Okay folks, real talk. I wanted to follow this US Amateur Golf thing happening in ’24. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. My first thought was, “Just check ESPN or something.” Easy peasy. But nah.
Started simple. Jumped on my phone, pulled up ESPN app. Searched “US Amateur Golf.” Got… nothing useful. Just generic news articles about last year’s winner and some rankings. No live stuff, no schedule. Useless. Damn app. Gave up after ten minutes of tapping around like an idiot.
Thought, maybe the official golf folks? You know, the USGA. Hopped on their website. Big mistake. What a mess. Took me ages to even find the championship section. Buried deep. Found the schedule for 2024, sure. Dates, place. Cool. But how the hell do I actually follow the tournament when it happens?
Saw they had an app. “USGA Tournament App,” it said. Downloaded it onto my phone. Another 100mb. Thought, “This must be it!” Opened it. Needed to make an account. Sigh. Name, email, password, agree to this and that. Finally in. Looked around. Found the US Amateur page. It showed… a picture from 2023. And the schedule again. Still no live updates option. Started getting annoyed.
Figured, fine, maybe notifications? Dug into the app settings. Toggled on notifications for the US Amateur 2024. Praying.
Big weekend rolls around. Woke up Saturday. Phone was dead silent. Checked the app again. Still that same picture. Tried “Refresh.” Spinning wheel… nothing changed. Checked ESPN again. Zip. Nada. Feeling dumb.
Went back to the USGA website, frantically clicking. Found a tiny text link buried at the bottom of some page: “Live Scoring.” Clicked it. Took me to… another website. A totally different platform. And oh look, now I see actual hole-by-hole scores updating? But it’s the most basic table imaginable. Hardly readable on my phone. No player tracking, no context unless you knew the names already.
Meanwhile, my mom texts me, “Are you watching?” Like, how? I don’t have the fancy TV package! She asks how the player from our local club is doing. No idea! Their name wasn’t even showing up near the top scores on this table. Couldn’t find a search box easily. Almost threw my phone.
So what worked? Well, basically nothing automated like they promised. I ended up manually refreshing that clunky live scoring table on the USGA’s weird partner site every 15 minutes, squinting at tiny numbers. For notifications? Only got one the entire weekend – a generic “Leaderboard Updated” at like midnight on the second day. Brilliant timing, thanks.
The best way? Honestly? Being tech-savvy means squat here. Ended up relying on brute force checking that one terrible live scoring page. Felt like 1995. Forget fancy apps or big sports sites for smooth coverage. If you want semi-live scores, be prepared to fight the USGA website and its ancient live scoring partner. That’s the “best” I found. Pure hassle. Don’t expect anything easy or fun. You gotta work for your amateur golf updates, apparently.
