ForeThought — Building the Golf App I Actually Wanted to Use

What started as a simple idea to track my golf game has turned into something considerably bigger.

If you've been following The Apple Geek for a while, you'll know I have a habit of disappearing down technological rabbit holes. Sometimes that's bringing an old Mac back to life, sometimes it's experimenting with Linux, and occasionally it's deciding that the software I want doesn't quite exist, so perhaps I should build it myself.

ForeThought falls very firmly into that last category.

Away from the computers, one of my biggest interests is golf. I play regularly, practise when I can, have lessons, and like many golfers, spend an unhealthy amount of time trying to work out how to knock a few more shots off my handicap.

The problem wasn't a lack of information. It was having that information scattered everywhere.

Where the Idea Came From

Golfers have never had so many applications available to them. There are GPS systems, digital scorecards, shot trackers, handicap calculators and swing analysis platforms.

They're all useful, but most concentrate on what happens during a round.

I wanted something that concentrated on what happens afterwards.

The initial inspiration came from looking at how fitness and activity applications record progress over time. TrailRunnerX, in particular, helped shape the idea of having a central place to record activities, look back through them and understand the bigger picture.

What if I could do the same with golf?

Not another application telling me how far the pin is, but somewhere to sit down with a brew after a round, look at what went well, identify what didn't, and start planning the next practice session.

That became the foundation of ForeThought.

Built for the Mac

One of the earliest decisions was to make ForeThought a proper macOS application.

I'm a huge fan of the Apple ecosystem, but I didn't want to build another phone application that would have me staring at a screen while walking around the golf course.

Golf is supposed to be enjoyable. The Mac is where I wanted to do the thinking.

ForeThought uses a dashboard bringing together recent activities, a calendar, player information and quick access to the different parts of the application.

Rounds, competitions, practice sessions, lessons and fitness activities all have their own place.

Record a round and you can enter the course, conditions, score and hole-by-hole statistics, including fairways hit, greens in regulation and putts.

Over time, the application starts building a picture of your golf rather than simply collecting scorecards.

More Than Just Scores

This is where ForeThought really started to grow.

I wanted to understand whether my practice was actually making a difference.

If I'm consistently missing greens from 120 yards, is that showing up in my practice sessions? Am I spending too much time hitting drivers and not enough time working on wedges?

ForeThought records practice sessions, areas of the game worked on, distances and notes about how things felt.

Lessons can be recorded with the coach's advice, key takeaways and homework.

Fitness has its own dashboard, with training history, activity types and weekly workload information.

The player profile brings together performance statistics and handicap trends, while the Competition Centre records results and achievements away from ordinary social golf.

The intention is straightforward: make all those individual bits of information useful together.

Yes, There's a Golf Bag Manager

Being a golfer who also likes equipment, there was absolutely no chance I was leaving this out.

ForeThought includes a complete club inventory, allowing you to record different bags, club specifications and yardages.

There's gapping analysis, wedge distance matrices and PDF exports you can take to the range or keep on your phone.

It makes experimenting with different setups much easier, particularly when deciding which clubs deserve one of those precious fourteen spaces in the bag.

It's also quite satisfying being able to see the entire setup organised properly rather than relying on an increasingly questionable collection of notes.

Making the Applications Talk

As development continued, I realised that the Mac shouldn't have to be where every piece of information was originally entered.

That led to Lesson Logger, a companion application for recording coaching and practice away from the desk.

ForeThought can now import compatible Lesson Logger data, including through a managed file source that checks for changes.

I've also added recovery information, using a JSON file containing sleep duration, heart rate variability and resting heart rate.

This can be displayed alongside fitness information without trying to turn ForeThought into a medical application.

Data portability has been important throughout development. I wanted sensible file-based workflows, cloud storage and exports rather than everything disappearing into an inaccessible database.

Where It Goes Next

ForeThought has grown far beyond the original concept, with guided practice, fitness programmes and companion applications extending the ecosystem.

There's still plenty I want to explore, particularly around the relationship between coaching, practice and actual on-course performance.

But the original idea remains unchanged.

I don't want ForeThought to tell me that I hit seven greens and missed six fairways. A scorecard can already do that.

I want to understand why, whether I'm improving, and what I should work on next.

If it helps me play more of the boring, sensible golf that usually produces the best scores, even better.

ForeThought isn't about collecting more golf data. It's about making better use of the data you've already got.

And considering this all started with an idea and a lot of time spent in Xcode, I'm rather pleased with where it's heading.

Find out more at forethought.site.