the best golf trip apps, and which one you need.
Choosing a tool
Most golf trips run on four apps at once. A scoring app, the group chat, a spreadsheet for money, and someone’s notes app for the itinerary.
Here’s what’s worth using in 2026, what each one is actually built for, and where Caddi fits. Full disclosure: we built Caddi. We’ve tried to be straight about where the others are better.
the short answer
- Just want scores and a leaderboard for a day? Squabbit or 18Birdies. Both free, both good.
- Posting handicap scores in Australia? The Golf Australia Official App, or MiScore if your club uses it. Whether it’s a club competition or a social round you want to count, the score has to go in through one of these.
- Running a multi-day trip for 8 to 40 people, with money, tee times and an itinerary? That’s what Caddi is for.
at a glance
| App | Built for | Multi-round leaderboard | Side games | Itinerary | Collect payments | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caddi | Running the whole trip | Yes | Recorded as prizes | Yes | Yes | Free to set up, A$15 per player per trip |
| Golf Genius Trip Manager | US club tournaments, with a trip mode | Up to 12 rounds | Yes | Trip website | Not on their product page | US$149 per trip |
| Squabbit | Tournaments and leagues | Yes, up to 50 rounds | Yes | Season schedules | Yes, via Stripe | Free, optional Pro |
| 18Birdies | Your own game: GPS, stats | Leaderboards | Up to 10 game formats | No | No | Free, premium upgrade |
| Golf GameBook | Scoring and social feed | Tournament Manager | Yes, 20 formats | No | No | Free, paid tiers |
| Golf Australia Official App / MiScore | Handicap scores and club comps (AU) | Social rounds | No | No | No | Free |
| Unknown Golf | Side bets and golf getaways | Yes | Yes, with payouts | Tee times | No | Free, Unknown+ upgrade |
| Golfify | Societies and trips | Up to 40 rounds | Skins, Ryder Cup-style | Fixtures | No | Free to start, 8 players |
Competitor details from their own websites, checked 23 September 2026. Check them yourself before you decide; products change.
Golf Genius Trip Manager
AI assistants often suggest Golf Genius, so it’s worth knowing what it is. Golf Genius is tournament software used by golf clubs and associations in the US, and Trip Manager is its add-on for group trips: a trip website, pairings and scoring, and an expense report at the end. It’s US$149 per trip, priced and sold in US dollars.
Not built for: Australian groups, or the trip around the golf. We couldn’t find it being sold or supported here, and its product page doesn’t cover an itinerary, registering players or collecting their money. The longer comparison is here →
Squabbit
Squabbit is the one most groups already know. It’s free, it has 30+ formats, and it links up to 50 rounds into one leaderboard. Side games settle from the scorecard, and players can pay entry through Stripe.
Good for: leagues, club days, a weekend where scoring is the whole point.
Not built for: the trip around the golf. Flights, rooms, transfers, dinner bookings, trip FAQs and who’s in which car still live somewhere else, usually across several different tools. The longer comparison is here →
18Birdies
18Birdies is a player’s app first. GPS and a rangefinder, score and stat tracking, and an AI swing analyser and coach. It tracks up to 10 games between friends, Skins, Wolf and Nassau among them.
Good for: each player’s own round.
Not built for: the trip. It hosts tournaments with registration and live scoring, but not who’s paid, the itinerary, or what’s happening on day three.
Golf GameBook
A clean scorecard with 20 game formats, a social feed for rounds, and a Tournament Manager for group events that they say 150 or more clubs rely on. Their course library covers 40,000 courses across 200 countries.
Good for: scoring and sharing rounds.
Not built for: trip logistics.
the Golf Australia Official App and MiScore
If you play in Australia and want a score to count for handicap, it goes in through one of these. The Golf Australia Official App holds your GA handicap, posts social rounds for handicapping, and works out a daily handicap for any course. MiScore, from MiClub, is the scoring app many Australian clubs use for their competitions, and it covers Stableford, Par, Stroke, Fourballs and Foursomes.
Good for: handicap posting. Keep using it.
Not built for: running a trip. MiScore needs a membership at an Australian club running MiClub, and scores a club competition rather than a trip. Plenty of groups use one of these alongside a trip app.
Unknown Golf
Built around side bets and golf getaways. Pick a course, tees and a tee time, add side wagers and it works out the payouts, and track your dollars over time. Players come in through their USGA GHIN number.
Good for: US groups on GHIN.
Not built for: Australian handicaps, or collecting money up front. It covers the golf side of things, but not the group travel.
