The New USGA GHIN App Is Coming for Every Other Golf App on Your Phone

As most of you know, there's no shortage of apps out there designed to make your time on the course a little easier. GPS tools, score trackers, stat loggers...we've tried them all. The GHIN app dates back to 2012 and, according to the USGA, over 2.5 million people use the app to maintain their handicap. In 2024, over 80 million scores were posted using the GHIN app. Over the last few years, the USGA has been clear about its desire to make the app more than just a portal to post scores and turn it into a stat-tracking, insight-making, gamified playing companion.

For those tuned in closely to the app, small upgrades have been released incrementally but the major changes are yet to come—and we were among the first to test it out at one of the toughest challenges in golf: Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York.

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Golfers will be able to try the new features later this year, likely for late-fall rounds, but here's a sneak peek of the redesigned USGA GHIN app.

The new GHIN won't just track your handicap and close out. It's going all-in, with a built-in GPS, green-reading heat maps, hole-by-hole scoring, and a full suite of trackable stats—fairways in regulation, greens in regulation, putting, up-and-downs, and more.

When we teed it up at Winged Foot West we were fortunate to have veteran loopers on the bag—but playing the notoriously long and narrow course that dares you to not three putt, having some extra info on what was in front of me was necessary. The new GPS improvements and green heat maps did just that.

With just a swipe, I was able to see carry numbers over bunkers, good lay-up spots on par 5s, and on the greens, I got some reinsurance on our reads thanks to the maps. After a rough start—I was 3 over through 2—the tools helped me to stay in the game, and I eventually made the turn at 1 over thanks to a couple nice birdies to finish the front nine.

Here's a look at Winged Foot West's first hole in the app.

GHINsights come in post-round so you can follow up on where your game is trending and target which stats may need a little extra attention before you tee it up again. It's a start-to-finish overhaul to improve user experience and provide golfers a more comprehensive app instead of using several different platforms to piecemeal the story together.

As someone who previously used the GHIN app exclusively to post scores and countless others to run GPS and track stats, I understand the benefit of a single platform to simplify the data input process. It's about to get incredibly simpler to truly understand how my game's trending and the areas I need to improve.

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