CourseCaddie

My role

Lead developer (React Native)

Platform

Mobile App Development

Timeline

Completed Oct 1, 2025

Stack

React Native, Firebase, Cloud Firestore, Firebase Auth

Overview

CourseCaddie is a social-ranking platform for golfers to document their playing history, curate personalized course rankings, and engage with a community of players. It works as a digital "caddie" that preserves memories and makes course discovery social and real-time.

• Log rounds with reviews, notes and photos tied to specific courses
• Build a Ranked List and a Bucket List of courses
• Discover courses worldwide and nearby, with an interactive map of your play history
• Follow a social feed of real-time course recommendations
• Compete on global and friend-based leaderboards

The challenge

Golfers track their rounds in scattered notes, photos and memory, and finding good courses mostly depends on word of mouth. There was no single place to record where they had played, rank those courses, and share the experience with friends. CourseCaddie needed to turn that history into something social, location-aware and competitive, while keeping the feed and rankings updating in real time.

My approach

I built CourseCaddie as a location-aware social app on a Firebase backend: Cloud Firestore for live feed updates and Firebase Auth for secure sign-in. Google Places API powers global course search and identification, and the Google Maps SDK visualizes play history and nearby discovery. A custom ranking engine drives each player's Ranked and Bucket Lists and the leaderboards, so personal data becomes a social experience.

Results

• Replaced fragmented notes with a unified, shareable social workspace for golf documentation.
• Improved course discovery through social proof, helping players find quality courses via trusted peer networks.
• Gamified the sport with global and friend-based leaderboards that encourage community competition.

Responsibilities

• Led the end-to-end development of a location-aware social app focused on real-time user engagement
• Architected a Firebase backend using Cloud Firestore for live feed updates and Firebase Auth for secure user management
• Integrated Google Places API to enable global course searching and identification
• Developed interactive mapping with the Google Maps SDK to visualize play history and geospatial discovery
• Engineered a dynamic ranking engine and leaderboard system to gamify the experience

Achievements

• Built a centralized digital archive for golfers to store reviews, notes and photos tied to specific locations
• Implemented Bucket List and Ranked List features for a personalized, data-driven view of each player's journey
• Developed a social feed that delivers real-time course recommendations and social interaction
• Optimized geospatial queries in Firebase to power fast "Nearby Courses" discovery

Features

• Auth: Email sign-in, Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google
• Location and Maps: Google Places API, Google Maps SDK, Geospatial queries, Nearby course discovery
• Rankings: Ranked List, Bucket List, Ranking engine, Global and friend leaderboards
• Social: Real-time feed, Follow friends, Likes, comments and shares, Direct messages, Friend discovery and invites
• Course logging: Reviews, notes and photos, Play history map, Course preferences
• Profile: Handicap or skill level, Badges, Home city, Favorite courses
• Engagement: Push notifications