Golf GPS Range Finder - SwingU Reviews

by Osugrad85

I pay for the premium version which lets me track the distance of my clubs. GolfGPSRangeFinder worked pretty well in general with my Apple Watch (sometimes finicky), but following the update to version 7.5.2 GolfGPSRangeFinder has become an exercise in frustration (and I don’t need any more sources of frustration while I am playing golf.). After entering a score for a hole GolfGPSRangeFinder is supposed to advance to the next hole. This used to work fine, but version 7.5.2 broke this feature. Now, I have to randomly swipe left and right on the watch for a while before GolfGPSRangeFinder figures out that I am done with the last hole and moves to the next hole so that I can start tracking my shot for that hole. And, sometimes, even when it finally advances to the next hole, it still shows distance to the previous hole even though I already closed out those shots and entered scoring for that hole. I reached out to the developer and they gave me a laundry list of things to try, all of which I have tried and none of which fixed the problem. GolfGPSRangeFinder worked prior to version 7.5.2 so hopefully they will finally realize this and fix it. Or, I may be asking for a refund.

by Xlassassinlx

As a 3 handicap I wanted GolfGPSRangeFinder to help me with my club yardages. I wanted to use it with my Apple Watch so that I don’t have to carry my phone in my pocket when playing. It was very inconsistent with the yardages and if I wasn’t close enough to my phone it would not work at all. It’s also a lot to keep track of when you are also trying to focus on your round.

I paid for a year subscription like a dummy but if it worked I would have been ok with it. I reached out twice to customer service over the next month to try and cancel it and attempt to get a refund for the full year and volunteered to pay for 1 month instead since I did try and use it and just didn’t work out. Customer service never reached out so I just gave up on it. Then about 4 months later I decided to try again for the 3rd time and warned about leaving a 1 star review and customer service actually reached back out. Customer service agent Adam Cattel told me that he would not issue the refund because I have been using GolfGPSRangeFinder for several months now and there was no emails on record from me. I forwarded the emails to him stating that I in fact did try and reach out and that if you look at my account you can see that I only tried GolfGPSRangeFinder on 2 courses within the first month. Never heard from him again. So here we are.

Long story short. Don’t waste your money on GolfGPSRangeFinder.

by PJRpjr

I used this for the first time today. I accessed the golf GPS from my Apple Watch linked to my iPhone. It was not a good experience. Way too much required interaction with GolfGPSRangeFinder . It has some interesting features, but all I really need is for the GPS to give me accurate yardage. For nearly every shot I really don’t want anything else. If I need wind and heuristic learning about my club lengths, then I can fuss with that later as a veteran user of your app. I am trying to avoid purchasing a hand-held GPS range finder which does the simple task of yardage.

GolfGPSRangeFinder needs a setting which is yardage only and give me the option to set that display as my default. I do not want to enter my score digitally or enter my club used or get instructions on the course. The apple watch is too small to do that data entry on the course, the data entry right hand has a glove, and it slows down play. Suggest making a simple swipe of apple watch screen to advance to next hole.

This needs to be automatic with very little input from me. Wrist up —> display gives me yards to green. That’s all I really need. I can do all the rest.

If this is not an available simply option, then I’m deleting GolfGPSRangeFinder and will simply get a hand-held GPS range finder or find another Apple Watch golf GPS app that has option for yardage-only modes.

Any feedback?

by Lewisbigtins

This was a total waste of time and money. All this does is focuses on the distance of each of your shots once your off the box. You say it’s for analysis and for swing u to send you advice on each type of shot you had. First of all it obvious only keeps track of 1 individual game at a time. Therefore if you have a tree sitting right in the middle of the fairway and you have to go over and around it, GolfGPSRangeFinder can’t see that and just treats it as a normal shot. There’s no room for analysis, and whatever analysis GolfGPSRangeFinder gives you would be counterproductive. Why do bunker shots only matter from 50 yds in? Just because you have to have a different type of swing from inside that distance. Doesn’t really make much sense. Why only cover recovery shots from certain distances? Also I’m at the point where if I miss the green on a chip from inside 50yds, I’m going home. This whole portion of stats are now just useless for me and just takes time for me to plug in. Swing U Versus just takes too long to record. The old way was 10x better. It looks like you guys are trying to be too sexy. Keep it simple, keep it about accuracy and the important factors that make golfers better. Distance is not one of them. If you can’t hit an approach accurately from 100yds you certainly can’t do it from 200yds so why keep track of that? Why would you want to focus on something you already know you need to improve? It’s redundant

