By Fred S. Cox
Every year, just about this time, I start searching for the perfect holiday gift for my friends and relatives. By mid-December my nerves are a little worn and my shopping cart is still empty. Sound familiar?
Today there are over 48 million golfers in the world, 26 million in the USA and 22.7 million internationally. Chances are, if your friend, colleague, or family member owns a Palm organizer, they may also play golf. During the past couple of weeks, I've had the chance to review three golf products specifically designed for the Palm platform. They include Karrier Communications' IntelliGolf Birdie edition golf software, and two new golf cart mounting systems, UniMount-for-Golf from Revolve Design and the Pro Caddy from CaddyMasters.
"The IntelliGolf software is complete, easy to use and provided me with immediate access to key information."
Some combination of these three products will surely make great golfing gifts for your Palm toting golf buddies. Of course, you could always decide to swipe them for yourself!
IntelliGolf Birdie edition software
The IntelliGolf Birdie edition software (from Karrier Communications) arrived in a nicely packaged CD-ROM jewel case. The company claims it contains three major components: Palm handheld software; Windows 95/98/NT-based desktop software; and Internet golf course upload/download capabilities.
As instructed, I inserted the IntelliGolf CD-ROM into my Windows 95-based computer and the installation process began. When the install finished, about two minutes later, it told me to HotSync my Palm III to my PC and that the IntelliGolf software would be downloaded onto my handheld. Sure enough, after I pressed the HotSync button, the IntelliGolf software appeared on my Palm III.
Handheld software
With IntelliGolf now on my Palm III, I was off to the golf course. At the course, I pressed the New Round button at the bottom of the first IntelliGolf screen. I entered the name of the golf course and found that IntelliGolf provided me with two options for entering course specifics (e.g. hole lengths, pars, and handicaps) for both men's and women's tees. I could pre-enter all course specifics, by clicking on the flagstick icon, as shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
You can enter all the holes at once.
Alternatively, I could enter the information as I played each hole, as shown in Figure B. I chose to enter the information as I played each hole. It saves time if you can enter the course information before arriving at the course or by downloading it directly to your Palm III, but more on that later.
