Your comprehensive guide to getting the most out of your AI caddie
Get up and running with SmartCaddie in just a few minutes. Follow these steps to set up your account and start playing smarter golf.
Create your free SmartCaddie account with just your email address. No credit card required for the 30-day trial. You'll receive a verification email to activate your account.
What you'll need:
Tell Einstein about your game so he can personalize recommendations. Be honest—accuracy here means better advice on the course.
Profile information:
💡 Tip: You can update this anytime as your game improves
Add all your clubs with accurate carry and total distances. This is the foundation of Einstein's club recommendations— the more accurate your distances, the better the advice.
For each club, enter:
📏 Pro Tip: Use a launch monitor or GPS to get precise distances
Optional Allow location access so SmartCaddie can auto-detect which course you're at when you arrive. No GPS tracking during your round—just a quick check at the start.
How it works:
📍 Note: You can always manually search for courses if you prefer
Chat with Einstein just like texting a friend. Ask about courses, get club recommendations, or just say hello. Einstein learns your preferences and communication style over time.
Try asking Einstein:
💬 Tip: Einstein understands natural language—no need for special commands
Ready to play? Start a round and Einstein will generate a complete course brief with hole-by-hole strategies, provide milestone insights throughout your round, and deliver post-round analysis.
What happens next:
⛳ Say: "Start a round at [Course Name]" to begin
SmartCaddie's AI analyzes hole yardages, elevation changes, wind conditions, temperature, your personal tendencies, and your bag to recommend the perfect club for every shot.
How it works:
⛰️ Plays-Like Distance
Einstein now shows adjusted yardages accounting for all environmental factors. For example: a 155-yard par-3 that's 15 feet downhill with a 10mph tailwind might "play like" 145 yards. Each hole brief and strategy plan displays the breakdown: elevation adjustment, wind adjustment, and temperature adjustment.
Einstein is powered by real data about your game, the course, and current conditions. When you start a round, Einstein assembles a complete intelligence package and uses it throughout your round.
Data Einstein uses:
📋 Course Briefs & Hole Strategies
Einstein keeps a full course brief ready on demand and queues the next hole's strategy as you move through the round. Ask when you're ready and the latest card drops in instantly:
💬 Ask Einstein: "What's the strategy for hole 7?" • "Show me the course brief" • "Start tracking a round" • "What's my plan for this par 5?" - Einstein packages the data intelligently and explains it in plain English.
When you track a round, Einstein automatically provides professional caddie-style insights at key milestones (holes 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18). Like a tour caddie, he keeps it brief, direct, and focused on what matters.
What Einstein analyzes:
🎯 Tour Caddie Tone: Einstein uses the "Fluff style" - brief (2-3 sentences), confident, direct, and always maintaining positive momentum. No BS, just what you need to know.
Powered by NOAA National Weather Service, SmartCaddie automatically factors real-time weather conditions into every recommendation for accurate, conditions-based strategy.
Weather data factored in:
Track your rounds hole-by-hole with the Round Manager. Every hole you track automatically populates your Shot History for long-term analysis and learning.
How it works:
💡 Pro Tip: Adding club data enables "Club Memory" - SmartCaddie learns your actual distances in different weather conditions and can warn you when conditions might add or subtract yards from your normal distances.
Need a plays-like number from exactly where your ball landed? The Get Live Yardage button inside each hole brief and strategy plan pulls GPS distance, elevation, wind, and temperature in real time— no guessing, no math on the tee box.
How to use it:
⚠️ GPS disabled? You’ll see a prompt reminding you to enable Location Services. Tap “Allow” and try again for laser-grade yardage.
Track shots by simply chatting with Einstein - no forms or buttons required. Just tell him what happened: "driver 240 fairway", "7-iron pin high", or "3 putts from 15 feet". Einstein automatically records your shot and suggests your next club based on your preferences.
How it works:
🎛️ Customizable Preferences:
Control how Einstein tracks your shots (Profile → Shot Tracking Preferences):
💬 Example Flow: Einstein: "I'd recommend 7-iron to the middle of the green."