by Mshreve

You’ll need a strong cell signal for it to work consistently for 18 holes. It has crashed out on me regularly in frisco tx. There is a strange default to using “always” for location that absolutely kills an iPhone 11 battery in 11-12 holes. It even drained my battery while it was using a usb charger during a round. The elevation data is pretty straightforward, but the wind data seemed to update in a delayed fashion, I am guessing it updates every 10-15 minutes. Some shots, wind is clearly howling and app reflects that and gives you a good “plays like” yardage, but there are too many readings where the wind is clearly not as shown in app- like a flat flag and it’s showing 20 mph indicating the wind readings are not real-time, and the “plays like” yardage can be off by 20-30 yards. Maybe it’s just Texas winds...but the advertised accuracy taking into account wind and elevation, which is why I purchased, is simply not reliable. Disappointed and would take a refund if offered.

by GeeWhee

With high hopes for a good GPS function that syncs with Apple Watch, I’ve given GolfGPSRangeFinder several months and rounds.
You have to keep the phone on and with you (in range of watch), and with all settings as recommended by Seller, the phone part works ok with distances, flyovers, etc. It’s interface with the watch is at best spotty, and often needs a swipe, reboot, or other maneuver to get the data to display on the watch, even in areas with strong cell signals. Using the scoring function was also variable; sometimes it took the data entries, sometimes not, and then needed essentially a restart to get to the data entry screen. Pretty annoying to have teed off the next hole and find GolfGPSRangeFinder is stuck on the prior hole. I often turned off the scoring function, as it was frustrating, inconsistent and too much trouble overall.
On a course you don’t know, the phone’s hole diagram and flyover could help. On a familiar course, it is “meh” at best. I’m happier with my several years old Bushnell Neo GPS watch every day.

by Rastonr

I have the paid version. Paid for a year but will look elsewhere after that’s done. The gps part is good, syncs and gives fairly accurate scores. However, GolfGPSRangeFinder constantly minimizes to background on watch. I constantly have to reopen GolfGPSRangeFinder so it shows on the watch face. Super annoying. Every 3 or 4 times when I open GolfGPSRangeFinder on my phone to start a round, it freezes and I have to close GolfGPSRangeFinder and reopen it. There is also a sync feature where if you play a round it counts as a workout on your activities under golf. This works maybe 1 out of every 10 times I play. I play golf almost everyday and GolfGPSRangeFinder overall is decent but with the bugs it becomes fairly annoying while on the course, especially since I play so often I notice it a lot more.

by Kwmeyer13

Have had GolfGPSRangeFinder for a few years now. I used to be able to use it on the course and it was pretty reliable but now it is completely unusable. I am able start the round and by the time I get to my first tee shot and check the distance to the pin GolfGPSRangeFinder crashes and all I see is a white screen. Some times I am to restart GolfGPSRangeFinder and get more then a white screen. Sometimes I am even able to enter a score, mostly though I am not. Once in awhile it will locate me on the course after restarting but then it will crash and back to a white screen it goes. I have been able to enter the scores at home when I use my iPad so I can track my rounds but GolfGPSRangeFinder is complete useless on my iPhone. I am not sure if these problems are because I have an iPhone 4s but all this started when GolfGPSRangeFinder was redone. Currently looking at dedicated gps devices right now.

