Do the GPS distances come from the watch or the phone?

With our recommendation of keeping your iPhone and Apple Watch connected and in range, the GPS distances will come from your phone.

If you chose to turn on using the Apple Watch onboard GPS, found under the GPS, Scoring, Caddie section of settings > turn on Use Watch GPS, the distances will be measured from your Apple Watch. With this setting turned off, the watch will display distances from your phone's GPS.