Fore app makes every golf round you play into a tournament with friends

Brothers Shawn and Chris Busteed want to take the tradition-bound game of golf into the 21st century with their new social golf app, Fore.

The New York-based company has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for development of its social golf platform. When finished, the mobile app will allow players to track scores, create live social tournaments, and earn rewards from local courses.

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The idea is to make the world’s most frustrating and relaxing game more social. It will use location-based services to display courses, holes, and scoring information. At the end of each hole, the golfer can turn a dial to record stroke totals with one motion. The swiping is expected to be as fast as recording a score with paper and pencil.

The dial shows a stroke count and what it means for the hole: an eagle, birdie, par, or bogey. The app will display a leaderboard with your friends in real-time to show how other golfers in a network are performing.

“We can make every round into a tournament,” said Shawn Busteed, co-founder of Fore, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Busteed also owns the digital agency, Terrasse Atelier, which hatches concepts for clients and also works on products/startups of its own, such as Fore. About 28 million people play golf in the U.S.

“Almost every golf hack is terrible at the sport,” Busteed said. “Our aim is to make their lives easier” and set them up for improvement.

The Kickstarter campaign aims to raise the modest sum of $15,000. But it has stretch goals all the way up to $75,000 and a promise at that level to create an app a person can use to book rounds at local courses.

“Current golf apps are lacking simplicity. Our app will help users enjoy the game on a social level, along with helping them to drop a few shots,” said Chris Busteed, co-founder of FORE. “Golf can be a frustrating sport, but our goal is to provide stats and accomplishments to help golfers remain positive about their game. We will also be offering a unique opportunity for golf courses to interact with current players.”

Golf course owners can offer prizes such as a bucket of driving range balls or discounts in the pro shop. The platform offers a marketing opportunity as golfers can search through the app for surrounding golf courses and book tee times.

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If golfers keep score with Fore, they will see benefits such as stats that show every milestone for their play in golf games, including the number of birdies, pars, and specific hole stats. Every time a golfer hits a milestone, Fore will offer positive reinforcement.

The company hopes to ship the app on iOS by April 2014. Right now, Fore has employees in New York and Denver.

Shawn and Chris Busteed are working on the software design along with their father, Pat, a golf coach in Colorado.