Verizon Wireless has launched an application aimed at golfers who expect above-par performance from their mobile phones.

The new GPSGolfShot app offers any level of golfer the advantage of always knowing the distance to the green. With the help of GPS technology, users can navigate more than 10,000 professionally mapped courses in the United States, so that whether they've played there before or not, they seem like a pro.

"The game of golf is a challenge," said Dan Roth, cofounder and chairman at Acme123Sports, Woburn, MA. "You play better, make better decisions and improve faster when you know the correct yardage, thus leading to greater enjoyment--that's the goal.

"Additionally, the high cost of standalone GPS rangefinders prevent many people from enjoying the benefits of accurate yardage info, and we wanted to overcome that barrier with a low-cost solution that works," he said.

GPSGolfShot provides golfers with the information they need most on the course such as real-time yardage readings direct via their mobile phone, which makes the vital task of club selection less of a guessing game.

This does away with the need for distance markers, stand-alone rangefinders and pacing off shots. This can be very important to savvy mobile users who are usually on the go during a slow-paced game like golf.

The course layouts catalogued in the application are updated constantly and new courses are added regularly.

"Golf is an activity that cuts across traditional demographic lines," Mr. Roth said. "It's a true mass market game and people of all walks of life love it.

"Having accurate yardage information is key to the game regardless of your skill level and we wanted to make that information available to anyone with a mobile phone," he said.

Since the sun is always a factor during a round of golf, GPSGolfShot has a voice feature, where distances are spoken aloud, in case the golfer can't get a good look at the screen.

GPSGolfShot is equipped with a "Measure My Shot" function that gives golfers an accurate measurement for how far drivers or irons travel, allowing them to improve their decisions and performance shot by shot.

"Leveraging the wireless network enables us to eliminate the use of a PC from the GPS rangefinder end user experience," Mr. Roth said.

"Before GPSGolfShot, users needed to hook up their standalone units to a PC, and download course maps from complicated web sites- not that fun," he said. "With GPSGolfShot and Verizon Wireless, you just go to the course and play."

The Verizon-exclusive application is available now, just in time for golf season to swing into full gear.

Users can download the GPSGolfShot on phones such as the LG enV3, LG Versa, the Samsung SCH-u410, SCH-a870, and SCH-a930.

The GPSGolfShot can be found in the media center or "Get It Now" stores under the "Download This!" and "Sports" categories.

The application costs $1.99 per round or $3.99 for a month of unlimited use. For the serious golfer, an annual subscription of GPSGolfShot is available for $34.99. The same airtime, data usage and messaging fees still apply while the application is downloading and being used.

"Now that many of the main stream ?killer apps' for GPS like navigation have been developed, we believe that there will be some interesting opportunities in large niches like golf where location data is very useful," Mr. Roth said.

"We do believe that the days of standalone GPS devices are over, smartphone and feature phone platforms will dominate," he said.