iPhone Cradle for Golf Club Aims to Improve Swing

06-18-2011 - 12:00 AM

Have you spent so much time with your iPhone and other cherished iDevices in recent years that you've fallen behind on the links, causing your golf game to suffer immeasurably? Now there's a new tool that may be able to help. And, yes, it involves your iPhone. I'm referring to iPing, one of the most innovative golf accessories we've seen in a while that's getting a lot of attention from golf pros and amateurs alike.

Ping, the self-proclaimed pioneers of putter perfection, is behind the iPing putter app, which is described as a "free, wireless, go-anywhere putting improvement tool that identifies a player’s stroke type, analyzes their impact angle, and measures their tempo." As you can imagine, the app doesn't do all the dirty work alone. It requires a little thing called the PING cradle, which will run you about $30.



The cradle holds your iPhone 4 (or 4th generation iPod touch) and clips onto the putter shaft beneath the grip. Once you've made an afternoon of putting with this contraption affixed to your club, the corresponding app (which was recording your consistency across several key areas) will help you establish a Putting Handicap, which will conceivably get lower as your game improves.

"Users can also share and compare their results through social media," says John A. Solheim, Ping CEO. “The social aspect and the ability to form a community around it is another exciting feature of iPING,” he said. “Golfers can share their results by emailing friends and posting sessions on Facebook or Twitter. We expect golfers to fully embrace these features as they develop fun and friendly competitions using iPing and their mobile devices.”

Both the iPing app and the Ping cradles will become available on June 20th.

Source: Ping