Golf world reacts to Spikemark being down in first week of college golf season

To say Spikemark’s debut in the college golf world has been a struggle may be an understatement.

In July, the NCAA announced Spikemark Golf would become the provider for all golf scoring and ranking services utilized by the NCAA, beginning with the 2023-24 season. Spikemark took over the service role previously provided by Golfstat.

Nine days later, Golfstat responded with a statement, saying the company wasn’t going away, though its role was going to be reduced.

The 2023-24 college golf season got underway last week across the country, but there has been no shortage of issues with Spikemark and its scoring system. Although rankings weren’t going to be released until October, tournaments, teams and fans across the country have had myriad issues trying the scoring side of it.

A message on Spikemark’s website as recently as Wednesday morning said the site and accompanying apps are currently “Ground Under Repair” as it carries out essential maintenance work in order to deliver the best possible service.

“Providing timely and efficient information for all collegiate golf coaches, players, and fans is always our #1 priority, and we will update this page accordingly.”

Spikemark was created and founded by former collegiate player and coach, Derek Freeman. In the initial release, the company said it would provide tournament scoring, real-time leaderboards, detailed statistics, in-depth analytics and media, allowing fans to keep track of their favorite teams and players. Spikemark would also provide real-time access to team schedules, up-to-date results and the latest rankings.

However, many tournament directors have been left scrambling because of the live scoring issues in the first week. Some tournaments have switched to Golf Genius or even to Golfstat. Others have been forced to keep scores on team websites.

With Spikemark down, there’s no way to track schedules or results all in one place. Even when the website wasn’t undergoing maintenance, many users reported extremely slow load times and issues navigating the site, as well as difficulty setting up tournaments and inputting scores.

It’s still early in the season, but Spikemark’s debut was anything but flashy. Here’s a look at reactions in the college golf world to the new scoring system.