Turn Your Smartphone Into Golf GPS: 7 Apps That do the Trick

Here is a list of some great applications to turn your mobile phone or smartphone device into a golf GPS. Many have free trial periods (or are totally free!). Generally, these do not have all the features of the standalone units, but at a fraction of the price they are certainly worth a try.

• GreenFinder

  GreenFinder works on Blackberry, iPhone 3G, Android, and Windows Mobile phones. You can download and use it five times for free. It gives you distances to the front, center, and back of the green, as well as distances to fairway hazards and the distance of your last shot. You can buy it after the trial for $35 and there are no additional fees: download all the courses you need. You can even mark your own courses.

• GolfShot

  Works only on iPhone 3G and costs $29.99 (no free trial). Comparable to any of the standalone golf GPS devices, and with the iPhone’s touchscreen capability you can pinpoint any spot by touching it: GolfShot will calculate the distances from your current position to that spot and from that spot to the center of the green. Shows distances to green, fairway hazards, and special layups. It also has aerial views of the course and keeps automatic staistics that are displayed with wonderful graphics.

• WeGolf

  Has a 14 day fully functional free trial and costs $56.95 for the full version. Has an electronic scorecard and statistical analysis as well as satellite tracking so you can see all your shots after the round.

• FreeCaddie

  Works on Blackberry, iPhone 3G/3GS, Windows Mobile, and Java enabled phones.This one is free (no surprise there); however, the free version is very basic, displaying only the distances to the front, center, and back of greens. If you want distances to bunkers and hazards (and of course you do), a shot distance function, the ability to map your own points, or statistics and scorekeeping, then you need FreeCaddie Pro (at a very reasonable cost of $24.95).

• ViewTi

  Works on iPhone only. There are four versions: ViewTi N, which shows numerical information only; ViewTi G, which has Greenview, a scorecard, and statistical analysis; ViewTi Golf, which has GreenView, FairwayView, scorecard, statistical tracking, and shot distance tracking; and finally, ViewTiFree, which is free and has all the features of ViewTi Golf, but, alas, it works only for the first hole. The ViewTi Golf costs $24.99 and is actually cheaper than the ViewTi G, which costs $34.99.

• AirVue

  Only $9.99 with no other fees. Features include: aerial view of the course with distances superimposed on the image; pinpoint any spot on the map and get the distance from your current position to that point and from the chosen spot to the green; distance of last shot function; over 16,000 courses already mapped.

• NRange Golf GPS

  For the Blackberry. Download and use a fully functional version free for 30 days. Thereafter, you can pay a yearly subscription of $29 or get a lifetime subscription for $85. Features include: distance to front, back, and center of the green; an outline of the green; aerial maps of the course with your position and center of the green marked; “pan and scan” to see distances to bunkers, hazards, and other points on the course; a shot distance function; over 16,000 courses mapped.