Getting started with PinFlag

Get PinFlag on your iPhone from the App Store, sign in, pick your course, and start a round. On the first hole you place the pin on the green, put the aim on the target you are playing to and read the strokes gained of that spot before you swing; after the shot you tap where the ball finished and confirm the club and lie. That is the whole loop, and every later feature grows out of those two taps.

Nothing is required. If you own a launch monitor, import a session first so every number on the course is built on your own carries and labeled Measured from the first hole; without one, a benchmark pattern labeled Estimated stands in and logged rounds still produce full strokes gained. The Set Dispersion editor lets you state a pattern for any club by hand, and imported carries take precedence the moment they exist.

Under the aim. On the hole you are playing, the map pans under a fixed mark; wherever the mark sits, PinFlag shows the strokes gained of playing to that spot, using the lie the course map put there, the distance to the pin you placed and your own dispersion. Move the mark and the number moves with it, so comparing the flag with the middle of the green is two glances.

On the green, by hand: pan the map until the mark sits where today’s hole is cut and confirm it. Every distance on the hole, every target you price and every putt you place is measured to that pin, and the pins you set during a round are yours. Location, when it is available, places you faster; map placement works with no fix at all.

About as long as keeping a scorecard, because each shot is two taps: the target before you swing and the finish after it, with the club and lie confirmed in one sheet. Nothing is typed, nothing is worn or charged, it works with no signal, and any tap can be undone, so a round of 90 shots is logged without slowing the group.

Insights: strokes gained by driving, approach, short game and putting, a per-shot list you can sort by start distance, lie or proximity, fairways, greens and putts derived from the shots, Score Killers for the three-putts, two-chips, penalties and doubles, and each hole’s shot trail on the map. Rates that need more shots than one round provides show the count and wait, so nothing on the screen is a percentage two shots cannot support.

No launch monitor is needed to start. Logged rounds produce full strokes gained on their own, and the number before the swing runs on a benchmark dispersion pattern labeled Estimated until your own data exists. A launch monitor session makes the pattern yours and moves the label to Measured; so do the shots you log on the course, because each one records the target and the result.

Every plan starts with a 7-day trial through the App Store, card required, with every feature included: the number before the swing, Shot Cloud, launch monitor import and Insights. The strokes gained, handicap and club distance calculators on pinflag.io are free and need no account, and they run on the same baselines as the app.