Help & Documentation

Creating Your Account

Getting started with GolfWise is simple:

1. Visit app.golfwise.co.nz
2. Click "Sign Up" to create your free account
3. Enter your email address
4. Enter the verification code from the sign up email
5. Set your password
6. Complete your profile setup

Setting Up Your Profile

Customize your GolfWise experience by completing your profile:

• Profile Photo: Upload a profile picture to personalize your account, or select a GolfWise avatar
• Home Region: Select your primary golfing region in New Zealand
• Privacy Settings: Choose between public or private profile visibility. You must have a public profile to add and follow friends

Choosing Your Home Region

Your home region allows you to choose your home club. Having a home region also makes it easier for your friends to find you

Your First Steps

New accounts get a short welcome tour of the app, plus a checklist to help you get set up: adding a profile photo, setting your home club, adding a friend, marking a course played, leaving a review, and saving a course to a list. You can pick it back up any time until it's complete.

Browsing and Filtering Courses

Discover golf courses across New Zealand with powerful search and filter options:

• Search: Use the search bar to find courses by name
• Region Filter: Browse courses by any of New Zealand's 16 regions
• Hole Count: Filter by 9-hole or 18-hole courses
• Play Status: View all courses, only played, only reviewed, or only unplayed
• Green Fee & Access Type: Filter by price band and public/private access
• Course Attributes & Motorhome Parking: Premium filters for specific course features
• Grid, List, or Map View: Switch views, including an interactive map with clustering and geolocation

Marking Courses as Played

Track your golf journey by marking courses you've played:

1. One by one: using the Grid, List or Map view, click on the 'Not Played' checkbox to mark a course as played
2. All at once: go to 'My Game' page and use the 'Import Played Courses' feature

The course(s) will be added to your courses played history.

Writing Reviews

Share your experience by writing detailed course reviews:

• "Replayability": Would you play this course again? (custom scale)
• Design: Rate the course layout and design (1-5 stars)
• Condition: Assess the maintenance and upkeep of all parts of the course (1-5 stars)
• Hospitality: How were the staff and members? Were you made welcome? (1-5 stars)
• Value: Consider the value for money (1-5 stars)
• Written Review: Share detailed thoughts and tips
• Photos: Show course highlights

Reviews help other golfers make informed decisions about which courses to play.

Understanding the Rating System

Each course displays an overall rating calculated from all user reviews across the five criteria. The more reviews a course has, the more reliable the rating becomes. GolfWise uses a custom review algorithm to determine overall course ratings. Courses with only a handful of reviews are marked as "provisional" until more reviews come in.

Planning a Golf Trip

Create a trip to bring your golf plans together in one place:

• Courses: Shortlist the courses you want to play
• Itinerary: Build a day-by-day plan combining rounds with travel, stays, and other activities
• Golfers: Invite friends, or invite anyone by name and email — they'll get an emailed invite link to sign up or sign in and join your roster

Roster status (invited, active, declined, left, removed) keeps track of who's confirmed for the trip. Free accounts can shortlist a limited number of courses and invite a limited number of addtional golfers per trip; Premium removes those limits.

Saving Courses to Lists

Every golfer gets a default "Saved" list to bookmark courses you want to play. Add a course to your list straight from a course card or the course detail page. Premium members can create additional custom lists to organize courses however suits them.

Finding and Following Friends

Connect with other golfers:

• Search for friends by name or email
• Follow friends to see their activity in your feed

Viewing Friend Activities

Stay connected with your golf network:

• See when friends play new courses
• Read their latest course reviews
• Celebrate when they unlock achievements
• Discover courses popular among your network
• Compare yourself to friends on the leaderboard (played, reviews, achievements)
• Catch up on golf news in the feed

Privacy Settings

Control your visibility on GolfWise:

• Public Profile: When your profile is public, anyone can add you as a friend
• Private Profile: Only people who have added you to their friends list can see your activity
• Change privacy settings anytime in your profile
• Note all reviews are public, regardless of your private/public profile setting

How Achievements Work

Unlock badges and achievements as you explore golf courses across New Zealand. Achievements celebrate your progress and encourage you to discover new courses.

Achievement Categories

• Course Achievements: Play milestone numbers of courses (10, 25, 50, 100+)
• Regional Achievements: Play courses in all regions of New Zealand
• Social Achievements: Connect with friends
• Review Achievements: Contribute helpful reviews to the community
• Special Badges: Complete unique challenges and special events

Viewing Your Progress

Track your achievement progress in your profile. See which achievements you've unlocked and what's next to earn. Some achievements show your progress percentage.

Sharing Your Progress

Generate a shareable image of your progress and achievements straight from your profile, and share it directly to your favourite apps.

Premium Benefits

Upgrade to GolfWise Premium for enhanced features:

• Unrestricted trip features
• Unlimited custom course lists
• Full round history import from Golf NZ, with detailed stats
• Additional filtering (motorhome parking, course attributes)
• More features in development

Subscription Details

Premium membership is available as a monthly or annual subscription. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime from your account settings. Visit the Pricing page for current rates.