The iPhone app for strokes gained before you swing.
Launching on the App Store. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the day it’s live.
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.
Its six features: live strokes gained on the hole you are playing (pick a target, see the number before you swing), lie detection (fairway, rough, sand, fringe or green, read from the course and priced in), launch monitor import (Trackman, Garmin, Rapsodo, and any CSV), Shot Cloud (your launch monitor shots and past shots, drawn on the hole you are playing), shot tracking (two taps, works with no signal, undo anytime), and Insights (every round broken down shot by shot: strokes gained by category, proximity by band and club, Score Killers, heat maps, hole trails and benchmark lenses).
Most golf apps grade your round after; PinFlag prices the shot before you swing and draws your launch monitor shots and past shots on the hole you are playing (Shot Cloud). You pick the target, PinFlag prices it with your own pattern and the real lie, and the decision is better for it. Built for iPhone, launching on the App Store.
How it works on the course: you pick a target, PinFlag prices it in strokes against the published expected strokes tables, and it shows the number. Your lie is part of that number, and so are your own distances once you have imported them. Nothing has to be typed and nothing has to be worn or attached: you place the target and the result on the map with one thumb, the app reads the lie from the course map, and every shot records where you aimed as well as where it finished.
Every number PinFlag shows is strokes gained: the expected number of strokes to hole out from where you are, minus the expected strokes from where the shot finishes, minus one for the stroke itself. The expected strokes tables are Mark Broadie’s published PGA TOUR baselines for tee, fairway, rough, sand, recovery and putting, the same framework professional golf uses, priced at every yard and every foot.
On the course, PinFlag prices any target before you swing. Put the aim on a spot on the hole and it computes the expected strokes from that spot, using the lie the course map shows there (fairway, rough, sand, fringe, green, or a hazard), the exact distance to the pin you placed, and your own dispersion around that aim. Move the aim and the number moves with it. A target in water or out of bounds is priced with the penalty stroke included.
Your dispersion is yours. Import a Trackman, Garmin or Rapsodo session, or any monitor’s CSV, and PinFlag builds a per-club pattern from your carries labeled Measured. Until it has your data it uses a benchmark pattern labeled Estimated, and it never blends the two: exactly one source stands behind any number, and the label says which.
Logging a shot is two taps: place the target, tap where the ball finished, confirm the club and the lie. Everything is stored on the phone as you play, so a dead zone never stops a round, and any tap can be undone. When you finish, every shot carries its own strokes gained and the round adds up to a scorecard that scores itself: strokes, putts and penalties, with a per-shot ledger you can audit.
Insights reads only from those logged shots: strokes gained by tee, approach, around the green and putting; the season across rounds; approach proximity by distance band and by club; where each hole’s strokes went. A benchmark lens lets you frame the same shots against a modeled scoring level instead of the TOUR average; it is labeled Modeled and it is not a handicap.
Shot Cloud draws your launch monitor shots and your past shots on the hole you are playing, around the target you are considering, so the pattern you actually hit is visible on the ground you are about to hit into.
The decision stays yours, with the arithmetic done. PinFlag prices whatever target you point at, with your pattern, the lie read from the course map and the pin you placed, and shows the number: you bring the wind and the situation, and the choice is better for having both. Every number carries a Measured or Estimated label so you always know what stands behind it.
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.
The decision stays with you, with the arithmetic done. Put the aim on the flag, the fat side of the green or the layup and read the strokes gained of each; you bring the wind, the ground and whether you need a birdie, PinFlag brings your pattern and the published tables, and the choice is better for having both.
Every number carries a label. Measured means it came from your own recorded data. Estimated means a benchmark pattern is standing in until your data exists, and importing a session or logging rounds moves numbers to Measured on their own. The baselines are Mark Broadie’s published tables, the same framework professional golf uses, and the methodology page shows the arithmetic in full.
Who it is for: a golfer who thinks about where to aim and wants the cost of that decision in front of them; a launch monitor owner whose carries live indoors while the decisions happen on the course; and coaches and facilities who need a roster measured the same way, on one baseline.
Frequently asked questions
What is PinFlag?
The iPhone golf app that shows live predictive strokes gained on the hole you are playing. You pick a target and it prices that target in strokes before you swing, using your lie and your own distances, then breaks every round down shot by shot afterward.
How is PinFlag different from other golf apps?
Most golf apps grade the round after it. PinFlag prices the shot in front of you, before you hit it, with your own dispersion and the real lie, and draws your actual shots on the hole with Shot Cloud. You choose the target with the cost of every option in front of you.
