Nate Regimbal of FlagHi
I love it when I come across somebody who has
created a better mousetrap. These days, it tends to
involved technology - for example the Fitbit I wear
to track my steps or my
Zepp Golf swing analyzer
that connects to my phone to track my swing plane
and provide me with really useful information about
my game.
Both of those technologies
involve a
device (albeit a small one) that connects to a smart
phone via Bluetooth. The other day, I met Nate
Regimbal, the inventor of the FlagHi app. It doesn't
require anything more than a smart phone and 99
cents.
Based on
the company's slogan "Because air affects the ball"
FlagHi provides an easy calculation of what you can
expect from each of your clubs at various elevations
and temperatures. And before you think "I already
know that," ponder this. FlagHi is being used by
several Web.com players and caddies to put together
yardage books, prior to traveling to locations that
vary greatly in temperature, humidity, and elevation.
I spoke to founder Nate Regimbal about
his company and how a $.99 (standard) or $2.99
(pro) app might make sense for amateur golfers.
AmateurGolf.com: (AGC)
What is your background?
Nate Regimbal: (NR)
I have a Masters in Business Administration with an
undergrad in Microbiology. Most of my career has
been in strategy & technology consulting and
custom software development. My business partner,
Mark Stratz, is an executive at a commercial real
estate company in Phoenix, Arizona. We have been
close friends since meeting at Washington State
University
AGC: Where was the idea for
FlagHi™ born?
NR: Mark came up with the concept after a
guys’ trip to Bandon Dunes, Oregon. Mark is a
low single-digit index but got clobbered in match
play, losing 7&6 on Bandon’s par-3
course. Going from Phoenix conditions to the Oregon
coast in January had a big effect on his carry
numbers – and club selection was total guesswork,
especially for his scoring irons.
After the trip, Mark sketched up the schema we
have now – this idea of “home” and
“away” carry distances – then called
me asking if and how an app could be built to solve
this problem: how to calculate how changing
temperature, elevation and humidity affects your
typical and familiar golf club carry numbers.
We did some research, architected the
algorithms, created the design artifacts for our dev
team and formed an LLC. Nine months later we
launched on iOS after beta testing with two NCAA
Division-I golf teams. And somewhere in there we
invested in patent and trademark protections.
AGC: What does it do?
NR: FlagHi answers the age-old question in golf
about how playing conditions – especially changing
playing conditions – affect golf ball carry distances.
It is easy to use: You simply enter the playing
conditions for your current (or upcoming) round.
The app tells you the effect those playing conditions
have on all your clubs’ stock carry numbers.
The technology also calculates how conditions affect
the distances that shots “play”.
AGC: Which factors impact ball
carry the most?
NR: Answering this requires a quick set-up: Our
technology and methodology currently utilizes
temperature, elevation and humidity – which,
collectively, act as proxy for air density. We chose
these parameters because 1) the vast majority of
golfers already understand and accept that
conditions affect carry; 2) information about these
conditions is readily available on your smartphone
via apps or a web browser; 3) conditions may be
reasonably guessed if you do not have a
smartphone, are outside of network coverage, or do
not have access to a thermometer or a hygrometer;
and 4) because players typically do not walk around
carrying a barometer [grins]. Our intellectual
property protections cover the use of barometric
pressure differentials and the effects therefrom –
should we decide to incorporate air density
measurements into the formulas down the road. But
feedback so far is that the numbers are spot-on, so
there are no plans to change anything yet.
That said, to answer the question: Since the
units for each condition parameter differ, you
cannot compare the numbers and effects directly. As
an example with Temperature, a 20-degree
Fahrenheit increase will add almost 5 yards to your
190 club. A 2,000 foot decrease in elevation will take
about 7 yards off your 160 club. Humidity has the
smallest effect: going from 0% to 100% relative
humidity adds only about 2 yards to your 170 club.
For those who just raised an eyebrow regarding
humidity adding to carry: humid air is
actually less dense. People oftentimes
conclude that humid air is “thicker” –
but the opposite is true.
AGC: How much technology is
behind the scenes?
NR: FlagHi is a very lightweight app – it is only
about 2 MBs. Although the equations looked
daunting when I drew them up on butcher paper on
my kitchen table – their programmatic adaptation
was quite straightforward. There is no BS. And there
are no ads in the app. No registration either.
AGC: How are Tour Players
using FlagHi?
NR: Touring pros, their caddies, collegiate
players and their coaches all tell us the same story:
They find the weather forecast and enter it into the
app, along with the elevation above sea-level of the
golf course they are about to play. The app allows
them to swipe through all their clubs to see their
updated carry numbers. Players (or
caddies/coaches) write these new numbers down in
their yardage books or any other piece of paper and
then take that with them to the course.
