Golf GameBook, the free smartphone app featuring a golf community, live scoring, tournament manager and social chat, helped ignite the start of the European Tour's 'Desert Swing' by powering Wednesday's pro-am event at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
Staged on the eve of the professional event - where players competed for a share of a $2.7million purse - the Pro-Am attracted 120 amateur competitors, along with 40 stars of the game, including current Open Champion Phil Mickelson, former World Number One Rory McIlroy, last year's Fed-Ex Cup and Race to Dubai winner, Henrik Stenson, and three-time Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship winner, Martin Kaymer.
GameBook's work in Abu Dhabi immediately followed its management of pro-am scoring at the European Tour-sanctioned Volvo Golf Champions pro-am tournament in South Africa, and at November's WGC-HSBC Champions pro-am in Shanghai, China.
Mikko Rantanen, CEO of GameBook Inc, said: "Not only is our app one of the fastest growing, free golf scoring downloads among amateur players around the world, but it is also getting a positive response from some of the best players in the game, and helping organisations, such as HSBC and Volvo, support and enhance their global sponsorship activations."
Giles Morgan, Global Head of Sponsorship and Events at HSBC, said: "The Golf GameBook live scoring app added an extra dimension to this year's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship pro-am. With 160 competitors out on the course, GameBook's technology not only delivered live scoring direct to each group, but also allowed competitors to share banter and, direct from their handsets, post comments and images online as the action unfolded."
This year's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship pro-am ended in a tie, with the four-man teams captained by Englishman, Ross Fisher, and eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner, Colin Montgomerie OBE, both on 19-under par. However, it was 'Team Fisher' that won on count back.
Read all the Game Feed chat and banter, and view images from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship pro-am, by clicking: http://www.golfgamebook.com/game/2uq-dtg9
Founded by PGA professionals with the goal of making golf more relevant, fun and welcoming, Golf GameBook is the fastest-growing golf community in the world with more than 600,000 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.
