Where It All Began
The Grand Plan didn't start with an app. It didn't start with technology at all. It started with a simple observation that most amateur golfers have no real plan when they step onto the course — and even less of one when they go to practice.
The idea was born from years of playing local courses, watching golfers repeat the same mistakes, and realising that the professionals weren't just more talented — they were more prepared. They knew their courses, they knew their numbers, and they had a plan for every shot.
The Book
The first incarnation of The Grand Plan was a self-published book. It was a practical guide to course management for the everyday golfer — not the kind of instruction that tells you to reshape your swing, but the kind that helps you make smarter decisions with the swing you already have.
The message was straightforward: you don't need to hit the ball further or straighter to drop shots. You need to know where to aim, when to be aggressive, and when to play safe. Course management is the fastest shortcut to lower scores.
The Green Maps
Alongside the book came the green maps. Hand-drawn, detailed maps of local course greens showing slopes, tiers, speed zones, and ideal approach angles. The kind of information that tour caddies carry in their yardage books, made available to club golfers.
These maps were revelatory for many players. Suddenly, a three-putt wasn't just bad luck — it was a predictable result of not reading the green properly before the approach shot. Knowing a green slopes hard from back-left changed everything about how you played the hole.
"If you don't know where the green slopes, you're guessing. And guessing is not a plan."
The Evolution
The book and maps proved the concept: golfers who had better information made better decisions. But information on paper had its limits. The next step was to make it dynamic, personal, and data-driven.
That led to practice and fitness plans — structured routines that gave golfers a way to work on the specific areas their game needed most. And from there, it was a natural step to build the app: a platform where golfers could track their rounds, log their stats, and get a clear picture of where their game really stood.
The Grand Plan Today
Today, The Grand Plan is a golf stats and practice platform built for club golfers who want to improve. It combines the original philosophy — play smarter, practise with purpose — with modern tools that make it easy to track progress and find areas for improvement.
The journey from book to app has been a long one, but the core idea hasn't changed: if you measure it, you can improve it.