This New watchOS 10 Feature Makes Apple Watch ‘The Perfect Golfing Companion’
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While many warmer climates enjoy golfing season nearly year-round, it’s only now going into full swing in Canada and northern parts of the US, and Apple wants to make sure Apple Watch owners around the world are ready to embrace it.
In a new press release, Apple explains how its wearable is an ideal fitness accessory for avid golfers — pros and amateurs alike — by highlighting key apps for improving your game.
However, while golfing apps aren’t new to the Apple Watch, one lesser-known improvement in watchOS is making a big difference in how apps can help your golf swing and performance.
A new High Frequency Motion API was introduced in watchOS 10 last year, but has mostly flown under the radar since, like most APIs, it requires third-party developers to take advantage of it before it can do anything.
However, with this new API, developers can read data from the three-axis gyroscopes on the latest Apple Watch models — those released in 2022 and later. As Tom’s Guide’s Kate Kozuch explained last year, these sensors can capture angular velocity at 4,000 degrees per second, with a maximum sample rate of 800 times per second.
That offers much more precision in tracking hand and wrist movement, and it’s a change that Kozuch said at the time seemed like it was made with apps like Golfshot in mind — one of the key apps Apple is highlighting in this week’s news.
The developers of Golfshot clearly agree, and they’ve been working toward this goal for nearly a decade.
Leveraging the full capabilities of Apple Watch has always been a priority for Golfshot since our first Apple Watch release in 2015. Innovative features including Auto Shot Tracking and Swing ID — both powered by Apple Watch and sophisticated machine learning — truly help golfers improve their game by giving real-time, personalized data on the device that’s already with them.Alex Flores, Golfshot’s chief growth officer
As Apple explains, Golfshot now offers a Swing ID On-Range experience that can “detect the precise moment the club strikes the ball,” which in turn gets fed into algorithms to provide an in-depth analysis of the entire swing, “including tempo, rhythm, backswing, transition, and wrist path.”
While the feature will undoubtedly help professional golfers improve their game, it’s likely to benefit many more folks who enjoy the sport but need serious coaching to get the most out of it.
Golfshot does a lot more than just coach your swing. It also provides GPS distances, scoring tools, and information on hazards and targets for more than 46,000 courses around the world. Users can even get post-round flyover reviews and advanced stats after their game.
While Golfshot is one of the most comprehensive solutions — and the first to take advantage of the new High Frequency Motion API for swing analysis — it’s far from the only Apple Watch app for golfers. Apple is rounding up several others:
- Arccos is the official game tracker of the PGA Tour and lets you track shots and get precise yardages and club recommendations.
- GolfLogix provides hole layouts, carry distances, approach views with color heat maps of the green, and more all directly on your wrist.
- TheGrint can be used to track scores, stats, and shot distances as well as offering a free golf GPS.
- Hole19 offers the essentials at a glance with distances, maps, scoring, and a shot tracker.
- 18Birdies Golf GPS Tracker will help you plan shots, get distances, and track scores.
Naturally, Apple is promoting the Apple Watch Ultra 2 as the best option for golfers with its 3,000-nit display for easy reading on a sunny golf course and L5 GPS for unsurpassed accuracy. However, many of the best golf apps can be used with any Apple Watch model, and the swing analysis offered by Golfshot works just as well on an Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch SE (2022), or Apple Watch Series 9.
