How It Works - Can I Golf?

Finding Golf Courses Near You

Can I Golf? uses a comprehensive database of golf courses across the United States. When you begin to search for a specific golf course, our system quickly identifies it based on keywords and location.

The data was originally processed using PapaParse for CSV handling, but in an effort to speed up search functionality a conversion to JSON was made. This change made searching for a golf course even more accurate and responsive.

Search demonstration showing golf courses

Weather Analysis

Our application evaluates real-time weather conditions to determine if it's suitable for golfing. We analyze temperature, precipitation chance, wind speed, and other factors that impact your golfing experience.

Using weather data APIs, we provide up-to-date information that helps you decide whether today is the right day to hit the course.

Personalized Preferences

Everyone has different comfort levels when it comes to weather conditions for golfing. Our sliders allow you to set your preferred temperature range, acceptable precipitation probability, and maximum wind speed.

The system then evaluates each course against your preferences to give you personalized recommendations.

Favorite Courses

Save your preferred course for quick access. Our favorites feature allows you to mark a course you frequently visit and check their golfing conditions with a single click.

Your favorite is stored locally on your device, ensuring privacy while maintaining convenience.

Technical Details

Can I Golf? is built with modern web technologies to provide a seamless experience:

Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript
Weather Data: Integration with reliable weather APIs
Storage: Local browser storage for saving preferences and favorites (no cookies needed!)

The application runs entirely client-side, ensuring fast performance and privacy.

How It Started

Can I Golf? started its life as a Java application that I built to solve a simple problem: knowing when it was a good day to hit the golf course based on the weather.

The original program was a command-line Java application that would:

Read local golf course information from a text file
Connect to a weather API to get current conditions
Apply basic rules about temperature and precipitation
Output recommendations in the terminal

While functional, this approach had limitations. It only worked on my local machine, required manual updates of course data, and couldn't be easily shared with fellow golfers.

This web application is the evolution of that idea - transforming a personal utility into a tool that golfers across the country can use to make informed decisions about their golf outings.

The original Java application that started it all