18Birdies: Golf GPS Tracker 4+

I’ve been using the free version of this app for about 2 years and I really like it. I tend to use it mostly on my watch unless I can’t connect for some reason and have to use my phone. I love that I can determine the distance of each shot and it’s very accurate with the various distance markers at the courses.

I can’t say I love the new watch version however. I really use it to keep score and determine yardage distances. With the new version, it’s a lot harder to just go the basics. I also found that it’s not syncing with my activity rings. When I started using it 2 years ago, I had to manually start my golf activity to record my steps and calories. Then it started to record my activity automatically, even though it didn’t call it golf. My last few rounds, the activity had not been tracked. I tried to find a setting to change it, asked a question on the phone app about it, but still not sure if it’s possible to automatically have it record my activity.

I’ve recommend this to all my friends with Apple Watches because I’ve tried a few other apps available and this is still the best!

Hey there 👋 Thank you for taking the time to leave this great review! We're happy to hear you find the app valuable, though we'd like to learn more about some of the trouble you've described. We’ll see if we can find your contact information but please send us an email at support@18Birdies.com with any additional details.

This is a great app. Elevation changes don’t always work great in areas where it is really hilly and possible shotty phone service. I also much preferred the old shot tracker. The new one is way to complex and harder to use. Takes more time to get the exact post up of the shot and could lead to misleading shot yardage’s. The old one allowed you to move the pins to disk in the exact location and give you a read. If it was not for that I would give 5/5 rating.

Edit* After further use of the app I am still just as unpleased after the recent update and will be looking for other apps. Golf bucks are worse in every way now, elevation changes do not show up most of the time, shot tracking is extremely inaccurate and hard to use (due to lag and takes longer to dial in your location which just adds to length of round and takes your actual focus off playing golf), and wind is always off. Bring back the older version or make significant improvements. That being said the yardage’s are accurate and good. Nice for keeping score.

Greetings jjsand1788, we appreciate your feedback and want to assure you that the recent changes to the GPS screen and tracking are part of the first phase of an overall plan to make the app more awesome and easier to use. This is also the same with GolfBucks, as we are using customer feedback to make this program even better. Regarding the elevation changes, you are correct that there are some occasions where the elevation readings can be affected by cell reception and the mappings of golf courses. Have you experienced this at multiple courses or just one? Please contact us at support@18birdies.com for further assistance and so we can take a look at the courses.

I want to use this app, I really do… but 2 things bother me. Stats have absolutely no correlation to the scores on your hole. Yeah, maybe you should just enter the accurate stats, but what if I fat finger the wrong stat and don’t notice it? You literally can record a score of a 3 but say it took 4 putts, 3 chips, 3 penalties and 2 sand shots and it is completely fine with that… why? What is the explanation?

The app also lacks automatic shot tracking for every shot using your Apple Watch. It will track your drive on every hole, but after that, you have to manually remember to press track shot which just interferes with your round. If you forgot to hit track shot, you just have to wing it and hope you got it right. At least if the app dropped bread crumbs and the GPS detected your moving around the course you could go back and guesstimate.

Real, true swing detection and auto shot track should be a feature. It should also correlate or at least suggest your score based on the swing locations and you should not be able to enter more stroke stats than the actual stroke you took. I really wish they would fix these features because so many other small things about this app are great. Alas… I don’t think these fixes will ever happen.

Hey OneBey, we appreciate your review and your valuable feedback! While we aren't able to provide a guarantee or timeline of when these features will be available, we're happy to let you know that these features will be included in a future release. If you have any other suggestions, we would love to hear them. Please don't hesitate to give us any additional suggestions or feedback by sending us a an email at support@18Birdies.com.