COLORADO SPRINGS —
Douglas O’Halloran was at work earlier this year when he found out his son was about to win the age 11 bracket of the Pikes Peak Junior Golf League tournament.
O’Halloran left his job and arrived at the golf course just in time to see Liam receive his trophy.
The tournament was not on TV, so he didn’t learn about his son’s achievement that way. Nor did anyone call, text or email him.
The alert came courtesy of a phone application invented by Colorado Springs entrepreneur and part-time golfer Doyle Heisler.
The iWanamaker app works in real-time, allowing golfers, tournament officials and anyone else interested in a live links competition to view players’ scores and leader boards, and converse with other competing golfers via a live chat feature while the tournament is still being played.
“It becomes the conduit between all of these people,” Heisler said of the app, which is available for free for all smart phones.
Heisler came up with the idea in 2011 after competing in several family golf tournaments over the previous decades. He put up $5,000 of his own money that year to start developing the software and phone application. He invested another $20,000 in July. That money came from friends, family and his own pockets.
