Terms of service.

OpenGolfAPI provides a free open dataset of US golf courses (geometry, tees, scorecards, hazards, and metadata), plus optional access via a REST API and an MCP server for AI agents. The dataset and tooling are operated by an unincorporated solo maintainer (“we,” “us”) — not a registered company.

All course data is published under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. You can download it, redistribute it, and build commercial products on top of it. Attribution is required: cite “OpenGolfAPI, ODbL” wherever the data shows up.

ODbL is a copyleft data license — derivative databases must be shared under the same terms. Read the full license text if you plan to redistribute.

The API is free at every tier. Limits exist so one user can't starve everyone else:

• Anonymous: 1,000 requests per day, per IP.
• Keyed (free): 10,000 requests per day, per key.
• Higher tiers: available with a recurring donation via Open Collective.

Limits are enforced. Sustained abuse — scraping past limits, rotating IPs to dodge the cap, or any pattern that looks like a denial-of-service attempt — may result in your key being revoked without notice.

OpenGolfAPI is community-maintained, best-effort. There is no uptime guarantee, no support contract, and no obligation on us to keep any specific endpoint, schema, or behavior stable forever.

Do not use this service for life-critical or safety-critical applications. Don't use it to navigate, to make medical decisions, to control equipment, or for anything where a wrong answer or an outage could hurt someone.

The service and the data are provided as-is, with all faults, and without warranty of any kind — express, implied, or statutory. We disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, non-infringement, and quiet enjoyment.

You assume all risk associated with your use.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or relating to this service — regardless of the legal theory (contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, statute, or otherwise) — is capped at USD $100.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, lost profits, lost data, or business interruption, even if we've been advised that such damages were possible.

We may revoke any API key at any time, for any reason, including (but not limited to) abuse, fraud, suspected fraud, security concerns, or operational reasons. Where practical we'll email you first; where it isn't, we won't.

You can stop using the service whenever you like. To delete your key and the email tied to it, write to hello@opengolfapi.org.

You agree not to:

• Attempt to overload, degrade, or disrupt the service.
• Resell or redistribute raw data without the required ODbL attribution.
• Use the service or the data to harass, threaten, or defame course owners, operators, staff, or other contributors.
• Submit fraudulent edits, fake claims, or deliberately wrong data.
• Use the service to violate any applicable law or third-party right.

We may update these terms from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page is the source of truth. Material changes — anything that meaningfully affects your rights or obligations — will be emailed to keyed users at the address on file.

Continued use of the service after a change means you accept it.

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and applicable federal law. Any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of US federal and state courts.

Questions about these terms, requests to delete your account, or anything that doesn't fit a form go to hello@opengolfapi.org. One person reads every email.