SwingU Golf GPS App: The App You Didn’t Know You Needed

Any guesses on how many golf GPS apps are available on the Apple and Android app stores?

For the record, we’d take a jillion as an acceptable – and probably correct – answer.

Some are free. Some are free but require in-app purchases for more functionality. And others you have to buy outright. But you do have a jillion choices and, chances are, you have your favorite. The SwingU Golf GPS app is becoming one of our favorites, partially due to its functionality but primarily due to what it can give you.

And that can be as much, or as little, as you want.

SwingU Golf GPS App: An “OG” Golf App

Before we get too far into the weeds, one thing needs to be stated, especially for you youngsters out there. If you’re too young to remember playing with persimmon woods and finding yardage markers to pace off distance, don’t underestimate just how freaking cool a golf GPS app is.

You are holding – in your hand – a portable computer/communication device that knows where you are on the planet. It knows you’re playing golf and it knows what course and what hole you’re on. It knows, within mere feet, where you are on that course and how far away you are from your ultimate goal of getting the ball in the hole.

I’m sure I speak for Boomers everywhere when I say, “Holy freaking crap, that’s cool!”

And a surprising number of those apps are actually free.

Holy freaking crap!

The SwingU Golf GPS app can lay claim to being one of the “OG” (as a Boomer I need to ask: Did I use that right?) golf apps. SwingU dates back to 2008 when it was known as Swing By Swing. It was developed by brothers Travis and Terrence Giggy and their coder mom.

“They were golfers and thought every golfer should have a free GPS app because the technology was out there,” says SwingU Owner and CEO Charles Cox. “They didn’t spend any marketing money, they just earned it by going toe to toe with Golf Logix.”

Cox bought Swing By Swing in 2016 and rebranded it as SwingU.

“We took it from being a very commoditized GPS rangefinder app and focused more on the committed golfer who truly wants to get better.”

App-Based Improvement

SwingU is a free download, and you can use the GPS portion of the app for free for as long as you like.

“The average Joe can use our app and have a blast with it,” says Cox. “Hopefully, it will help him make better decisions and play better golf. But we’re focusing on the player who truly wants to get better.”

The free version features an accurate, battery-efficient GPS, a digital scorecard with basic stats, a free unofficial handicap after three rounds, manual shot tracking and Apple watch connectivity that provides front-middle-back distances.

(If that’s all you want, you can skip the rest of this article, download SwingU and head for the course.)

For players who want more, SwingU offers two tiers of for-purchase upgrades: SwingU Plus and SwingU Pro.

SwingU Plus features an AI-powered digital caddie that provides “plays-like” distances, taking live wind speed and elevation into account. It will also give you club recommendations. And it includes Strackaline green maps for more than 14,000 courses worldwide along with other useful features.

SwingU Pro adds a proprietary Strokes Gained function as well as a full package of performance stats. SwingU Pro provides you with a relative handicap for each part of your game and includes a Post Round Priority game-improvement drill from a Top-100 instructor that’s based on your actual performance that day.

“We have the easiest-to-use Strokes Gained data platform in the world, in my opinion,” says Cox. “It doesn’t require any hardware. All you need is a phone. Data entry is easy and we’ve developed some shortcuts that have been proven out over the past 30 years to make it even easier.”

Software Versus Hardware

“We’re trying to give every amateur a caddie and a data coach so they can get better faster,” explains Cox.

If that sounds a lot like Arccos Caddie or Shot Scope, that’s because it is. There are a couple of key differences, however. First, while ARCCOS and Shot Scope collect your shot data automatically, SwingU requires you to input your data manually. We’ll dive into that one shortly.

Second, both Arccos and Shot Scope require hardware: sensors: a watch or a Link unit along with an app. SwingU is not in the hardware business.

“We don’t believe in hardware,” says Cox. “Hardware has bugs. Hardware breaks. You can lose it. But most importantly, hardware misses shots and is never completely accurate. GPS simply isn’t good enough to tell you that you have a three-footer versus a six-footer.”

If you’re truly dedicated, you can track every shot manually simply by pressing “Track” on the screen, telling the app which club you hit and then heading to where the ball lands. You then hit “End” and the app knows how far your shot went. Then you do it all over again.

Surprisingly, Cox isn’t a shot-tracking fan.

“In my opinion, it’s a little silly. If you only track 7-irons that you flush, it may tell you your average distance is 175 yards. But what if you don’t enter the times you hit it 145 or 150? It’s gimmicky.”

Well, if SwingU doesn’t use shot tracking to determine Strokes Gained, how does it work? The answer might surprise you.

Strokes Gained Simplified

If you want to get better faster, there’s no substitute for Strokes Gained. It’s a stat-based system that identifies where you’re gaining or losing strokes relative to other golfers. Strokes Gained takes ego out of the equation and objectively pinpoints strengths and weaknesses so you can practice with purpose.

