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