This past weekend, GC novice IDJESTER made a two-hole “practice” video. He has invited me to provide feedback, so that he and others can learn how to use it. From my standpoint, his video is tremendously helpful, because it shows me where new users might get confused. I am very grateful for his willingness to do this!
First, let me say that IDJESTER gets a lot of things right. It may take him a little while to figure some stuff out in the video but in most cases he does. There were also some situations that came up in his practice video that he and I hadn’t covered before. However, in the interest of keeping the length of this post manageable, I am going to focus on where he got tripped up.
Some context . . . IDJESTER and I got together last week to make a Live Demo video using GC 4.1.1. Because he hadn’t seen that version of the GC before, I operated it while he managed the APBA course boards and the video recording. In the new practice video, he is doing everything himself (something I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do live!).
Here are my notes and some tips from watching his video. They are (mostly) presented in the order in which things occur:
- When entering your player into the Caddie tab, you always need to pick three clubs. (IDJESTER remembers to do this on the 2nd hole.) Any clubs that are not picked will be grayed-out in the All in One Menu.
- You can roll one die or click the GC Dice Roller to determine the pin number. (He arbitrarily selects pin #3 without rolling, which is OK, too.)
- The Wind rating for each APBA course is shown on hole #1 (or the first page of the APBA course binder). It is also shown in the upper righthand corner on that course’s Course tab (in this case, the Magnolia tab).
- If you are using the GC built-in Dice Roller, you don’t need to use it for the Hole Wind 1st roll. Once you load the hole from the Course tab, the GC automatically does the Hole Wind 1st roll for you. If the roll number corresponds to a blue box, just click on it and the wind for the hole will be set. If it’s a yellow box, you don’t need to do anything; there is no wind on that hole.
- When working-the-ball (WTB) from between 75 – 100 yards out, enter the WTB amount in the Approach Caddie (not the W/I WTB tool, as IDJESTER did). The All in One Menu does not show whether you are WTB, but it knows when values are in either location and will warn you if you try to do something inconsistent with that.
- You must roll twice when WTB. Once is for the shot; the other is for WTB. If you use the GC Dice Roller in the All in One Menu, two rolls occur each time you click on it. The number on the left is for the shot; the one on the right is for WTB. Look up each number on the player’s card (in this case in the “A” column), put the resulting PRN’s into each box, then click Take Shot. If you use your own dice, do the same thing but remember to roll twice.
- When you take an approach shot that’s more than 20 yards out, the final location of the shot will be shown next to the bottom arrow of the Approach Caddie and in the (New) Ball Location tool. (These will always agree after the shot is taken.) When the approach shot is 5 – 20 yards out, the resultant distance in feet from the pin will be shown in the Notes under Putt Dist. At that point, all you have to do is click on the Ball on Green tool to record the shot. When using the Ball on Green tool, do not click the Update arrow or you will record the shot twice.
- Always use the (New) Ball Location tool to determine the outcome of any shot (except putts). Doing so, will apply all wind and lie effects and any course adjustments. For W/I shots, put your ball marker on the APBA course board at that location to see where the ball carried to. Then apply any FW or Green roll, adjusting it for any terrain effects (e.g., cut roll in half for balls in the Regular Rough).
- Whenever you are using the Approach Caddie, the number shown in the “Called” box tells you which approach club (e.g., 5 – 10) to use.
- When using the Scorecard, the notes beneath it tell you everything you need to know for each golfer’s shots on every hole.
- “P” on the Putting Boards means that the putt is IN if you are putting for par or higher. A legend for the Putting Boards appears at the lower right of the screen.