by Ec Jb

I really liked GolfGPSRangeFinder and all the funtionality. The overhead satellite shots and distance calculation seems to be second to none. It had a really great interface with my watch, and gave me front middle and back of green distance. Also incredibly easy to enter in scores and know where you are in the round. Recently I found that a local course did not match up with my scorecard. I went on the website to edit the golf course, and they did have the correct information on their website. However, in my app the back nine was incorrect for nearly every hole. Their support got back to me quickly, but something is not right between the scorecard on my app and what they show on the website. For the last three weeks, I have not been able to use my Apple Watch with GolfGPSRangeFinder . I work for a company that uses Apple exclusively, and I’m all up-to-date with the latest technology. I’ve gone online and spent half an hour going through mediocre instructions on how to set up the watch. It is all to no avail. It’s very frustrating having to pull out your phone all the time and not be able to use your watch. I am going to try GolfLogix. If the watch functionality works, it has five stars. Without the watch, three stars at best. To be clear, I used this for a year and a half with no problems, then all of a sudden around the beginning of June my watch no longer worked with GolfGPSRangeFinder .

by CCrunk

The phone version of the SwingU app is pretty good. It tracks your handicap, it has an intuitive interface to input scores, and is pretty accurate on distances on the course. The club tracking is nice and the stat tracking is really informative on how you have played over several rounds too.

However, my issue with GolfGPSRangeFinder is mainly through the Apple Watch version. I’ve played 90 rounds with GolfGPSRangeFinder and the watch version FREEZES EVERY SINGLE TIME. I’ve even tried keeping my phone in my pocket while playing too, which is not very comfortable, and it still freezes. Restarting GolfGPSRangeFinder when this happens sometimes fixes the issue, but not for long. I even went out and bought the cellular version of the Apple Watch recently because I thought that it might help. No luck. It is very frustrating because I enjoy the phone app itself and get use out of many of the features. I just wish I could use the watch version more on the course and didn’t have to go to my phone after leaving every green to input my scores.

If the developers could figure out how to solve the Apple Watch bugs, this would be a perfect golf app. But for now 3/5.

by JamesParis

The free functions are great if not a little buggy. The bird’s eye view allows you to see yardage from the tee and any point you choose on the hole. When on the course it will tell you yardage from where ever you are to the flag. There are a lot of courses too. All courses in my area, including a small municipal course, are on GolfGPSRangeFinder .

The frustration is with the paid features. It’s supposed to let you track shot yardage. You select the club you are swinging then tell GolfGPSRangeFinder you are starting of the shot. Once you swing, you walk to the ball then end your shot to record yardage. This option is very buggy. Sometimes it doesn’t start recording the swing. Other times it doesn’t end the swing. At times yardage from a second shot seems to record back to the tee giving crazy yardage— I’m know I cannot hit my 4 iron 300 yards. The score keeping feature has bugs as well. Keep a paper score as backup if you care about tracking your rounds.

This could be a great app but there a lot of issues with bugs making GolfGPSRangeFinder for unreliable for anything but yards to the green.

by Casinopete

I almost never pay for apps, particularly through yearly subscriptions. But this golf app finds courses for you without any need for downloading, works easily with the Apple Watch, and scoring for you and your foursome is a breeze. The GPS works great too.

My only complaint right now is accessing your scores and making score corrections. When I finished 9 of 18 holes, the prompt (if I recall) asked me if I wanted to save my score, which I did. It then assumed I was done and stopped scoring. I then had to get back into GolfGPSRangeFinder and get to the 10th hole. All of which is minor, except it would not let me find my playing partner’s front 9 score, let alone correct an entry. Plus finding your scoring history and other golfers scoring history is very difficult.

Having said all that, I do like the rest of the functionality and am very happy with GolfGPSRangeFinder.

