18Birdies: Golf GPS Tracker — Recon Intelligence

18Birdies is a GPS golf tracking app trusted by 10+ million golfers that provides free yardages on 45,000+ courses, scorecard tracking, handicap monitoring, and AI-powered swing analysis to help players improve their game. It combines on-course intelligence tools with practice features, social competition, and Apple Watch integration.

8.9 Popularity

287,218 Reviews

3 Storefronts

GB, JP, US Markets Present

About — Storefront Description

Play better golf from the first tee to the final putt. Featured by Apple as "The Best App for Golfers" and trusted by more than 10 million golfers, 18Birdies gives every player a smarter way to play, practice, compete, and improve. 18Birdies helps you know the distance, choose smarter shots, track every round, and understand where your game can improve. Get free GPS yardages on 45,000+ courses, keep score, follow your handicap, review your stats, and use Apple Watch tools to stay focused. Improve your swing with AI feedback, Instant Swing Playback, Golf School training, and expert coach reviews. FREE GOLF GPS, SCORECARD & STATS Know the distance before every shot. Get yardages to greens, hazards, layups, and carries on 45,000+ courses worldwide. Keep score, save round history, monitor your handicap, and use shot tracking and stats to improve your game. APPLE WATCH GOLF TOOLS Keep your phone in your bag. Use 18Birdies on Apple Watch for distances, scoring, shot tracking, and automatic swing detection. IMPROVE FASTER Improve your game faster with advanced swing tools built for real results. Upload swing videos to the AI Swing Analyzer for personalized feedback, fault detection, and drills to help you improve. Use Instant Swing Playback to review swings and understand what changed from swing to swing. Build better habits with Golf School drills and lessons designed to help you practice with purpose. For expert feedback, submit your swing to Pro Swing Analysis for a personalized review from a certified golf coach. PLAY WITH FRIENDS Golf is better with friends. Connect, share rounds, compare progress, and create competition with side games, team formats, leagues, tournaments, and live leaderboards. FREE FEATURES - GOLF GPS RANGEFINDER: Distances to greens, hazards, layups, carries, and more - DIGITAL SCORECARD: Track scores for every round - HANDICAP TRACKER: Follow your handicap trend - STATS & ROUND HISTORY: Track performance over time - SHOT TRACKING: Capture shots and learn more about your game - APPLE WATCH: Distances, scoring, and shot tracking - INSTANT SWING PLAYBACK: Review your swing during practice - GOLF COMMUNITY: Connect with friends, share rounds, and celebrate your best golf moments - TEAM MODE & SIDE GAMES: Play Scramble, Best Ball, Skins, Wolf, and more - TOURNAMENTS & LEAGUES: Create live leaderboards for group competition - COACH CONNECT: Share your game with your coach for feedback PREMIUM TOOLS Upgrade to 18Birdies Premium for advanced tools and deeper insights. Free trial available for eligible users after download. - PLAYS-LIKE DISTANCES: Account for conditions that affect true yardage - CLUB RECOMMENDATIONS: Get personalized club guidance - ADVANCED GPS TOOLS: Plan shots with more confidence - 3D GREEN & HEATMAPS: Read slopes, breaks, and green contours - ADVANCED STATS: Analyze your game with charts, filters, and comparisons - STROKES GAINED: See where you gain or lose strokes - SMART TRACKING & AUTO SWING DETECTION: Capture your round automatically with less manual input, with or without Apple Watch - AI SWING ANALYZER: Get personalized swing feedback from video - HD INSTANT SWING PLAYBACK: Review your swing with annotations and deeper analysis - GOLF SCHOOL: Unlimited training, drills, and lessons - SHOT TRACKING INSIGHTS: Understand distance, shape, and performance - PRO SWING ANALYSIS DISCOUNT: 25% off personalized swing reviews from certified coaches

Show original (us)

