Game Golf App vs Golf GPS

[Ncannon4]

I am looking to buy a Fitbit , either Surge or Blaze. I was told I can use it as a golf gps measuring distance etc via a third party app.
Can anyone please confirm this?
Thanks

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject For Clarity and label

[AlejandraFitbit · Accepted solution]

A warm welcome to the Community @Ncannon4. Actually, yes, you can track your golf information directly from your Fitbit Blaze, since it is one of the exercises that come with it but it won't display a map (GPS).

Let me know if you need anything else. 

[Ncannon4]

Great, thanks for the reply. Does it give you yardage a to the green?
Also, which is better, blaze or Surge?

[bbarrera]

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@Ncannon4 wrote:
Great, thanks for the reply. Does it give you yardage a to the green?
Also, which is better, blaze or Surge?

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@Ncannon4 No Fitbit does not give yardage to green. It does not count your strokes. There are other brands that offer dedicated golf wearables, and also a few fitness trackers that give yardage to green, but it is not a Fitbit feature.

Fitbit only has an exercise called "golf" as part of a list of tracked activities that includes "walk" and "run" and "bike" and "treadmill" and a bunch more, see the list of exercises in this post:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Blaze/Blaze-exercise-categories/m-p/1263311

(why isn't this list in the manual or help.fitbit.com?)

Not really sure why golf is on the exercise list, maybe it gives you less calories because you are in a golf cart? Maybe like biking it gives you less false steps from bumping around in a golf cart? I don't know. Kind of weird to have a golf "mode" that doesn't help track distance to hole or count strokes or do something specific to the game of golf. If you are walking the course I'd just use walk.

Fitbit also has SmartTrack feature, that specifically states golf might not be identified as general "Sport" category:

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1933/

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WHICH EXERCISES ARE TRACKED?

SmartTrack recognizes continuous, high-movement activities such as:

• Walking
• Running
• Outdoor biking
• Elliptical

It also recognizes two general categories:

• Sport—Includes high-movement sports like tennis, basketball, soccer, and others. Sports that might not be recognized include those without continuous movement or that vary in intensity level, like golf.
• Aerobic workout—Includes aerobic activities with continuous movement, such as Zumba®, cardio-kickboxing, and other dance classes.

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[Golfergirl74]

First time I played golf with Blaze Fitbit it worked perfect . Showed heart rate, steps, time, everything. Today it would only show minutes going by??  I pressed on other exercises like treadmill and running to check them. It showed it connecting and had all the information like pulse, heart rate. It did not show it connecting on golf??? Any suggestions??

[DavidTheobald]

Same problem with a Surge. The golf module was working perfectly until this weekend just gone. Now only shows elapsed time. Used 'Hike' for round of golf and ended up with the same details (Hike seems to be working fine - 'Hike' and 'Golf' are the only exercise modes I want) but something has changed.

I have shut down the Surge and restarted it and uninstalled 'Golf' on the iPhone App and then reinstalled it but the connectivity aspects of 'Golf' seem to have vanished. I see there was an IOS app update on Jan 10th; is this at the root of the problem?

[JakeJosh]

Same problem here with the Surge. Went through history on app and see my stats (heart rate, calories, etc) for golf courses I played in the past. Tried it yesterday and nothing on the screen being tracked except elapsed time. Thanks for the tip on using 'Hike' but this is a major bummer for me. I didn't see any announcement from Fitbit saying there would be a change - Would be nice if someone would explain what's going on

[Greg1982]

I may be wrong, but I don't think that answer posted answers the question.  Golfers want to know the distance from their ball to the hole (i.e. 125 yards).  I am searching for a FitBit or partner app to do this and display the yardage on my FitBit Charge 2.

The golf app on the Charge 2 needs work and is not very useful to me.  I prefer using the walk or run app, so that it maps where I walk on the course.

[MarkCatax]

So no it doesn't have a golf app then!

[Pietero]

The Fitbit Ionic will have a golf app which provides distances to greens, bunkers, water etc.. Don't know if it will show maps.

[Greg1982]

@Pietero  Great to hear the news!  Golfers are looking for 2 things:  1.  Distance to the center of the green AND 2.  Distance to the Pin/Hole.  If you can do 1 or both of those things with an App, it'll be a winner.  We don't care about distance to water or bunkers etc.  If you can add in the map feature from the walk/run apps, that would be icing on the cake.  

[Pietero]

Well, you talk about "We", I guess you mean we as golfers? I am a Golfer myself who happens to do some app development in weekends and evenings. I personally do like to get distances to water and bunkers. It's always good to have orientation points to determine your club selection and course management on.

The app currently provides distance to front, middle back. An app never knows where the Pin is so you always have to take some offset into account.

I'm also thinking about the map feature. It won't be easy but it would be super cool. The fitbit also allows to include a score card function since it has a large touch screen. But first i will release an app which does:

Distance to holes

Distances to hazards

2nd release

Club suggestions

Shot tracking

3d release

maps

4th release

scorecard.

The app is open source. If you want to suggest other functions, please do so. If you want to contribute , very much welcome.

[Aceculbert74]

This app to fit in with the ionic would be amazing

[Diggo82]

Does the Ionic have a golf gps on it seems I have been miss lead if not

[Greg1982]

Game Golf and Golf GPS are 2 apps that are being worked on.  By the time the US thaws out, you should have a choice to use either to go play golf.
Greg

[Aceculbert74]

This would be great.

Sent from my iPad

[Buff87]

Any update on this thread?

From what I have seen the Iconic does not have the golf app (Yardages, etc...) and it does not look like the new Versa has it either.

Am I missing something?

[MarkCatax]

No you’re not , it’s fitbit that are missing something! Sort it out fitbit

[Aceculbert74]

C'mon Fitbit, lets get the app happening guys!

[RobertoME]

Hi there friends, nice to see you are visiting the Fitbit Community! 

Rest assure some of our announced apps for the Ionic gallery like Game Golf, Clue, Lyft, Uber, Walgreens, TripAdvisor, British Airways will be coming very soon!

As an alternative If you are an Ionic users, I recommend to use the exercise shortcut for Golf. This might not be loaded by default on your tracker, but you can modify these options. 

Go to your Fitbit.com Dashboard and access to your tracker settings. Look for the section of "Exercise Shortcuts" and press edit.

Here, you need to remove one exercise if you have all the available selected. Choose golf and save your settings. Do not forget to sync your tracker so these changes apply to your tracker.

In your tracker, go to exercise and look for the now added golf activity. Here in the gear icon you have the option to turn On and Off the GPS and make changes to the voice cues.

Other trackers that have the option for "exercise shortcuts" will have Golf too as an activity, but some may not be able to provide GPS features.

Hope this helps and thank you all for your feedback.