Questions golfers actually ask

One number: the live GPS distance, in yards, from where you're standing to the center of the green on the hole you picked. It updates as you walk. During a round it also appears on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. That's the whole app.

The center of the green. Never the pin. Pin positions change daily and Yardage doesn't know where today's is. The center doesn't move, and for most golfers it's the better target anyway. If you want the pin number, a laser rangefinder is the right tool for that shot.

It's phone GPS, and we won't dress that up. GPS.gov says GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft) radius under open sky, and worse near buildings, bridges and trees. Sixteen feet is about five yards. Because the target is the center of the green, a few yards of uncertainty rarely changes the club. The app requires Precise Location and tells you on screen when GPS quality is reduced.

Because it is. Under trees, beside a clubhouse, or in a phone case that blocks signal, every GPS device does worse. Yardage shows a status instead of a confident number it doesn't have. Walk a few steps into the open and tap Refresh Yardage. If Precise Location is off in Settings, the app will say so; turn it on under Settings, Apps, Yardage, Location.

No. Center only. Front, back, hazards, lay-up numbers, scoring, stats, club suggestions: none of it. That's a decision, not a gap. One number you'll use beats six you'll scroll past. If you want front and back numbers, a laser to the edges or a printed yardage book does that; the app stays out of the way.

No. The app shows the straight GPS distance to the center of the green. There's a plays-like calculator on this website if you want to do that math off the course, but the app itself doesn't interpret anything, which also keeps it simple under the Rules of Golf.

Under the Rules of Golf, a player may use a device to measure distance during a round unless the Committee has adopted a Local Rule prohibiting it (Rule 4.3a, Model Local Rule G-5). That applies to lasers, GPS watches and phone apps alike. Yardage shows distance only, no elevation, no recommendations. Check the Local Rules for your event and ask the committee if it's unclear.

Probably. Yardage ships with 14,987 courses across all 50 states. Search for it on the course directory page, or open the app and tap Find My Course. The exact live count is on the app's Start screen. Nine-hole courses are in the catalog too, and the search matches partial names.

Tell us on the For Courses page: course name, city, state. We'll check and reply by email. We'd rather be accurate than everywhere, so a course only appears once its greens are mapped. There's no number for an unmapped course; the app says so instead of guessing.

On the round screen, tap Green looks wrong? and hold to mark where the green actually is. That sends the course, the hole, the green's current map position, the position you marked and your GPS accuracy at that moment, plus an anonymous install identifier so we can tell reports apart. A person checks every report before the map changes.

The catalog today is US courses, all 50 states. If you're playing elsewhere, the app won't have your course and will tell you so. If you'd like to tell us where you play, the course-request form on the For Courses page is the place; it tells us where to look next.

Yes, once your course is loaded. The course maps ship inside the app, and GPS itself needs no data connection. Find My Course uses your location, not the network, to list what's nearby. Airplane mode on the first tee is fine.

It uses location while a round is running, which costs some battery in any GPS app. It does nothing in the background outside a round. Start the round with a charged phone; in a cart, the USB port helps. The Lock Screen number means you're not unlocking the phone on every shot, which is where a lot of the drain usually comes from.

A Live Activity. While a round is running, your current hole and the yardage are shown on the Lock Screen and, on iPhones that have one, in the Dynamic Island. Raise the phone, read the number, put it away. It ends when you end the round.

For this round without ending it: tap Stop Live Activity on the round screen (Resume brings it back). For all rounds: Settings inside Yardage, then the Live Activity switch under During Rounds. Ending the round removes it immediately. Nothing about the round changes; the number is still on the round screen inside the app.

Any iPhone running iOS 18 or later. Every one of them shows the number on the Lock Screen during a round; the Dynamic Island needs an iPhone that has one. There's no iPad, Android or Apple Watch version.

No. Yardage is iPhone only, and there's no Android app in the works that we can put a date on. If you'd like to hear if that changes, leave your email on the download page. One email if it happens, and nothing else.

No. Yardage is iPhone only. The Lock Screen and Dynamic Island are how you glance at the number without unlocking. We'd rather ship one thing that works than spread it thin.

No. Location is used during a round you started, and once when you tap Find My Course. The distance is computed on the phone. No route history is kept, and nothing is uploaded unless you tap Green looks wrong? and hold to mark a green. There's no advertising and no analytics SDK in the app.

No. There's no sign-up, no email, no password. Purchases go through your Apple ID like any App Store purchase. That also means there's nothing to reset, nothing to verify, and no password to forget on the first tee. If you change phones, Restore Purchases brings back a monthly or annual plan through Apple, not a login.

No location, in normal use. The app sends something only when you do something on purpose: a Green looks wrong? report (two coordinates, the course and hole, your GPS accuracy at that moment, and an anonymous install identifier), or asking for or opening a link to share the app, which sends that identifier. The privacy policy lists every field and how long each is kept.

During the TestFlight beta, rounds are free and unlimited. In the App Store version, your first round is free. After that: a single round, unlimited rounds for a month, or unlimited rounds for a year, at $1.99, $5.99 and $29.99. The app shows the same prices at purchase. There are no tiers and no locked features; every plan is the whole app.

Settings on your iPhone, your name at the top, Subscriptions, Yardage. Cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep access until the paid period ends. There's no account with us to close. Single rounds don't renew, so there's nothing to cancel there.

One round, for up to eight hours, counted from when you start the round in the app, not from when you buy it. It ends when you end the round, or if you leave the course, and eighteen holes behind a slow group still fits. Eight hours is also the app's round limit: a round that's never ended stops on its own at that point.

Your subscription, yes. Install Yardage on the new phone and tap Restore Purchases on the plans screen (Settings inside the app, then View Plans), and your monthly or annual plan comes back through your Apple ID; there's no Yardage login because there's no Yardage account. A single round is a one-time purchase and can't be restored, so use it on the phone you bought it on.

Yes. While the TestFlight beta runs, testers get unlimited rounds at no charge, and the App Store version starts you with a free first round too. The beta page has the details.

The website uses analytics and, when we run ads, ad pixels. If your browser is set to a European time zone, none of that runs until you choose Accept. Everywhere else it's on by default, and the notice at the bottom of the page has a Manage button with Decline. The Privacy choices link in the footer reopens the choice any time. The app has none of this, and the site works the same whichever you choose.

Email support@theyardageapp.com. A person reads it. The support page covers the common fixes: location permission, Precise Location, the Live Activity, and restoring purchases. Include your iPhone model and what the screen said; it saves a round trip. For a green that's in the wrong place, use Green looks wrong? in the app instead of email.