The mechanics of putting has many factors that influence the outcome of your putt: stroke type, impact angle, and tempo. If you want to get those measured, you could go and get a putter fitting with your local golf professional or club fitter. This is the traditional approach and may not be an option for some golfers, who don’t have time or the means to do so.

Wouldn’t it be great if a golfer could analyze his/her stroke type, impact angle, and tempo without getting a putter fitting? That’s what the Ping is trying to do with its free iPING app for the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch (4th generation). The iPING app works in conjunction with a Ping cradle ($30 MSRP), which holds the iPhone or iPod Touch onto the putter shaft, below the grip. Watch this video of Ping’s PGA Tour Manager Matt Rollins walk Hunter Mahan through using the iPING app.

About the iPING App

The iPING app analyzes and displays you consistency onscreen using the three criteria: stroke type (determined by how much the putter face rotates during the forward stroke); impact angle (the putter’s face angle at impact, relative to address); and tempo (a measure of the duration of the backswing relative to the forward swing).

The app works by computing consistency over a series of five putts where your stroke type, impact angle and tempo are measured, displayed and stored for every putt in that session. Your consistency scores are averaged over time to build a Putting Handicap (PHcp). As you improve your consistency, you’ll see your PHcp come down.

iPING Fit

The iPING Fit feature matches you with the PING putter models that fit your stroke type. Matching your putter to your stroke type is the key to greater consistency and lower scores.

Download the iPING app

The 93rd PGA Championship is set to begin tomorrow from Atlanta Athletic Club inJohns Creek, GA. and we’ve put together this handy guide for how to follow the action no matter where you are: home, office, or on the road.

TV/Cable/Satellite

Thursday & Friday, August 11-12:

TNT
1:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST.

Saturday and Sunday, August 13-14:

TNT
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST.

CBS Sports
2:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST

DirecTV PGA Championship Experience

Tiger Woods make his first appearance in a Major since the Masters, DIRECTV will bring viewers all the action – teaming up with TNT and CBS to provide expanded, interactive coverage of the tournament.

Designed to help viewers more easily follow the tournament and keep real-time track of scores and stats, DIRECTV’s PGA Championship Experience will feature the innovative Mix Channel (701) that displays four channels – all in HD – on one screen that includes the main network feed and three extra channels (703-705) dedicated to a marquee group, featured holes and players in-depth.

Viewers can select any of the channels and tune to full screen.  Viewers of the Mix and Feature Channels, as well as viewers of the current live network (“Home Network”) and the Network Mirror also have access to an interactive Menu of features – 24 hours a day and all four days of the tournament on the HD mix channel 701.

www.directv.com/pgachampionship

Online-Live Video Streams from PGA.com

Marquee Groups-Coverage of select groups(e.g. Tiger Woods, Tournament Leader, etc.)
Thursday & Friday 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM EST
Saturday & Sunday 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST

Par 3-Coverage of Par 3 holes
Thursday & Friday 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Saturday & Sunday 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST

360 Cam
Watch exclusive live coverage of the 93rd PGA Championship like never before with our 360-degree camera that provides a panoramic look and natural sounds of the Atlanta Athletic Club!

Snap and Share
Snap and Share” any of your favorite video clips from the TNT broadcast or the PGA Championship Live video stream and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2011/event/livelanding.cfm

Mobile/iPhone

93rd PGA Championship iPhone App

Watch live on your iPhone as golf’s biggest names compete for one of golf’s grandest prizes, the 93rd PGA Championship live from the Atlanta Athletic Club. Whether you are in your home, office or on the road, you can follow live as the strongest field in professional golf competes for the coveted Wanamaker Trophy.

Check out these great features:

Live Video
Watch every shot of the day’s Marquee Group and watch the entire field play through the Atlanta Athletic Club’ four Par 3 holes Thursday through Sunday, all for free.

Personalized Alerts (iPhone only)
Receive alerts for your five favorite players and breaking news alerts from around the course.

Custom Leaderboard
Search for your favorite players and add them to your custom leaderboard. Add or remove as many as you want. Change them as often as you want.

On-Course Features for Spectators
Attending the PGA Championship? Enhance your experience on course. Locate your favorite players, get spectator alerts and follow our live action coverage blog.

2011 PGA Championship
The PGA.com iPhone app gets you closer to the action at one of golf’s premier events like never before. Download the PGA Championship App now and get ready for “Glory’s Last Shot.”

