OpenGolfAPI

The open platform for golf — data · scoring · identity

Build any golf app, on one open platform.

Every US course (16,800+) free via REST + MCP. Score any game — 16 formats, no key. Sign in with OpenGolf. Send shots & moments from any launch monitor, wearable, or phone. Free & open, ODbL — Wikipedia for golf.

⛳ I'm a golfer — get my OpenGolf ID → 🛠️ I'm a developer — get my key → 📡 I make golf hardware — plug in →
Browse all courses → Read the API docs
16,845
US courses
16
Game formats
56
MCP tools
ODbL
Open · free forever

OpenGolf ID — your golf identity, owned by you

Chart your golf career. Any app, course, or device.

OpenGolf ID is a portable golfer identity — derived from your email, verified once, honored by every app on the platform. Railed, and holder-controlled: the platform enforces the rules; you hold the record. Your rounds, shots, handicap, and trophies live on one signed, Bitcoin-anchored chain that follows you, not the app. Every record is stamped, provable, and verifiable by anyone — recompute the hash, resolve the Bitcoin anchor, trust no one. (Devs: yes, it's the blockchain of golf — a Certificate-Transparency-style ledger, no coin, no wallet.)

For golfers

Your golf career, on the record — forever. Apps come and go; your record doesn't. The round you record with the boys today replays in 20 years on hardware that doesn't exist yet — because it's stored as an open standard, not inside someone's app.

  • Your data, anywhere, any app, any time — switch apps and your history walks with you. Reading your own record is free, forever.
  • Unfakeable resume — trophies and your course passport derive from real recorded play, signed and Bitcoin-anchored: verifiable by anyone, fakeable by no one.
  • One sign-in — "Sign in with OpenGolf" (OIDC) works across every app on the platform.
  • You hold the switch — consent is deny-by-default; you grant, scope, and revoke who sees what. Export or delete everything, any time.
  • No lock-in — the record lives in an open commons on open standards. The data is free regardless of who runs the servers.

Getting one is just an email link. That's all it is — no app, no password, no form.

Get your OpenGolf ID →

For developers & AI

Every app that adopts the platform makes every other app smarter. The standard is a light layer — easy to implement, easy to adopt — that brings tremendous value to the golfer community: your users arrive with history, and every moment your app records compounds the commons your next feature reads. The ecosystem is the moat, and you're inside it.

  • Identity in one line — the ID derives deterministically from an email: zero signup flow, zero password DB, users exist from line one.
  • The canonical golfer record — read a player's scores, moments, and trophies from one source instead of building your own silo. Every record is provable and Bitcoin-anchored (open log + verifier) — data your users can trust and you can't rug-pull.
  • Hooks for everything — webhooks with entity filters, plus an SSE stream + replay of your own events. React, don't poll.
  • Plain REST + MCP — same surface for your code and your AI agents; open standards (OpenShot · Moments · OpenMatch · OpenJoin) glued by the ID.
  • Consent enforced at the platform — deny-by-default permissions are checked on every read, so you build features, not a permission system.
Get your Dev ID + key → See the API → The MCP →

Privacy-secure across everything: deny-by-default consent · reading your own record is free forever · export or delete any time · minors need a verified guardian for sensitive scopes · no ads, no data sales — the data is free regardless.

For golfers, developers, and AI

One open platform. Everything golf.

If you're a golfer

Find courses, scan scorecards, plan a round, score your game. Every course has a page with rates, hours, and real yardages.

  • Browse by state or search by name
  • Compare tee sets and slope ratings
  • Edit anything outdated — community maintained
  • Claim your course if you're an owner or pro
Open the course browser →

If you're a developer or AI

One REST API + MCP. Read free, score any game keyless, sign users in, and pipe shots & moments from any device.

  • Data — 16,800+ courses, scorecards, tees, weather, nearby (free, no key)
  • Scoring — 16 game formats, gross, keyless: stroke · skins · scramble · nassau · wolf · …
  • Identity — "Sign in with OpenGolf" (OIDC) — portable golfer ID across every app
  • Ingest — OpenShot (launch monitors) + Moments (any sensor/wearable/phone)
  • MCP — 56 tools for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor — npx @opengolfapi/mcp-server
See the API → The MCP →

The standards — and the glue

Open standards, tied together by one golfer ID.

Each piece is an open standard you can adopt on its own. OpenGolf ID is the glue: one portable, pseudonymous golfer identity that links a player's shots, scores, history, and presence across every app built on the platform.

OpenShot

One shape for every launch monitor (CC0). Any GSPro OpenConnect payload is valid OpenShot — send a measured shot from any device.

Moments

Any sensor signal as one event — GPS breadcrumb, swing, putt, club, score, presence. Send what you have; read it back.

OpenMatch

Score any of 16 games — stroke, stableford, match play, skins, scramble, best ball, nassau, wolf, and more. Gross, free, keyless.

OpenJoin

Onboard a foursome or a whole tournament in one tap — signed, scoped, expiring join tokens. Everyone lands in the same round.

OpenGolf ID the glue

"Sign in with OpenGolf" (OIDC). One portable golfer identity; handicap & history follow the player across every app.

Constantly current

The MCP, the API, the formats, the field catalogs — all generated from one source, so what you read here is always live.

Why it's different

Wikipedia for golf.

An open commons — open data (ODbL), open standards (CC0), free to read and build on, community-maintained. The data is free, and stays free, regardless. The whole US course database is free, even downloadable in full. No other golf platform is this open, end-to-end.

Try it now — no signup

The whole thing is just curl away.

# Search curl "https://api.opengolfapi.org/v1/courses/search?q=pebble" # All courses in a state curl "https://api.opengolfapi.org/v1/courses/state/CA" # Single course with scorecard curl "https://api.opengolfapi.org/v1/courses/{id}" # Full machine-readable spec (OpenAPI 3.1) + AI usage guide curl "https://api.opengolfapi.org/openapi.json" curl "https://api.opengolfapi.org/llms.txt" # MCP server for AI agents npx @opengolfapi/mcp-server

What's in the dataset

Open, fielded, and growing.

FieldCoverageRecords
Course name, location, typeAll 50 states + DC16,800+
Hole-by-hole scorecardsOSM-mapped + community-edited16,274
Tee ratings, slopes, yardagesFrom scorecards + public sources16,496
ArchitectWhere known + community-edited7,692
Phone, website, addressVerified through public sources14,590
Climate normals (NOAA, 30-year)All 50 states + DC16,798
Nearby hotels + restaurantsOSM-sourced16,797
MCP tools for AI agentsSearch, detail, scorecard, weather, nearby, contribute9

Counts as of 2026-06-27. Updated as the crawler keeps walking — 265,000+ holes mapped to date.

Where the data comes from

Open all the way down.

Sources

  • OpenStreetMap — course locations and boundaries
  • NOAA — 30-year climate normals (public domain)
  • Nominatim — addresses and postal codes
  • Course websites — phone, email, hours (public facts)
  • Community contributions — anything you submit

License

ODbL-1.0  Same license as OpenStreetMap. You can use it commercially, just attribute us.

If you'd like to support the work — keeping the API running, adding new countries, paying weather + geocoding bills — donations help.

Support the project →