The app store is littered with golf apps that keep your stats and offer a free GPS, but we all know these won’t lower your scores without taking action. Here we’ll look at the growing world of golf practice apps and uncover those that will truly get you to your golfing goal quicker.
The best golf practice apps:
Break X Golf
Full disclosure, Break X Golf was part-founded by Will Shaw (the founder of Golf Insider UK). After spending years writing practice plans for pros and elite amateurs, based on their stats, he felt there was a need for an app that offered this service to all golfers as a low cost.
What does it do?
You enter your playing stats, say how many hours you have to practice, and it builds you a bespoke practice plan based on your data and handicap.
You can enter basic playing stats (fairways hit, greens hit, putts per round..) or more complicated strokes gained data. It then ranks the areas of your game and comes up with a targeted weekly plan.
As you tick off the challenges, you can track your progress on your dashboard, which shows how you are spending your practice time, PBs, and trends on and off the golf course.
Pros?
For £9.99/month, you get weekly practice plans that help you practice meaningfully. It is a unique solution that takes the hassle out of knowing what parts of your game to work on and how to practice them.
Cons?
It is currently a web-based app designed to be used on your phone. This means it doesn’t feel as clean as some native-based apps, but still works well on all devices. Currently, the games are in text form rather than videos of each drill, but the library of drills, skills games and ideas are growing each month.
Golf Insider Verdict
Our review will be slightly biased, so it’s best to check it out for yourself if this sounds useful for your golf practice. We find it to be a solution that helps bring practice from the driving range to the golf course, something that all of us could benefit from.
Draw More Circles
The more circles you draw on your scorecard, the more birdies you make out on the course. The Draw More Circles app is a golf app designed to help you make more birdies and get your practice session on track. Draw More Circles makes it easier to track your performance, identify key areas where you can improve, and track your overall improvement.
What does it do?
We will go through some of the key features that the Draw More Circles golf app offers, but ultimately this is all about saving time. Working on your golf game is time-consuming; you may as well ensure your time is being used appropriately.
- Data Intelligence: with the data intelligence platform, you can get detailed analytics to help you learn more about your game and what areas you need to work on the most.
- Strokes Gained: the app is a strokes gained app with column-based interface to fill in every shot you hit.
- Personalized Training Plans: Once your information is analyzed, a practice plan can be created for you. In addition, you can set goals within the Draw More Circles app and track your progress in making it to these goals.
- Coaching Capability: Draw More Circles could be one of the best golf practice apps when working with a group of students or a team; you can share data and connect it with the professionals you have in your life.
Pros?
There are a lot of great things about the Draw More Circles app, including the strokes gained technology and the personalization of a practice plan telling you what you need to work on. You can log into Circles from a computer or your phone, making it easy to access your data anytime, anywhere.
We like the ability to enter your round of golf after you have played. If you don’t enjoy playing with an Apple Watch or a phone in your hand, this could be the best golf practice app for you.
After every 5 rounds of golf, your data is analyzed again, and new opportunities for improvement are created. If you don’t want your practice routine to get stagnant, this is important.
Although many of the best golf apps allow this, we do like the ability to compare your performance against benchmark; sometimes, seeing those gains (however small) is all you need to stay motivated with your practice routine.
Finally, the whole point of investing in a golf app like this is to have a little direction as to what you can improve on, and Draw More Circles does that for you. Instead of having to stand on the range and wonder what part of your golf swing or golf game needs work, Draw More Circles gets you there.
Cons?
The pricing can get a little high with this golf practice app compared to a basic free version golf GPS app or even a practice app like Break X.
There are three options $9, $24, and $74. The $9 is limited; it’s mostly just a strokes gained app. The $ 74-a-month play version incorporates golf course management and strategy; that’s where the higher pricing comes into play. Overall the $9 and the $24 versions should be all you need to play your best golf.
Also, the practice ideas aren’t as tailored to your needs as Break X Golf, with general guidelines given, but not specific practice drills and games based on your ability.
Golf Insider verdict
If you have been using a free app for a golf GPS or even a golf practice, the Draw More Circles app will show you why paying for a golf app is worth it. If you like to practice, spend time at various golf courses, and what to get better, give Draw More Circles a shot. I would start with the $9 version and then upgrade to $24.
UpGame
UpGame is a strokes gained and golf stats app that offers some basic practice games and allows you to compete with friends. The one main issue with UpGame is that the practice plans are not customized for your ability level or the areas of your golf game that you may be struggling with. Despite this, there are some good features that this golf app offers.
What does it do?
UpGame is mostly a strokes gained golf GPS app. However, the strokes gained performance it offers can help you determine what areas of your golf game you need to work on. PGA Strokes Gained averages are offered to help you get a more detailed analysis of what it would take to become a better player.
UpGame does offer the ability to share and keep up to date with friends and coaches about the golf improvement you are seeing in your game. One of the nice features is to create a group, and within that group, people can work together for training and game improvement.
Training games are offered, and they do have leaderboard technology which makes this a little more fun. If you have ever done something like a step challenge with friends and love your stats on the golf course, UpGame will be a good fit for you.
Pros?
