Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

The Izzo Swammio is the same as the Bushnell NEO. I have the neo and I love it. Its very small and very simple to use.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

Actually this post is incorrect. The igolf neo is the same unit. Bushnell bought them out.

The Izzo Swami is a different unit.

I played for the first time with the Swami today.
Loved it. For the money it's a steal.

Pro's:
1) Easy set up - only 2 files to download.
2) Course loading was easy. Drag and drop
2) Cheap - $75 + $9.99 subscription fee, lasts for a year. If you maintain same courses you never need to pay again. Only re-up subscription if you plan on changing the courses after 1 year.
3) Small and lightweight. Could easily leave in pocket if needbe
4) Belt Clip included - I actually attached this to a metal bracket under the cart's steering wheel and it never moved the whole round.
5) Large screen
6) Easy to toggle between front, center and back yardage
7) Turn on unit in the parking lot and was ready when I got to the first tee box
8) Course database - Out of the 10 courses I normally play, only one was not listed. I requested a map. Normally it takes 5 days. will post back once its mapped to see how long it takes.
9) Ease of use - hardly any buttons to mess with.

Con's
1) Have to charge via computer/usb port.
2) Does not come with wall or car charger
3) Does not automatically advance to next hole, manually have to press a button. Not a huge deal though
4) No ball mark feature - for price range did not expect it
5) No hazard distances - for price range did not expect it

Other info:
Holds 10 courses at a time
Wall and car charges sold seperately
Silicone cases sold seperately

Course Review:
Yardages seemed spot on course markings when I found course markings. Very easy to use. Izzo tells you to walk up to the first green on every course you play and ensure it's within 5 yards. I showed 3 yards left to front when I was on the fringe. I noticed later in my round if you stand in one location for a few seconds the yardage moves 1-2 yards to get even more accurate. I did not know this on the first hole so my guess the yardage would have moved from 3 yds to even closer to 0.
My speed of play was also much quicker. No more driving around looking for yardage markers or sprinkler heads. Look down, grab a club and go.
Hardest thing was trusting the yardage on a couple shots. Which I didn't and I should have. Swami told me 115 to middle of green. I opted for less club thinking there is no way that is 115 yds and ended up 10 yds short of green. lol

If you are on the fence about buying a GPS, especially if you don't want to pay alot of money (which was my case) and you don't need all the extras (like mark my shot, distances to hazards, layup distances), this is the unit for you.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

After playing a couple rounds with the Swami another thing I noticed was my wedge play really seemed to get better. Normally if I am 100 yards out I hit the green most of the time but now I am noticing I am getting much closer with my approaches. I never really knew how far I hit my 3 wedges just round about yardages. Now that I have seen what I hit them on the course it helps me choose the right club to get it close. If anything it takes the guesswork out.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

One of my golfing buddies has the Swammi, and loves it. It's much more accurate than my iPhone's Golf Logix app, distance wise. I would consider this if I were looking at laser rangefinders, but not so much if looking at a full screen gps unit. The interface is simple and battery life is great, but it is extremely limited in the information you get from it, particularly distance to hazards. The only reason I like the Golf Logix app better is because it nor only gives distances to carry hazards, but also has satellite imagery of holes so you can look for hidden hazards, such as where water sneaks across a fairway.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

Good points, but for it's price range you can't expect hole imagery and hazard info for $75 bucks. And not everybody has $300-400 for high end units or has an iPhone/Blackberry to download an app on.

For a no frills unit though (and realistically if you think about it most golfers probably only need distance to green anyway) I'd say its a no brainer for basically the cost of 1 to 2 rounds of golf. Great asset to the bag.

I actually got mine free by redeeming Delta sky miles and to be honest now that I have used it, I would have paid for one.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

I have the izzo and love it. It gives you distance to the front, center and back of the greens. Nothing else. It is as accurate as the more expensive units. Good thing is that you pay only $10 to subscribe to unlimited courses for a whole year. At the end of the year, you can keep 10 courses on the unit and use them forever without paying a single dime.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

We sell these at work...and I have never had a single person ask me 1 question about it lol. I figure it's gotta be a nice super basic GPS for the price, but everyone is obsessed with getting the super brands like Bushnell and Skygolf products, neither of which we stock. I use Golfshot on my iPhone, works super well as long as its fully charged and I have good signal, even if I have the GPS off, I like the scorecard/stats keeping features as well. But at least I know that the unit works really well now and can tell people its worth the money :P

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

I also have an iGolf Neo. about the same price as the swami but the Neo has a shot distance feature that is cool to have. Not sure if the Swami has that. The neo is very accurate too when tested against some laser range finders used by some playing partners. Very similar as far as getting courses and subscription. $10 for 100 courses, holds 10 at a time.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

Hey all, newbie to the forum here!

I am too looking at the iGolf Neo vs. Izzo Swami. I like the idea of the Izzo being a bit cheaper and how fast and accurate it is. On the other hand I like the idea of Neo with the option of being able to mark important yardages and clock distances.

The Izzo is $10.00 a year and only needed once if you get all the 10 courses you play. You can only hold 10 and they are stored in the unit.
The Neo is $35.00 a year and only needed once if you get all the courses you play. You get 100 and these save to your PC and can be used when needed.

Re: Izzo's Swami GPS Unit...Reviews?

as mentioned earlier.....big fan of the Swammi.

I got it free through my frequent flyer club but it's definately worth the money.
I too like you thought I would need the mark yardage option, but if you can do quick math you can easily tell how far you hit a shot with the Swami. For instance I hit a decent drive my last time out on the first hole. Hole was 401 and when I got to the ball I was 150 out so I knew I hit my drive (251 yds) 401-150.
I always had a general idea of how far I hit my clubs but within 2 rounds of using the Swami I pretty much had it down to a science.

Also I thought it would be cool to mark layup points, but once again, most of the courses I play I am familiar with and know the layup yardages. If I played a course only one time, and never go back it's useless to map them. Would be neat to have a flyover with hole layout on the screen but then you are into the $400 price range which is not what the Swammi was meant to compete with.

One thing to consider is make sure to scan both unit's websites for course maps. I was contemplating buying the Calloway Upro Go, however 5 of the 10 courses I searched were not mapped and it appeared some were requested over 20 times and people were still waiting.
With the Izzo, 9 of the 10 courses were available. If a course is not available Izzo will map it within 2 to 14 days depending on their volume of requests.

I played 2 rounds on one battery charge and it was still showing a full 3 bars of power. Its supposed to last 3, 18 hole rounds. I was scared to play a 3rd round so I charged it before hand.

Bought a 1500 new from a retailer on Amazon recently.  Couldn't get the maps uploaded as the driver install kept locking up any PC I plugged it into.  I called their support and after I told them what I had tried, they said to go ahead and ship it to them for an RMA.  I shipped it USPS from FL to NY in peak holiday season on Tuesday, and today (Friday) I got a call from them saying that the device was indeed defective and that they would be shipping me a new 3000 since they don't have the 1500 anymore.  Kudos to IZZO for their tech support.  I'm looking forward to trying out the 3000 soon.