Simulator Golf Handicap Apps: An Updated Comparison

We wrote about the simulator golf handicap options back in August. Since then the field's gotten more crowded, so here's an update — what's actually new, what hasn't changed, and where SimCap fits now.

What hasn't changed

GHIN is still the official USGA index, still supports approved simulator scores on certified courses, and still requires a club or state association membership to use. TheGrint still links to a real GHIN number with a smoother app on top. Golf Handicapp still does general WHS math with scorecard-photo scanning. None of the three has announced anything specifically built around simulator conditions since our last post — they're the same solid, general-purpose options they were in August.

Worth a quick note: there's also a broader wave of general golf tournament and league apps that have bolted on simulator-specific features (their own sim handicap, sim courses, photo score import) as one piece of a much bigger, non-simulator-focused product. That's a different category from what this post is about — a handicap built specifically around how simulator golf works, not a general golf platform with a simulator mode.

What's new

Golf Genius — an established name in golf tech, mostly known for tournament and league management — announced a simulator-specific handicap offering in late August. It's aimed at the same gap SimCap targets: a handicap that actually accounts for simulator play rather than treating every sim round like an outdoor one. Golf Genius already has real distribution through the leagues and facilities already running their platform, which makes this the most direct new competitor to watch. We haven't used it hands-on, so we can't speak to how the index math or simulator-specific handling actually works in practice — just that it exists now and is worth knowing about if you're comparing options.

Evenplay — launched over the summer with a different approach entirely: instead of a WHS-style handicap index, it's an AI-driven skill rating on a 1-100 scale. It's explicitly not trying to be a portable handicap number in the GHIN sense — it's its own thing, free to use, and launched with partnerships across a large number of simulator bays. If what you want is a traditional handicap index, this isn't that. If you want a rating that reflects your simulator skill level specifically, it's worth a look.

Lies Golf — currently in beta (iOS via TestFlight, Android not out yet), so take this as an early look rather than a finished product. Its approach is philosophically the opposite of SimCap's: instead of a simulator-specific number, it calculates one "hybrid" handicap that blends your outdoor and simulator rounds together using the standard WHS formula — outdoor rounds count normally, simulator rounds only count if you've entered a course rating, otherwise they're excluded from the index entirely. Round ingestion is CSV-import based (Foresight, TrackMan, SkyTrak, and GSPro exports) plus a GSPro live-sync option, rather than photo/scorecard scanning. If you want one number that represents your golf overall, indoors and out, that's a real, different answer than what we do. If you want a number that's honestly about your simulator game specifically — which is the position we think is right for most simulator golfers — that's the core distinction to know about going in.

SIM Leagues — an app focused on league and event management for simulator golf, with handicap tracking as a smaller piece of a bigger feature set rather than the main focus. Worth a mention if you're evaluating tools for running a league, less relevant if a handicap index is specifically what you're after.

SimCap

Still what we built, so take that for what it's worth. SimCap is a free, WHS-style handicap index built specifically for simulator conditions — it accounts for putting mode, pin placement, wind, and mulligans instead of treating every sim round like an outdoor one, works across GSPro, TrackMan, Foresight, Full Swing, and E6, and lets you log a GHIN index on your profile to compare against, though there's no live sync between the two. Past the index itself, it runs tournaments, match play, and league management, so a facility or friend group can run real competition inside the app instead of stitching it together across spreadsheets. It's still not an official USGA-recognized number on its own, and rounds are still entered manually rather than pulled automatically from the sim — that second part is what we're actively building toward.

The honest recommendation

If you need an official number that also covers outdoor golf, GHIN or TheGrint are still the answer. If you want a rating built around simulator skill specifically rather than a portable handicap, Evenplay is worth trying. If you want one blended index across outdoor and simulator rounds and don't mind an early beta, Lies Golf is doing that. If you're comparing platforms with real distribution behind a new simulator-specific handicap, keep an eye on Golf Genius. And if you want something free, built specifically around how simulator golf actually works — sim-specific scoring conditions, tournaments, and league play in one place — that's still the gap SimCap is built to fill.