Is there a Golf GPS app for the Apple Watch Series 2 that is "native" to the watch, that is, does NOT have to be linked to an iPhone on the golf course?

I have had the MS Band 2, found it fiddly and unreliable on the course- auto shot detection a joke. I sent it back. Tried TomTom Golfer2, again auto shot detection a waste of time. I sent it back.

Invested in Apple Watch2, downloaded TrackMyGolf and paid for Premium - £15 per year! It uses the GPS on the watch. The yardage and scorecard is nice and easy on the watch, however the autoshot detection is also very unreliable. Editing post round in phone app is fiddly and buggy - I lost over an hour of edits - agggh! I will not be renewing subscription.

Just tried my first round with FunGolf...was not very "fun" and would change name to "FrustratingGolfApp". The iPhone app is nice, great graphics, fast on GPS distance update, but we all bought Watch series 2 assuming someone would build a killer golf app - still waiting. 1) even though my settings were correct (allowing location services), neither the app or watch could keep track of what hole I was on. 2) the watch app would shut down - I'd reopen, and it would flash for a second then close again - not good for speed of play or frame of mind! 3) When it worked for a few holes - the watch and phone app were good on distance and the scoring on the watch is cool and syncs nicely on the phone app.

Hate to be so demanding, but I'd expect a golf app WITH GPS to track what hole I'm on, and maybe STAY ON, and if possible not add to stress level when golfing...is that too demanding? If no new golf watch app soon will be selling iWatch and going back to Garmin...

FunGolf? More like FrustratingGolf! Do not buy this if your purchasing for use on your watch (as I was). While the phone app is fine, the watch app is flakey at best and falsely advertised on their website to smoothly use native watch GPS (from fungolf.com); “You own an Apple Watch Series 2 ? FunGolf knows how to use its internal GPS. The distance we show is measured against yourself, not the iPhone you left in the golf cart.”

In Reality – Fungolf support told me “phone is always the default GPS, unless you turn your Bluetooth off, and before doing that make sure you’ve played the course at least once so it “mapped” onto your watch, and it’s best to just keep the phone in your pocket!” Blamed it on an Apple IOS shortcoming.

During 1^st round the FunGolf app would just shut off on my watch sporadically (not fun), 2^nd round at a different course it worked fine tethered to the phone, and gave great distances from the cart my kid was driving to his ball! So my experience, and support staff confirmed, the GPS is tethered to the phone. So why did I get a Watch 2 w/GPS? My buddy was laughing at me when I tried defending; “tech support said after a few rounds, it might map to the watch, and I may be able to shut off Bluetooth, and it will maybe work like my old Garmin…..” and I realized this is too much hassle for something that should just work!

Support was great - however was not looking to interact with a support desk - wanted a watch app that worked as described. On top of that I've paid $20 to download courses?

Bottom line: I wasn’t looking for a cool app for my phone (which this is) but rather a way to use my GPS enabled Apple Watch 2 on the golf course. Unfortunately this is not the solution and I would recommend against anyone buying an Apple Watch 2 for golf – there are no apps yet!.

Just installed FunGolf GPS app, which is claiming it is using the Apple Watch series 2 GPS when available. Some statistics say that the iPhone was 70% and the Apple Watch series 2 was 85% of battery live after a 5 hours golf-game starting with a full charge. I haven't use it yet, but I am going to try it soon. If anyone else used it, please let us know.

This works perfectly fine. Once you have played at a course, it's automatically saved to your iWatch 2 for easy loading. Just like any other GPS device, prior starting you must search for the closest course were you would like to play. Once you configure the round (15 seconds tops), turn your watch into airplane mode and you're done. The golf GPS will go off you watch and not your phone. At the end of the round, if you want to save your score, club stats, and more, turn airplane mode off, and it will automatically save to your device and then push to the cloud.

I'm very happy with the product, but also seems to be the only golf GPS app that goes off your iWatch 2 embedded GPS.

Hi

You may find this app of interest:

PING

• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ping/id440740108?mt=8
• http://www.ping.com/about/insideping.aspx?id=21779

I asked the same question of Golfshot (Shotzoom ) support and received this reply: "Yes, to obtain all the features for the Apple Watch you will need to upgrade to the pro membership. Yes, Golfshot is compatible with the new Apple Watch series 2. Golfshot will utilize the GPS on the watch but the app won't work natively on the watch. You will still need the iPhone for the bluetooth connection."

I assumed that you would need the iPhone to load the course and start the round but for me the distances on the watch were still linked to the iPhone and it didn't seem to utilize the watch's GPS.

I actually bought the Apple Watch Series 2 and purchased the pro membership predicated on this response so, as you can imagine, I'm not too pleased.

You may of heard of this app or may not be any good, but how about Golf Shot??? Is that any good for when on the golf course with the apple watch? As i know it uses GPS

Just seen above someone already mentioned about the golfshot app sorry

I like Ping clubs, and the company in general. But look at the reviews (only 3 so far) before even downloading this app.

Here is a quote from Vimo's TrackMyGolf description in the app store:

- Natively support Apple Watch series 2's GPS, no need to carry phone during game (must load course before game starts).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trackmygolf-golf-gps-free/id1036006544?mt=8

Their ratings are very good, but I would like to hear from someone in this forum that they found something that works before I replace my Microsoft Band 2. The Band was a slow and unreliable nuisance on the course).

FunGolf GPS does exactly that since v4.0. (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fungolf/id521998621?ls=1&mt=8)

You need the bluetooth connection to initially download maps to the watch and start a round, but once started, it will use the GPS of the Series 2. I tested by disabling bluetooth on my iPhone while playing.