Developer Insights - Does the Caddie work?

I started developing shot tracking software all the way back in 2015. I wanted to play better golf and I needed to understand my strengths and weaknesses, I never really got into the app space to build an AI Caddie, but here were are.

As a ‘better player’, my handicap has been low single digits for a few years now, I just never considered needing a caddie. My course management is surely great already right?!?!!

Not exactly. In retrospect, thats kind of a foolish thought. Even the best in the world play with a caddie… every week on the professional tours. If a caddie wasn’t valuable, they could save a lot of money by just paying someone to carry a bag instead of giving a ‘Caddie’ upwards of 10% of their earnings.

On my journey to better golf, I discovered Decade and really took a deep dive into my own course management. It’s some of those principles that I’ve rolled into the Tangent app, but they also helped me realize just how much my course management could improve. Making better decisions, I carved my handicap all the way down to a +1 at one point.

I took all that I’ve learned over the years and poured that golf knowledge into developing what I believe is the best AI Caddie in golf in Tangent…. And then I refused to use it for my own game.

Why do I need the caddie? It’s a reflection of my approach in an app. Surely, just relying on my mind to do what I coded into the app would be better right?… Not exactly.

In recent rounds, I’ve been testing different features, so I’m pulling up the Caddie, making sure the suggestion makes sense and then I’d hit my shot. And interestingly enough, I found myself going against the Caddie on several occasions.

The above shows the 8th hole at Mesquite Golf Club from a recent round. I’m standing on the tee and Tangent’s AI Caddie is clearly telling me that Driver is an aggressive play. That I should lay back. In retrospect it makes sense. There are literally creeks on both sides of the hole. Do you think I laid back?… No. I can fit driver there! Come on. I’m driving it really well. I feel good about my game. This fits my eye. I’m hitting Driver…

What do you think happened?

I hit a solid drive, that drew too much. Took a couple hops and rolled right into a hazard…. By about 12 inches. Below is blown up to show you what had to happen afterwards with a poor punch of just a few yards to hit again….

As I walked to find the ball in the hazard, I couldn’t help but chuckle. The app told me not to hit driver. I knew better… but I thought I could do it! I ended up hitting a great second recovery to get on the green, only to 3 putt for double.

On a day when I shot 78 and lost a friendly wager with my buddy… Thats 2 strokes I would have loved to have that shot back.

So why didn’t I listen to the Caddie?

Emotion. I ‘felt’ good about it. I let my feelings get in the way of logic. The beautiful thing about Tangent’s AI Caddie… it is not emotionally invested in the shot. Decisions are based on data, tendencies, and probability. It is perfectly possible that I could have smoked a drive right down the middle and avoided this debacle. A great shot was certainly a potential outcome when I pulled the driver out of the bag, but that doesn’t mean it was the correct choice or the most likely outcome.

Full disclosure, this is not an isolated incident. I have been ignoring the caddie many times while developing it and certainly some times it has worked out. However, more and more often I am finding my worse tee shots are when I have ignored the caddie. Which left me to ask the question… why am I ignoring it?

Emotion. Golf is a game of commitment and confidence, particularly as your skills improve. Sometimes that commitment and confidence can get in the way of reality.

How many times have you been in the trees with this little window…

Convincing yourself “I can hit this shot… If I just hold the face a little open and cut it a little bit I can curve around that one, under that one and bounce it up there… I could make par from here. Maybe birdie!”

And every once in a while you’ll pull it off. You’ll get that little hit of dopamine or adrenaline. “Wow. That was awesome.” You’ll forget about all the times you chunked it dead into the tree in front of you and 5 shots later walked off with quadruple bogey… a chip side ways would have been bogey at worse. Bogey isn’t fun. My heart doesn’t pump playing smart.

We all want to be heroes. We want to hit the crazy shots we see on TV… We forget that TV is mostly a highlight reel. The guys plunking it off trees don’t typically make the telecast… or the cut.

The beautiful thing about an AI Caddie is it doesn’t have emotion. It looks at data. Your personalized data. And it guides you to better decisions. Now the Tangent Caddie is not infallible. It has some shortcomings. For example, it can’t see how tall the tree is in front of you. It can’t actually see the lie, if its in a divot, or if its tee’d just perfectly. But it knows a lot. It knows how far you hit your clubs. It knows your dispersions, your tendencies, and it knows the golf course… Locations of hazards, bunkers, etc. It’s going to get it right more often than it gets it wrong.

In my last two rounds, I’ve found myself leaning on the Caddie just a little bit more. Particularly off the tee box. Helping me choose a club and a target and I’m making less mistakes. I’m giving myself more chances. It’s removing emotion.

It might not be as ‘fun’ as the hero shot… but you know what is fun? Having my buddy buy the drinks instead of me. I’ll be using the Caddie next time.