Play better golf from the first tee to the final putt. Featured by Apple as “The Best App for Golfers” and trusted by more than 10 million golfers, 18Birdies gives every player a smarter way to play, practice, compete, and improve. 18Birdies helps you know the distance, choose smarter shots, track every round, and understand where your game can improve. Get free GPS yardages on 45,000+ courses, keep score, follow your handicap, review your stats, and use Apple Watch tools to stay focused. Improve your swing with AI feedback, Instant Swing Playback, Golf School training, and expert coach reviews. FREE GOLF GPS, SCORECARD & STATS Know the distance before every shot. Get yardages to greens, hazards, layups, and carries on 45,000+ courses worldwide. Keep score, save round history, monitor your handicap, and use shot tracking and stats to improve your game. APPLE WATCH GOLF TOOLS Keep your phone in your bag. Use 18Birdies on Apple Watch for distances, scoring, shot tracking, and automatic swing detection. IMPROVE FASTER Improve your game faster with advanced swing tools built for real results. Upload swing videos to the AI Swing Analyzer for personalized feedback, fault detection, and drills to help you improve. Use Instant Swing Playback to review swings and understand what changed from swing to swing. Build better habits with Golf School drills and lessons designed to help you practice with purpose. For expert feedback, submit your swing to Pro Swing Analysis for a personalized review from a certified golf coach. PLAY WITH FRIENDS Golf is better with friends. Connect, share rounds, compare progress, and create competition with side games, team formats, leagues, tournaments, and live leaderboards. FREE FEATURES - GOLF GPS RANGEFINDER: Distances to greens, hazards, layups, carries, and more - DIGITAL SCORECARD: Track scores for every round - HANDICAP TRACKER: Follow your handicap trend - STATS & ROUND HISTORY: Track performance over time - SHOT TRACKING: Capture shots and learn more about your game - APPLE WATCH: Distances, scoring, and shot tracking - INSTANT SWING PLAYBACK: Review your swing during practice - GOLF COMMUNITY: Connect with friends, share rounds, and celebrate your best golf moments - TEAM MODE & SIDE GAMES: Play Scramble, Best Ball, Skins, Wolf, and more - TOURNAMENTS & LEAGUES: Create live leaderboards for group competition - COACH CONNECT: Share your game with your coach for feedback PREMIUM TOOLS Upgrade to 18Birdies Premium for advanced tools and deeper insights. Free trial available for eligible users after download. - PLAYS-LIKE DISTANCES: Account for conditions that affect true yardage - CLUB RECOMMENDATIONS: Get personalized club guidance - ADVANCED GPS TOOLS: Plan shots with more confidence - 3D GREEN & HEATMAPS: Read slopes, breaks, and green contours - ADVANCED STATS: Analyze your game with charts, filters, and comparisons - STROKES GAINED: See where you gain or lose strokes - SMART TRACKING & AUTO SWING DETECTION: Capture your round automatically with less manual input, with or without Apple Watch - AI SWING ANALYZER: Get personalized swing feedback from video - HD INSTANT SWING PLAYBACK: Review your swing with annotations and deeper analysis - GOLF SCHOOL: Unlimited training, drills, and lessons - SHOT TRACKING INSIGHTS: Understand distance, shape, and performance - PRO SWING ANALYSIS DISCOUNT: 25% off personalized swing reviews from certified coaches LEGAL 18Birdies Premium is an optional auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID. Subscription renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel in App Store account settings. By using 18Birdies, you agree to Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ and our Terms of Service https://18birdies.com/legal/terms/ and Privacy Policy https://18birdies.com/legal/privacy-policy/.

