Top Apple Watch Golf Apps: Enhance Your Game with the Best Picks
Apple is all about maximizing the benefits of technology for consumers while minimizing that technology’s footprint. So it’s no surprise the Apple Watch packs a ton of hardware into a wearable design that fits comfortably around your wrist.
App designers make full use of the Apple Watch’s hardware, too, tapping into the wearable’s speaker, microphone, and medley of sensors to create tools that augment a person’s experiences — whether in daily life, at the office, or (you guessed it) on the golf course.
Whether you want to analyze the mechanics of your swing, get a bird’s-eye view of a hole’s obstacles, track scores without keeping up with those tiny pencils, or even get real-time coaching from the pros, there’s an app for that. But if you venture over to the Apple Store to find one, you’d be forgiven for feeling like you just sliced into the rough.
There’s no shortage of golf apps available for the Apple Watch. We’ve tackled product research and read consumer reviews to find out which apps are the best, so you can avoid the homework and costly subscription fees.
Top 6 golf apps for Apple Watch
Best swing data: Arccos Caddie
Best for green reading: GolfLogix
Best budget: SwingU
Best GPS: Golfshot
Best for fantasy sports betting: Chirp
Best for score tracking: VPAR
How we chose the best golf apps for Apple Watch
We cast a wide net to see the number of Apple Watch golf apps in the Apple Store. Then, we put on our blinders and read reviews for the top-rated apps. We categorized each one based on its main purpose (e.g., scorekeeping, analyzing swing) and found consistent comments from consumers and professional reviewers to understand the strengths and weaknesses. Every app we researched gave us a little more clarity into how each stacked up against the other until we eventually found the best one for each category.
Best swing data: Arccos Caddie
Staff favorite: Arccos Caddie
Benefits
— Total phone-free shot tracking
— AI-powered rangefinder and club recommendations
— Highly accurate GPS
Drawbacks
— Requires Arccos club sensors
The Arccos Caddie app merges convenience with insightful analytics to make your time on the course more fun and your swing more on point. Golfers can get the app’s full functionality without ever having to touch their iPhones. Simply open the app and start a game on your watch, and the Arccos Caddie automatically tracks every shot to show you how far you’re hitting and how well you’re performing with each club.
The app also sports an AI-powered rangefinder disclosing how many yards to the hole you are and recommends a club based on your real-time shot performance. The app does require syncing up with Arccos sensors for your club or a wearable sensor you can wear on your belt.
But while the sensors are an added cost, they allow the Arccos Caddie to capture highly accurate data necessary for stroke-gained analytics. In fact, customers were impressed with just how much in-depth data the Arccos Caddie collects and analyzes.
GPS data on: 40,000-plus courses
Best green-reading: GolfLogix
Best runner-up: GolfLogix
Benefits
— Creates 3D flyovers using your club distances
— Provides color heat maps of each course
— 3D putt line shows speeds and breaks
Drawbacks
— Some reviews cite tracking glitches
The GolfLogix app is designed to give you the ins and outs of each hole, be it yardage, elevation, or slope. While you play, GolfLogix collects your shot data and marries it to the course’s GPS information to show where a shot will land based on the club you’re using and your individual performance.
In 3D, you’ll see what your ball will look like in flight, where it’ll land, and where it’ll go. As you approach the green, you’ll see its breaks and speeds, so you can better strategize your shots. And when it’s time to putt, you can draw a line between your ball and the cup to track how your ball will roll.
We came across professional reviewers and customers who called out glitches when it comes to tracking shots and measuring distance. Still, they appreciated how the app lets them see flyovers of their shots and move a target around to see the yardage of bunkers and hazards. Many customers were also impressed by the depth of GPS data provided for each course.
GPS data on: 35,000-plus courses
Best budget: SwingU
Best budget: SwingU
Benefits
— Highly accurate rangefinder
— Tracks calories burned
— Battery-efficient
Drawbacks
— Additional features require paid subscription
— The fewest courses with available GPS data on our list
If you’re looking for essential features without the expensive price tag, the SwingU golf app is worth downloading. The minute the app is on your watch, you can access a GPS rangefinder developed to give you accurate distances on each hole, including hazards, completely free of charge.
You can also track shots and monitor your burned calories. Not too shabby for a totally free version of the SwingU app! Professional reviewers said the app’s GPS distances to greens and hazards are accurate. Meanwhile, some customers couldn’t believe that so much reliable functionality was packed into a free app. That said, premium upgrades, such as ad-free usability, do come at a price.
GPS data on: 13,000-plus courses (via paid upgrade)
Best GPS: Golfshot
Best GPS: Golfshot
Benefits
— GPS distances on 45,000-plus courses
— Haptic and audio feedback
— Post scores to your Handicap Index
Drawbacks
— Drains battery
The Golfshot Golf GPS + Caddie app provides GPS data for more than 45,000 courses, including real-time distances to hazards, fairways, greens, and cups. That’s more courses for a single app than any other on this list. You can preview each course in 3D before stepping into the tee box, and when you take your first swing, the app automatically starts tracking and displaying your shots on your Apple Watch.
With haptic and audio feedback, Golfshot lets you know it detected a swing, so you can keep playing without having to pull out your iPhone. After your round, you can purchase or update your Handicap Index through Golfshot.