The UpGame app is user-friendly, data entry is not a problem, and it moves fast. If slow play is a concern of yours, the UpGame app makes it much easier to keep up with the pace of play. The premium stat tracking function is great for golfers that like to analyze their game in a lot of depth and do a little investigation into what may help lower scores.
Cons?
I feel that UpGame can increase golf knowledge and give you a great break down of your playing stats, but you will have to put a little time in yourself to develop a specific practice plan for your game. Currently, the practice features feel more like an afterthought, rather than a core aspect of the app.
Golf Insider verdict
I like UpGame for the aspiring elite golfer who wants a detailed look into how they score on the golf course. You can get some great insight into your game, but you just have to be prepared to make some of the connections between data and what your golf game needs in order to improve.
CoreGolf
We find that a lot of the best golf practice apps are tied into strokes gained technology. However, CoreGolf is all about just practicing. The app is filled with drills and practice plans that you can access and work towards mastering. Answer a few questions about your game and get information tailored to you from CoreGolf.
What Does It Do?
CoreGolf calls itself the ‘#1 Practice App for golf’. We can’t go all in on this #1 rating, but some things here are good for players lacking creativity and insight when it comes to game improvement. In other words, if you feel like you don’t know what you need to do to improve, CoreGolf can help you narrow it down.
- Library of drills: there are numerous practice plans and drills created by Shauheen Nakhjavani (PGA Tour Coach in Canada). He has more than 15 professional wins and has taught thousands of lessons. This knowledge has certainly helped him put together a large database of drills to help golfers.
- Videos: if you are a visual learner, you will benefit greatly from the videos that the app offers in conjunction with the drills.
- Result Comparison Feature: look at how you are progressing compared to how you are supposed to be progressing. If you need that little extra motivation, this feature could push you to get there.
- Performance Snapshot: get a quick visual representation of what you are improving and which areas of your game will need the most work.
Pros?
The CORE golf app works like a coach but is also a motivator to help you practice more and reach your goals. We like this app a lot for golfers that need some help when it comes to practice discipline. If you are a player that gets on a great track practicing for a few days and then quits, the CORE golf app could keep you going.
Custom plans built based on issues you are dealing with in your game are a great feature of CORE golf. Finally, feel like you have some direction when you work on your game.
Cons?
Without strokes gained capability and on-course GPS performance, you can learn only so much information about your game from CORE golf. However, if you already have an idea as to where your golf game may be weak, then this is something to consider trying.
The CORE Golf app may be a little narrow in the features it offers, but when it comes to practice tracking and detailed golf videos and information, it does quite well.
Golf Insider Verdict?
If you aren’t much of a phone person and just want a place to neatly record your practice sessions, the CORE golf app is a great idea. Looking back, the progress you have made by sticking to your practice routine can be quite rewarding.
Perfect Practice Golf
The Perfect Practice Golf App is an affordable tracker that helps players make golf practice a bit more realistic, like the golf course. The Perfect Practice Golf App features both custom and random practice modes, and it can make your time spent at the range more effective and more fun.
What Does It Do?
I’ll warn you that many of these golf apps require a lot of data entry, and Perfect Practice is no exception. For a little while, when you first start with the app, you will have to input all of your data so that you can learn which areas of the game still need the most attention.
- Challenge Games: With Perfect Practice Golf, you can play games where you are given a random challenge; it’s a bit like playing on the course and being given a different shot each time you get to your ball.
- Random Practice Mode: Feel like you hit 7 iron after 7 iron on the driving range? Random practice mode will get you out of that habit.
- Share stats: the Perfect Practice Golf app lets you share all of your stats with your teaching professional to ensure you are on the right track.
- Club Data: once you have tracked data for a certain amount of time, you can start viewing things like average distance, accuracy percentage, and even ball flight tendencies for every club in your bag.
Pros?
Perfect Practice Golf is easy to work with and streamlined, and it’s affordable at around $3.99 a month after the free trial. With this app being quite easy to work with, it’s a good choice for players that are new to golf practice tracking.
Cons?
You will need to spend quite a bit of time inputting data in the beginning. The Perfect Practice Golf website even recommends golfers consider a Tripod to be able to easily input their data. Of course, the data is incredibly important and what we can use to help our game in the future, but it is time-consuming in the beginning.
Also, if you are looking for an app with impressive or unique graphics and designs, this one is not for you.
Golf Insider Verdict
I won’t tell you that Perfect Practice Golf is the most impressive of the golf practice apps. However, it is streamlined, and it does offer you a great way to collect and then analyze some data about your game. If you are unsure if golf practice tracking is even a fit for you, this could be a good place to start.
Are Golf Practice Apps Worth It?
There are a lot of golf apps out there to choose from. Some offer on-course performance, others are just at the range, but they all aim to give us some data and direction. I’ve always been a keen practicer and work hard on my game, but I have found that practice apps help to give more direction, quicker results, and offer place to look at all of my data.
If you are a golfer that cares about getting better and needs a little direction when it comes to practice, the practice apps are well worth the money.
How much practice do I need to be doing a week?
All of the apps in our list require some practice time to play the skills games and drills. We’d suggest getting a golf practice app if you have 2 hours upwards a week to dedicate to practicing and getting better.
Happy Practicing.