93rd PGA Championship iPhone App

Social Media

Get pictures, tweets, live updates and more by following the official PGA Champhionship facebook and twitter accounts.

www.facebook.com/pgachampionship
www.twitter.com/pgachampionship

The 2011 Masters kicks off tomorrow and we put together this guide for how to follow the action at Augusta National Golf Club, whether your at home, in the office, or on the road.

Television Coverage

Thursday April 7: First Round Live Coverage
ESPN: 3:00 PM – 7:30 PM*

Additional Air Times
ESPN: 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM (First Round Replay)
CBS: 11:30 PM – 11:45 PM (Highlight Show)

Friday April 8: Second Round Live Coverage
ESPN: 3:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Additional Air Times
ESPN: 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM (Second Round Replay)
CBS: 11:30 PM – 11:45 PM (Highlight Show)

Saturday April 9: Third Round Live Coverage
CBS: 3:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Sunday April 10: Final Round Live Coverage
CBS: 2:00 PM – 7:00 PM

*All times listed are EST

DIRECTV Coverage

DIRECTV will lead into Tournament coverage, which begins April 7 and runs through April 10, with a series of broadcasts of the 2010 Official Masters film (premiering March 31) and the 2011 Masters Preview show (debuting April 3) on its exclusive The 101® Network, along with all video highlights and a course tour on DIRECTV On Demand. DIRECTV will also air 3D coverage of the Tournament on ESPN 3D (Channel 106).

Online

Visit the Masters Tournament Live Coverage Page to watch the action from Amen Corner, holes 15 & 16, featured groups 1 & 2, and players warming up on the driving range before their round.

Masters Radio Online
Tune into a live streaming radio broadcast of the Masters Tournament

Twitter
Get your updates from the Masters by following the official twitter feed @The_Masters

Mobile

Do you own an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? Download the official Masters iPhone App and follow the action everywhere you go. Best of all it’s free!

The Official Masters Tournament iPhone app includes:

FIVE LIVE STREAMS OF VIDEO CONTENT

• Wednesday’s Par 3 Contest
• Tournament play at Amen Corner (Hole Nos. 11, 12, and 13)
• Tournament play at Hole Nos. 15 and 16
• A Featured Group channel covering play of the second nine
• Player press conferences live from the Press Building
• All video will be viewable with 3G and Wi-Fi connections

(Live video is available to view in the United States only.)

ON-DEMAND VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS AND FEATURES

REAL-TIME SCORING

• Interact with the live Leader Board, which features up-to-the-minute scoring and video highlights of the greatest moments on the course

COURSE OVERVIEW

• Detailed course information with imagery, flyover videos, and par and yardage for each of the Masters Tournament’s prestigious 18 holes

COMPREHENSIVE NEWS COVERAGE

• Pairings, tee times, player information, alerts, and all of the latest news and updates from the Masters Tournament.

Download the Masters iPhone App

The iPhone has ton of uses when it comes to golf, like using it as a GPS, digital scorecard, training aid, etc. Now you can add swing analysis to the list, thanks to iAnalyze Golf by Ten Times Design.

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iAnalyze Golf Swing App
If you have ever taken golf lessons over the past couple of years, your instructor probably used a video camera and special software to record and analyze your golf swing. With the widespread adoption of the iPhone, you are able to do the same thing with iAnalyze Golf Swing, for a fraction of the cost your golf pro charges, and not have to invest in a video camera and special software.

How it works
The basic approach of this app, is to break down the golf swing into images of distinct positions in the golf swing for purposes of analysis and comparison with other golfers/images. You can analyze just one photo or a full ten-photo sequence. The app allows you store up to 200 sequences for each golfer and store a golf profile, which can be color coded by type (pro, student, etc.)

If you have an iPhone 3Gs or iPhone 4 you can also record your swing and have it analyzed by iAnalyze Golf Swingand the default Pro Golfer in the app, depending on the type of shot (Driver, Long Irons, Mid Irons, Short Irons, Pitch, Sand, Flop, Chip, Long Putt, Medium Putt, and Short Putt).

Analyze Your Swing
What’s really nice about the iAnalyze Golf Swing, is that for each of the different types of shots, there is a video and photo sequence of each shot, plus a down the line view and face-on view, which is great for learning. The app can be used to build a library of swing sequences used to help you visualize and emulate. The images can come from your phone’s camera or downloaded off the web, which makes it great for learning how to emulate Tiger Wood’s swing.

