for a 5 point game, I only play with 4 points and do not count long drive. You have teams of 2 that play each other. If you and I were partners against Joe and Sam. We win closest to the pin, win single low score, and win low team total, we would get 3 points, but Joe and Sam get low team total putts, so they get 1 point, so we net result 2 points. There are no presses, EXCEPT that the point total can change like with skins. Each point is worth point value * number of points awarded per man/per team based on how they configure it. So if we were playing for a point value of 1 per man, we would be up 2 points after the first hole. If you win ALL of the points, you get a bucket. The bucket can either be worth and extra point, or double points.
- Daytona This game is played between four players, two on each team. On each hole a team's score is a two digit number where the ten's digit is the low score of the two golfers, and the one's digit is the high score. The points earned on a hole is the difference between the two team's scores. For example if team A scored a 4 and 5 and team B scored a 5 and 6, team A wins 11 points (56 - 45). A running total of the points is kept and the winners are paid one unit bet for each point won.
- Sows, Everyone’s favorite bet. This is a putting game where the goal is to gain as many Sows as possible. You are awarded a Sow for any putt made that is longer than the flag stick. You are also awarded a Sow for any birdie putt. A birdie putt made that is longer than the flag stick is awarded 2 Sows. Scoring: . This is a per player only wager. There will never be teams allowed on this bet. It is per man only at whatever the wager is set at.
- Train wreck. Players play their own ball and accumulate points as follows: bogey=1, par=2, birdie=3, eagle=4, albatross=5, hole in one=10. If at any point during the round, player makes a double bogey or two bogeys in a row, the players points are reset to 0. Players keep separate point values for net and gross. Highest point values win. So you could be high score all the way up to the 17th and 18th hole. You Boggy on the 17th, and then boggy on the last, you are suddenly last with no points. If you've got money riding on this style of game, you're able to either make a whole lot quick or loss everything faster.
As you can see, each of these games start involving a little math on the side and when you start to play with a large group this just gets crazy. When you use Golfstakes to score your rounds and you add in a few side games, all of these calculations take place automatically. This takes a lot of work off of you, and lets you enjoy the actually play of the game instead of trying to figure out who's scored what when.
So on GolfStake.com we want the user to have ultimate control over the information on a specific golf course. We believe that you as the user will have better information than anyone else. You will have played the greens, you know where the sand traps are, which club to use on which hole, the distances of the fairways, where the water traps are and the tips that you need to know to score par. And here at GolfStakes.com we want you enter that information.
To accomplish this we've come up with the golf course information page.
1. This is the course's name, location, a description, it's GHIN number, and is this course a public course or a private course. Vital information to know before even looking up the tee information.
2. Phone numbers for the course. We allow you to have as many phone numbers as needed, but generally, you'll be putting down the local number, the fax number and any toll free numbers that course may have.
3. This is the tee information. We allow you to have as many tee colors as needed. We don't limit you to just a handful. You're the one in control of adding the tees here. You enter the rating and slope of the tee, the distance for each hole, the par for each hole and the handicap for each hole. With this information being entered by the user, we can be as accurate as possible when it comes time to score a round of golf.
So there you have it, an easy way to add course information for your favorite course.
Like I said in my previous post, Golfstakes has gotten quick a few new additions to it in the past couple of months. One I would like to talk about is the way golf rounds are now set up.
This is the page where you as a user can set up and edit a round of golf. Lets go over this a step at a time. First you can have groups, one to many groups, and each group can have many members, but usually a foursome.
As you can see from the screen shot, we have a couple of different ways of adding friends. You have a friends list which is where you can have all of your golf buddies show up for a quick pick option. You have the ability to just type in a users name and have them added to your golf round. Or, if you happen to have a person who doesn't usually play with you, you can add them with the one time golfer option.
After adding the players to your group, you can edit their playing order, their starting tee, add in their golf index, their handicaps and which golf cart they'll be riding in.
Other options include the ability to score this group, remove this group from your round, set a group name, and set the groups starting tee.
Wow, that's a lot of stuff for just one tab. But what this tab does, is give you the fine control needed to setup a golf round just the way that you want to. Not only can you set up this round, but you can set the round up to be played in the future.
Yes, set the round up now. Go to your favorite golf course and pull out your Internet enabled cell phone and now you can start scoring your round of golf while out on the green. This speeds up your ability to get out on the course faster and to play more interesting games with out worrying who's up next, what the last score was. As long as you enter the correct scores into your phone on golfstakes, all of the hard work is done for you.
Enjoy your game.
Well it's been about three months now since I've started working with the Golfstakes team. A huge number of improvements have been added along with some brand new functionality. But hey, wait you're asking, what in the heck is Golfstakes in first place?
Here is what the site says:
What is golfstakes?
Golfstakes is an extremely unique golf game and scoring system. It is the ONLY product available that allows you to create golf groups and individual or group side games between the groups with LIVE UPDATING!!
How does it work?
You can create multiple groups, and have side games between the groups!!!
You play in a skins game every Saturday with 20 guys? No problem! Set up the 4 somes, create a skins side game, enter scores on your internet enabled cell phone, and voila, golfstakes calculates the results LIVE in REAL TIME!!!
You and Joe also have a 5 point 2 down auto match play? Again, golfstakes has you covered. Create another side game between you and Joe, enter the scores one time, and it updates your side game real time!! JOE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO BE IN YOUR 4 SOME AND YOU CAN PRESS HIM WHENEVER YOU WANT IN REAL TIME!!
Golfstakes has all the fun games too. Best Ball, Birdies, Daytona, Eagles, Match Play, Nassau, Skins, Skins no carry over, Sows, Stableford, Stroke play. More to come in the following weeks!
Instead of wasting your time calculating the side games, now you can have a beer with the rest of the gang and enjoy the bantering.
Sounds interesting doesn't it? Well so far it has been. What started out as a tool for one avid golfer has turned into a whole social networking type golf scoring mobile enabled web site.
Stop by and take a look at what we've done so far. Golfstakes.com
