Your guide to 1st Golf GPS

The Home screen

This is the first thing you see. Along the top are your rounds, average and best score, with your handicap index once you have one. Below them are Start a round, Add a past round, the nearest course with today's weather and sunset time, and your favourite courses.

A black bar along the bottom has four tabs: Home, Play, Rounds and Settings.

Your goal and your game

Scroll down for your goal, which starts as “Break 90” (tap Change to pick another), your handicap trend, and your game: putts, fairways hit, greens in regulation and your birdie, par and bogey split.

My bag

Tap My bag to tick the clubs you carry and set how far you hit each one. Club suggestions use these distances until you've tracked 3 or more real shots with a club.

Open the Play tab

Tap Play in the bar along the bottom.

The course list

The course closest to you is at the top, then your recent courses and favourites, then every course sorted by distance. Pull down on the list to refresh it.

To make a course a favourite, swipe it to the right and tap the star. Favourites show on the Home screen.

Search

Tap the search box and type a course name or town.

Open the course

Tap a course to open its map. The first time you open a course it downloads the hole layouts; after that they're saved on your phone.

Hole layouts come from OpenStreetMap, which volunteers draw. If a hole is missing a green, bunker or tee, you can fix it yourself (see section 7).

Open the hole and tap Start round

Each hole is a satellite map lined up to play up the screen, from tee to green, with a see-through yardage panel at the bottom. Pinch to zoom and drag to move around. Layup arcs show 100, 150, 200 and 250 to the green. When you're ready, tap the green Start round button at the bottom of the yardage panel.

Pick your tees

Choose 18 holes, Front 9 or Back 9, then tap your tees. The buttons are in the real tee colours and show the course length from each tee. Hole lengths, pars and stroke indexes change to match, on every hole.

A ≈ sign means a length is estimated, because the map doesn't have that tee's yardage. The app also looks up the official scorecard (pars, stroke index, course rating and slope) and fills in what it finds.

The yardage panel

Front, Centre and Back are your distances to the green. Under them are the plays-like distance (adjusted for wind and slope), the club from your bag that fits the shot, the wind relative to your shot with gusts and temperature, and the hazards ahead: left, in line or right, with the distance to reach and to carry them. Use ‹ › to change hole.

Plays-like distances, wind and club suggestions are Premium.

The compass

The compass in the top-right corner shows N, E, S and W, with N in red. The green arrow points the way the hole plays, and the label under it says which way that is, such as “Plays NE”. Use it with the wind to judge whether the hole plays into the wind or downwind.

Measure to any spot

Tap anywhere on the map to set a target, such as a layup spot or the corner of a dogleg.

Distance there and on

You'll see the distance from you to the target, and from the target to the green. Tap the ✕ to clear it.

Zoom to the green Premium

Tap the green button at the top to zoom right in on the green. Tap it again to see the whole hole.

Hole flyover Premium

Tap the plane button to glide from the tee down the hole, pausing on the green.

Enter your score

When you finish a hole, use – and + next to Score.

Add your putts

Do the same for Putts. Scores save as soon as you tap.

Next hole

Tap the green Next button to move to the next tee. On the last hole it becomes Scorecard, which opens your full card.

Open the scorecard

Tap the scorecard button at the top of the course screen any time during a round.

The scorecard

Each hole has strokes, putts, fairway (left, hit or right) and penalties, with your running total, score to par and Stableford points using your playing handicap and the stroke index. Enter the course rating and slope for your tees (they're on the club's card) and they're remembered for next time.

Stableford points are Premium.

Playing partners

Tap Add playing partner and enter their name and handicap. You can add up to 3, score them hole by hole from the yardage panel, and the scorecard shows a leaderboard.

Share and finish

Tap Share to send an image of your scorecard by message, WhatsApp or social media. When you're done, tap Finish round. It then appears in the Rounds tab and counts towards your stats.

Track a shot Premium

Stand by your ball and tap Track shot.

Choose the club Premium

Pick the club you're hitting from your bag.

Walk to your ball Premium

Hit, then walk to your ball. The distance counts up as you walk. At the ball, tap the green tick to save the shot, or ✕ to cancel.

Once a club has 3 or more tracked shots, your real average replaces the distance you set in your bag.

Mark your ball Premium

Tap Mark to drop a pin where your ball is. Each mark is saved with the hole, building a picture of how you played it. Tap undo to remove the last one.

Open the menu

Tap ⋯ at the top of the course screen.

What's in it

Go to the hole I'm on, Re-centre hole, Change tees, Set today's pin position (tap the green where the flag is), Hole note, Fix this hole, Favourite, Units, Find scorecard…, Refresh course data and Club website.

Fix this hole

If the map is wrong, correct it yourself: move the tee, move the green, draw the green's front and back, add a bunker or add water. Your fix is saved for next time. Reset to map data undoes your changes.

Add a past round

On the Home screen tap Add a past round, or tap + at the top of the Rounds tab.

Pick the course

Recent courses come first, then nearby ones, or search for it.

Scan the scorecard

Set the date, tees and 18, Front 9 or Back 9. Then tap Scan scorecard with camera, or Use a photo of the scorecard. The numbers are read on your phone. Tap Use as my scores on your row (and Use as pars on the par row if needed).

Lay the card flat in good light and fill the frame. Printed numbers read well; handwriting is hit and miss. (The picture was taken on a computer simulator, which has no camera, so only the photo option shows. On your iPhone you'll see both.)

Check and save

Or type the scores in with – and +. Birdies show green, bogeys orange and worse in red. Check every hole, fix anything misread, then tap Save round.

Open the Rounds tab

Tap Rounds in the bar along the bottom. Your handicap index is at the top.

Stats & trends Premium

Tap Stats & trends for charts of your game.

Your charts Premium

See your handicap index, scores and putts over time.

Fairways, greens and clubs Premium

Scroll down for fairways and greens hit, and your average distance with each club.

Open a round

Every round is listed, newest first. Tap one to open its scorecard. Swipe left on a round to delete it.

Your handicap index

Enter the course rating and slope on a round's scorecard and it gets a score differential (each hole counts at most net double bogey). After 3 rated 18-hole rounds you get a handicap index, using the best differentials from your last 20 rounds, the World Handicap System way. 9-hole rounds count too once you have an index.

It's a guide for your own use. Your official handicap is still the one held by your club.

Open Settings

Tap Settings in the bar along the bottom.

Your settings

Choose Appearance (Match iPhone, Light or Dark), yards or metres, your playing handicap, Auto-advance to next tee, 3D terrain, Battery saver, how see-through the yardage panel is, layup arcs and plays-like distances.

My bag

Tick the clubs you carry and set your usual distance with each one.

Back up your rounds

Tap Export backup to save your rounds, handicap history, shots, bag, notes, hole fixes and favourites to one file. Keep it in iCloud Drive or Files. Do this every so often, and before deleting the app or changing phones. Restore from backup loads it back.

Your rounds are stored only on your iPhone, so deleting the app deletes them unless you've made a backup.