Igolf Caddie II GPS Review

[Finn07]

For those of you thinking of getting a GPS Device for the course, here is my review on the Caddie II that I just purchased.

Out of the box: The Caddie II comes with the unit itself, a USB Cable, and a CD to load the program into your computer so that you can start to download courses. It also comes with an instruction manual and a quick start guide.

Software: Software was very easy to use and im not a big software guy or computer guy and I figured it out without a problem. Basically I just loaded the CD into the computer and followed the on screen prompts. When you want to transfer courses onto your GPS unit you have to power on your GPS and put it into "Sync" mode and that will allow you to do the transfer.

The Caddie II: The unit itself is about the palm size of my hand, maybe a little bigger. It is very easy to read on the course and will give you yardages to the front, center and back of the green, also has a "Shot" feature, which if you hit the button on the tee box and then get to your drive it will tell you how far your drive went. I havent used this feature because I dont want to feel like im trying to kill the ball on the tee box. It also has the ability to have 8 custom points per hole, some of which you have to map yourself.

The buttons are very easy to use and the screen is very easy to see on the course. The backlight stays on for about a minute after you touch one of the buttons. The belt-clip is terrible, and I have'nt seen a better alternative yet, you definitely cannot clip it to your belt because its a pain in the ass after you look at your yardage to get it back on there. I clip it onto my walking cart and that works just fine, I never have to look back to see if it fell off.

Of the courses that I have downloaded on mine, the most that the download will give me is 4 per hole, but you can put another 4 custom points in yourself. Mapping a GPS point looks very easy, but I havent done it yet so I cant tell you how it would work. Downloading courses is fairly quick, it takes about 2 minutes for each course to download, so if your doing about ten at a time youll need to leave it for about 20 minutes.

Performance: I have nothing bad to say about the performance. I can't compare it to other units because I've never used them, but this thing updates very fast, as soon as I get to my ball it has all the yardages mapped out and I have'nt seen it to be off yet, and Ive played three rounds with it. Yardages are right on the money. Also, I hear that alkaline batteries are better then rechargeables so that is what I use, and after three rounds of golf with the same batteries, they still have 20% of life left according to my GPS unit.

Summary: I paid 165.00 for this and it was well worth it, I also paid a 34.99 subscription which allowed me to download 100 courses for the year if I wanted to, Ive downloaded about 20 courses so far. A great thing about igolf is that when you download the courses you can save them on your harddrive and they are yours forever, you dont have to subscribe again next year and your unit will keep working forever. One more thing, if igolf does not have a course in their database they will map only one for you on request. The next one you have to pay for (12.99). I did'nt realize this and emailed them about it and they gave me another course that I play for free. Customer service is extremely accomodating and fast to get back to you through email.

I dont know if I missed anything but hope this helps. I really love my GPS and I walk alot when I play so this thing is great for me. Any questions feel free to ask.

[Klean]

I've been looking into GPS/Rangefinders lately, great review....thanks!

[Wannabe Paper Tiger]

Great review. I have been looking at them but am leaning toward the rangfinders for driving range purposes as well.

[iWALK18]

Nice review... I'm now very tempted.... thanks a lot!

[Big_M]

I have the same unit (CaddieII) and have played about 12 rounds with it. I would agree with everything said in the review. I also thought the belt clip sucked, but like you I also just leave it clipped to my bag when walking (which is most of the time). I have mapped a few extra custom points, and it is very easy. You basically just walk over and stand in one spot for about 30 seconds and hit a few buttons. I have played 10 courses with it, and only one had some bad yardages, the others have been within 0-2 yards.

I am happy with my purchase... might get the Neo if I had it to do over, but definately would get one of the iGolf products.

[kekoa]

Great review. I have been looking at them but am leaning toward the rangfinders for driving range purposes as well.

great review, but i too am looking at range finders. they are pretty damn expensive tho. i think the Nikon one costs almost $200??