Golfers from pro to am will soon have a variety of new golf related features on the Microsoft Band. TaylorMade partnered with Microsoft to bring high amounts of detail and precision for in game score tracking and post-game analytics. Lumia Conversations breaks down the coming golf centric update as well as other new features coming to their fitness platform.
To get ready to play golf, users find nearby golf courses using the Microsoft Health app and then select a course and sync it to your Band. Golfers can then select the tee color that they are playing on. The Band will automatically keep track of your score, even telling the difference between practice swings and actual strokes. If the Band makes a mistake in recording your score you can easily change it manually.
The Microsoft Band itself displays your current score, the distance from the front, center, and back of the green, and detects the next hole as you walk around the course.
From a fitness perspective it also tracks your steps, heart rate, and calories burned while you play.
TaylorMade has a video outlining the Microsoft Band and TaylorMade’s new service in action.
After wrapping up play, golfers can look at the Microsoft Health app or the web dashboard to see more in depth stats and analysis. You can see your longest drive, the number of times you hit or beat par each round, and the pace of play. You can even see your shots on a map of each hole when you connect Microsoft Health to an upcoming service from TaylorMade called myRoundPro.
Once myRoundPro is out golfers can also use data collected to see further analysis and data.
Again adding a fitness component, users can see their heart rate and how it fluctuated from hole to hole.
There are also five guided golf workouts to help golfers stay on the top of their game.
In addition to the golf update, Microsoft Health is also adding “new bike and Guided Workout observations available on the Microsoft Health web dashboard.”
This looks to be another comprehensive update to Microsoft Health and the Microsoft Band. Because the Band is so laden with sensors, Microsoft can continue to add more sports specific features and insights.