Almost everyone credits Columbia professor Mark Broadie with developing Strokes Gained back in 2007. Everyone, that is, except Cox.

“Peter Sanders is the SwingU data officer,” says Cox. “Back in 1989, he developed a program called ‘Strokes Lost and Saved.’ Three years later, he launched his ShotByShot Complete Game Analysis system that would give you a ranking for each part of your game.”

Sounds a bit like Strokes Gained, doesn’t it?

Sanders is credited with developing Zach Johnson’s par-5 lay-up plan the year he won the Masters. Additionally, Sanders helped establish the Strokes Gained protocol used by Arccos through his company ShotByShot. SwingU bought Sanders’ company in 2022.

Through 34 years of research, Sanders has narrowed the important Strokes Gained data down to only a few pieces of input that start at the green and work backward to the tee. SwingU wants to know, in order, the distance of your first putt, how many putts, the distance of your approach shot and whether you hit the fairway off the tee.

If you didn’t hit the green, it wants to know if you had a good opportunity to hit the green, a difficult opportunity, no shot at the green (which would require a punch out or a layup), a red-stake penalty or a stroke-and-distance OB or lost ball.

“If you don’t feel like inputting all that info while you’re playing, you can input it after the round,” says Cox. “All you have to remember is your approach distance and your first putt distance.”

Strokes Gained Versus “Scorecard” Stats

Data can get overwhelming. Isn’t just keeping track of “traditional” stats like fairways hit, greens in regulation, sand saves, up-and-downs and total putts enough?

“Traditional stats are very misleading,” says Cox. “They’re one-dimensional answers to a multi-dimensional game.”

Of the traditional stats, greens in regulation might be the most relevant when it comes to Strokes Gained. After all, you’re on the green in two shots fewer than par and you have a birdie putt. You must be doing something right. Putts per round, on the other hand, isn’t very useful. If you duff your first chip and then knock your second to tap-in range, That’s one putt. But does that mean you’re a good putter?

 “Do you balance your checkbook by counting the number of checks you wrote?” asks Cox.

SwingU does offer a coach’s package. A club teaching pro or instructor can buy stat packages for his students and use those stats to cut to the chase during lessons.

“Ask any golf coach and they’ll tell you: golfers lie during lessons,” says Cox. “It’s not necessarily intentional. It may just be a lack of self-awareness about their own personal biases. We’re removing that bias from the game improvement process.”

SwingU Golf GPS App: Costs and Options

As mentioned, the basic SwingU golf GPS app is free to download and use for as long as you want. SwingU Plus includes the AI-powered caddie feature and “plays-like” functionality that takes wind and elevation into account. It can also give you club recommendations based on shot tracking or user input and it includes Strackaline green-reading maps.

SwingU Plus is $49.99 per year. It can also be purchased on a monthly basis.

SwingU Pro is $99.99 per year and includes all the SwingU Plus features plus the Strokes Gained package, an extensive instructional video library, post-round improvement priorities with personalized drills and a relative handicap for each part of your game.

There’s always a debate over subscription fees. Shot Scope, for instance, sells you the hardware (watch and sensors) and offers the tracking and data packages at no cost. Arccos, on the other hand, sells sensors and other hardware and charges a monthly fee for the Caddie service.

To put SwingU into perspective, three years of SwingU Pro will cost $300. That’s the same as the new Shot Scope X5 GPS watch, which gives you shot tracking and an aggressive Strokes Gained stat package. It does not, however, give you wind or elevation info, club recommendations, drills, videos and improvement priorities.

An Arccos Starter Bundle with Link will run you $340 with the first year of ARCCOS Caddie included. After the first year, it’s $12.99 per month or $158.88 per year. So, three years of Arccos Caddie will ultimately cost over $650.

But since there’s no hardware involved, you can download the SwingU app while walking from your car to the pro shop. And you can be ready to roll by the time you hit the first tee with a seven-day free trial of SwingU Pro.

SwingU Golf GPS App: Final Thoughts

As mentioned, there are a jillion golf GPS apps. Most do a nice job of giving you the hole layout and the important real-time distances. They start to separate themselves in the form of options, features and add-ons. If you like your golf straight up, simple GPS might be all you need, and those extra features just get in the way.

But if you want to get better, Strokes Gained can help you get there quicker. It’s the cold, unvarnished truth about your strengths and weaknesses and it points you in the right direction for practice and improvement. When it comes to data packages with golf GPS apps, you do tend to get what you pay for, so it comes down to what you’re willing to pay for. And how much you’re willing to work the data you get.

“I play a lot of golf,” says Cox, whose handicap dropped from 5 to plus 0.2 in a little over six months of using SwingU Pro. “I want everyone to play better. It’s the best feeling in the world. And the more people we can help have the feeling, it’s tremendously fulfilling for me.”

The SwingU app is available for both Android and iOS. For more information, you can visit the SwingU website.