All golfers want to improve their game. Whether that’s refining your swing, figuring out how to drive the ball longer and straighter, or stepping up your short game, we all have something we’re working to progress in order to shave a few strokes off our score. While practice is obviously the best way to improve, technology can play a significant role in helping lower your handicap. Here are the top five golf apps you should have on your phone that can help bring you up to par.
Golfshot Pro
The Golfshot Pro app is a single app that makes many other devices no longer needed. The popular app uses your phone’s GPS along with a catalog of 40,000+ course maps to provide golfers with real-time shot distances, hazard locations, automatic course handicap calculator, and even a scorecard to track your game. With Golfshot golfers can see the course from all angles—including a 3D flyover on 500,000+holes—an can check out statistics to see how their game is improving. The app even allows users to share tee time invites with friends to set up a round.
V1 Golf
If you’re looking to improve your swing, look no further than V1 Golf. The app—which is described by many as the best swing app analyzer—lets golfers record, analyze and compare their swing against PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour golfers. Through the app, golfers can record and then play back their swing in slow motion and even upload the video to have it evaluated by a professional (though there is an additional cost for that).
Hudl Technique Golf
Hudle Technique Golf is another noteworthy app that allows golfers to analyze their swing frame by frame. In addition to letting you compare your swing to professional golfers, the app offers study drills from coaches, provides golf lessons from PGA instructors, and lets you share your swing with friends and instructors via methods such as email, YouTube, Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook.
Swing by Swing
Swing by Swing Golf GPS & Scorecard app makes the need for many other devices obsolete—and it’s completely free. The app finds distances to the back, front, and center of greens and the distances to every obstacle and hazard. Swing by Swing features a large database of courses, and if you happen to be playing a course not in the database, you can easily add the course to the database (which is then shared with other golfers using the app). The scorecard feature also helps you track your improvement over time. Upgraded versions of the app are also available—for a fee—that provides even more options.
Sonocaddie 2 Golf GPS
While many GPS apps provide aerial and satellite imagery, Sonocaddie 2 Golf GPS goes a step beyond. It features both aerial imagery and enhanced, color course layout. The color course layout shows all of the important details that are easier to view under the bright sunshine. In addition, Sonocaddie shows your position on the course in real-time and updates quickly as your position changes. Need to check the distance to the hole? Just touch any point on the color layout or aerial imagery and easily get the distance.