FREE ONLINE GOLF HANDICAP

Here's my personal review of the many free, online golf handicap calculators out there. If it isn't free, I'm not going to bother reviewing it. I had one service that was free when I initially signed-up, but when the Internet bubble burst, they started charging. That meant I had to start paying a monthly fee just to add more records. It was frustrating because I spent so much time entering scores and now I had to start paying to maintain my record. Because of this, I refuse to review any services that aren't absolutely free.

FairwayFiles.com
FairwayFiles.com seems like a website that was set-up by a programmer who likes golf. There's a little page where you can purchase polo shirts and caps with their logo. I should actually say his logo because I doubt it takes more than one person to maintain this site. Although the site is graphically sparse, the good news is that there is an administrator that seems very accessible.

One feature I hadn't seen before on other sites is the ability to create and join a group. When you're part of a group, you can view the scores and handicap of other players in that group. That feature means you can keep your golf buddies honest when they say they need strokes on the teebox.

Another cool feature is the ability to send pictures to the administrator of each hole you play. He then puts them up and you can get a virtual walk-through of the course. After you enter a score, you can also rate the course you just played. However, as you can imagine, not many people bother to do these things.

The site also graphs your score using a pie chart and details standard statistics. You can also choose specifically which statistics you want graphed.

Overall, a pretty comprehensive site but just lacks a nice graphic interface.

Tracking
Fairways - yes
Putts - yes
Greens - yes (not auto)
Bunkers - no
Ups and downs- no

Greenskeeper.org
Greenskeeper.org claims to be the "largest and fastest growing online golf social network in the Southwest." The social networking aspect allows you to review courses, post your picture and communicate with other members in the network. They also have monthly contests where you can win prizes.

What is odd about the site is that you have to manually enter the course you played the first time you post a score. The site doesn't allow you to simply click on an already entered course and enter your own scores into the template. That's enough to turn me off to the site. If the site were a woman, I wouldn't return her phone calls.

Otherwise, the site has pretty much the same features other sites have. It doesn't have the pie charts, but it does a good job laying out useful statistics you can use to improve your game.

Tracking
Fairways - yes
Putts - yes
Greens - yes (not auto)
Bunkers - yes
Ups and downs- yes

PlayerLink
According to the site, PlayerLink was developed to provide a database to players who were competing against each other for money. They needed an open system to allow each other to check-up on each other and see if their handicaps were real. The site hopes to attract advertisers who will offer opportunities to win the products they're advertising.

The theory is cool, but ultimately, the site lacks an easy way to input scores. It requires you to know how many pars, bogeys and putts you made on a per-round basis rather than hole-by-hole. Although the end-product of statistics is similar to other sites, the process of entering a score is just not quite there.

Tracking
Fairways - yes
Putts - yes
Greens - yes (not auto)
Bunkers - yes
Ups and downs- yes

Golf Partners
If I find another site easier to use than this one, I'll be very surprised. What Golf Partners lacks in sophistication, it more than makes up for in ease of use. The process is very simple - you enter the course you played, its course and slope rating, then you enter your score. That's it! After five entries, you're given a handicap and it graphs your handicap's trend.

Golf Partners is really more about providing players an opportunity to link-up with other golfers who need to fill a foursome or find others to play with. It's a cool idea in theory because if you find someone who is a member at a private club and connect with him, you've got a chance to play a course you may normally not have access to.

If you're into a fast and easy way to get a handicap, this is a good site. If you want statistical analysis to better your game, you should pass this one by.

Tracking
Fairways - no
Putts - no
Greens - no
Bunkers - no
Ups and downs- no

yourgolfhandicap.com
You can't even register to use this website so don't bother.

Wagglecap
Here's another easy handicap calculator that doesn't have the capability of tracking other statistics. These guys are based in the East coast.

Tracking
Fairways - no
Putts - no
Greens - no
Bunkers - no
Ups and downs- no

Yahoo! Sports Golf HandicapTracker
Yahoo!'s HandicapTracker allows you to save statistics and create a group to share your scores and handicap, but it doesn't display your stats in any useful way. There are no graphs or more surprisingly, no totals displayed. All you get to view is your hole-by-hole results very much like what your scorecard would look like.

Although Yahoo! is a huge company, it is disappointing to see that they've spent no money on their handicap tracker. It doesn't make much sense.

Tracking
Fairways - yes
Putts - yes
Greens - yes
Bunkers - no
Ups and downs- no

Golf Channel's Game Tracker
No longer available!