5 iPhone Apps Every Golfer Should Have Installed

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The golf world is brimming with new and innovative ways to improve your game. Golfers across the world are relying on technology and tracking applications to make subtle tweaks to their course management, swing path, putting alignment, and much more. No longer are these tools reserved for the professional level — today, golfers everywhere are using the same approach to hone their shotmaking.

The iPhone is a powerful tool when it comes to unlocking these metric augmentations. From the use of GPS rangefinders (formerly confined only to specialized watches) to improvements in your mental game, apps on your iPhone can make a huge difference in the way you approach and play the game of golf.

When paired with golfing apps on your Apple Watch, the convenience of these massively effective training and game management tools is enhanced even further. (And not to fret, Android users have a library of great golf apps available to them as well.) These are five invaluable apps that every iPhone-toting golfer should bring into their repertoire as soon as possible.

Arccos Caddie is perhaps the best option for achieving rapid and impactful game improvement. It costs $12.99 per month and for the price tag provides a laundry list of excellent features. The app itself is an AI-powered range finder and provides critical distances and ‘plays like’ information to help make the best possible swing decisions in your pre-shot routine. The rangefinder is a fantastic addition to your golf game. With smart distances that take into account the elements, slope data on the course and more, Arccos Caddie is one of the best GPS rangefinder apps on the market.

However, where this app sets itself apart is with the brand’s accompanying smart sensors. These sensors are attached to the back end of each club in your bag — and this set comes with 14 sensors to fill out a whole set from the driver all the way down to the putter (retailing on Arccos’ website for $155.88). With the sensors in use, there’s no need to pull out your phone to record shot data any longer. The app automatically tracks both the club you’ve used to take a swing and the distance between one shot and the next to create a comprehensive picture of how you are playing with the entire scope of your bag.

High up the list for any serious golfer should be an app like Mind Caddie. Golf is a sport of precise body control and swing mechanics, but it’s also a mentally demanding game unlike any other. A single round of golf requires an intense focus that doesn’t relent for hours. Each time you line up to the ball, you enter into a competition with your last swing and all of the mental baggage that comes with it.

If you delivered a stroke that put you in an excellent position, your brain immediately demands a follow-up, whereas a poor shot amps up the pressure to stem the bleeding on your scorecard. This is where Mind Caddie comes into play. Golf is an infinitely nuanced endeavor and any number of tiny tweaks can make a big difference in the way you play on any given day. As a result, golfers often find themselves overthinking what is ultimately a simple physical maneuver when it’s all said and done.

Mind Caddie seeks to take the stress out of your next round of golf. With lessons to focus on the mental game that lives embedded within the physical one, this app can help train you to stay focused on the elements that matter while allowing the minutiae to fall away. Stress and the pressure to perform plays a much larger role than you might think.

A hurried swing often creates tightness in the shoulders and other areas of the body that immediately translates into a chunked shot or wicked slice off the tee. Mastering the mental game is the key to consistent golf and Mind Caddie’s wealth of calm-focused and insightful lessons is an invaluable asset in tackling this often overlooked aspect.

V1 Game is a GPS application that offers crucial distance insights to help you play your best. Like other rangefinding apps, V1 Game offers a tool that many golfers are actively seeking out these days. Yet, the rangefinder app that you might use currently simply can’t stack up against the intricate detail and precise game improvement features that V1 Game brings to the table.

The GPS rangefinder offers smart distances that provide feedback from your ongoing play, with the help of the app’s virtual caddie. V1 Game also offers automatic shot detection technology and AI breadcrumbs to capture data surrounding even the shots that may have been missed by your device. V1 Game works exceedingly well when paired up with an Apple Watch for this reason. Even on the phone, however, the app offers GPS data for more than 40,000 courses around the world and includes crucial insights about the positioning and scale of hazards around each hole you’ll be playing.

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The Rules of Golf app from The R&A — The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland — is the official rulebook for the sport of golf. Rules change from time to time, and nuanced explanations for how to approach a wide variety of potential scenarios on the course are something that every golfer should have in their back pocket. In this case, the Rules of Golf is conveniently housed in an app on your phone for consultation anytime the need arises.

The app also incorporates clarifications and committee procedures that are important to keep in mind when participating in or organizing a tournament or competition play. Moreover, unlike a frantic Google search for how to judge a ball that lands just passed the OB markers or within a particular G.U.R. territory on the course, the Rules of Golf app provides diagrams and how-to videos that can make even the murkiest situation on the fairways clear as day. The Rules of Golf is a crucial app for anyone serious about their gameplay and the prestigious history of the sport itself.

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Lastly, an essential tool that should be on every golfing iPhone user’s phone is one or more range apps. Apps like Toptracer, Trackman, and others provide meaningful insights with each trip to the range that you can bring home with you and learn from long after a session has ended. The particular app that is best suited to your needs will depend on where you live. Each of these range plugin apps provides a similar experience recording shots and providing feedback on ball or club head speed, spin and angle metrics, and apex and distance. However, the technology that your local range uses will dictate which app you need to download.

Spending time at the range with the assistance of one of these apps can go a long way to improving your game in a hurry. Without a tracking app to support your practice, it’s far too easy just simply bang away at range balls and leave no better off than you started. Range tracker apps provide fundamental data points that you can use to pinpoint areas of weakness and work on key aspects of your overall game.

For instance, you may be struggling to hold the green on your approach shots. Understanding the descent angle produced by a typical 9-iron or wedge swing can help make sense of why your ball won’t stop rolling out once it returns to the ground. Similarly, crucial course management decisions rely on an accurate understanding of how far you hit each of your clubs. At their most basic level, range trackers are excellent tools for dialing in precise distances.