grinter001
5 minutes
Dear fellow Grinters,
A few years back I got infatuated with a word we made up: Golferhood. Back then we even thought about changing the name of TheGrint to it because it encapsulates the essence of what we have all built together. A vibrant and large community of golfers that feels small and yours, like a neighborhood.
I bring this up because nowadays a larger percentage of your scores are now played in groups (foursomes or leaderboards) instead of just solo rounds. Features like our Games, Linked Scorecards and Groups are becoming more and more relevant because of all the connections that you have built. And, at least based on the data, you find more value in using these shared features with friends than solo features.
Our growth in 2023 was amazing and mainly organic (i.e. word of mouth), which means you all did your part again, so BIG THANKS. Please keep spreading the word, the more we are the better the experience we can provide. Additionally, a LOT of you bought and renewed our PRO membership, which means you are finding tons of value in it!
Last year we released a bunch of new features including Season Replay (which you all saw again last week), a new Watch interface, Trash Talk notifications, more Games (e.g. Wolf), Scorephotos, and many more.
For 2024, we have a healthy pipeline of incremental improvements. They won’t feel like big features, but believe me when I say they will make a difference. Think of Season Replay type of features, or “Ghost Mode” (which allows you to compete with your previous best score at a golf course inspired by Mario Kart).
We believe that we are finally in a position where we can focus on these smaller but fun elements that we could not focus on before because we were missing big items. And now that we have the best and most complete set of features on the market we can play around and give you more Snowman moments.
On other hand there are a bunch of conflicting signals in the Golf Industry. Voicing my opinion won’t be popular with my peers, but as strong as the economics have felt for the industry the golfer now faces less tee time availability and higher prices at golf courses, plus more expensive golf equipment and accessories (combined with a less engaged PGA Tour and LIV mixed viewership). Our hope is that these strong economics will translate into more good public golf courses and more golf equipment options in the long term. In the meantime it feels painful for many. We are spending a lot of time lately internally trying to find ways in which we could do our part and help.
Finally, I want to acknowledge our team which is as excited as we have ever been to serve you and enhance your 2024 Golf Season. Not only by improving and maintaining our app running, but also by helping to answer your questions. Our team is an email away at contactus@thegrint.com and we will do our best to set you up for the season.
As spring breathes life into the millions of garages housing our dormant golf clubs, and as the Azaleas of Augusta National inspire our passion while watching the Masters, the 2024 golf season beckons, poised to disrupt our spouse’s weekend expectations. Get ready, get excited, golf is here and we eagerly anticipate seeing our servers brimming with GPS calls and our database getting inundated with scores.
Hit’em straight!
Jose Torbay
TheGrint Founder and CEO
