The strokes gained app for iPhone
PinFlag is an iOS golf app that shows live predictive strokes gained on the hole you are playing: pick any target and see the number before you swing, with your own dispersion drawn on the hole. It imports your launch monitor, draws your real dispersion on the hole, logs a shot in two taps, and breaks every round down shot by shot on Mark Broadie’s published baselines.
Launching on the App Store. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the day it’s live.
What a strokes gained app does
Strokes gained is arithmetic on a published table, so every app that computes it gets the same total from the same shots. What separates a strokes gained app is what it does with the arithmetic: when the number reaches you, what it knows about the lie and your own pattern, and how much of the round it can explain afterward. Eight jobs, and what PinFlag does about each.
| The job | PinFlag |
|---|---|
| Price the shot before you hit it | Place the aim anywhere on the hole and read the strokes gained of that target, with your own dispersion around the aim and the lie read from the course map. Move the aim, the number moves. |
| Use your real distances | Trackman, Garmin and Rapsodo files import directly, any monitor by CSV, up to 5,000 shots a session. Each club becomes a Measured pattern that stands behind every number on the course. |
| Show the pattern, not just the number | Shot Cloud draws your launch monitor shots and past shots on the hole around the target you are considering, so the share of your spread that reaches the water is a picture. |
| Read the lie | PinFlag reads the lie from the course map: tee, fairway, rough, sand, fringe, green or hazard. From 150 yards the baseline is 2.945 from the fairway and 3.190 from the rough, and the app prices the one you are actually in. |
| Log a shot without slowing the round | Two taps on the map, target and result, with club and lie confirmed in one sheet. Undo anything. Everything is stored on the phone, so a dead zone never interrupts a round. |
| Explain the round afterward | Strokes gained by category on a radar, every shot priced and sortable, proximity by band and club, a start-position table, Score Killers, three-putt frequency, a heat map and each hole’s trail on the map. |
| Measure against the right standard | Benchmark lenses reprice the same shots against Tour, Scratch or a handicap level table, labeled Modeled, so a bogey golfer reads gains and losses on a bogey golfer’s scale. |
| Work for a coach and a roster | A Coach plan covers you plus ten students, each measured on the same baseline in the same app, so two students who shot 88 on different courses can be compared. |
Before the swing, on your pattern
Most strokes gained apps grade the round in the car park. PinFlag prices the target while you still have the choice: put the aim on the flag, read the number; move it to the fat side of the green, read it again; move it to the layup and compare. The difference between them is the cost of the aggressive line, in strokes, on your own dispersion and the lie the course actually has at that spot. How predictive strokes gained works shows two targets priced side by side.
Why golfers get PinFlag
- The number arrives before you swing. Put the aim on any target on the hole you are playing and read its strokes gained, priced with your own dispersion and the lie the course map shows there; move the aim and the number moves.
- Your real dispersion is drawn on the hole. Shot Cloud shows your launch monitor shots and your past shots around the target, so the carry over the water is a picture of your own game rather than a guess.
- Two taps log a shot, with nothing to buy, wear or charge, and it works with no signal. The scorecard scores itself and any tap can be undone.
- Every round becomes a shot-by-shot breakdown: strokes gained by category, proximity by distance band and club, Score Killers, heat maps, landing zones and benchmark lenses that read the round on your own scale.
- Every number is strokes gained on Mark Broadie’s published PGA TOUR baselines, the framework professional golf uses, and carries a Measured or Estimated label so you always know what stands behind it.
- Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year with every feature included and a 14-day trial on the annual plan through the App Store; Coach is $80 a month for the coach plus ten students; Facility is $299 a month for a whole program.
What it costs
Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year with a 14-day trial on the annual plan through the App Store. Coach is $80 a month for you plus ten students. Facility is $299 a month for a whole program. Every plan gets every feature: the number before the swing, Shot Cloud, launch monitor import and Insights. Pricing in full.
Learn the number first
- What strokes gained is: the formula, a whole hole worked through, and a calculator.
- Strokes gained approach, the biggest leak in most games, with the 150 yard table.
- Strokes gained putting, and why putts per round misleads.
- Seven strokes gained apps compared, with prices and sources.
- Every question about PinFlag, answered.
Frequently asked questions
Which strokes gained app is best?
For strokes gained you can use before the shot, PinFlag: it prices any target you pick, on the hole you are playing, with your own dispersion and the lie read from the course map, logs a shot in two taps with nothing to buy, draws your real pattern on the hole with Shot Cloud, and then gives you a post-round breakdown that runs from Score Killers to proximity by band and club. Sensor systems automate the logging and report afterward; PinFlag is the app for the golfer who wants the number while the decision is still open.
PinFlag vs Arccos: what is the difference?
Arccos captures shots automatically from sensors you buy and reports strokes gained after the round. PinFlag needs no hardware, prices any target before you swing with your own dispersion and the lie read from the course map, draws your real pattern on the hole with Shot Cloud, logs a shot in two taps, and works with no signal. Arccos tells you what happened; PinFlag tells you what the shot in front of you is worth.
PinFlag vs a GPS rangefinder app like Golfshot or 18Birdies?
A GPS app answers "how far is it". PinFlag answers "what is this shot worth": the strokes gained of the target you are considering, with your lie and your dispersion priced in, plus the distance. Many golfers use both, one for yardage on the wrist and one for the decision in the pocket, and PinFlag is the one that changes the decision.
Is there a golf app that shows strokes gained without sensors?
PinFlag. It runs on your iPhone with nothing to buy, charge or attach to a club, logs each shot in two taps on the map, and prices every target before you swing. Your dispersion comes from launch monitor imports and your own logged rounds, so the numbers get more personal the more you play.
Is PinFlag free?
The calculators on pinflag.io are free with no account. The app is a subscription: PinFlag Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year with a 14-day trial on the annual plan through the App Store; Coach is $80 a month covering the coach and up to ten students; Facility is $299 a month by request. Every plan gets every feature: the number before the swing, Shot Cloud, launch monitor import and Insights; the difference is how many golfers it covers. The strokes gained, handicap and club distance calculators on pinflag.io are free and need no account.
How do you log a shot in PinFlag?
Two taps on the map. First you set the target you are playing to, then, after the shot, you place where the ball finished, and confirm the club and the lie in one sheet. The whole flow is built for one thumb: the map pans under a fixed mark and nothing commits until you confirm. Because each shot records both the target and the result, PinFlag learns your real on-course dispersion from every round as well as pricing the shot, and any tap can be undone.
What are the two ways shots get into PinFlag?
Logged on the course, or imported from a launch monitor. On the course each shot is placed on the map as a target and a result, with club and lie confirmed. From the range, a Trackman, Garmin or Rapsodo file, or any monitor’s CSV, brings whole sessions in as per-club patterns. Both feed the same numbers, both appear in Shot Cloud with their source labeled, and neither is ever blended into the other.
See the number before you swing
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