Some of our users check the hourly forecast for
their round and make note of their carry numbers
both for when they tee off, and then again for two
hours later when they make the turn. It is a smart
idea especially for players with early tee times who
have to deal with the biggest swing in playing
conditions.
AGC: Can average amateurs
benefit?
NR: Absolutely. As an example, I am about an
11 index and played a member-guest at PGA West in
La Quinta, California last January. We had a
shotgun start after a frost delay. Our starting hole
was a 152-yard par-3. I knew from FlagHi that my
8-iron, which normally carries 160 yards, would go
only 153 yards at 42 degrees. I grabbed the 8 and
stuffed it to about six feet. Had I grabbed my 9-iron
(normally 150 yards) I would have been well short of
the green and in a bunker.
If your skills are not quite to the level of caring
about a specific carry number, then the PlaysAs™
feature in the FlagHi Pro version of the app is
definitely helpful. It determines the distance a shot
actually plays – a home course equivalency if you
will. For example, if I am in Denver, Colorado on a
187-yard par-3, the PlaysAs value for me, as a San
Diegan, is 170 yards. That means I hit my usual170-
yard shot and Denver’s thin air will do the
rest to get it to 187 yards. Whether you’re a
pro or an amateur – you will definitely benefit from
knowing that a shot plays 17 yards shorter than what
it measures!
AGC: What is the difference
between FlagHi and FlagHi Pro?
NR: FlagHi performs the club-specific
calculations: you simply enter the conditions and the
app tells you what your new carry numbers are.
FlagHi Pro has everything in FlagHi but it also has
that PlaysAs feature – where you enter the
measured distance of a shot, and the app tells you
the distance it actually plays.
PlaysAs was actually not included in our original
specification. Rather, it arose from feedback from
my father-in-law who said that swiping through
clubs, and seeing their updated carry values, was
“too hard” [grins again]. He suggested
that we should also allow a player to simply enter a
distance so they can know the distance it
“plays”. Which made a ton of sense.
That’s always the question – what does this
shot play. There was some work to rearrange the
algorithms, but we finally figured it out. And we saw
so much value in this feature we created two apps:
FlagHi – with its club-centric adjustments, and FlagHi
Pro – everything in FlagHi plus the distance-centric
PlaysAs function.
AGC: What is next in line –
other apps? Partnerships?
NR: It turns out the PlaysAs function in FlagHi
Pro allows for some interesting opportunities. The
first – which we believe is a no-brainer – is
integrating with GPS apps. GPS is amazing at
providing golf course distance measurements but, as
mentioned above, a perfect measurement may not
necessarily be enough information for club
selection. Without FlagHi, a golfer from San Diego
would not know that a 187-yard shot in Denver
plays only 170. We are speaking with GPS app
companies (for both smartphones and golf cart
tablets) about integrating our technology – so that
players can see both the measured distance but also
the distance it plays.
We have also been in touch with television
networks to discuss how our technology can
augment on-air commentary and tournament
graphics. Unlocking the effects of a particular
round’s playing conditions enables a fair
amount of new and meaningful content for
announcers and producers. We have a great iPad app
that is all spec’d out that allows broadcast
teams to select any player and quickly get insights
that include 1) his/her updated stock carry numbers,
2) the distance any (and every) shot actually plays
for that golfer, and 3) the distance a hole or the
entire course plays for that golfer. All this
information varies by player: it is all relative, and
depends on where each player calls
“home”.
Other interesting insights we unlock include how
conditions positively or negatively affect carry
distances on a week-to-week basis. For example,
players lose about 2% going from TPC Scottsdale to
Torrey Pines. We can also enable the correlation of
playing performances with the extent to which
players had to adapt to any given round’s
conditions – adding meat to the “home course
advantage” discussion.
Golf announcers already spend a fair amount of
time discussing the conditions. For example, there
are always comments on how Cherry Hill (in
Colorado) adds to carry – or Pebble Beach knocks it
down. FlagHi technology enables additional insights
into a topic that everyone already understands and
therefore would readily accept. After all, when
digging for something to talk about, what is the go-to
topic for nearly everyone? The weather, of course!
AGC: Do you do better on
Apple’s App Store or the Android
marketplace?
NR: We just launched on Android so we cannot
compare successes across the two platforms quite
yet. The app looks great on Android. On iOS
we’re in 28 countries and see more
downloads every week – with downloads spiking
during the majors (go figure!). We joke that our
company consists of “two guys and a Twitter
handle”. So when we consider that FlagHi
immediately appealed to competitive golfers, and
that
we’re the only app in the golf technology
marketplace that does what it does – we feel very
successful already. Looking forward to whatever
happens next!