What's New

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Screenshots

Features

Feature	Sentiment	Cited	Source	Evidence
gps rangefinder	Positive 0.62	13	description	“The yardage has never been wrong. Facts.”
player statistics tracking	Positive 0.75	8	description	“Very useful to track shots and work out your rough handicap and the average distance of your clubs”
course mapping	Positive 0.72	7	review	“So helpful to see hole layout and distance to pin!”
wearable integration	Positive 0.35	7	description	“it doesn't work well with Apple Watch. There's no facility on the watch to tell it what club you're using”
user interface	Positive 0.55	6	review	“Very impressed by the clean interface”
live scoring	Positive 0.55	5	description	“counting the scores is an added bonus”
app stability	Negative -0.40	5	review	“課金しているのに起動しないので使えない”
handicap tracking	Positive 0.68	3	description	“you can track your progression and it can actually gives you an unofficial handicap”
team messaging	Positive 0.50	3	description	“I like how I can keep up with the older and newer homies in a fun/sports focused way”
notification system	Negative -0.50	3	review	“the amount of pop up's asking to to rate/share/etc. for paying customers”
premium value	Neutral -0.20	3	review	“Recent updates have added "recommendations" which amount to advertisements which is unacceptable for a paid subscription app”
club recommendation	Positive 0.65	2	review	“giving you hints on which club to use”
ai swing analysis	Positive 0.60	2	description	“Very impressed by the clean interface and the inference's they use to understand your Strokes gained and shots”
wind adjustment	Positive 0.40	2	review	“It tells me I have a 15mph head wind when it's actually 30mph tail gusts”
course accuracy	Negative -0.30	2	review	“First time I tried this at Lexden Wood all the bunkers were wrong on the app”
battery consumption	Negative -0.80	1	review	“バッテリーの消耗が激しく、16Hで力尽きました”
customer support	Negative -0.80	1	review	“I am very disappointed by the lack of response from customer support and social media channels”
training planning	—	—	description	Golf School drills and lessons designed to help you practice with purpose
tournament management	—	—	description	Create live leaderboards for group competition, tournaments and leagues
photo video sharing	—	—	description	Share your game with your coach for feedback, share rounds and celebrate your best golf moments

Review Highlights

I was only trying to use the free version, but it automatically signed me up for 1 year and when I canceled immediately afterwards, it only cancels the next following year. Scam!!!

US · recent

Love the app

US · recent

Best score ever

US · recent

Better than other apps that omit local courses that I play at. Great app.

US · recent

So many great features and user friendly.

US · recent

Lots of fun using it

US · recent

User friendly and a lot of info on the free version

US · recent

Can’t go to basic account scam!!! No help canceling. Don’t do it

US · recent

I didn’t buy the full subscription, but I would highly recommend it just because of all the swing analysis and shot trackers. It is a very nice app, and I would recommend for any age!

US · recent

I’ve used 18Birdies for some time and I’ve how convenient it is. The greater value for me is setting targets and working on those aspects of my game. A weekend golf trip and 18Birdies gives you an option in side games and setting up your event for a convenient leaderboard in the end. If you are student of the game, I highly recommend 18Birdies!

US · recent

UPDATE: new UI update is a straight downgrade in every way possible other than adding a shot tracking icon to the main face. Can’t see your +/- on the main face, they opted for a weather icon instead (hello I’m outside I can see what the weather is) and your current score is two swipes over, one through a premium only screen. Next it’s way more annoying to swap between holes in case you accidentally don’t click all the way through your score. The new score keeping system was probably made in a day, big text boxes instead of simple icons for things like fairway hit/miss. Tap through scoring until the last page where you have to scroll down, should be kept consistent either all scrolling are straight tapping through. Can be made way more streamlined too with icons instead of text boxes. New strokes screen is slightly better I guess. Par 3’s ask if I hit the fairway or not, that’s a straight regression. There is no fairway, it’s either a GIR or not. Going to throw off my driving stats because I can’t hit my irons, great Also, the biggest thing that told me whoever designed and approved this new UI doesn’t golf: the distances for front, middle, and back of the green. They have the front distance at the top of the screen and the back distance at the bottom. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s such an obvious oversight that it makes the entire UI feels rushed and messy. Every golf app I like nukes itself to the ground. First the Grint which had the perfect UI blew it all up and put it behind a paywall and now 18birdies. Guess it’s time to go to golfshot, sorry anyone who uses it, I’m sure they’re going to blow it up in a couples months too