by Dieken22

I’ve used GolfGPSRangeFinder for over a year now with about 70+ rounds. I’ve tried others but I prefer this one. It’s easy to put in your scores, move the distance marker around, and zoom around on the hole. However, since this last update, it’s been freezing and crashing. If I have to go back and edit a score.. when I click save it either freezes for like 20 seconds and then jumps back to the map or it will just crash and I have to reopen GolfGPSRangeFinder . Luckily when it crashes I can resume where I left off, and most of the time it updates the score I was trying to change, but it’s weird it does this now. Maybe it has something to do with the ads? It never did this before you guys put ads in it. Anyways, this is an accurate, detailed (if you need it to be) well designed golf gps and scorecard app. I recommend it

by Reg From Ohio

I have been a Looper for about a year and love my SwingU app. It is even better now that most carts have a USB charger so I don’t have to carry a charger. While others are fumbling with their lasers I have shot the middle of the green, distance to the water and the bunker on the right. I love it. The electronic scoring is a bonus. My only complaint is now that I actually measure my drives with GolfGPSRangeFinder I can’t hit my driver as far as I used to.
Then came the shocker.
I have never won anything in my life. Six weeks ago I got an email from SwingU saying I had won a Scotty Cameron puttering their weekly drawing. I said great all I have to do is pay $499 for shipping and handling right? No, they said, that is free. I chose the one I wanted and one week later it arrived. Amazing. Still can’t believe it. So when they say this week we are giving away a Ping driver they are not kidding. Love you SwingU
Thanks
Reg Friesen from Ohio

by John The "Weatherman"

GolfGPSRangeFinder never worked well with my 1st generation Apple Watch. That Apple Watch was way to slow to respond to the data. Well, that watch fell apart on my arm playing golf. The face and the back fell off. I got my money’s worth out of it. That day, I picked up a new Apple Watch before going home. I had not tried GolfGPSRangeFinder on the new watch until yesterday. I was pleased with how it worked. However, I use it to just track my shots. I have a laser range finder and use to often. The Apple Watch feature is perfect for keeping up with my health date on the course. Steps showed how much I walked even when using the golf cart. During the wet winter conditions, I love being able to track my steps and other data. I like the share feature too. New 6th Apple Watch makes GolfGPSRangeFinder a must use! Even with a high dollar range finder. Sticking my iPhone in my back pocket is easier hauling that significantly heavier range finder. If Verizon didn’t charge a premium for data on an Apple Watch I’d sell my range finder.

by Dcfire

I have used GolfGPSRangeFinder for a full year and have recommended it to all my buddies. It is a great app! I would rate GolfGPSRangeFinder with 5 stars except I think it needs one feature added. I would like to be able to manually enter club distances. I sometimes forget to tag a club or I fail to finish the distance until I move to the next shot. I often know the distance, but just don't get it entered. Being able to manually enter my distances would ensure that I get more accurate club data. Please add this feature.

Additionally, the Apple Watch version needs some work. For instance, GolfGPSRangeFinder automatically goes to the scoring screen when near the green. However, if you leave that screen, to finish tracking a shot for example, there's no way to go back to the scoring screen. Also, there is no way to delete a tracked shot if you shank one and decide not to track it. If you have already entered the club, you have to delete it from your phone. In fact, I still have to keep my phone within easy reach, because the phone app version is so much more user friendly. I could not accurately score a round with just the watch.

I would also like to see the Apple Watch version use its own GPS and not the phone’s. I think this would improve the speed of GolfGPSRangeFinder since it’s slower than other apps I have tried.

One more thing. It would be nice if the Apple Watch version would automatically track a golf workout in the Workout app

Please upgrade. Thanks.

by Jimg222

I have tried most of them and this is the one I have landed on for the past 2 years. I have logged over 130 rounds with it so I believe i have a really good idea what the program can do. The basic app is great for scorecard a d putts per round. You can also measure your shot, but not save data. To unlock the full potential you need to upgrade to Looper. Yes their is an annual fee but if you are serious about tracking where you are going it is far cheaper than one lesson. You can track multiple stats, measure AND SAVE distances with each club in your bag. It also will give you advice on shots based on wind conditions and using average distances charted (be careful and dont use in usga events). I have found yardage’s are spot in although if Verizon is your carrier sometimes a few yards off from time to time but that is Verizon not the program. All in All i have found this to be top of the class in this space !!!