A really cool feature allows you to compare your swing to another golfer in the app, which is very easy to do and display them side-by-side. And the controls allow you to play each frame of the swing sequence of each golfer for comparison. In addition, you can also draw lines, enter notes or comments on your sequence or the pro golfer you are comparing, just like your golf instructor would. But probably the coolest features had to be the Merge feature, which super imposes your swing sequence over the pro golfer and simulates motion, so you can analyze your swing.

With all these cool ways to analyze your golf swing, you might be thinking that iAnalyze Golf  Swing would be a great way to learn how to play golf or forgo golf lessons all together. While you can learn a lot by taking a 5-10 second video of your golf swing, the app isn’t meant to be a substitute for professional golf instruction. I think its a great learning tool to use in between lessons.

The export function of the app makes it very easy to share or post your swing via email, twitter, facebook, etc. The only problem I had with the export function is that I didn’t know that I exported anything after I clicked the “Export” icon. It would be nice if the future version of the app displayed an alert message, otherwise you might end up clicking the “Export” button over and over again.

The app itself has a ton of features which a lot of people are going to like, but I did find that iAnalyze Golf Swing home screen and some of the submenus to be a little bit confusing to use. A perfect example, is on the video sequence screen for my swing I recorded. In the bottom left and right, there are two icons that hide different useful features. The one on the left looks like a fastforward icon, which it is, but it’s for the playback speed of the video. The icon on the right looks like an upload icon, but it’s hiding a ton of useful features like, displaying a grid on your sequence, drawing tools, photo sequence of your video. I would have passed these by, if I didn’t click on them and can be easily corrected with better icons in a future release.

Overall, iAnalyze Golf Swing is full featured app that is great way to leverage the power of the iPhone to help you analyze your swing in between golf lessons. The $9.99 is a bargain for this app, considering what it would cost to buy a video camera and specialty golf swing software for your computer.

iAnalyze Golf  Swing $9.99

The 92nd PGA Championship begins Thursday, August 12, 2010 from Whistling Straits G.C. in Kohler, WI. If you’re like me who won’t be attending the PGA Championship, you have a slew of options for following the coverage, online, on television, and on the road. Our annual guide to the best ways to follow golf’s last major of 2010.

Online

The PGA will be streaming coverage of Marquee Groups (select groups..eh hmm Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and others..) and the Par 3 holes Thursday-Sunday via the PGA Championship website.

• Marquee Group : Thursday & Friday 9 AM-7 PM EST, Saturday & Sunday 11 AM-7 PM EST
• Par 3 Holes: Thursday & Friday 1 PM-8 PM EST, Saturday & Sunday 11 AM-7PM EST

Social Media
Make sure to fan up the PGA on Facebook and follow them on twitter for updates, photos, and more. You’ll also want to follow the official twitter feed for Whistling Straits.

Television

PGA Championship in 3D

Not to be outdone by the Masters, the PGA has partnered with TNT to broadcast the 92ND PGA Championship from Whistling Straits in 3D on PGA.com and on your 3D enabled TV. The broadcast is limited to Thursday August 12 & Friday August 13 from 3 PM – 7 PM EST.

TV viewers will need the following equipment to view PGA Championship 3D via an affiliate’s 3D channel:

• 3D television
• Compatible set top box
• 3D glasses.

Distribution Partners include: DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cox Communications, and Cablevision.

PC requirements: Too long to list! Let’s put it this way, if you don’t have a PC or a 3D capable PC, you’re out of luck!

Broadcasting golf in sounds like it could be pretty cool, but I doubt a lot of people have the necessary equipment to watch in 3D.

HD Coverage
You can always watch in HD on TNT Thursday & Friday 1 PM-8PM EST, Saturday & Sunday 11 AM-2 PM EST, and on CBS Saturday & Sunday 2 PM – 7PM EST. DIRECTV subscribers, don’t miss out on the PGA Championship Experience.

PGA Championship iPhone App
Got an iPhone? Then you really need to download the free 2010 PGA Championship iPhone app. Last year you had to pay for the app which caused a bit of a stink with some iPhone users, but this year it’s free, except the Live Video portion, which you’ll need to purchase within the app for $1.99.  I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too?

PGA Championship iPhone App features:

PGA Championship iPhone app

Live Video
Watch every shot of the day’s marquee group and watch the entire field play through Whistling Straits’ four Par 3 holes Thursday through Sunday with the LIVE Video premium content in-app upgrade ($1.99).

