The match,
on your wrist.
Yardages measured on the watch, a score carded with the crown, and the group's board a swipe below it. The phone stays in the bag for the whole round.
Download on the App Store
Three screens, one swipe apart
What do I hit, what did I take, where do I stand. There is nothing else to find — no menu, no settings, nothing to learn on the first tee.
The hole card
Back, centre and front to the green, stacked the way the hole is laid out. Hole and par across the top, and whether you get a shot here down the side.
152yards to centre · the fourteenth, par 4
Score entry
Turn the crown to the number, press to save. Par is the implied value, so a par costs one press and nothing else — and grey means nothing is recorded yet, colour means it is.
1press to card a par
The board
The whole field, not just whether you're leading — the margin, the chaser, and ties held as ties rather than broken alphabetically. A between-holes screen, which is why it sits past the two glances.
T1two players level thru 13
Measured on the watch
The yardages come from the watch's own GPS, from where your wrist is standing. It used to be the other way around — the phone measured and the watch displayed — and that failed on the course: the phone locks its screen in the cart, iOS suspends its location, and the wrist goes on showing a number that looks perfectly live. Anything not measured locally now says so on screen.
It stays awake for the round
A round runs as a workout, which is what keeps a watch app measuring instead of being suspended the moment your wrist drops. It closes your rings as a side effect.
Turn the crown to change holes
One input, no swipe to compete with the pager — it works with a glove on and without looking. It ignores the crown while the display is dimmed, so a sleeve doesn't scrub you to the sixteenth.
A tap when the match turns
Three patterns, meant to be told apart with the watch under a sleeve: a rising one when you take the lead, its mirror when you lose it, and two light clicks when somebody in the group goes low. Raise your wrist within a few seconds and a line tells you which it was.
Silent patterns only
Every one is from the light, non-alert set. The alert patterns carry an audible chirp on a watch with sound on, and a chirp while a playing partner is over a putt is an etiquette problem, not a preference.
One tap per update
Four players finishing a hole at once is one thing that happened, not four. A wrist that buzzes four times is a wrist that gets its notifications turned off.
Watch questions
Is the watch app a separate purchase?
No. It comes with the iPhone app and installs alongside it — same free download, nothing extra to buy and nothing extra to find.
Do I still need my phone with me?
Yes, in your bag. The watch has no connection of its own: it renders what your paired iPhone sends it during a round, and it sits idle until the phone says a round has started. What it saves you is taking the phone out, not carrying it.
Where do the yardages come from?
The watch's own GPS, measured from where you're standing to the front, centre and back of the green. If it ever has to fall back to the last position your phone reported, it says so on screen rather than showing you a stale number that looks live.
Can I enter scores from the watch?
Yes. Turn the Digital Crown to the number and press to save. Par is the implied value, so carding a par is a single press, and the score is grey until it's stored and coloured against par once it is.
Does it need permission to track my health?
It asks to save your round as a workout, which is what keeps the app awake and measuring for eighteen holes. Decline it and scoring, distances and the leaderboard all still work — but the app may stop updating when you lower your wrist.
Which watches does it run on?
Any Apple Watch running a current version of watchOS and paired to the iPhone you play with. The layout is built for the small screens as well as the large ones, and there is nothing to configure on either.
The rest of the trip
Play the next one without the phone
Free on iPhone. Bring the whole group — one code and they're in.
Download on the App StoreOn Android? We'll email you when your build is ready. One email, nothing else, ever.
