Golf GPS App or GPS Watch? What Casual Golfers Actually Need
Comparing golf GPS watches and phone apps for casual golfers: what you actually need for yardage, and why a simple app usually wins.
The two ways to get your yardage
When you search for a golf GPS tool, you'll mostly find two kinds of products: a wrist-worn GPS watch (brands like Garmin or Bushnell), or a phone app. Both tell you the distance to the pin. The watch is a separate device you buy just for golf; the app runs on the phone you're already carrying in your pocket or cart.
What a GPS watch actually costs you
A dedicated golf GPS watch usually runs somewhere between $150 and $400 to buy, and some models add a yearly course-update fee on top of that. You also have to remember to charge it before every round and keep track of one more piece of gear in your bag. For a serious competitive player who wants a watch on their wrist during a swing, that trade-off can make sense. For someone who plays for fun a few times a month, it's a lot of money and hassle for the same basic number: how far to the pin.
Why your phone is usually enough
Your phone already has GPS built in. A good golf app uses that same location signal to show you the same yardages a watch would, the distance to the front, middle, and back of the green, and any hazards in the way. You don't buy new hardware, you don't charge a second device, and you're not staring at a tiny watch face trying to read the number. Fairway is built around exactly this: open the app, see the number to the pin, and keep your scorecard for the round, all from the phone you already have.
When a watch might still make sense
If you're a competitive or scratch golfer who wants stats during your swing without pulling out your phone at all, a watch has a real advantage. That's genuinely a different use case than most recreational golfers have, and it's worth being honest about instead of pretending a watch never helps anyone.
The simple version for casual golfers
If you play golf to relax, keep score with your group, and want to know how far it is to the pin without spending hundreds of dollars on a new device, a phone app covers what you need. Fairway is $0.99, once, no subscription: GPS yardage, a digital scorecard, and course maps in one simple app.
Fairway keeps a round to three things: yardages, a scorecard, and course maps.
Get Fairway for $0.99