What is live or predictive strokes gained?
Strokes gained computed for a shot you have not hit yet. Instead of grading the shot afterward, PinFlag prices a target before you swing: it takes the expected strokes from your current lie and distance, the expected strokes from where the ball would finish at that target, and your own dispersion around the aim, and shows the strokes gained of choosing that spot. Move the aim and the number moves. It turns strokes gained from a report card into a decision aid you use while the decision is still open.
Which golf app shows strokes gained before you hit the shot?
PinFlag, on iPhone. On the hole you are playing you place an aim point anywhere, and the app shows the strokes gained of that target using the lie the course map shows there, the exact distance to the pin you placed, and your own dispersion pattern around the aim. Pick a different spot and the number changes. It is the number that answers "is this the right target" while you still have the choice, and PinFlag is built around it.
How does PinFlag predict strokes gained for a target?
It projects your dispersion pattern around the aim point, prices where the ball is likely to finish from the expected strokes table for that lie and distance, and subtracts that from the expected strokes where you stand, minus one for the stroke. The lie at the target comes from the course map; the distance comes from the pin you placed; the dispersion comes from your launch monitor carries once you have imported them, and from a benchmark pattern labeled Estimated until you have.
How does PinFlag know my lie?
From the course itself. Every hole ships as a course map: tee, fairway, rough, bunkers, fringe, green and hazards. The app reads your position and your target off the map and prices from the matching table; from 150 yards the published baseline is 2.945 strokes from the fairway and 3.190 from the rough, so the same yardage is priced as the different shot it is. You confirm the lie in one tap when you log the shot, and the app reads the map for you.
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.
What is Shot Cloud in PinFlag?
Your launch monitor shots and your past on-course shots, drawn on the hole you are playing around the target you are considering. Instead of a dispersion number, you see the actual pattern you hit with that club laid over the fairway, the rough and the water in front of you, so the decision is made against your real spread on the real ground. Shot Cloud is priced live: the strokes gained for the target already reflects the pattern you are looking at.
Which launch monitors work with PinFlag?
Trackman, Garmin and Rapsodo files import directly. Every other monitor, SkyTrak and Foresight included, imports through a mapped CSV: you tell PinFlag which column is the club and which is the carry, set the units, and the session comes in, up to 5,000 shots at a time.
What stats does PinFlag show after a round?
Strokes gained by driving, approach, short game and putting, per round and across the season on a radar; a per-shot list sortable by start distance, lie or proximity; fairways, greens in regulation and putts derived from the shots; approach proximity by distance band and by club, with best, median, share inside 15 and 30 feet and dispersion circles; a start-position cross-tab of distance band by lie with greens hit and strokes gained per cell; short-game proximity by lie; up-and-downs and sand saves; three-putt frequency and make rate by distance; Score Killers, which counts the three-putts, two-chips, penalties and double bogeys that cost whole strokes; a heat map of leaves around the hole; landing zones off the tee; and each hole’s shot trail on the map.
What is a benchmark lens?
A different expected strokes table for a chosen scoring level, derived from the published TOUR tables and labeled Modeled in the app. Switch the lens from Tour to Scratch or a handicap level and every logged shot is repriced against it, so a bogey golfer reads gains and losses relative to a bogey golfer instead of a TOUR player. It changes what you are measured against, never what was recorded.
How accurate is PinFlag?
PinFlag prices every shot on Mark Broadie’s published PGA TOUR baselines, the same framework the tour uses, at the lie and the distance in front of you rather than a typed guess: the lie is read from the course map, the distance from the pin you placed, and your dispersion from your own launch monitor sessions and logged rounds. Every number carries a Measured or Estimated label so you always know what stands behind it, and the free calculator on pinflag.io prices any shot to the same figure, so a number can be checked without the app.
Does PinFlag work without cell signal on the course?
Yes. The course maps live on your phone and every shot is stored on the phone as you log it. A dead zone never interrupts a round; the round uploads to your account when the phone next has a connection, and every number is already computed on the phone.
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.
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 I get PinFlag?
PinFlag is launching on the App Store for iPhone. Leave your email on the download page and PinFlag will tell you the day it is live; coaches and facilities can start with a plan request today.
What does PinFlag cost?
Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Coach is $80 a month covering up to ten students, and Facility is $299 a month. Golfer's annual plan starts with a 14-day trial and Coach with a 7-day trial that requires a card; Facility is set up with us directly. Every plan gets every feature: the number before the swing, Shot Cloud, launch monitor import and Insights.
