Apple Watch golf GPS

Maybe and old topic but I’m wondering what is the best Apple Watch gps that doesn’t require the iPhone to be nearby. I have an Apple Watch 4 and it has an internal gps. I would prefer to just use that and not have to carry my phone in my pocket. A good example would be a cart path only day. Sure I can count it off or carry my phone in my pocket. Just wondering if anyone knows of a good one that doesn’t require the iPhone.

Thanks
Sean


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A friend of mine uses an App called Swing by Swing. It has course maps, provides yardage and you can keep score. The yardage is pretty accurate when we compared it to a rangefinder as well as what was seen on the sprinkler heads.


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Golfshot works well but it dings the battery quite a bit. Also its premium service is some what reasonable.

I was overall pretty disappointed with all the Apple Watch apps I tried to the point I just stopped using it. Sometimes it was WAY off, especially 100 yards in. I recall my doubts kicking in when I was trying to decide which wedge for a pitch to the green on a short par 4. My eyes told me around 60ish but the watch said 80ish to the center. 80 yards is a full 60° for me so I swung away having decided to trust the watch instead of my 42 y/o programmer eyes ... and watched it easily sail the green. My buddy shot it with his rangefinder and, of course, my eyes were right.

Which, honestly, I should have just KNOWN would be the case because ... well, my professional career is that of an iOS developer. GPS on these devices is simply not accurate enough regardless of the software ... since they're all using the same hardware. I guess I assumed some amount of improvement in the hardware since I last worked with CoreLocation but it just wasn't there.

I could go into detail as to why some things - like navigation on roads - are more accurate but that's a far more nerdy discussion.

Hole19 is what I use.

There is a trick to get it to work with the watch's GPS. Start hole19 on the phone, then open the watch app, then disable bluetooth on the phone.

I walk, so my phone is always in my bag and my bag is mostly next to me, so have not needed to try the trick.

Thanks for the responses. Guess I will have to just try and see what results I get.

Sean



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Interesting! I’ve been using Swing x swing (Swing U) on my iPhone, but I’ll have to give this a try on my watch next round!