Simply GolfThe short version: Your games, records and settings stay on your device. If you're signed in to Game Center or Google Play Games, the game posts your scores and nickname to the Simply Golf leaderboard, which is public; it tells you first and you can turn it off or remove them at any time. The free version shows ads from Google: a small banner on the main menu, pause screen and scorecards, and now and then a full-screen ad at a break in play. Google collects some device information to show them. Buy Remove Ads and those ads are gone for good. Once a day you can also choose to watch an ad for two extra tries at the Daily Solo Challenge. Only if you choose to, anonymous play statistics go to our own server. If you use Game Center on iPhone or iPad, or Google Play Games on Android, Apple or Google handles your achievements and their own leaderboards.
Last updated 13 October 2026.
What stays on your device
Everything the game remembers is saved only on your phone or tablet:
- Games in progress, settings and custom rules
- Player nicknames, ball colours and handicaps
- Records, stats, daily challenge tries and achievement progress
We never receive this information, apart from the scores you post to the leaderboard (below). The optional play statistics are counts and categories, with none of these in them. Deleting the app deletes it. If your iPhone or iPad backs up apps to iCloud, the backup is handled by Apple under your iCloud settings.
The Simply Golf leaderboard
The Daily Solo Challenge has one leaderboard for everyone, shown in the game and at simplygolf.patslo.com/leaderboard. Anyone can read it. To post to it you need to be signed in to Game Center on iPhone or iPad, or Google Play Games on Android, and the game tells you before your first score is posted: either on the card that asks about play statistics, or with a question of its own.
When posting is on, each round the first player finishes sends our server:
- Your Game Center or Play Games nickname (never a name typed in the game)
- The first player's score on each hole, the course's pars, your ball colour, how many people played, and for the Daily which try it was
- The course: the date for the Daily, or the seed, difficulty and length for other rounds
- Proof from Apple or Google that the account is yours, which the server checks and then discards
Your nickname, ball colour and scores are public. So that your scores can be told apart from everyone else's, the server stores a scrambled, one-way version of your Game Center or Play Games player ID. The ID itself is never stored, shown or shared, and the server never stores your IP address. Rounds with a handicap, shuffled holes or no connection aren't posted. If you list friends in the game, the game sends your friends' player IDs with that one request so the server can pick out their scores; they aren't kept.
The leaderboard is kept on our own server, hosted by Cloudflare. Scores stay on it until you remove them. To stop posting, switch off "Post scores to the leaderboard" in the game's Settings, under About. It then asks whether to remove the scores you've already posted; choose "Remove them" and they're deleted. You can also email us and we'll remove them for you. We may hide scores that look like they weren't earned in normal play.
This leaderboard is separate from our optional play statistics: nothing links one to the other.
Game Center
If you're signed in to Game Center, the game sends your unlocked achievements and your scores for Game Center's own leaderboards to Apple. Apple shows them to you and to other players according to your Game Center settings. Apple's handling of that information is covered by Apple's privacy policy. You can play without Game Center, and you can turn it off at any time in your device's Settings.
Google Play Games
On Android, if you have a Google Play Games profile, Google signs you in when the game starts. The game then sends your unlocked achievements and your scores for Play Games' own leaderboards to Google. Google shows them to you and to other players according to your Play Games settings, and handles that information under Google's privacy policy. You can play without Play Games, and you can change or remove your profile in the Play Games app or your Google Account settings.
Ads
Until you buy Remove Ads, the game shows a banner ad on the main menu, the pause screen and the scorecards, and now and then a full-screen ad: before the final scores, or halfway through a 9 or 18 hole round, and never more than once every five minutes. Ads never appear while you're taking a shot. Once a day, when you've used your tries at the Daily Solo Challenge, you can choose to watch an ad for two more; that ad only plays if you ask for it, whether or not you've bought Remove Ads. The ads come from Google AdMob. To show ads, measure them and prevent fraud, Google's software in the game may collect information such as your IP address, device model and settings, and how you interact with the ads. That information goes to Google, not to us, and Google handles it under Google's privacy policy. How Google uses information from apps that use its services explains more.
On iPhone and iPad, Simply Golf doesn't ask for permission to track you across other companies' apps and websites, so Apple's advertising identifier isn't shared with Google.
On Android, Google's ad software also uses your device's advertising ID to show ads, measure them and prevent fraud. You can reset or delete that ID, or turn off ad personalisation, in your device's Settings under Privacy, then Ads.
If you're in a place where privacy law requires it, such as the European Economic Area, the UK or certain US states, Google's consent message asks for your choices before ads load. You can change them at any time in the game's Settings, under Ads, then Ad Privacy.
Remove Ads
Remove Ads is a one-time purchase made through the App Store on iPhone and iPad, or through Google Play on Android. Apple or Google handles the payment, and we never see your payment details. The game only learns from the store that the purchase was made, so it can switch ads off. After that, the game doesn't start Google's ad software unless you choose to watch an ad for extra Daily Solo Challenge tries. Restore Purchases in Settings asks the store for your past purchases, for example on a new device. A purchase belongs to the store account that made it, so buying on one platform doesn't carry over to the other.
Optional play statistics
The first time you open the game it asks whether you'd like to share anonymous play statistics. It's off unless you say yes, and you can change it at any time in Settings, under About. These statistics exist for one reason: to check the game is working and that people are enjoying it, so we know what to build next and what to fix. We built this ourselves, instead of using an analytics company's software, so that nothing is collected beyond what we chose. They go to our own server, hosted by Cloudflare, with no name, account, device identifier or location, and the server never stores your IP address. The full list is at simplygolf.patslo.com/analytics.
Reminders, sharing and vibration
If you turn on the Daily reminder in Settings, the game asks your device to show one notification in the evening when you haven't played that day's course. It's scheduled on your device: nothing is sent to us or to anyone else, and turning the setting off cancels it.
The Share button on a finished scorecard hands a picture of the card and a line of text to the app you choose from your device's share sheet. The game doesn't see who you send it to. Vibration uses your device's motor and collects nothing.
What we don't do
- No accounts or sign-ups of our own: the leaderboard uses the Game Center or Play Games account you already have
- No analytics unless you opt in. If you do, what we receive is anonymous: we store nothing that could tie it back to you, your account, your device or your network.
- No asking to track you across other companies' apps
- No selling of personal information
The game only uses your clipboard when you tap a course seed to copy it.
Children
Simply Golf is a game for a general audience and isn't directed at children under 13. Apart from leaderboard scores posted under a Game Center or Play Games nickname, we don't collect personal information from anyone, including children. Ads are provided by Google under its own policies.
This website
This site doesn't use cookies, analytics or third-party scripts, and its fonts are served from here. The leaderboard page loads scores from our own scores server. It's hosted by Cloudflare, which may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses, for security and to keep the site running.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email simplygolf@patslo.com.