iPhone Golf GPS Application Reviews: Golfshot
Golfshot is our favorite golf GPS application for the iPhone, not only providing a tremendous feature set, but also delivering great value at just $29.99. Golfshot provides both a text list of distances for a number of targets on each hole and satellite images with the ability to zoom and pan. The design of the scorecards and statistics, along with the ability to view on the iPhone, email, or view online, is simply fantastic. An exceptional range of user settings is the icing on the cake.
We could go on, but will instead simply state that if you are searching for an iPhone golf GPS application, look no further.
Pros:
- Satellite images with ability to zoom and pan
- Can determine distance to any point on the hole, and distance from targeted point to the center of the green
- Large number of targets and hazards marked
- Thorough, extremely well designed statistics pages, both on the iPhone and online.
Cons:
- Adjusting account preferences will cause a delay while syncing back to the Golfshot database, regardless of type of change
Price: $29.99
Click the iTunes link for details.
Course Availability
Critical Golf Test: Golfshot was the tops in our comparison of course coverage for iPhone applications, coming in at a solid 95%. Coverage across all course types and regions was relatively equal.
Manufacturer’s Claims: Golfshot claims to have 33,000 courses in its database worldwide, which places it tops among its iPhone application competitors.
Starting a Round
The Good: Golfshot starts to load all satellite images when you begin the round, so in most cases there is no delay as you move either between zoom levels within a hole or advance between holes. And unlike some iPhone golf GPS applications, Golfshot allows you to begin play as soon as the first hole images are available, rather than forcing you to wait until all course images are loaded. Even better, if you are playing in a shotgun event, Golfshot will load the hole you advance to first then process the others afterwards – the only application tested that will allow this.
The Bad: As with any iPhone golf GPS application, it can take awhile to load the images for even just one hole, depending on wireless coverage, so it’s best to launch Golfshot before heading to the first tee (or better yet, prior to heading to the course).
Details: From the main menu, you have the choice to either Play Golf or, if you haven’t ended the last round, resume a round in progress. When you choose to Play from the main menu, you can view a list of nearby courses (listed by distance from your current location), a list of courses you have played in the past, browse for courses, or search for a course by name. You then simply select the course, select the tees you will play, add golfers to your round for scoring, and begin. If you are playing in a new region, don’t forget to turn on syncing for that region to make sure courses nearby are available. If you forget, sources in that region won’t appear in the nearby courses list nor will you be able to search for them.
Ease of Use
The Good: Simply fantastic. Golfshot has the cleanest and most user-friendly interface of all the iPhone golf GPS applications we tested. Two screens provide all the distance information required, one through images and one via text. Holes are always shown from the same viewpoint with the player at bottom of screen and a blue dot indicating the player’s position.
The Bad: We would prefer if some key target distances were provided within the satellite image, simply to have some context to start the hole. In addition, understanding some of the nuances of the interface requires either playing a number of rounds or reading the manual (the nerve!) – for example, the hole number is circled in blue, yellow or red to indicate par 3s, par 4s or par 5s, respectively. These little tricks are fantastic for conveying a vast amount of information in a nice clean display, but may not be intuitive to the first time user. Fortunately, users can view the entire user manual from within the application if desired.
The original version of Golfshot automatically launched the scorecard each time the iPhone was turned horizontally, which unfortunately happens all the time when you move the iPhone in and out of your pocket. The latest version addresses this issue – through the settings menu the player can decide whether the scorecard will be launched through rotating the iPhone, or if it needs to be launched manually. Thanks for listening, Golfshot!
Details:
- Buttons. Like other iPhone golf GPS applications, everything is accessed through touchscreen buttons – those buttons that appear on screen and are touched to navigate the application.
Upon launching the application, users are presented with a screen with big buttons that can be selected to: - Play a round (or resume your round, which is a fantastic option in case you exit the Golfshot application and then return),
- View historical statistics,
- View scorecards from past rounds, or
- Adjust account information/user settings, including entering the type of clubs carried in your bag (which feeds into the clubs from which you can select when entering statistics), selecting whether the scoring and statistics functions are enabled, et al.
- Battery Life. Every iPhone golf GPS application that we tested, including Golfshot, was a battery hog unless managed tightly. While the iPhone will auto-lock to conserve power during periods of inactivity, thereby shutting down the GPS signal, Golfshot allows the user to keep the GPS on while dimming the screen if desired so users can more quickly get distance readings. See our intro to iPhone golf GPS applications for additional ways to conserve battery life during play, and we highly recommend the purchase of an iPhone battery pack.
Buttons are clearly labeled and intuitive. The user interface generally allows accessing different features without returning to a main menu – for example, the same row of buttons generally appears at the bottom of every screen, allowing the user to go to the next or previous hole, change hole views, utilize the scorecard or access information about the hole. This type of design makes the application easy to learn and easy to use, and is something we hope more application designers will copy.
Entering score and statistics is a cinch – Golfshot uses slot-machine style rollers (to which most users of iPhone applications are accustomed) for selecting the statistic to be entered and for entering the actual data. And as mentioned above, you can even turn off some of this functionality and buttons if you prefer to keep things simple.
Course Detail and Mapping
The Good: The ability to select any point on the course and receive both the distance to the point, and the distance from the point to the green. Golfshot also provides a comprehensive listing of hazards/targets on the hole.
The Bad: Not applicable!
