Golf GameBook, the free smartphone app featuring a golf community, live scoring, tournament manager and social chat, has unearthed who it believes to be the most active golfer in the world, Swede Robert ‘Robban’ Andersson.
The 56-year-old from Malmö, registered with Golf GameBook in May 2011 and last month played his 1,000th round of golf, recording every one of his 74,098 shots – including five eagles, 1,102 birdies and 8,296 pars! – using the app.
Despite his addiction to playing golf, four-handicapper Robert, still manages to hold down his full-time production technician job, slotting in rounds of golf as a member of his local courses, Vellinge Golf Club and Rönnebäck Golf Club.
“Most of my rounds are after work,” he says. “My hours are flexible so, every Wednesday, I take the morning off and play in a weekly competition at Vellinge Golf Club. I suppose I could have been promoted a little higher in the company, if I preferred work to the golf course, but this is the way I like it!,” quipped Robert.
All the time spent on the golf course has also been good for Robert’s game. He has posted a gross 70 as his best round so far this season, and is on target to beat his record for the number of rounds played in a calendar year – his record is 318, but he has already played over 240 in 2014.
“If the weather stays good in Sweden I will certainly set a new record this year,” says Robert.
(* Note: At the time of writing, Robert’s tally of rounds recorded in Golf GameBook stands at 1,033)
Jere Jaakkola, Marketing and Communications Manager at Golf GameBook, said: “For a while, looking at Robert’s stats on Golf GameBook I thought it was someone just trialling the app with false data, or one of our technical team using an alias to test the software, but when I finally tracked Robert down, I quickly realised I’d met a true golf fanatic.
“Robert should be an inspiration to us all. His love of the game is quite incredible and because he is using the Golf GameBook app to live-score all his rounds, he has an encyclopaedic record of how he is performing. You could say he is our perfect customer.”
So what attracts Robert to golf? “I think it’s mostly because you are always playing against yourself. Even if you are playing a match, you are still playing against your own records. In saying that, I never play on my own, I have made so many friends at the golf club that I can always find someone to play with,” he says.
To recognise Robert’s achievements, Golf GameBook is currently running a ‘Beat Robban’ competition in Sweden, which offers golfers two potential prize routes, going head-to-head against him over a 10-round average, or beating ‘Robban’ on the volume of golf played over a two-week period.
Golf GameBook was founded by PGA professionals with the goal of making golf more relevant, fun and welcoming, and is probably the fastest-growing golf community in the world with more than 700,000 app downloads.
GameBook offers a sophisticated, but easy-to-use platform for any golfer, golf club or golf tournament organizer to set up live scoring for all types of golf event and is the only scoring app to offer social interactivity.
The app is available for free on all major smartphone platforms. Golfers can download it from the App Store, Google Play, Samsung Apps, BlackBerry World and Windows Phone Store.
Golf GameBook www.golfgamebook.com