by BradfordF

I downloaded GolfGPSRangeFinder because I wanted distances to the green from anywhere and this has yet to disappoint. Actually was better than I expected as it gave front, middle, and back pin distances. It was within 2-4 yards of a range finder so that was a huge plus. The only downside is it would freeze occasionally on the phone which made the watch not show distances. I really wanted it to use my watch and not keep my phone in my pocket. So every now and then through a round I would have to close GolfGPSRangeFinder on my phone and reopen it for it to work on my watch. Still less of a hassle than guessing distances or buying a range finder.

by Twiganne

I love GolfGPSRangeFinder. It is the only one I use after trying several. The GPS is extremely accurate and the view of course is not bad either. I don’t even use my Garmin GPS now. I have GolfGPSRangeFinder with me everywhere I go because I carry my phone everywhere I go. I love that it keeps your score and putts. It only keeps your putt count though not those you add to the scorekeeper. It also allows you to save all of your scores and the courses you play to compare improving or slipping back. The GPS to find the courses nearby is extremely accurate and easy to use. You can even take pics and add them to your app. GolfGPSRangeFinder is the best one out there! Also it is not irritating where you have to sign in every time you want to use it. Can not stress enough the great quality of GolfGPSRangeFinder!

by Mcwhite11

GolfGPSRangeFinder has been exactly what I was looking for. A simple gps I can use on my Apple Watch while out on the course. The yardage has been accurate when checked against my rangefinder within +/- 3 yards every time I checked. Being able to select what club I just hit and track my shot is great for learning how far I actually hit each club out on the course. I haven’t paid much attention to the suggested club yet but once I get more shots saved on each club I’m sure that function will be handy. After one of the updates GolfGPSRangeFinder dropped off of my Apple Watch so I contacted the support team. Messaged back and forth several times and they reached out to the development team. Within a week of reaching out to them they had another update sent to GolfGPSRangeFinder Store and I now have GolfGPSRangeFinder back on my watch! My experience with their support team (Christi) was top notch.

by Hartlgr

I think GolfGPSRangeFinder is great but trying to use it on I watch isn’t.i have been using Golfshot and decided to try SwingU because of the price and the new looper features of wind and elevation . Unfortunately the watch experience only provides middle of the green yardages, scoring and club tracking! No looper info. My phone also died on the 10th hole! The Golfshot app has yardages for front, middle and back and hazards, club distance tracking and scoring. It also has recommended club. I have searched the internet and app for additional instruction for using looper with the watch but have not found any help. I think the phone app is great and adding a better I watch experience should be a priority!

by StarLakeGolfer

I have experienced several “simple functionality” issues during my 1st 3 rounds with GolfGPSRangeFinder = crashes requiring rebooting my iphone, lockup when trying to use the layup function (sometimes fixed itself after a few minutes of “ignoring the problem” i.e. = didn’t use GolfGPSRangeFinder & had to guess on distances to preferred landing zone... BAD), difficulty “finding” simple features like “Tee selection” for the round (how about an option in settings for “preferred tee” - if the tee is NOT SELECTED at the start of the round it seems to be IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE = BAD... some examples of a need for a more FLEXIBLE & EASIER TO NAVIGATE interface.

I don’t want to be a rocket scientist to figure out “HOW” to find “WHERE” & “when” to make a change - frustrating, on an otherwise good App with some very useful information on the “Hole GPS screen”! However, I am not yet convinced that this info is in fact accurate & useful, ex. = “plays like x yards”, helpful a bit, but sometimes bordering on “NO that isn’t going to work & my decision for club selection actually did work”.

Bottom Line... Functionality of GPS is fast, but somewhat inconsistent on reliability. User interface needs to be improved for “Setting changes” = more flexible? Layup feature, especially, needs improvement on functionality & reliability of loading - I want the answer NOW, not a few minutes from now when the players following are getting irritated!!!

by Chexjc

SwingU is my preferred golfing app to use on the course in conjunction with my Apple Watch after trying just about every other app available. I find the watch app to be far and away the most useful and practical compared to alternatives.

