Yard Buddy

Golf GPS · 19,000+ courses

Three numbers.
Nothing else
on the screen.

Front, center and back yardages from exactly where you stand. It works with no signal, and there is nothing to set up.

Get the app 1 month free, then $39.99 a year.

Courses
19,000+
Free trial
1 month
Ads
0
Settings screens
0
Yard Buddy course list with the last course played pinned at the top and nearby courses under it.
The course you played last sits at the top. Under it, the ones nearest you — a green dot means it is already on your phone.
Round screen at the tee of a par 4: 453 yards to the center, 438 to the front and 470 to the back, over a photo of the hole with a lake along the right. A circle down the fairway reads 250 to it and 203 from there to the green.
One screen for the whole round, over a photo of the hole. The circle is where your drive lands — how far to it, and how far from there to the green. Tap to move it.
The yardage card opened into a list: each bunker and the water ahead, with the yardage to reach it and to carry it.
Tap the yardage for every bunker and water ahead — how far to reach it, and how far to carry it.

What it does

Front, center, back

Every green is drawn from aerial photography, so front, center and back are measured from the real shape of the green. Read the flag and you know which one to trust.

Works with no signal

Courses sit on your phone. A dead zone on the back nine, airplane mode, no bars at all — the yardage is still there. The satellite picture needs a signal. The numbers never do.

It says the number out loud

Press the speaker and it says the yardage. Keep your glove on and your eyes on the shot.

No ads. Nothing to fill in.

Not on the course, not between holes, not ever. No forms and no settings screens: open a course and the numbers are there.

19,000+ courses,
and more every week.

Municipal nine-holers, par 3 courses and Pebble Beach are all in there, mapped hole by hole. Search by name or address. If yours is missing, tell us and we will build it.

Course scorecards, hole by hole →

HawaiiCaliforniaFloridaArizonaTexasNew YorkNorth CarolinaMichiganEnglandScotlandOntarioBritish Columbia

Apple Watch

Leave the phone in the cart.

The watch app downloads the course and measures on its own. No phone in range, no pairing, nothing to open first. Lower your wrist and it keeps the yardage coming. It comes with your subscription.

Watch screen for hole 8, par 4: front 225, center 240, back 257, with a Hole button under the numbers.
Front, center and back, each on its own line. The numbers never move.
The hole on the watch as an aerial photo, the line from you to the pin over the lake, with 240 to the center on top.
One button away: the hole from above, with the yardage still on top of it.

What you get, and what you don’t.

 Yard BuddyMost golf GPS apps
AdsNoneCommon
Taps to a yardageOneThree or four
Works with no signalYesSometimes
Watch without the phoneYes, includedSome apps, paid tier
To unlock everything$39.99 a year$40 to $100 a year
Settings to work throughNoneA screenful

The right-hand column is what we found common across the popular apps in 2026, not any one of them.

Yearly

$39.99 / year

1 month free first. About $3.33 a month. Phone and Apple Watch, every course, no ads.

Get the app

Monthly

$7.99 / month

Starts the day you subscribe. The same app, month to month. Cancel any time in your phone’s settings.

Questions

Do I need my phone for the watch app?

No. The watch downloads the course itself and measures from its own GPS. Leave the phone in the cart or at home.

Is my course in there?

19,000+ courses have full yardages today in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Spain, South Korea, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, ZA, DK, FI, AT, CH, MX, NO, MY, TH, PT, Japan, BE and ID, and 9,000+ more in 180+ countries open on a satellite photo. Search by name or address when you open the app; if yours is missing, tell us and we will build it.

How does the free month work?

Pick the yearly plan and the first month is free. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing. The monthly plan starts right away.

Does it keep my score?

Yes, simply. Tap the score box on the hole bar and pick the number — when you walk to the next tee it asks for the hole you just played. Strokes only, no putts or stats, kept on your phone.

How accurate is it?

The screen shows how sure it is of your position, in meters, at all times. Greens are drawn from aerial photography, and every yardage is measured from the green’s real shape.

Where the numbers come from

Hole shapes come from OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database License. Trees are found in public-domain aerial photography flown by the United States Department of Agriculture. Par and hole numbering come from OpenStreetMap and run through automatic checks. No measurement is ever taken from a commercial map, and our own course files are published back under the same license. Read the details.