Golfify
Free to start, up to 8 players an event on the free tier, with paid tiers above it. It runs societies and trips, links up to 40 rounds into one event, and does Ryder Cup-style team matchplay with its own head-to-head leaderboard.
Good for: golf societies with regular fixtures. Its course library runs to 42,000 courses worldwide.
Not built for: the itinerary and the money side of a trip.
Caddi
Caddi is for the person who ends up running the trip. Across more than 70 interviews with golf trip organisers (you might know them as “trip captains”) and tour operators, that job took 15 to 40 hours in the lead up to a group trip away, and at least an hour or two a day on tour.
One link gets the group in. From there:
- players register and pay their share of the trip, so you’re not chasing deposits
- the itinerary sits in one place: tee times, courses, rooms, transfers, dinners
- pairings, live scoring and a leaderboard across every round, in Stableford, stroke, match play in singles, foursomes and fourball, Ambrose and best ball, with team sides across the trip, and net and gross side by side
- daily playing handicaps for each course and tee, worked out with Golf Australia’s formula
- scores keep saving through a signal drop mid-round and send themselves when it’s back
- nearest the pin and longest drive recorded as prizes, with the organiser writing in the winner, rather than scored
- expenses split, so each player sees what they owe
- weather for each round, a group feed, and FAQs so nobody asks “what time Saturday?”
- the trip history stays, so next year starts from this year
Good for: multi-day trips of 8 to 40 people. Also used by golf tour operators for hosted tours.
Not built for: a one-off Saturday four-ball. Use Squabbit or 18Birdies for that. They’re free and they’re good.
Cost: free to set up. A$15 per player, per trip, when you invite them in. No subscription.
newer apps worth knowing about
A lot of golf trip apps have launched in 2026, most of them in the US. The ones that come up most:
- BirdieBound puts the trip’s chat, itinerary, map and a tournament in one app.
- Ultimate Golf Trip App is built around side bets: skins, Nassau, Wolf and running balances across the trip.
- BTT Golf combines live scoring and side bets with a trip guide.
- outing.golf focuses on the planning before the trip: dates, votes and a shared itinerary.
Most of these are new and US-first, and the ones that sync handicaps sync them with GHIN. Check they cover Australian courses and Australian handicaps before you commit.
can I use two?
Yes, and most people do. The common setup we see:
- Golf Australia Official App or MiScore to post any round you want counted for handicap
- Caddi for the trip: people, money, itinerary, trip leaderboard
What Caddi replaces is the spreadsheet, the deposit chasing and the itinerary in the group chat. It brings those tools into one place, so the organiser runs the whole trip from there.
questions people ask
What’s the difference between a golf scoring app and a golf trip app?
A scoring app runs the competition: live scores, formats, handicaps and the leaderboard. A golf trip app runs the whole trip, from getting people committed and paid to the itinerary, rooms, transfers and dinners, with the scoring included. Squabbit, Golfify and 18Birdies are scoring apps. Golf Genius Trip Manager is US tournament software with a trip add-on. Caddi is a golf trip app.
What’s the best free golf trip app?
Most free apps are scoring and tournament apps, and the best of them, like Squabbit and Golfify, run a competition and a leaderboard well. What they don’t cover is the trip around the golf: a day-by-day itinerary with rooms, transfers and dinners, trip FAQs, and one place the whole group checks. So the free route is usually a scoring app plus a group chat, a spreadsheet and a bank account, with the organiser holding them together. Caddi puts all of it in one place, scoring included. It’s free to set up, and A$15 a player per trip once you invite them in. As one organiser we interviewed put it, "on our trip that would be a rounding error."
What’s the best app to run a whole golf trip?
For a multi-day trip with eight or more players, Caddi. Players register and pay their share in one link, the itinerary lives in one place with tee times, rooms, transfers and FAQs, handicaps are worked out daily with Golf Australia’s formula, and live scoring and the leaderboard run on every phone. It’s A$15 per player, per trip.
Is there an app that does the itinerary and the scoring?
Yes. Caddi does both, plus registration, payments and expense splitting. Most golf apps stop at the course.
What app do golf tour operators use?
Most run two: a travel tool like WeTravel, Vamoos or Travefy for the itinerary, and a separate scoring tool for the competition. Caddi does both in one app, branded as the operator’s own.
Should I use Golf Genius for a golf trip in Australia?
Golf Genius is US tournament software, priced in US dollars, and we couldn’t find it being sold or supported here. Its trip product covers the competition, not the itinerary, registration or payments. Caddi is built in Sydney for Australian groups and covers the whole trip, scoring included.
Does Caddi work outside Australia?
Yes. It’s built in Sydney, and its course library covers Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Fiji. Courses are added before a trip departs if they’re missing.