Personal Live Alerts
Receive alerts for your five favorite players and breaking news alerts from around the course

Custom Leaderboard
Search for your favorite players and add them to your custom leaderboard. Add or remove as many as you want. Change them as often as you want.

Trends
Know who moved furthest up the leaderboard each round, who fell the furthest, and see who had the longest birdie and bogey streaks of the day.

How do you plan on watching the 92nd PGA Championship?

AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder App for iPhone

Do you have a copy of AccelGolf’s GPS Rangefinder for the iPhone, Blackberry, or Android? If so, one lucky user who posts the most golf rounds using their app via Twitter starting 12:00AM EST Saturday, July 31 thru 11:59PM EST on Friday, August 6, will win a $50 gift certificate to the golf retailer, driving range, or instructor of their choice.

AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder is a mobile app for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, that provides statistical analysis of your golf game, calculates yardage, keeps score, and more! The best part is there is no annual fee to use the app or download courses.

What have you got to lose, except maybe some pride and a few dollars?

www.accelgolf.com

Foursquare the location-based social networking service has been on a roll lately, with over a million check-ins a week, a plethora of business partnerships with mainstream appeal, and brand awareness that took twitter a long time to achieve.

What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. When you’re out and about, you check-in at location telling everyone where you are. This can be anywhere from a bar, a museum, restaurant, etc.

Foursquare uses the GPS in your phone to determine your location and bring up a lists of places nearby for you to choose from. If it’s not on the list you can add it. And Foursquare users can leave Tips (John the waiter was very friendly) at places they check-in at to share with other users, or leave To-Do’s for themselves (try the hamburger next time).

If you visit a place enough times you can become “The Mayor.” Being “The Mayor” has its benefits such as bragging rights and discounts at locations offering them to foursquare users. For businesses, this is win-win, because foursquare users vying to become “The Mayor” are repeat customers, and repeat business is great for the bottom line and buzz!

Here are four ways the golf industry can leverage location-based social media like Foursquare:

1) Fan Engagement and Participation at Golf Tournaments
Foursquare users at PGA and LPGA Tour Events could explore the various venues at a tournament and earn points, share tips on viewing the tournament, where to park, alternate routes, earn discounts on merchandise, etc. Similar to a game Foursquare created for Harvard students to explore the campus. Local businesses in the area for a golf tournament could also participate by giving special offers or discounts to Foursquare users.

2) Increase business and customer loyalty

Golf courses can also capitalize by offering specials and discounts to forusquare users. “The Mayor” can earn free rounds of golf, discount on cart rentals, free drinks, etc. Foursquare users could also leave tips about playing conditions, pin locations, pace of play, etc. Driving ranges are another area where location-based services would be useful. “The Mayor” of a driving range could get a free bucket of golf balls, a reserved hitting bay, etc. By recognizing Foursquare users at your driving range, you have the opportunity to increase repeat business with your customers and loyalty.

3) Change the way we watch television
Just recently Foursquare signed a deal with Bravo TV, to integrate the game aspects of Foursquare with the locations featured on the various shows on Bravo TV. What if the Golf Channel did this with some of their original programming? It’s another way for people to interact on a different level and engage your viewers.

4) Make reading your favorite golf publication more interactive
You flip through your favorite golf publication, like Golf Digest or Golf Magazine and see a really cool golf shirt, shoes, clubs, etc and wonder where to buy it? Yes, they have a shopping directory in the magazine, but that’s so old school. What if Golf Digest inks a similar deal, like the one Lucky Magazine did with Foursquare?

In the deal with Lucky Magazine, Foursquare users check into stores in Lucky’s coveted “Shopping Directory,” and you earn the “Lucky” badge.
Once you check-in to a Lucky recommended store, users can read tips from the Lucky editors, etc. The basic idea, is to give users the inside scoop or incentives to check-in at these locations. You check-in enough and you could get discounts or deals at these locations.

For Golf Digest, this type of deal could be very beneficial to local golf stores and shops across the country. You could take the same concept and apply it to golf courses featured in the magazine or advertisers of luxury goods. It’s a win-win for both the magazine and the advertisers, but also the consumer.

Beginning to see a pattern here? Like the old saying in real estate, its location, location!

What other ways could the golf industry leverage Foursquare and location-based social media?

The 2010 PGA Merchandise Show begins next week in Orlando, FL and we’ll be there covering the event, bringing you updates on the latest golf equipment, interviews, and other cool products.