You can also send tee time invites to your golfing pals when ready to hit the course again. One note from professional product testers suggested putting your phone in airplane mode between shots because the app tends to drain the battery. Aside from that, most customers attributed this app to shaving more than a few strokes off their game.
GPS data on: 45,000-plus courses
Best for fantasy sports betting: Chirp Golf
Best for fantasy sports betting: Chirp Golf
Benefits
— Free-to-play contests available daily and weekly
— Bet fake money to win prizes at the end of each tournament
— Real money daily fantasy contests (where available)
Drawbacks
— Might pull you away from the golf course
Let’s put the game of golf on the back burner for just a second to talk about another game: Golf betting. The Chirp Golf app (owned by GOLF.com’s parent company 8AM Golf) lets you place live bets on games with fake money to win actual prizes.
Here’s how it works: You’re given $10,000 of fake money every week once you download the app and create an account. You can create and join as many leagues as you want, then bet the money however you’d like across the tournament field with wagers starting at $5 and extending all the way to your full $10,000 sum.
As a tournament plays out in real time, you and your competition will be presented with a question that matches the actual real-time gameplay. Chirp might ask whether a pro player will make their next putt or how far a player’s drive will be. You then have 30 seconds to make your live wager.
Prizes for the winner can range from all-inclusive vacations and full club fittings to gift cards and new clubs. Golf lovers who downloaded and played on Chirp enjoyed the “risk-free” betting that comes with playing with fake cash.
Highlight: Live shot-by-shot gameplay
Best for score tracking: VPAR
Best for score tracking: VPAR
Benefits
— Real-time leaderboards
— Clear digital scorecards
— Scorecard archive
Drawbacks
— May lack features for editing rounds during play
The VPAR golf app gives you distances to greens and hazards using GPS technology, much like many other apps on this list. But the app is a clear standout when it comes to score-tracking.
Its digital scorecards are designed for easy reading, and you can switch scoring formats between Match Play, Stroke Play, and Stableford. You can track performance rankings for a given course among your group or other golfers or join VPAR-hosted challenges and compete for top ranking to win prizes.
Customers loved how easy and simple the VPAR app makes scorekeeping for their group, and they appreciated the ability to track the scores of other golfers playing the same course. A few customers expressed frustration over the lack of features, such as editing, but others praised unique features, such as the app’s scoring archive, which makes it possible to compare past scores over time.
GPS data on: 30,000-plus courses
Take the game by the wrist with these golf apps
Any of the Apple Watch golf apps in this article will take your levels of enjoyment from the sport to new heights. The right app depends on your needs and preferences as a player. If you’re looking for a straightforward, budget-friendly tool that offers essential features without taking up much space, the SwingU app might be your best shot.
But we recommend the Arccos Caddie if you love collecting performance data and analyzing every part of your swing like the pros. Regardless, a golf app for your Apple Watch can bring out your best performance and dial up the fun factor.
How to pick the right Apple Watch golf app for you
Functionality
Many golf apps have a ton of features, like automated shot tracking and distance measuring. It’s easy to find a golf app for your Apple Watch that does all these things and more, but you’ll have to decide which features are the most important to you. Once you do, you can read reviews to get a sense of how well an app performs.
For example, do you care more about swing analytics to improve your mechanics or getting a birds-eye view of a course with accurate shot trajectories based on your performance? Do you want to keep your phone out of sight during the game above all else? Or do you want access to as much golfing data as possible?
GPS course data
A main draw for many golf apps is GPS course data. This means that someone conducted GPS heat mapping on a course to capture distances of cups and hazards and slopes and elevations. This GPS data is then stored in a database along with the GPS data of other mapped courses. A golf app will tap into and provide this GPS data through its own unique interface. Some apps will utilize more GPS data than others.
For example, the GolfLogix app provides detailed elevation and slope data along with 3D trajectories of your ball’s likely flight path depending on a particular club and your performance. You’ll also notice that the number of courses with GPS data on an app will vary from one to the next. When deciding on which app is for you, evaluate the level of course/hole details each provides using GPS information.
Price
Golf apps run the pricing gamut from free to subscription-based. Some apps offer decent functionality at no cost — like the SwingU app — but others require in-app purchases or subscriptions to unlock key features. We didn’t come across any golf apps that unlocked full functionality with a one-time charge. That means if you’re willing to pay for a golf app, you’ll pay for it monthly or annually. If you don’t mind doing that, ensure you have room in your budget for a recurring charge.
FAQ
What’s the best golf yardage app for Apple Watch?
Based on our research, the Arccos Caddie app is the best analyzer to understand your yardage for each club, thanks to the Arccos sensors that capture your swing data. Customers routinely comment that both the GolfLogix and Golfshot Golf GPS + Caddie apps are great at measuring distance as well. GolfLogix is considered the top-of-the-line when it comes to green reading.
What are the best free Apple Watch apps for golf?
Aside from SwingU, Golfshot’s app also offers features that don’t require purchase. This free version provides distance measuring to the center of the green, basic information for each hole (e.g., par, total yards), and the ability to book tee times on GolfNow.
Is the Apple Watch good for golf?
The Apple Watch is packed with technology, making it more than capable of being an invaluable tool on the golf course. Golf app developers can take advantage of its precise sensors to capture and share yardages to fairways, greens, and hazards along with your swing mechanics and even your heart rate and burned calories. How well a golf app performs ultimately falls to the developers, but the Apple Watch’s hardware and software provide a foundation for nearly endless possibilities.
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