Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

golfastr (development version)

Website

• golfastr.com is now a full pkgdown site: the README front page, a grouped function reference, a getting-started guide, and a field-descriptions article replace the old placeholder page.

Data releases

• Season assets are now published in three formats — rds, parquet, and csv — so the hosted data can be used directly from Python and other tools.
• Hole-by-hole files gain derived columns computed at build time: to_par, field_avg (field scoring average on that hole in that round), vs_field (strokes vs the field average), and cume_to_par (running tournament score through each hole, playoff holes included).

Deprecations

• get_pga_schedule(), get_tournament_leaderboard(), get_player_scorecards(), load_pga_schedule(), load_pga_leaderboards(), and load_pga_hbh() are deprecated in favor of load_schedule(), load_leaderboard(), and load_holes(). They keep working but now warn once per session.

Other improvements

• Errors and messages are formatted with the cli package.
• Hosted-data downloads can be cached across R sessions: set options(golfastr.cache = "filesystem") to keep downloads for 24 hours in the package cache directory, or "off" to disable caching. The default ("memory") caches for the current session as before.
• R CMD check now runs on GitHub Actions for every push and pull request.

Hosted Season Data

• load_leaderboard() and load_holes() now load completed PGA Tour tournaments from pre-built files hosted on GitHub releases (updated daily) instead of querying ESPN tournament by tournament. Loading a full season of leaderboards drops from minutes to seconds, and hole-by-hole data now covers the full field rather than requiring one API request per player.
• Both functions gain a live argument to bypass the hosted data and fetch directly from ESPN (e.g., for in-progress tournaments). The live API is also used automatically as a fallback when hosted data is unavailable.
• load_holes() output now includes position (final leaderboard standing) and year columns.
• New data-raw/update_season_data.R pipeline builds and uploads the hosted files; runs daily via GitHub Actions.

golfastr 0.1.5

CRAN release: 2026-02-12

CRAN resubmission with documentation fixes.

• Changed ESPN API URLs from HTTP to HTTPS
• Added missing @return tags to legacy functions
• Fixed README logo to use absolute URL instead of relative path
• Clarified \dontrun{} vs \donttest{} usage in examples

golfastr 0.1.4

This release focuses on CRAN compliance and simplifying the storage backend.

Breaking Changes

• Removed save_to_db() and load_from_db() - DuckDB storage has been replaced with simpler file-based storage
• All functions using db_path parameter now use file_path instead
• Removed DBI dependency

New Functions

• save_to_parquet() - Save tournament data to Parquet format for cross-language compatibility
• load_from_parquet() - Load tournament data from Parquet files
• load_data() - Unified data loading that auto-detects format (.rds or .parquet)

Function Updates

• build_season() now accepts file_path parameter supporting both .rds and .parquet formats
• check_season() updated to work with file-based storage
• All analysis functions (win_leaders(), top10_leaders(), tournament_history(), etc.) now use file_path parameter

Backend Changes

• Cache directory now uses tools::R_user_dir() for CRAN compliance
• Replaced all cat() calls with message() for suppressible output
• arrow package moved to Suggests (optional, only needed for Parquet)

---

golfastr 0.1.0

Initial release.

Data Loading

• load_tournament() - Load leaderboard data for any PGA Tour tournament
• load_tournament_detail() - Load tournament with hole-by-hole scorecards
• load_holes() - Load hole-by-hole scoring data
• load_schedule() - Get tournament schedule for a season
• list_tournaments() - List available tournaments

Analysis Functions

• get_player() - Look up player results across tournaments
• get_winners() - Get tournament winners
• get_majors() - Get major championship results
• player_summary() - Aggregate player statistics
• compare_players() - Side-by-side player comparison
• win_leaders() - Players with most wins
• top10_leaders() - Players with most top-10 finishes
• scoring_avg_leaders() - Scoring average leaderboard
• tournament_history() - Historical results for a tournament

Visualization

• plot_player() - Visualize player finishes
• plot_leaderboard() - Tournament leaderboard bar chart
• plot_wins() - Win distribution chart
• plot_scoring() - Scoring distribution histogram
• plot_head_to_head() - Compare multiple players

Storage

• save_to_rds() / load_from_rds() - RDS file storage
• build_season() - Incrementally build season data file
• check_season() - Check season loading progress

Caching

• cache_info() - View cache status
• clear_cache() - Clear cached data

Data Sources

• ESPN Golf API (https://www.espn.com/golf/)
• PGA Tour season coverage (2020+)