Review your complete golf history with Round History and Shot History. Einstein learns from your patterns to provide increasingly personalized recommendations.
What you can track:
🎯 Flexible Tracking Methods:
"Plays-like" distance is SmartCaddie's physics-based calculation that shows the adjusted yardage accounting for elevation change, wind, and temperature.
For example: A 155-yard par-3 that's 15 feet downhill with a 10mph tailwind and 58°F temperature might "play like" 145 yards. Each hole brief and strategy plan shows a detailed breakdown:
Multi-Source Elevation Data: SmartCaddie uses a three-tier elevation service with Mapbox Terrain-RGB (primary), USGS 3DEP (US-only backup), and OpenElevation (global fallback). The system automatically estimates tee and green positions when exact GPS coordinates aren't available, ensuring you always get accurate plays-like calculations.
Tap Get Live Yardage inside any hole brief or strategy plan to pull the exact plays-like number from your current lie.
Rules Mode: Toggle “Rules Mode (Distance Only)” in Profile → Shot Tracking Preferences when you need GPS distance without weather adjustments.
GPS disabled? You’ll see a reminder to allow location access. Approve it and tap again for laser-accurate numbers.
To start tracking a round:
Einstein will provide insights at key milestones:
When you end your round, Einstein generates a comprehensive post-round analysis with strengths, weaknesses, and practice recommendations. All tracked holes automatically appear in your Shot History (Profile → Shot History) for long-term pattern analysis.
Round History shows your completed rounds as complete 18-hole (or 9-hole) sessions. Each round includes your total score, statistics (FIR%, GIR%, putts per hole), Einstein insights from milestone holes, and a comprehensive post-round summary with strengths and weaknesses.
Shot History shows individual holes you've played with detailed shot-by-shot breakdowns. For each hole you can see which clubs you used, where shots landed (fairway/rough/green), lie quality, and distances. This is automatically populated when you track rounds using the Round Manager.
Think of Round History as the "scorecard view" and Shot History as the "learning view" - both are powered by the same data, just displayed differently for different purposes.
Just chat naturally with Einstein! Instead of filling out forms, simply tell Einstein what happened:
During active rounds, shots auto-record. Einstein then suggests your next club based on your distance to the hole and current conditions. You control how proactive Einstein is via Shot Tracking Preferences in your Profile (club suggestions on every shot, smart mix for tee/approach only, or on request only).
All conversational tracking syncs automatically to your Round History and Shot History for long-term pattern analysis.
Set your handicap, shot shape, and tendencies accurately. SmartCaddie can only help if it knows your real strengths and weaknesses. Don't be a "range hero"—input your actual on-course performance.
Use a launch monitor, GPS, or rangefinder to get precise club distances. Guesswork leads to poor recommendations. Update distances seasonally and when you get new clubs.
SmartCaddie has no ego and only cares about helping you score. If it recommends laying up or playing safe, there's a good reason. That said, you know your game best—use SmartCaddie as a trusted advisor, not a dictator.
After your round, check your performance analytics in both Round History and Shot History. See which clubs you're hitting well, where you're losing strokes, and how your game is trending. SmartCaddie learns from this data to give better advice next time.
When tracking holes, add which clubs you used and the distances you hit. This enables "Club Memory" - SmartCaddie learns how weather conditions affect your actual distances and can warn you when wind or temperature might add or subtract yards from your normal club distances.
Don't just accept the club recommendation—ask "Why this club?" or "What if I hit 7-iron instead?" The AI can explain its reasoning and help you understand course management strategy.
Charge your phone fully before playing. Bring a portable battery pack for longer rounds. Enable location services for course auto-detection. Make sure you have a good internet connection (cellular or Wi-Fi) as SmartCaddie uses real-time weather data and AI recommendations.
Can't find what you're looking for? Our support team is here to help you get the most out of SmartCaddie.ai.