Golf Match has had a makeover: here's what's new

If you've opened Golf Match in the last few days, you'll have noticed it looks a bit different. We've spent the last few weeks going through every screen. The app had got slow and a bit cluttered, and we wanted it to feel more like a friendly clubhouse and less like a form to fill in.

Here's what's changed, in plain English, and the quickest way to get a game on this winter.

Five tabs, and that's it

Everything now lives in five tabs along the bottom of the screen:

• Home shows what matters today: your next game, the weather for it, and anything waiting on you
• Games lists the games coming up, so you can see who's playing where and jump in
• Post is the round button in the middle. Tap it to put a game on
• Chats keeps all your game chats in one place
• You is your profile, your rounds and your settings

If you've used Golf Match before, the old Inbox now lives in Chats and the old What's On page is part of Games. Old links still work.

Putting a game on takes about 30 seconds

This is the bit we care about most, because it's how games actually happen.

1. Tap Post
2. Pick a course, a day, a time and how many spaces you've got
3. Share the link with your mates on WhatsApp

That's it. Other members can find it under Games too, so you don't need to know three people who are free on the same Saturday morning. Which, let's be honest, is the hardest shot in golf.

And if someone taps your link who isn't on Golf Match yet, they can sign up there and then and land straight in your game. Before, they came back to the game page and had to find the Join button again, and that's where people drifted off.

Every game has its own room

Once you're in a game, it gets its own page with:

• Who's in. Members see each other as a first name and an initial, nothing more
• A chat for the group, for "who's driving?" and "running ten minutes late"
• An Add to my calendar button
• A reminder two hours before you tee off

If the host has to call it off, they cancel the game and everyone in it is told straight away.

One thing to be clear about: the host books the tee time with the club, and everyone pays the club directly. We don't book tee times and we never touch your money.

"Did you play?"

After a game we ask one question: did it go ahead? It's one tap. If nobody in the group has answered after a couple of days, we send one short reminder, and that's the end of it.

It sounds like a small thing, but it's the only way we know Golf Match is actually getting people out on the course, which is the whole point.

A quicker app

The old Home screen made lots of separate trips to our database every time you opened it, and on one bar of signal you could watch it fill in bit by bit. Now Home arrives in one go. Your phone also keeps a copy of the last Home screen it saw, so the app opens straight away even when the signal's poor, then catches up.

We've trimmed what the app does in the background too, so the rest of it should feel snappier. If anything still feels slow, tell us.

What we've switched off

You might remember Golf Match suggesting games based on when you said you were free. We've switched that off. It sent plenty of suggestions, but not many of them turned into rounds. A real person posting a real game, and sharing it with a few mates, gets people playing far more often.

So the bell now only lights up for people and games: someone's joined, there's a new message, a game's changed, or it's game day. Nothing else.

A logo you might recognise

The Golf Match logo with the flag in the O was drawn by Matt and Steve, and it's now on every screen, big and small. It felt right.

Getting a game on this winter

The clocks have gone back and the days are short, so a few tips from us:

• Post your game a few days ahead, so people can plan around it
• Morning tee times are your friend in winter, once the frost has cleared
• If the weather turns, say so early in the game chat, so nobody drives out for nothing
• Nine holes counts. A quick nine before the light goes is still a game worth posting

If nothing's on near you, Home will suggest a course and a day to get one started. Somebody has to go first, and it may as well be you.

Tell us what you think

We're three golfers from Essex who built this because we wanted more people to play with. If something's not right, or there's something you'd love it to do, tell us on the feedback page.

See you on the first tee.

Adam, Matt and Steve