Every once in a while, us normal golfers and hacks like to feel as though we're professionals. We have competitions and tournaments, sometimes just among our buddies and golf family. And, thanks to mobile phones and apps, we can also run our competitions and tournaments with live leaderboards and scoring so everyone involved and anyone interested can keep track of the action as it unfolds from anywhere in the world.
Pretty cool, right?
There are a bunch of good live scoring and tournament tracking apps and platforms out there, so it's up to you to pick the one that best suits your needs. Here are some our picks.
Best live golf scoring and leaderboard apps
- Golf Genius: Golf Genius is an app that is ubiquitous in golf these days at most every level of competition. It is subscription-based (though free trials are available), but it can take care of pretty much anything your competition requires: pairings, scoring, live leaderboards, displays on TVs and mobile devices and a variety of formats.
- Squabbit Golf: Squabbit Golf allows competition hosts to create individual competitions using six different formats for as many golfers as you'd like for free, featuring tee sheet management, real-time scoring, leaderboards, stats and a live competition feed so players can interact with each other. It's available for Android or iOS, and there's no fee.
- Golfify: Golfify allows competition hosts to create individual-, team- and group-based competitions up to 400 people for free, featuring tee sheet management, real-time scoring, leaderboards, stats and a live competition feed so players can interact with each other. It's available for Android or iOS, and for the premium tier, there's an annual fee of $56 to run events.
- VPAR: VPAR is one of the original live golf scoring apps out there, offering their services to individuals through their app on iPhone and Android devices. Users can set up a variety of game types with players on the app, giving the players and interested onlookers a way to keep tabs on the action. The app also has a GPS function and will help you set up challenges to keep your game progressing even when you're not playing in tournaments. VPAR is a paid service for clubs and organizations holding regular events as a benefit for their members.
- 18Birdies: 18Birdies is a golf social network which has a whole variety of functions, including live scoring with friends and other players who aren't members of the network. You can keep track of multiple side bets, team competitions and more common game types. You can then share this competition on your live feed, giving access to the people in your 18Birdies network so they can see the game unfold.
- Galf: Galf's a great app for games with multiple groups or whole tournaments. That's because the app allows you to easily pick a course, set up a game, help arrange groups (even randomly) and then have a live leaderboard for everyone involved. The Galf app tracks statistics, accounts for handicaps in gross and net games, and it'll take the leg work out of figuring out how close you might be to the group behind you with a few to go.
- BlueGolf: BlueGolf is the gold standard in golf tournament apps. They're the software used by pretty much every developmental tour, PGA of America section and Monday qualifier you can imagine. They have a service for individual golfers which lets them utilize their platform's power, including setting up games, groups and live scoring that includes updates on all the open bets.
- Golf GameBook: Golf GameBook is a helpful app if you're running a group or a regular game with a lot of action. It tracks 25 different game and bet types, which is fantastic. It also has a GPS and stats function, so it can do more than just tab up scores. You can connect with those golfers in your group and networks so you can track their games and rounds, just like a social network.