That said, I am disappointed to remove a star because I do not feel that the club tracking feature (which I pay for) is not accurately calculating average club distances. It is tracking data wonderfully, but my reported averages simply do not change regardless of data collected. This is frustrating because it is the feature I like most about GolfGPSRangeFinder — is this something that will be fixed in a future update?

by Jujicles

Real satellite imagery plus interactive map is the ultimate combo for trusting yardage and shot picking. You know your yardage to a tree is correct when you can see where GolfGPSRangeFinder thinks you are, and you see the satellite image of the tree with a line between the two. Easy peasy.

Been using this since it was called Swing-by-Swing. While there are a few small glitches that persist, such as score prompting mid-hole and not after hole sometimes, it’s still an amazing tool far better than catroony maps or non-interactive displays. I’d give it 5-stars otherwise.

Took 10 strokes off my game, and is freemium...can’t ask for more!

by MikeLG AZ

I’ve been using it for 2+ years. Accurate, inexpensive for the full version and works well with the Apple Watch. Support is outstanding and responsive. My course didn’t have the front and back yardages on my Apple Watch. Emailed support on Sunday, got an answer back that night and the database was updated on Monday. Unbelievable! Shot data entry is easy on either iPhone or AW. I use it on every hole to keep my stats. The wind information is good and legal for all play. I steer all my friends to GolfGPSRangeFinder ! A real value and great tool for any golfer.

by BP_Denver

I’ve been using the Swing by Swing app since it first came out and has never let me down. I use it to keep my score and statistics as well as the score of the foursome I am playing with. I love everything about it! The paid version is absolutely worth it and a bargain. The only thing I don’t like is that it isn’t linked directly to the USGA’s GHIN system. It was great to be able to post scores directly from GolfGPSRangeFinder , but that feature went away a few years ago. I’m sure that was a USGA thing, but I hope it comes back someday.

by 2sidesof49

App works great on iPhone. Quickly locates course via GPS and maps very good. When finished iPhone automatically switches to scorecard for entry. IWatch could use some tweaking, display numbers very small could use a larger font. App does not default in dock so when you raise watch to get yardage it’s necessary to select App again from dock. Would also like to see an iWatch native mode so once course played would be stored and played again without iPhone using watch GPS. I find myself launching a competing App on iWatch and GolfGPSRangeFinder on iPhone. With these fixes would easily rate a five star

by AlexanderRS1981

I’ve been playing golf my whole life and have always taken the club away inside. It usually leads to a draw, but without regular practice, timing gets off and it results in a two-way miss. I’ve tried numerous times to get it more on-plane, but its hard to re-route a golf swing after 30 years. That all changed with the commentary and 2 minute video the pro shared with me in the 1-on-1 feature. He sent the perfect drill for me to work on to think about it another way and I’ve gained significant consistency since I’ve been using this drill. It’s rare to have one drill make such a huge difference after playing golf my whole life, but thanks to SwingU for making that happen!

by Pdgutie

GolfGPSRangeFinder keeps getting modified. One wonders that perhaps these software geniuses have gone over the top. (I get 2 emails whenever we start a round. Then I get 2 more emails announcing that I have completed my round. This was a GREAT APP ABOUT 2 r visions ago. But then as a software guy I beef to stay employed, due out with another revision.

This new version 4.0 of swing by swing worked great the 2 times that I used it on golf course. I have been using this iPhone free app for about 4 years? Great App. (Only problem is it is slow and drains my battery). So my wife bought me a Garmin which lets me play 3 rounds on 1 battery charge).
I recommended the swing by swing app but after over 284 rounds, I have left for Garmin s20.

by Artis7389

The features available on GolfGPSRangeFinder for free are awesome. For less than the cost of one Pro V1 Ball per month you can do the Looper upgrade. I love it.

Shot tracking is awesome. Tip: track ALL your shots, not just the ones you’re happy with. That gives you a much more realistic picture of your averages and better club recommendations.

Basic distance feature is very helpful. I can find distances to many course features I can’t shoot with a range finder.

I also love the stats and being able to track things over time. I used to do all this manually with score cards and Excel, but now it’s done for me and available at my fingertips while I’m playing.

Great app - nothing bad to say. A couple of suggestions: the ability to add some personal notes to a hole would be cool. Also a feature to share a score card via text, email, save image etc. would be cool.