FORE
Hold it like a club
One hand, exactly the way you already hold your phone. Then turn your wrist: screen facing where you are aiming. Two hands is wrong.
iPhone · One hole · Real swing
Your phone is the club
Hold your iPhone like a golf club. Wait for the buzz. Swing. FORE reads the real motion of your swing to hit the ball across the water onto an island green.
How to play
Swing your phone like a golf club
Tap SWING and hold the phone in position. Three short buzzes — 3 · 2 · 1 — then one long buzz: GO. Swing on the long one, like the video.
Tap SWING, then lower it
Nothing starts while you are still reading the screen. Get into your stance and the pill fills, flips to HOLD IT THERE, and the count begins on its own. Last chance to read the wind.
Swing on the long buzz
Three short buzzes for 3 · 2 · 1, then one long one for GO. Take it back and through the ball at medium pace. Then watch it fly, and find out what your wrist did.
Animation of how to swing in FORE: tap, hold, three short buzzes, one long one, swing.
The swing
Two inputs, both matter
There is no aim stick, no power bar and no menu of shot shapes. You need to swing your phone like a golf club and control the power and direction of the shot. The gyroscope samples your swing a hundred times a second and reads exactly two things out of it.
SpeedYour swing speed sets how far the ball goes
Distance comes from the speed you swing your phone — nothing else. Swing slowly and it goes short. Swing hard and it goes long.
Distance
Swing speed
80 ydSoft
153 ydThe flag
220 ydEverything
Club faceWhere the club face points decides where the ball goes
At contact the screen is the club face. Club face pointing inwards and the ball draws left. Club face pointing outwards and it fades right. Club face square, and it holds the line.
InDraw left
SquareStraight
OutFade right
The Island · Par 3 · 153 yards
One hole: Island green
A green on top of a cliff, ringed by water. The wind changes every shot, and the flag leans into it.
- New wind every shot, with a cloth flag that leans into it
- Green, fringe, fairway, rough and water — judged where the ball stopped
- Haptics for the strike, the splash, and the rattle into the cup
- Realistic bounce and roll of the ball on the landing
FORE in action
Every shot, start to finish
Hole in one
Some of them go in
If you are lucky and good enough, you can hole out in one.
Go and try one
On the App Store.
What is in it
Built to be picked up cold
Hit the range to learn the gist of FORE
How to swing, land it short, fly the back, shape it left, shape it right, then a crosswind to beat.
A dial you actually have to read
The wind is shown in the top corner, strength in yards, direction on the needle, and a cloth flag on the pin that leans the same way. It changes every shot.
Every shot logged, on your phone
Averages for power, carry, face angle and how close you finished, plus your last ten shots.
Haptics to guide you
Soft, soft, soft, then hard for GO. The strike, the bounce, the splash and the rattle of a ball dropping into the cup all feel different in your hand.
Hold on to the phone.
Do not swing hard. Soft is genuinely enough — the game is calibrated for a medium, one-handed pass, and swinging out of your shoes does not make the ball go further than 220 yards.
Keep hold of it, or use a wrist strap if you have one. Give yourself room, away from people, glass and televisions.
Questions
Good to know.
What is FORE?
An iPhone golf game you play by physically swinging your phone like a club. There is one hole: a par 3 island green, 153 yards across water.
How is it different from other golf games?
Most golf games are thumbs on glass — drag a target, stop a power bar. FORE has neither. You stand up and swing, and the sensors read what your arm actually did. It is closer to standing in the garden with a 7-iron than to a simulator.
Do I aim?
No — and that is deliberate. You shape the ball with your wrist instead. There is no aim stick, no power meter and no shot-shape menu anywhere in the game.
What happens the first time I open it?
A flyover of the hole, then a short range: how to swing, land it short, fly the back of the green, shape it left, shape it right, and a crosswind to play against. Six shots, one goal each. After that the island is yours and the wind is live.
You can replay the whole range, or any single lesson, from Setup.
Is it free? Is there a login?
FORE is free to download. There is no account, and nothing to buy in the app.
Motion sensors read your swing on the phone, and your shot history stays there. The rest is on the privacy page.
Which devices?
iPhone only, portrait, iOS 15 or later. Not iPad, not Android, not Mac — you need a device you are willing to hold like a club.
Is this a launch monitor?
No. It is a game, and the numbers are tuned to be fun and readable rather than to measure your real club head speed. Closer to Wii Sports golf than to a practice aid.
Is it safe to swing a phone?
With a soft swing and a grip on it, yes. Do not swing hard, use a wrist strap if you have one, and give yourself room away from people, glass and televisions.
Who made it?
Richard Deetlefs, as an individual. Questions, bugs and good shots: richard.m.deetlefs@gmail.com.
