Frequently Asked Questions

Golf TotalGuide was built by a team of golfers and engineers who got tired of generic "top 10" lists and wanted recommendations grounded in real course data. We combine USGS LiDAR (for terrain, tree canopy, hazard detection), simulator-driven shot modeling, and verified golfer reviews to match real players to real courses. Based in Massachusetts, we currently focus on courses in MA, RI, NH, and VT, with more regions coming.

Ask the AI Guide in the app (e.g. "courses near Wayland, MA" or "courses within 25 miles of Boston") and it returns the nearest matches with distance, slope rating, par, and price. You can also browse in the app and filter by city, holes, course type, and amenities.

The website at totalguide.net is free to browse — read articles, explore tournaments, and learn about the app. The **Golf TotalGuide iOS app** is a subscription: it's free to download and every new subscriber gets a **1-month free trial** (limited-time offer), then **$19.99/year** for full access — course matching, AI Guide chat, saved courses, trip planning, and the hole-by-hole Plan tab — across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont. You can cancel anytime in iOS Settings → your Apple ID → Subscriptions.

The Coupons tab collects redeemable deals at select courses — a nice way to save on a round or find a reason to try somewhere new. To use one, open it and tap **Redeem** in front of course staff: it flips to a live, timestamped **VALID** screen you show at the counter, and each coupon is one-time-use. One tip before you head out — offers come from the courses themselves and are honored at their discretion, so it's worth a quick look at the coupon's terms and expiration first. (TotalGuide surfaces the deal but isn't the merchant.) New offers are added as courses sign on — if the tab looks quiet in your area, check back.

If you're organizing a charity golf tournament in New England (MA, RI, CT, NH, VT, ME), email us at tournaments@totalguide.net with the details and we'll add it. Helpful to include: - **Tournament name and date** - **Host course** (city + state) - **Supporting charity / cause** - **Event registration link** (optional but strongly recommended) - **Image** (flyer or charity logo URL — optional) Submissions are reviewed before going live — listings typically appear on the site within **3 to 5 days after review**, and you'll get a confirmation email immediately after submitting.

If you run or know of an indoor golf simulator in New England (MA, RI, CT, NH, VT, ME), email us at support@totalguide.net with the details and we'll add it. Helpful to include: - **Facility name** - **City and state** (street, zip optional) - **Phone, email, website** (optional) - **Simulator technology** — TrackMan, Full Swing, Foresight, Uneekor, etc. - **Image** (a photo of the bay or your logo — optional) Submissions are reviewed before going live — listings typically appear on the site within **3 to 5 days after review**, and you'll get a confirmation email immediately after submitting.

The website is free to browse with no account or login. Accounts live in the **TotalGuide iOS app**, where you sign in with email, Google, or Apple to save your Golfer Profile, get personalized match percentages, plan trips, leave reviews, and use the Plan tab. Using the app requires an active subscription, which starts with a limited-time 1-month free trial.

Your Golfer Profile answers and saved trips are tied to your account and only used to personalize recommendations. We don't sell your data, and we don't use it to train third-party AI models. Chat conversations are kept while your account is active (on no fixed schedule) to maintain your history and improve the assistant; you can delete them any time, and they're removed within 30 days of account deletion. See our privacy policy for the full details.

Yes — in the Golf TotalGuide app. Signed-in users can rate any course on six categories (conditions, greens, layout, pace, value, walkability) and leave a written review. Reviews are moderated to keep the signal-to-noise ratio high.

The TotalGuide iOS app is free to download and starts with a **1-month free trial** (a limited-time offer — the standard trial length may change). After the trial it's **$19.99/year** for full access across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont. You won't be charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel anytime during the trial in iOS Settings → your Apple ID → Subscriptions without being billed.

Your subscription is billed by Apple, so you manage or cancel it in **iOS Settings → your Apple ID → Subscriptions → TotalGuide**. If you cancel, you keep access through the end of your current billing period. Refunds are handled entirely by Apple, not TotalGuide — to request one, visit reportaproblem.apple.com.

LiDAR is laser-based aerial scanning that produces high-resolution elevation models (down to 1 meter). We use USGS 3DEP LiDAR to extract every course's terrain, tree canopy, bunker depths, water features, and dogleg angles directly from the data — not from someone's subjective scorecard description. That's how we get accurate elevation change, walkability scores, and forced-carry counts that match what you actually experience on the course.

Our difficulty score (0–100) blends six intrinsic course attributes: average landing-zone safety percentage (35%), elevation change (15%), extreme-terrain holes (10%), forced carries (15%), bunker count (15%), and tree coverage (10%). It's not derived from how badly an average golfer scored — that varies by skill — so the score reflects the COURSE, not the players. Easy is < 30, Moderate 30–64, Hard 65+.

Slope rating measures how much harder a course plays for a bogey golfer (around 20 handicap) than for a scratch golfer. The USGA scale runs 55 (easiest) to 155 (hardest), with 113 as the average. Higher slope means the course punishes mistakes more — narrow corridors, lots of hazards, or tough greens magnify the gap between good and average golfers. See our full breakdown in Course Rating vs. Slope Rating.

Course rating is what a SCRATCH golfer is expected to shoot from a given set of tees (e.g. 71.9 means a scratch player averages 71.9 on that course). Slope rating measures how much harder the course plays for a BOGEY golfer relative to that scratch baseline. Both numbers come from USGA-trained raters and are required to compute a handicap-adjusted score.

We score walkability 0–5 based on total elevation change across the routing, average elevation per hole, distance between green and next tee, and overall course length. A 5 is a flat, compact course you can walk in three hours; a 1 is a hilly, sprawling layout that's much easier with a cart. The score is computed from LiDAR — no editorial guess.

Open the Trips tab in the Golf TotalGuide app, create a trip, and organize your courses by day. You can add hotels and restaurants alongside your rounds, and the AI Guide can suggest options near any course you're considering. Trips are saved to your account and sync across your devices.

We show typical 18-hole and 9-hole rates pulled from each course's website. We don't book tee times directly — clicking a course's "Book tee time" button takes you to the course's official booking page so you can lock in your time on their preferred system.

The quiz is 17 questions covering your skill level, driving distance, shot shape, miss tendency, risk tolerance, and preferences for things like walkability, pricing, and conditions. Your answers map you to one of 312 golfer profiles. Each course in our system has been simulated against all 312 profiles, so we can match you to courses where players like you tend to score well and have fun. Answer it any time from the Profile tab in the Golf TotalGuide app.

The match percentage is how well a course's playing characteristics align with your Golfer Profile across 30 course dimensions (forgiveness, distance fit, miss tolerance, green difficulty, strategic complexity, conditions, and more). 92%+ is a High match, 85–91% is Good, 70–84% is Moderate, 50–69% is Fair, below 50% is Low. The label appears next to each course in AI Guide results and on every course detail page.

On the course detail page, the "Reasons to play" and "Tradeoffs" lists are personalized to YOUR Golfer Profile. Pros highlight where the course's design fits your game (e.g. "great landing zones for your distance", "forgiving of your right miss"). Tradeoffs flag where it might frustrate you (e.g. "54 bunkers — precision rewarded", "slope 131 — a meaningful test"). They're computed from the same 30 course dimensions as the match percentage.

Yes. Your matches stay tied to your latest Golfer Profile answers — update them any time from the Profile tab in the app and your recommendations refresh to reflect the change in your game.