Well, I guess someone had to do it eventually. Today we are going ahead with development to provide the software for the Disc Golf Community to be able to link ANY Disc Golf Event to the internet, immediately, live, with Score Cards updated via mobile phone by the lead player on each card. These are able to be viewed, along with comments, videos and images made from authorized press agents, on our sister website: www.discthrower.com .
The Director of the PDGA has been asked to provide guidance for this project, to ensure it follows the rules for sanctioned events, and has the following statement regarding the new system:
It sounds very interesting and I would think that the sport is ready for an advancement like this. If the cell phones are deactivated from receiving or sending calls, I do not see a problem as it relates to the rules.
Regards,
Brian J. Graham
PDGA Executive Director
I hope that we are the resource that the PDGA is missing in this regard. Technology has advanced so much in that last few years that we can openly appreciate the new internet and mobile applications. I personally hope that we can produce enough interest for this application, so that we can implement this technology for all PDGA events, but most importantly the National Tour and A-Tier events.
Other Tiers and League, Team and Junior events should also have sponsorship options available, to allow this to be used by all players. Imagine watching the live scores of your kid playing a tournament, while you are stuck inside at work. Or rooting for your kid, spose or friend that is in the worlds, watching them get birdies in real time. Even better, how about being one of the first to know about an ace at a national tour event! You can do it at www.discthrower.com, right now!
The concept will be implemented throughout all of the 27 cards in the open divisions of the Minnesota Majestic as a trial (amatuer and advanced divisions pending sponsership and financing...TBA).
The live scoring system will use mobile devices that are incapable of making or receiving calls, but have data networking setup. This allows our software to run as a live score card, that is used as a compliment to the physical score card and follows PDGA rules regarding cellphones on the course.
The interface is made to be a simple and easy process for scorekeeping. This opens up virtual scorecards to every tournament. It can also be used on any cellphone that has an internet browser, allowing any additional cards in Advanced or Intermediate divisions to enjoy this benefit if one of the players on the card owns a cellphone.
To use this service on your own cellphone for your own tournament is an easy process. But we are still building that part. Please stay tuned for more information, and links to sign up as a Tournament Director and make your own events that are linked to Live Scoring!
We are currently working on sponsership for the handsets with one of the major cellphone service providers to offset some of the initial cost. However there will be a per event fee, depending on the amount of phones required. For all events you must have one phone per card. We are imagining we can bring the cost down to average 1$ per player, per event. This is easily offset by the various sponsership options that are available so that for many events, we should be able to provide this service for the cost of shipping you the phones.
Please be aware that regular cellphones cannot be allowed to be used on the course in PDGA sanctioned events, so for Tournament Directors of PDGA Sanctioned events, you must use our phones, or you need to have the ability to receive or make phone calls disabled. You must, however, still be able to connect to the internet.
During the final 9, Authorized Press Agents can use these tools to make comments in a blog format and upload live pictures or videos from cameras hooked into cellphones as a modem, making it a true live mutimedia experience.
The viewers around the globe can participate in these events watching live scores, commentary, videos and images from the Press, and add content to the commentary (with moderation) as well as hold chat rooms to converse.
This is a ground breaking day for Disc Golf. Based on the results of the Minnesota Majestic, we will evaluate the costs to bring this functionality to any tournament in your region.
Hopefully, with support, sponsership and funding, we can make the sport of Disc Golf something that TSN and ESPN are happy to display on their networks.
We have opened up the social networking website at www.discthrower.com to the community as a base for this live network. If you visit discthrower.com, you will notice there is a page called Live Scoring. This is the actual scores of games played using this tool. Stay tuned for live and daily action as more golfers start using it!
Right now we are making tools you can use to create your events, and add players to them. We are also improving some of the data collection to include more variety for reporting purposes. It all will be done and in place by May 20th, in time for the Minnesota Majestic.
This is something all Disc Golfers can use to eventually replace the paper score card, as well as compliment it in a social networking way. We use this daily when we play a round, to keep scores and averages everytime we play.
Mark Hoskins, Discheads.com