Sandbox8.com is offering 3 ways to follow our coverage from the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show:

1. iPhone users can download [iTunes link] our free Sandbox8.com iPhone app and follow our updates from your iPhone, when you are not in front of a computer.
2. Follow the action on twitter, where we’ll be tweeting photos and updates about the show as they happen. Look for the hashtag #PGAM10
3. Live Video streaming with Qik. That’s right we’ll be live streaming through out the show and see the action unfold in real-time. Look for our tweet “Broadcasting Live from #PGAM10 with #qik”

And as always check the site for updates and subscribe to either are RSS or RSS to Email feeds.

Introducing the Sandbox8.com iPhone app . It’s a great way to stay up to date on the latest golf products and news from your iPhone, when you can’t be in front of a computer. You can download the free iPhone app , from the iTunes App Store and have access to all of our golf product reviews, news stories, interviews, videos, twitter updates, and more!

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We’ll be adding push notifications and other features in the near future. If your wondering about Android support, we’ll be offering an Android version soon too! Go download the Sandbox8.com iPhone App! It’s free!

We’ve all been there before on the golf course, with ball in a green-side bunker on a uphill lie thinking to yourself, “how do I play this shot?”, “What type of swing do I make?”, etc. That’s what the iPhone and iPod Touch app Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro aims to solve, by providing expert advice by PGA professional Kevin Streelman to amateur golfers.

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According to the Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro website, “more than 90%” of the problems that amateur golfers have stem from improper set up. Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro breaks out each of the 50 shot types grouped by category into four sections: Shot Summary, Strategy, Kevin’s Tip, and Video.

How it Works
When you launch the app, you see an overview of hole on a golf course that has labels for each type of shot based on location: Tee, Fairway, Fairway Bunker, Rough, Water, Pitching, Chipping, Green-side Bunker, and Putting. On this screen there is a golf ball with a star where you can view shots that you flagged as your Favorites for quick reference.

After you select the shot type location, you are taken to screen that lists the various shots for that location. For example, if you select Rough, you’ll be presented with four types of shots from that location, like Ball in DEEP ROUGH. You then click on the shot type and it will display the Shot Summary screen.

Shot Summary
The Shot Summary screen is the high level summary of how to approach the shot you selected. Information on this screen includes, Club, Stance, Alignment, Ball Placement, Clubface Aim, Hand Position, and Swing. This is probably the most practical screen of the four options to use while playing on the golf course, because you can scan the information very quickly without slowing down the pace of play. The information presented was very clear and easy to understand. The only area that could be improved upon is providing some type of help on “open stance” and “closed stance.” Not all golfers know the difference between the two, maybe adding in parentheses (aim body right or left of target).

Strategy
When you have a little time before your shot, the Strategy screen provides strategic analysis to solve what they call the “90% problem: shot setup. In easy to understand language, Kevin Streelman provides Analysis and Strategy for the shot type. In the Analysis section Streelman tells you about why you want to hit the type of shot your about to attempt. In the Strategy portion of this screen, Kevin provides context for how and why to make the shot your about to attempt. My only problem with the Strategy screen is that it wasn’t clear to me that you could scroll down further to read the rest of the text, because there was to no visual cue for a scroll bar, etc. I’d like to see something like that implemented in a version update. There were several times, I missed reading the rest of the analysis or strategy, because the text got cut off.

Kevin’s Tip
Kevin’s Tip screen is an expanded version of the Strategy screen, but with Kevin providing more of his playing experience and swing thoughts for a shot. One of my favorites is for a Stinger Tee Shot, “When it’s breezy, swing it easy..”

Video
The last screen in the Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro is the Video screen. The Video screen has two types of high-definition video featuring Kevin Streelman explaining and demonstrating how each shot should be executed. Each shot has regular speed video (audio and video), and a slow-motion version so you can study the technique being executed. I did find the video section to be helpful and the videos do load and play very quickly, but the video quality is not true HD (720p). While the video quality is really good, the iphone 3g and 3gs can only support 480 x 320 output on the screen. A cool enhancement for a future update would be multiple camera angles for the slow-motion videos, like facing the golfer and down the line.

Is Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro worth $4.99?
$4.99 might seem like a lot of money for a golf instruction iPhone app, but it’s a cheaper alternative than playing in a pro-am, which would cost a lot more than price of this app. The videos in both in real-time and slow-motion are what make this app worth the money in my opinion, because seeing how to execute a shot is a lot easier to learn and understand than by reading about the technique alone.

What do you got to loose, except maybe lowering your score?

Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro with Kevin Streelman iPhone App $4.99