VPAR Fills an App Gap

Bring the excitement of a pro tournament to any golf event

Tony Dear

It’s getting really easy to enjoy golf nowadays. The equipment we use is mostly amazing. The clothes make us, if not Paul Newman-cool then hipper than we’ve ever looked. And our shoes are infinitely more comfortable than they used to be.

Golf-specific training regimens help us play better for longer, and largely pain-free. Booking engines make scheduling tee-times and golf travel easy. And digital range finders, incredibly light golf bags (how can something that big weight so little?), logoed grips, training aids that actually work, and push carts so user-friendly they enable more golfers to continue walking. All combine to make the game ever more entertaining.

And don’t forget the apps. Where would we be without apps?

We have apps that record every aspect of our swing and launch characteristics, apps that help us focus and relax, Rules apps, club-fitting apps, and instructional apps.

Another that will most assuredly boost your gratification level is VPAR (Versus Par) which claims to have been the first app to provide a tournament leaderboard function which brings the excitement of a pro tournament to any golf event.

VPAR is now GPS-enabled (with a data-base of 30,000 courses) giving you aerial images of the hole you’re playing as well as shot distances. It’s also capable of recording important statistics from your round (greens in regulations, putts, driving accuracy, etc) so you can track your performance.

VPAR was developed by a British team headed by Jason Stoop, a 35-year-old graduate of the University of the West of England in Bristol. Tom Mason, also 35 and a graduate of Edinburgh University, is head geek providing a level of wizardry to a product a panel of judges rewarded with the prize for Best Sports App in a Single Sport at last year’s prestigious Sports Technology Awards in London.

Among the finalists VPAR beat were Chelsea Football Club and the All England Lawn Tennis Association (to Wimbledon what the R&A is to the Open Championship) both of which boast large teams of IT and app-development experts whose combined talents weren’t enough to defeat what the judges described as an “excellent multi-functional app providing the amateur golfer with the feel of playing pro tournaments whilst improving, enhancing and standardizing golf day scoring.”

Stoop and his business partners had their Eureka moment while playing in a golf outing at Stoke Park outside London in 2005. “On the 14^th we started questioning where we stood in the competition and remarked how cool it would be to be able to monitor everyone’s score on a live leaderboard” he says. “We put our heads together and were doing business by 2007. The app looks very different now to what it was back then of course. It’s constantly evolving.”

You already have plenty of stuff to make golf fun. VPAR’s going to make it better still.

Download VPAR from the app store for a free 14 day trial, then pay just $8.99/year – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/vpar-live-golf-scoring/id432332692

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Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.