We taught an AI to read golf courses from above.
Most golf courses in the world are not fully mapped anywhere. An outline, maybe a few greens, nothing more. Our course AI closes that gap: a segmentation model trained on aerial imagery at about 0.3 metres resolution draws the playing surfaces. A second, learned model assembles the holes. And laser-scan elevation models provide the terrain down to centimetres.
05.1 — Geodata & segmentation
The teachers are courses that are already fully and cleanly mapped in OpenStreetMap. Their areas become training masks. The aerial images come from open official orthophotos in Europe and NAIP in the US. That way the model learns what a green looks like, in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as in California.
The segmentation model produces areas. Which tee belongs to which green, in which order the holes are played and what par they have is decided by a second model. It scores every tee-green pair, solves the assignment optimally and fixes the round with the shortest walks. A classifier separates hole greens from practice greens.
AI proposals only go live when they pass strict checks: the right number of holes, no crossing lines of play, plausible walks and pars. Every region must reach at least 90 percent correct holes in a sample review. Every course gets a quality grade from A to D.
Terrain comes from laser-scan elevation models with grids down to 1 metre, in Germany from the state survey's DGM1. Against the official model we measure 0.01 metres RMSE. From it we compute each hole's elevation profile, green slopes on a 1-metre grid and plays-like distance. In Bavaria we even measure trees crown by crown from the surface model.
05.2 — Capabilities
In use in our products, every day, on real devices.
Fairways, greens, tees, bunkers and water, drawn automatically.
Which tee plays to which green, in which order, with what par.
Front, centre and back for every green.
For every hazard on the line of play.
An elevation profile every 5 metres and the distance a shot really plays.
Slope on a 1-metre grid, the basis of the green heatmaps.
Measured from the surface model in Bavaria, for real 3D courses.
40,057 facilities captured, 12,000+ playable in DeepSwing.
05.3 — How it works
Open orthophotos at about 0.3 m resolution.
Fairway, green, tee, bunker, water.
Learned model: tee to green, order, par.
LiDAR heights, plays-like, quality grade.
05.4 — Used in
Free on iPhone · Apple Watch · 12,000+ courses
3D hole maps, distances to green and hazards, plays-like with elevation, green heatmaps, scorecard with handicap. 12,000+ courses, free on iPhone.
Golf course GPS that knows the terrainiOS & Android · No extra hardware · GSPro
Phone on a tripod, hit real balls: ball speed, club speed, launch angle, direction, carry. 12,000+ real courses, games, projector and GSPro. From €8.99 a month.
The launch monitor on your phone05.5 — FAQ
Only from open sources: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), official orthophotos and elevation models of the states, and NAIP in the US. Every source is kept with its licence and attribution.
As of October 2026, 40,057 golf courses are captured worldwide. 10,229 of them are GPS-ready with holes, greens and terrain. The number grows with every run.
On validation courses the model never saw in training, it finds 99 percent of greens at 96 percent precision. The green centre is a median 0.6 metres from the real one. 94 percent of bunkers are found.
Yes. The pattern of open labels as a teacher, aerial segmentation and laser-scanned terrain also works for sports facilities, agriculture, solar parks or infrastructure.
More technology
Our own detection model for the golf club: finds the club head frame by frame, draws the swing path and measures speed before impact. Right on the phone.
Finds the ball on the mat, detects launch within a few frames and reconstructs speed, launch angle and direction. The foundation of our launch monitor on a phone.
Club head and ball detection, ball flight physics and 3D rendering in one app: carry, total distance, ball speed, launch angle and direction. On iPhone, iPad, Mac and projector.
Contact
Object detection, body tracking, segmentation or cartography, on your device, in real time. Let's talk about it.