Details:
- Views. Golfshot keeps the interface nice and clean, with its Aerial and GPS Target views. At 250 yards from the center of the green, Golfshot will advance to a view of the green and approach area, if in Aerial view (see below), or will drop one target point from the Target view and show the distance to the green in a larger font.
- Aerial view – The Aerial View is , as expected, an aerial satellite image view of the hole that provides (a) two levels of zoom, (b) the ability to place the crosshair anywhere on the hole to receive both the distance to the selected point and the distance from the point to the green, and (c) the ability to pan up, down and side to side on the satellite image. The zoom will focus on wherever the user has placed the crosshair (the default crosshair position is the green). If layup targets are activated, they will be displayed on the center of the fairway in this view (see more on layup targets, below). When the user selects a target point, the distance to that point appears below the crosshair and thus is usually blocked from view by the user’s finger. Golfshot deals with this nicely by briefly displaying that distance at the very top of the screen, where the distance to the center of the green is normally shown. Again, the attention to detail is top-notch.
- GPS Target view – The GPS Target view is a text listing of all mapped hazard/target points on the hole. Our experience was that the Golfshot provides the most comprehensive set of hazards/targets of any of the iPhone golf GPS applications we tested (we saw up to 17 points mapped on one hole, Golfshot claims up to 40 on a hole). As a bonus, the “Layup Distance” feature enables users to enter the distances they hit certain clubs (if I tell Golfshot I hit my pitching wedge 117 yards, for example), and create a target that tells the distance to that layup point (i.e. the application will list the distance to “117 Pw layup”). As with many features of the Golfshot application, users have the ability to turn off the layup distance functionality.
- Hole Information. The hole number and par are available on all screens views for the course. Hole handicap is not available.
- Custom Mapping. Like other iPhone golf GPS applications, Golfshot does not allow users to add custom hazards and targets to the course map. As described above, however, it does allow users to add up to four custom layup points, which will appear in both the GPS Target (as target symbols) and Aerial views.
Suggestion Box: It would be useful to have the distances to certain hazards/targets available on the Aerial View, so users could quickly see distances to specific points without having to touch the screen to select them. We also would prefer there be an easy way to clear targeted points from the screen (without advancing a hole and then returning, as is required today).
Features
The Good: Golfshot has the largest number of features and settings available of any iPhone golf GPS application. Moreover, the excellent design makes the features and settings easy to find and easy to use.
The Bad: Auto advance to the next hole would be nice.
Details:
- Shot Tracking. Golfshot has the ability to track the distance of shots. The method of activating the shot tracking (you touch the hole number) is probably the least intuitive design choice – but it’s there, and once you learn where it is, it’s easily accessible.
- Score and Statistics. Golfshot provides standard inputs for scoring (score and number of putts) along with the ability to enter the club used off the tee, the location of the drive (fairway, or miss left/right), the number of sand shots, and the number of penalty strokes.
- Impressively, Golfshot is smart enough to restrict the entry of certain statistics based on what is actually possible for the hole – i.e. you won’t be able to enter that you had a 5 on the hole with 4 putts and 2 penalty strokes. It may seem minor, but again, it’s this type of detail that sets Golfshot apart. There are also statistics available for each hole, so you can see your historical averages for fairways hit, GIR (Golfshot does a calculation to back into whether or not you had a GIR based on score and putts), score and putts for that hole as you play.
- You can pause (this will not save your scorecard, but keeps it available to start the next time you launch Golfshot) or save a round at any time. When you save a round, the scorecard will be automatically e-mailed to you, nicely formatted with a link to the full set of statistics available online (along with historical scorecards and statistics). Statistics are available both during the round or via computer following the round (the same information is available on both). Users also may change scores and statistics after the round in case a mistake was made. Impressively, users can select a date range or last number of rounds and view statistics for that custom period as well.
- The scorecard screen displays the score and putts for each player on a given hole, along with their score relative to par.
- Auto-Advance. Golfshot will not auto-advance from hole to hole, so the user needs to manually advance to the next hole.
- Preferences. Golfshot allows the user to modify a wide variety of settings, including the ability to turn off most of the features. Users can thus simplify the application as much as desired. Hey, choice is a good thing!
The barrage of preference settings includes customizing layup distances and clubs (mentioned previously), hole statistics, aerial view, the display of handicap strokes received per hole, yards vs. meters, what clubs are in your bag (you can enter for the tee shot on each hole what club was used), what geographical region of courses to regularly sync and more.
Suggestion Box: Whenever account preferences are changed, Golfshot goes through the process of syncing back to the Golfshot database. Most changes shouldn’t require syncing to the database so we are unsure why this extra wait is required.
We would prefer if users were able to go directly to a hole to edit scores or stats if there was an error, instead of having to advance through each.
Mapping Accuracy
Mapping Accuracy: Golfshot showed solid mapping accuracy – in our test rounds on a variety of courses, we found the distances displayed by Golfshot to stay within 3-4 yards of those displayed by marked tee boxes and sprinklerheads.
Retail Price: At $29.99, Golfshot was in the middle of the pack in our comparison test.
Fees for Access to Course Database: There is no cost to access the course database. All courses are included within the cost of the application.
Three-Year Total Cost of Ownership: With only a one-time fee of $29.99, Golfshot is average in our three-year cost comparison across applications.
Value: The Golfshot golf GPS application for the iPhone provides the best value for the money among the applications we tested, offering the best features and functionality at an extremely reasonable price. It’s worth every penny.
Price: $29.99
Click the iTunes link for details.
Tested: v1.5
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