US · helpful

I want to use this app, I really do… but 2 things bother me. Stats have absolutely no correlation to the scores on your hole. Yeah, maybe you should just enter the accurate stats, but what if I fat finger the wrong stat and don’t notice it? You literally can record a score of a 3 but say it took 4 putts, 3 chips, 3 penalties and 2 sand shots and it is completely fine with that… why? What is the explanation? The app also lacks automatic shot tracking for every shot using your Apple Watch. It will track your drive on every hole, but after that, you have to manually remember to press track shot which just interferes with your round. If you forgot to hit track shot, you just have to wing it and hope you got it right. At least if the app dropped bread crumbs and the GPS detected your moving around the course you could go back and guesstimate. Real, true swing detection and auto shot track should be a feature. It should also correlate or at least suggest your score based on the swing locations and you should not be able to enter more stroke stats than the actual stroke you took. I really wish they would fix these features because so many other small things about this app are great. Alas… I don’t think these fixes will ever happen.

US · helpful

I really like the concept of this app. I had to mark down the review because of a recent situation this app has put me in. My wife has been complaining of me “spending too much time golfing” and “not having my priorities straight” shortly after downloading 18 birdies. The application works pretty well but failed to warn me of a ground hog that I domed on the head and significantly deceased his life expectancy. The concept is pretty fun but when I lined up my shot on the app, I hit a tree when I went to take the shot and had me questioning the accuracy of the app but overall it’s pretty good because I can add friends that I wouldn’t have otherwise. The more I write the more I realize that this app has significantly made my life a lot more difficult. I realized that the more time I spend using the application, the less I’ve noticed significant family matters that have appeared recently. After the ultimatum from my wife saying “it’s golf or me” I decided that things might have been taken too far. I quickly told her that my handicap would decrease on 18 birdies if I tried to prioritize her more and she left me. Since then I have been able to focus more on my game and I am currently ranking much higher than before. Overall decent platform

US · helpful

I don’t know what happened with latest app update, Apple Watch update, and iOS update but there is NO way to get the watch auto shot tracking working again. Worked fine every time til last week. 100+ rounds this season and now it’s dead in the water. I get gps distances. I even get “shots tracked” in the list on the watch itself…. But it never sinks with round on phone for gps movement anymore. I used to get cool dotted line everywhere I went, and little marks for each shot swung and would just fix em up at the end. Now my Hole by Hole GPS is constantly empty. Nothing. I’ve reinstalled the app, removed it from the watch and back, updated watch and iOS and app version to latest… nothing. It’s made it almost useless as a value add as all I want from premium is the swing auto shot tracking working like it did a week ago. This is horrible and untested in latest version. Get the watch and app gps to map the data as it takes the shots. Even before this if my watch died mid round or on the 17th hole… I’d lose ALL GPS and shot tracking from the watch as it would only sync at the end when finishing the round. I don’t understand why it can’t sync the gps hole by hole and the shots tracked from the watch anytime a hole scores or something. Or even just a button I could push to SYNC it before the watch died manually. Come on. The best feature in the app by far that I had used to replace my ARRCOS is now useless and if I have to renew one subscription it will be the one I can count on consistently to stay updated and work. I don’t want to be mid round hoping it captured all those drives.

US · helpful

I have been using 18 Birdies since it was developed a few years ago. We use it for our Saturday Skins and Birds rounds. Up until the recent, user interface changes it was perfect. Easy to see the leaderboard, players scores, and even guests could be included in the leaderboard. Now the new changes have made this so confusing. We spend more time adding names and having to help the guys who don’t have an account, or the technically challenged players who have no one in the group who is familiar with the app. The interface changes are inflexible. Once you put someone’s name in your group, deleting them doesn’t always remove them from your scorecard. The tournament section is gone and they changed the names of the previous sections so you have to learn the apps terminology. The font is excessively large to the point that you can’t see the entire leader board. After entering your scores there are so many menu buttons to locate what used to be simple prior to the update. I am not sure who requested all these changes or updates, but as a consumer this is my idea of have a great steak and pouring ketchup on it. You ruined it. Please give the user more options to use a scaled down version for scoring.

