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26 September 2026 · 7 min read

Golf apps in practice: what is worth having for free

In Switzerland exactly one app counts for your handicap. The others give distances and stats, and the line to premium differs sharply.

Golf apps in practice: what is worth having for free — post image

There are dozens of golf apps, and nearly all of them promise the same: distances, a scorecard, statistics. Only two questions are interesting. Which app does something no other can, and where the line runs between free and subscription. The second answer is the more surprising one.

The one app that counts in Switzerland

The Swiss Golf app is the only one through which a score reaches your record. A General Play round is registered in it before you start, and afterwards player and marker confirm the result electronically (Swiss Golf). Without that step your Handicap Index does not update.

Everything else that international apps offer as handicap features is a calculation for yourself and not an entry at Swiss Golf. That is the difference between a handicap and an estimate. How the scoring works is in The EDS round.

Free in one, premium in the other

Two well-known apps draw the line in quite different places, read on their own pages (18Birdies, Hole19):

Feature18BirdiesHole19
Scoringfreefree
Plays-like distancefreePremium
Shot trackingfreePremium
StatisticsfreePremium
Apple WatchfreePremium
Club recommendationPremiumPremium
Strokes GainedPremiumnot listed
Premium priceUSD 19.99 / month, 99.99 / yearEUR 14.99 / month, 69.99 / year

The same feature is therefore in the free package at one provider and behind the subscription at the other. Choosing an app by the price of its subscription compares the wrong thing; what to compare is what you get without one.

What you actually need

Three things, and all three exist for free. First the distance to the flag, that is GPS. Second a scorecard that counts and computes. Third shot tracking, if you want to know how far you really hit it.

What you do not need is the club recommendation. It computes from your earlier shots, and anyone with a distance table from a bay is more accurate than that. How to build one is in Club distances.

Your phone does more than the app shows

The camera app films slow motion in 1080p at 120 or 240 frames a second (Apple). That is enough to see impact, and it costs nothing. A swing analysis app draws lines on it, but the recording is the work.

Where the phone belongs and what you can see in the picture is in Filming your own swing. It is the one phone feature that really changes something on a course.

What an app cannot measure

Ball speed, spin, launch angle and club head speed. Those numbers need radar or a camera beside the ball, and no app on a phone replaces that. Anyone wanting numbers for their swing needs a device or a bay.

What gets measured in a bay and how accurately is in Radar or camera. What a portable device under CHF 1,000 can do is in Portable launch monitors.

Battery and pace

A GPS app needs location data for a whole round, and that costs battery. Four hours of continuous GPS finishes an older phone. 18Birdies specifically lists a low battery mode in its free package, and that is a more serious argument than any statistics feature.

A second side effect: tapping after every shot slows the group down. The card gets updated at the green, not at the ball. Anyone staring at a phone for four hours has missed the reason they are on a course.

The rule that applies to apps too

The Rules of Golf allow information on distance and direction. Not allowed are measuring elevation changes and interpreting that information, so a club recommendation or a recommended line of play (R&A, Rule 4.3a). A committee may also prohibit distance-measuring devices entirely by Local Rule.

That hits two advertised features directly: plays-like distance and club recommendation. In a handicap-relevant competition both have to be off. If you cannot switch them off, leave the phone in your bag and read the distance from the scorecard or a marker post.

Location, and what the app needs for it

A GPS app needs your location continuously, otherwise it cannot give a distance. So grant the permission only while the app is in use rather than permanently; every platform offers both. That costs you no feature and saves battery.

A second point concerns the data. Keep your rounds in an app for years and your playing history lives with one provider. Only one thing matters: your Handicap Index stays with Swiss Golf, and being able to export your own rounds is an argument when choosing an app.

What an app gives you in winter

Little on the course and a lot at the desk. From November to March a GPS app is worth almost nothing, but reviewing last season is worth doing exactly now: which distances are wrong, where the penalty shots came from, which club is missing from the bag.

Simulator rounds do not belong in the same statistics. A bay computes without wind, without rough and often with a gimme distance, and mixing those numbers with course rounds spoils both. Why is in Simulator score against course score.

What counts in a bay instead of an app

Indoors nobody needs a golf app: distance, ball speed, launch angle and carry are on the screen, and more precisely than a phone could ever compute them. What you need there is paper or a notes app and one number per club.

That note is more useful in the end than any statistics feature, because it carries a decision on the course. 80 of the 110 indoor venues in the directory publish an hourly price between CHF 25 and 99 (directory).

The scorecard is still paper

For a General Play round the completed card has to be signed by player and marker and handed in at the club office, or the round is confirmed electronically in the Swiss Golf app by both (Swiss Golf). A card in any other app replaces neither.

So in practice you keep two cards or none: the app for yourself, the official card for your handicap. Forget that and you have played a good round that counts nowhere.

The combination that works

The Swiss Golf app for handicap-relevant rounds, a free app for distances and scoring, the camera for your swing, and one bay hour a season for the numbers. That covers everything an amateur really reads, and you pay only for the bay hour.

A subscription pays off from the point where you actually read your statistics, so if you play more than twenty rounds a year and work on your handicap deliberately. Which number helps most is in Strokes gained for amateurs.

Frequently asked questions

Which golf app do I need in Switzerland?

The Swiss Golf app if you want handicap-relevant rounds: only there is a General Play round registered before you start and confirmed electronically by player and marker afterwards. For distances and scoring a free app is enough beside it.

Which golf app is good for free?

It depends which feature you need. At 18Birdies, scoring, plays-like distance, shot tracking, statistics and Apple Watch are in the free package; at Hole19 the same features are part of the subscription. Compare the free package, not the subscription price.

What does a golf app subscription cost?

18Birdies lists USD 19.99 a month or 99.99 a year, Hole19 EUR 14.99 a month or 69.99 a year with a 14-day trial. A subscription pays off from around twenty rounds a year, if you really read the statistics.

Can an app measure my swing?

No. Ball speed, spin, launch angle and club head speed need radar or a camera beside the ball. What a phone can do is film: slow motion in 1080p at 120 or 240 frames a second, and that is enough for impact.

Does a golf app use a lot of battery?

Yes, because GPS runs for the whole round. Four hours of continuous positioning finishes an older phone. A low battery mode in the app is therefore more practical than any statistics feature, and the card gets updated at the green, not after every shot.

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