Where do apps like GolfShot get their data from?

[Chris Stewart]

Most every mobile app claims to have tens of thousands of courses built in, so I'm guessing there's some public repository with all of these courses. Anyone know where they get the info from?

[Josh531]

Probably Google Earth.  I don't know about Golf Shot, but I'm pretty sure the app I use (SwingbySwing Golf) uses Google Earth.

And SwingbySwing is free and works amazingly quickly on my iPhone 4S so that's my favorite part about it.

[Chris Stewart]

What I mean by data is the yardages, distances to hazards, tee boxes, etc. You could certainly get yardages and tee box information from scorecards, but I suspect they didn't pile up 38,000 scorecards and input them manually. The map views and most certainly Google Maps, Bing Maps, or Google Earth. I'm mostly curious about the various yardage information they have for individual courses across the country.

[moparman426]

I have mapped a couple of local courses for SbS, Golflogix, oobgolf, golfshot, etc myself.  Some also request a scan of the scorecard for hole distance and par/handicap verification.  Then they go through an approval process, which is usually pretty quick.  I did one through SbS yesterday, and it was approved before I had my gear packed up into my truck.  So to answer your question, most have a way for the end user to submit the info, but some will GPS map them themselves for a fee.