US · helpful

Like many, I have a group of golf buddies I play with. Many started off with using other golf apps, but I convinced them all to switch to 18Birdies. Why? It has a friendly interface, its GPS tracking is ACCURATE (I double check it with a Golf Rangefinder and they both agree on the distance /- 3 yards), it has every golf course imaginable (even the random small municipal course in your town), and it's a great way to keep track of your progress through all of your rounds (tells you your up to date handicap!). My only complaint is that it always shows your score (how many above par) as you play. In order for me to give a full 5 star rating, 18Birdies needs a setting to turn this off. Golf is as much a mental game as it is a technical/physical game. If I can have a setting to turn off the real-time score keeping (like how it is when you have a handwritten score card), then 18Birdies will be the GOAT of golf apps. For now, it's amazing but room for improvement. I hope to see this change very soon for this season. PLEASE!

US · helpful

Used this app as the free version for about a year. I upgraded to the pro when I started taking golf seriously this year. After trying multiple apps I have to say this is my favorite. Pros: - Updates real time yardage very well - Apple watch is an excellent feature - Playing with friends is by far the best things about this app - Tournaments with friends is an amazing feature - Adding the new 3D green reader id something I haven't quite gotten used to yet, but with a few sessions Im sure Ill get used to it! - The course layouts on the maps are spot on! - The pro features are great for golfers trying to see more data on the course * Theres so many features its hard to narrow down my favorites Cons: - At every round I play I always turn on the ‘battery saving’ feature because otherwise my phone wont make it through 18 holes. I see no difference in the real time updates aside from a couple of second latency delay, no big deal though. Features I’d Like to See: After each hole you can input stats for number of shots, shot stats and etc. I’d really like to be able to add notes to the end of that. At the moment theres a notepad for the round, but I hardly use it because it’s “out of the way”. Moving it to the hole-tracker stats would be a HUGE update!!

US · helpful

Great app for use on every course I have played so far. GPS is usually very accurate and helps with club selection. One thing they changed though is how many golf bucks (currency used in app to enter contests) you get per round played. You use these golf bucks to get scratch cards for 5 per scratch. You used to get 40-50 per round depending on if you played with another 18Birdies user. And another 10 for sharing your round. Now you get five for finishing a round and one to share your round while the scratch cards are still five per ticket. There are options to share your shots or share your score per hole for five GB each but I don’t understand why that gives you more than playing a full round. I get the social aspect they are pushing but that is going the wrong way with it. I don’t understand that change and had to write a review since they respond to each one it seems like. Just looking for clarification on the golf bucks change. It used to be my favorite part of the app and kept me coming back to it but now with that change, golf bucks seem pointless now

US · helpful

The major problem with the app is when using the Apple Watch. Yardages are not consistent. Example; I could be standing on a par 3 tee box and look for yardage say 140 yds. The next time I raise my wrist it displays 709 yds. And it doesn’t change til I move 10-20 yds away. These yardage discrepancies could happen anywhere and almost always every time that I use the watch a 2nd 3rd 4th time. As I stated this is only with the Apple Watch. When I use the phone yardage is always correct. This is quite annoying and does nothing to speed up play. I am currently in touch with someone from support and watch is configured as the app directs. I have deleted and reinstalled the app on both the watch and iPhone and has not improved and phone and watch os are up to date. The other thing is with support he claims that I am not responding to his emails, which I am, so there is delays in him responding to my questions. I don’t know whether there is a problem with your email system. I will follow up with another review when and If they can get it working.

US · helpful

By far an away the best golf app I’ve used for tracking scores and GPS. The nice thing about it was how quickly you could throw your strokes, putts, penalties, etc. via the Apple Watch app. It would seamlessly move to the next hole, have very accurate distances, just the best. But now the Apple Watch app no longer works. I’ve tried all the suggestions the forums and stuff have said, and it still buggers out — I attempt it every week when I play. To me, I want something that is easier than writing a score on the card, and utilizing the watch app was the way to do that. I don’t want to have to pick up my phone to enter in the scores — might as well just write it in. I’ve had to move to a different app so that I can use the Apple Watch. It’s really too bad because I had been using it for years without an issues. This issue should have been resolved as soon as the bug came to light. I’m to the point now where I won’t even check to see if it’s working, and probably won’t look back once I get used to these other apps.

US · helpful