GPS inaccuracy fallacy - Page 4

if you have to walk halfway to the hole to get a clear line of sight then you don't need the help of a laser...just hit the ball and put it back in play.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paradox 

if you have to walk halfway to the hole to get a clear line of sight then you don't need the help of a laser...just hit the ball and put it back in play.

Maybe where you play that is the case but not where I play.   I regularly play on 3 different courses that have holes where even a 280 yard drive to the center of the fairway will leave you on the wrong side of a hill to see the green but the green is still reachable with a reasonably well struck second shot.  However to see those greens (and pins) to get your laser yardage, you are gonna walk 50-100 yards ahead of your ball.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by teamroper60 

Maybe where you play that is the case but not where I play.   I regularly play on 3 different courses that have holes where even a 280 yard drive to the center of the fairway will leave you on the wrong side of a hill to see the green but the green is still reachable with a reasonably well struck second shot.  However to see those greens (and pins) to get your laser yardage, you are gonna walk 50-100 yards ahead of your ball.  

so shoot the distance before you go down to the blind spot then shoot your ball and subtract the distance to get your yardage?  I've played lots of places and I don't recall one shot from a fairway lie that I couldn't shoot the flag from the ball or a layup area from the ball.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paradox 

 

so shoot the distance before you go down to the blind spot then shoot your ball and subtract the distance to get your yardage?  I've played lots of places and I don't recall one shot from a fairway lie that I couldn't shoot the flag from the ball or a layup area from the ball.

Apparently, the courses you play are a lot flatter than the ones I play.  

Give you an example from my round today..   

Par 5 hole that as the crow flies is straight as a string but involves going uphill from the tee, then down hill gradually for quite a ways before a fairly good drop off to the green.   Tee shot was ~270yds, sitting smack in the middle of the fairway just over the crest of the hill (One of very few good tee shots I hit all day.).  I am 6'4" and from where my ball was, I could not see the pin.   Since we were the only people on the course and this particular hole was one of the ones I alluded to in an earlier post, I decided to walk foward to a point where I could see the pin (which was blue).    That point was 75 paces forward of my shot (so that was ~150yds round trip).   When I got back to my ball, I checked my GPS and it said the back of the green was 220yds.   So, to be at a point where I could have shot the pin with a laser, I was about a third of the way to it..  Now, did that round trip take a long time to do?  Not really.  But it did take a couple of minutes and since I could have known the yardage when I got to the ball, I see that as a couple of minutes wasted.    (Not that it matters, but since this particular hole plays short and given the yardages my GPS showed me, I opted to go for it with a 4i, got the green in two and should have at a minimum birdied the hole but my putting has been horrid for the past couple of months, so I ended up 3-putting for par.)
 

And to reiterate, I am NOT knocking anyone for using a laser if that is their choice.   But for me, the courses I play and the current level of my game, having pinpoint accuracy is just not that necessary and in some cases would be a waste of time. 

If I can't see the green, I am definitely going to walk up and take a look so I don't hit into the group in front of me regardless of whether I use a laser or GPS.  Also, I use both the laser and/or course markers.  

I chose the laser because I want distances to other features.  Example is a dog leg par 5 where you want to get past the turn and put the ball in the middle of the fairway.  I laser the tree at the apex and estimate that yardage past the tree to get me in the fairway.  Maybe GPS systems have improved to include this information, but it wasn't available when I was buying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boogielicious 
I chose the laser because I want distances to other features.  Example is a dog leg par 5 where you want to get past the turn and put the ball in the middle of the fairway.  I laser the tree at the apex and estimate that yardage past the tree to get me in the fairway.  Maybe GPS systems have improved to include this information, but it wasn't available when I was buying.

Some can and some can't.  Mine can.    I can pick any spot on the course and get a yardage to it just by touching that spot..  

GPS doesn't work to well among the skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan either.  Luckily, there are no courses there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boogielicious 

If I can't see the green, I am definitely going to walk up and take a look so I don't hit into the group in front of me regardless of whether I use a laser or GPS.  Also, I use both the laser and/or course markers.  

 

I chose the laser because I want distances to other features.  Example is a dog leg par 5 where you want to get past the turn and put the ball in the middle of the fairway.  I laser the tree at the apex and estimate that yardage past the tree to get me in the fairway.  Maybe GPS systems have improved to include this information, but it wasn't available when I was buying.

With my Garmin G5 I tap the screen, drag the target to the point where I want to hit the shot, and I get not only the distance from me to the target, but from the target to the pin (I also set the pin location according to the information given by the day's pin sheet).  That way I can adjust the target point to a good wedge or short iron distance for me.   Your laser can't do that.   I've used both a laser and a GPS, and the better GPS units are now more flexible in the information they give you.  Mine also shows most trees, any significant mounding, etc.  

After using this Garmin for a few rounds, I gave my Bushnell Tour V2 laser to my brother. 

Oh Yeah! Can it give you the distance to the Predator Drone that is circling above?  Hmmm?  

GPS have come a long way in just a few years.  When I bought the Leupold, GPS were much more basic.

GPS devices have 10 foot error factor in accuracy, but this only applies to some devices, it is possible to have some gps devices that have a thirty foot error factor. It depends on how many satellites the device calls on 3 or 5. The next issue is if your gps is in an area of trees or hills it may not be able to get enough satellites to gather more accurate information because the terrain will block its view of some of the sky. The accuracy of your gps device is actually determined by the military that doesn't want them to be accurate enough to guide bombs to exact locations.

Hand held range finders are usually accurate to 3 feet or less, they work by sending a pulse out to a target and timing it's return to the unit and making a calculation. I believe somehow they are designed to like to focus on targets that contrast to their surroundings. This is why it can be hard to get a reading in areas where the flag has a lot of trees and shade around it. Some range finders are tuned to pick up the funny little glass crystals that some courses are using in their flag sticks up near the flag.

So the best method of determining distance is to have combo unit because sometimes you can't even see a flag to get distance from a range finder and other times the gps can't find enough satellites to be reasonably accurate. The beauty is that the GPS can give you the distances from center of the green to the edges and sand traps and the range finder can give you a more accurate distance to the pin itself. If and where I play this a problem, you can't determine where the flag is on the green (back, front, center or side) then you only know how far the pin is.
 

Most modern GPS can resolve your position to +/- 10 ft or better under a clear open sky. Most course maps are determined from SatMaps (Google Earth). This introduces more possible error compared to actual on site positioning.

Still, the typical error is less than a club length if reasonable data collection processes are used. I measure average club lengths by GPS (and expect +/- 3yrds), and distance to pin by laser (+/- 1 yrd).

If your actual club hit distance tolerance is below either of these, you are a golfing machine.

well my laser can fry ants and also etch my golf clubs....can your GPS do that????