I Put Golf Pad Head-To-Head Against 18Birdies

There is a lot of cool gear in the golf equipment world that doesn’t always fit neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.

What we tried:

Golf Pad. Golf Pad is a free golf app focused on scoring, GPS and stat-keeping. It’s an alternative to 18Birdies, GHIN, TheGrint, and a number of other golf apps.

Who tried it:

Tyler. Soft Goods Testing Manager and certified sports card pack-ripper. Over the last two years, I’ve used both the 18Birdies and GHIN apps, making me very familiar with this type of technology.

What I liked:

Statistics

The first thing that blew me away was how “in your face” the statistics are. I consider myself a major numbers guy and enjoy getting into the weeds a bit. The Golf Pad app has everything you need, and more, to track your game and see what needs additional work.

Golf Pad gives you “Strokes Gained” statistics for a number of different categories including by club, off the tee, approach, around the green, putting and overall. I learned pretty quickly that my 9-iron cost me the most strokes during testing.

As you can see from the image above, I really struggle to hit greens: 22 percent is nothing short of abysmal and keeping my putting under 2.0 has been the saving grace for maintaining an average handicap.

Seeing these statistics that Golf Pad offers has helped me change my perspective on a couple of things.

1. I average just over 2 double bogeys per round and at least 1 blow-up hole.
   With this knowledge, I can set benchmarks to cut down on the big numbers. Golfers have a tendency to compete in the wrong ways. When you see your own statistics and a high tendency to make double bogeys or worse, you’re motivated to cut that number in half and compete against yourself as the Golf Gods intended. 18Birdies provides similar data, but the bar graph illustration that Golf Pad offers speaks to me in a more direct way.
   
2. Play to your strengths.
   When the data is right in front of you, it’s much easier to play to your strengths. If you know you’re a really good putter but struggle with your approach, hit the ball to the spot with the highest likelihood of getting up-and-down. (This is also known as maturing as a golfer.)

Shot tracking is stellar (when you remember to use it)

The shot tracking feature is great. Knowing each club’s distance on the actual course is a major bonus. Golf Pad not only offers distance tracking but dives even deeper with strokes gained by club along with shot dispersion.

Having access to these numbers is big in terms of understanding the clubs you should favor and which clubs to avoid all together.

What I disliked

1. The UI is more on the boring side.
   This shouldn’t deter you from giving the Golf Pad app a try but the user interface felt very “vanilla” to me. I’d appreciate a more inviting design that calls me back to the course like the box of gluten-free Oreos calls to me at 11:30 p.m.
   
2. Handicap estimates are currently non-existent in the U.S.A.
   I’ve been informed that some type of handicap estimate is arriving in the coming weeks but it wasn’t there during testing unless you wanted to set it up with a USGA sync (which usually costs money).
   
   I’ve used 18Birdies for long enough to appreciate the handicap they give me with updates after every posted round. I know 18Birdies leans closer to a vanity handicap than a USGA certified handicap but I’m not planning on playing in tournaments any time soon. I want to see the number fluctuate. If you’re looking for a free handicap that consistently fluctuates, Golf Pad needs to implement something better before it’s the app for you.
   
3. 18Birdies outperforms in terms of hole-by-hole statistics.
   If you’re tracking every single shot using Golf Pad’s shot-tracking feature, you won’t care nearly as much. 18Birdies does a better job of quickly illustrating the number of chips, greenside sand shots, putts and other metrics. If you’re willing to track every shot, this isn’t an issue, but it can be tedious to click shot tracking several times per hole.
   
   

Additional free features

• GPS to front, middle, back
• Scorecard for up to four golfers
• Aerial course views
• Nine- and 18-hole score tracking

Additional premium features

• Better golf-watch accessibility
• Green contours
• Scorecard for up to eight golfers
• Offline course maps
• Ad-free
• Other scoring modes (Stableford, match play, skins, nines)

Should you make the switch to Golf Pad?

I’ve got two reasons you should start using Golf Pad and two reasons you shouldn’t.

Why you should:

1. Golf Pad offers an annual premium subscription for $29.99. They have quite the laundry list of features included in their free version but you get much more on the premium model. If you compare Golf Pad’s premium offering versus 18Birdies, you’ll notice that Golf Pad is $70 cheaper. For what you’re getting, Golf Pad’s premium offering is much better than 18Birdies.
   
2. You’re dissatisfied with your current golf app or have never used a golf app for scoring and stat-tracking in the past. There’s nothing wrong with testing the waters and Golf Pad is a solid place to start. Golf Pad can be simple or complex depending on your needs. If you’re new to golf app technology, it’s worth trying out.

Why you shouldn’t:

1. If you’re comfortable with your current scoring app, I’m not sure switching is the best move. The old adage of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” comes into play here. If you have 18Birdies or another competitor that you’re satisfied with, stay there. All things considered, you can at least download the free version and toy around with that before making the official switch. If you do decide to make the switch, you can request previous rounds to be added to Golf Pad from other competitors which can make switching make more sense but also adds more work.
   
2. You’re looking for barebones scoring and GPS. If you’re looking for scorekeeping and simple GPS mapping, Golf Pad and other advanced golf apps will overwhelm you.

Taking everything into account, I’m confident in putting Golf Pad a small step below 18Birdies but a slight step above most other basic golf apps.

It has everything you need, and more, in terms of scoring, GPS and statistics and I’m told more features are in the works. If you’re a new golfer looking for a premium app that’s about one-third of the cost of 18Birdies, Golf Pad is for you.

Download the app, poke around a bit, and let me know in the comments how it compares to your current golf app.

You can download and test the app for free by clicking this link.