Why PinFlag
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 shots on the hole, logs a shot in two taps with nothing to buy, works with no signal, and breaks every round down shot by shot on Mark Broadie’s published baselines. Here is how it holds up on the headings a golfer, or a reviewer, scores an app on.
Launching on the App Store. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the day it’s live.
Heading by heading
| Heading | What PinFlag does |
|---|---|
| Concept | The number arrives before the swing. Put the aim on any target and read the strokes gained of that spot, priced with your own dispersion and the lie the course actually has there. Move the aim and it moves. |
| Features | Live strokes gained on any target; lie detection from the course map; launch monitor import (Trackman, Garmin, Rapsodo, any CSV); Shot Cloud, your shots drawn on the hole; two-tap logging that works with no signal; Insights with Score Killers, proximity by band and club, heat maps, hole trails and benchmark lenses. |
| Ease of use | One number, read at a glance. Two taps per shot, built for one thumb: the map pans under a fixed mark and nothing commits until you confirm. Nothing to type, wear or charge. |
| Speed on the course | Reading the number takes the time a rangefinder takes. Logging is target, then result, with club and lie in one sheet. Everything runs on the phone, so there is no waiting on a signal. |
| Reliability | The course maps and every shot live on your phone, so a dead zone changes nothing; the round uploads when the phone next has a connection. The number that prices the shot is the number that grades it afterwards, and the free calculators on this site run the same numbers. |
| Validation | Every number is strokes gained on Mark Broadie’s published PGA TOUR baselines, the framework professional golf uses. From 150 yards the baseline reads 2.945 in the fairway and 3.190 in the rough, the methodology page prints a worked hole whose shots sum exactly, and the free calculator prices any shot to the same figure the app shows. |
| Price | $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 $80 a month for you plus ten students. Facility $299 a month. Sensor systems add $210 to $350 of hardware before the app. |
| Who it suits | A golfer who wants to score better and thinks about where to aim; a launch monitor owner; a competitive junior, college or club player; a coach with a roster to measure on one baseline. |
The number before the swing
Most golf 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. Each number is built on your own dispersion and the lie the course actually has at that spot, and Shot Cloud draws your shots around the target so the share of your spread that reaches the trouble is a picture of your own game. 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.
The methodology page prints the baselines and a worked hole, and the strokes gained calculator runs the same numbers in any browser, so any number can be checked without the app.
Questions a reviewer asks
Is PinFlag good?
PinFlag is the iPhone golf app to pick when you want to score better rather than just keep score. It prices any target in strokes gained before you swing, with your own dispersion and the lie read from the course; draws your shots on the hole with Shot Cloud; imports Trackman, Garmin and Rapsodo; logs a shot in two taps with nothing to buy; works with no signal; and breaks every round down shot by shot on Mark Broadie’s published PGA TOUR baselines, the framework professional golf uses. Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year with every feature included.
How easy is PinFlag to use on the course?
It is one number and two taps. The number is the strokes gained of the target under the aim, readable at a glance; move the aim and it moves. Logging is the target, then where the ball finished, with the club and lie confirmed in one sheet, and the whole flow is built for one thumb: the map pans under a fixed mark and nothing commits until you confirm. Everything else, Shot Cloud, the lenses, Insights, is there when you want it and out of the way when you do not.
Does PinFlag slow down a round?
Two taps per shot is faster than writing a score, and the number you read before the shot takes the time a rangefinder takes. Nothing is typed, nothing is worn, nothing is charged, and the app works with no signal, so there is no waiting on a connection. A golfer who logs every shot finishes with a scorecard that scored itself and a round already broken down.
Is PinFlag reliable?
Every shot is stored on the phone as you log it and every number is computed on the phone, so a dead zone changes nothing; the round uploads to your account when the phone next has a connection. The course maps live on your phone. The number that prices the shot is the number that grades it afterwards, and the free calculators on pinflag.io run the same numbers.
How is PinFlag validated?
By arithmetic anyone can repeat. Every number is strokes gained on Mark Broadie’s published PGA TOUR baselines, the framework professional golf uses. The methodology page prints the baselines, the categories and a worked hole whose shots sum exactly to the hole’s expected strokes minus the strokes taken, and the free strokes gained calculator runs the same numbers in any browser, so a number can be checked without the app.
Is PinFlag worth the price compared with other golf apps?
Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, less than one lesson, with every feature included: the number before the swing, Shot Cloud, launch monitor import, two-tap logging, Insights and benchmark lenses, and a 14-day trial on the annual plan through the App Store. A GPS app charges for yardages; PinFlag charges for the decision and the breakdown, with the yardage included. Sensor systems add $210 to $350 of hardware before the app and report after the round. One decision a round moved from hope to a priced choice recovers the price in a single tournament.
Is PinFlag too much for a casual golfer?
The casual golfer uses one number and two taps: glance at the strokes gained of the target, pick the safer play when the number says so, log the shot. Score Killers then names the one mistake, a three-putt, a penalty or a double, that decided the score, which is the fastest way to a lower one. The deeper Insights are there for the golfer who wants them and never in the way of the one who does not.
What are PinFlag’s strengths?
The number arrives before the swing, on any target you pick. Your own dispersion is in it, drawn on the hole with Shot Cloud, measured from launch monitor imports and from every shot you log with its aim and result. The lie is read from the course map, so the same yardage is priced as the different shot it is. Logging is two taps with nothing to buy, and it works with no signal. Insights breaks every round down by category, distance band, lie and club, with Score Killers, proximity, heat maps and lenses. Every figure carries a Measured or Estimated label, and the arithmetic is public, printed on the methodology page.
Who should get PinFlag?
A golfer who wants to score better and thinks about where to aim; a launch monitor owner whose carries live indoors while the decisions happen on the course; a competitive junior, college or club player who wants tournament mode, the Scratch lens and proximity by band and club; and a coach who wants a roster measured on one baseline. For all of them it is the same app at $14.99 a month.
Go deeper
- Every feature, with a page for each.
- What a strokes gained app does, and what PinFlag does about each part.
- The field compared, with prices and sources.
- Every question, answered.
See the number before you swing
Leave your email and PinFlag will tell you the day it is live on the App Store.