Review: uPro Golf GPS

[gmc1950s]

Ok thanks Useless I'll give them a call on Monday and see what they have to say.
You're right and I'm busted I'm a geezer and we sometimes have trouble finding the
power switch on stuff.

[mruseless]

  gmc1950s said:

Ok thanks Useless I'll give them a call on Monday and see what they have to say.

Please post with what happens.

Hope I didn't offend with my comment about technophobes!

[gmc1950s]

  mruseless said:

Please post with what happens.

I'll keep you up to date, and no there was no offense taken. I had

to look up technophobe and yep I do qualify.

[xdriller]

I did not post until I had played one round at the course I play 90% of the time and a course I had never seen previously. The upro did everything as it was advertized. Any hazards or positions not marked I could easily measure. The ability to measure to any point on the course came into play on a par 3 with carry over water essentially to the green. Since the green was at a 45 degree angle to the tee, the back edge of the water was also. With the upro I could measure the distance over the water to any point. Where the pin was located and the line I wished to take could be accurately measured. A pin on the left with only a measurement to the end of the water at mid green would have been created a very wet ball. On a new course this info was critical. With other units in this situation you would need to estimate the carry over water to this diagonal point. Estimating is what you do without a gps unit.

The flyover feature was nice on the course and before the round but not a big reason for me to buy the upro. Looking at a photograph (ok, digital image for you purists) of the entire hole, area of the next shot and green view gave me greater confidence in shots never taken before since I could actually see what was in front of me. Only the Sonocaddie gives this but that is a graphic representation of the hole. BTW the Sonocaddie was my first choice before trying the upro. Perhaps the Sonocaddie might be brighter since it is a drawing of the fairway, I don’t know.

I played in Portland, Oregon yesterday at nearly 100 degrees during the afternoon. I was always able to see clearly enough in the direct sun and blue sky. The resolution was of course more washed out than viewing in a dark room but sufficient. All numbers were easily readable in the large font mode in the bright sun for all you grey-hairs like me. In basic mode the numbers were huge and no issue in the sun.

Now for the reality of gps. Knowing the exact measurement for a shot to a specific point is wonderful for confidence. But the margin of error for most golfers over a 8 index is too great for it to really help with “shooting at the stick”. Also while on the course I found I used the device a minimum. I play fast and figure out my next shot as I am walking to the ball. I usually only gave it a quick glance at the number or numbers I wanted to see then back into my pocket. I was surprised that I had no desire to “play’ with it. With all the upro can do it was not intrusive into my game. We played in 4 hours on a championship course (where the LPGA is next week) and there was no time to fiddle with the upro. That is a compliment since what you want to know is readily accessible. I was no threat to the Ladies, I shot an 81 and proud of it - tough course.

For GMA: If the course(s) you play are not on the upro do not buy it. In the basic mode any other much less expensive gps unit would suffice and a Skycaddie sg5 would be superior – with the usual Skycaddie caveats that is. Or wait until the courses are mapped.

My upro has had no bugs. There have been no shutdowns or lockups. I did call customer support because since I had gotten into preview mode, the gps did not function. It is not supposed to be active in that mode I found out. Support was polite and helpful and told me what to do and did not call me an idiot which he should have!

[gmc1950s]

Called upro today to see about the pro mode mapping. To his credit he
didn't commit to a time line for the pro mode mapping. He did say his
unit was better in basic mode than the Skycaddie sg5 and I believe him.
I know you folks kinda advised against it but I told the pro to order me
one anyway. Im really sold it and it would be a $400. mistake and I done
worse. Cheers

[xdriller]

GMC,

You will not be disappointed. I do disagree with upro about the Basic mode. The intelligreen shines there with the sg5 shines. Anyway, the upro is a wonderful unit and you, being a six index, will really get the most out of it. Congrats.

When you get it let us know your opinion. Oh, and one thing I did not reiterate: The unit is so light and thin it fits in the front pocket, never loses satellites in there and is unnoticeable.

[gmc1950s]

Hey Xdriller I just noticed you're from Woodinville. I just retired from the "Lazy B" in Everett a few years back.
We have a real good pro here. He was really only interested in saving me money and not his profit margin. But I think he has to eat too and I don't begrudge him his profit.
On second thought, you're probably right about SG5 being better than the UPro in basic mode. My buddy has a SG5 and between the two of us we can barely figure out the real simple stuff right now. Anyway, we're looking forward to the UPro arrival.

[xdriller]

gmc1950s, You must have played many rounds at Harbour Pointe.

[gmc1950s]

I,ve played it a couped of times but it's a little rich for my blood. That course in
Marysville had a good deal $14.00 with cart before 7a m and we got off a 6a m , so that
worked out well.
Upro finely got back to the Paris Landing Pro but they wanted him to order three
units to open an account. He was worried that he would get stuck with with two of
them. Anyway he told me to order mine on line.

[bobbyb]

I have been thinking about getting a GPS unit for a while and stumbled across this thread. I really appreciate the time and effort put into the review and responses Mr.Useless. This is extremely helpful. I still haven't made up my mind but I am leaning toward a uPro based on your review and replies.

I was originally concerned about the number of courses in my area but that has changed significantly since I started monitoring in the Jacksonville area just as you mentioned it probably would.

I went back to the site after seeing a commercial for the product on the Golf Channel this weekend. They have recently posted some video flyovers of Valhalla that look great. Is the resolution of the screen good enough to actually show enough detail?

By the way, I noticed that they are running a contest where the winner gets to play Valhalla and gets a free uPro. This would make my decision significantly easier.

[N.V.M.]

i would be concerned with if the actual courses you regularly play are mapped,otherwise it's not practical. looks awesome though to see a flyover view, but i gotta wonder how many local golf courses are going to be available.

[mruseless]

  bobbyb said:

I went back to the site after seeing a commercial for the product on the Golf Channel this weekend. They have recently posted some video flyovers of Valhalla that look great. Is the resolution of the screen good enough to actually show enough detail?

For some courses yes, for others no. It depends on the sources they use for the satellite views. I've noticed a couple courses around Denver where the satellite images are of lower resolution. Still good enough to use, but not as good as the more metropolitan courses. The lower res images make it more difficult to see things like trees and other terrain features, but of course as long as the yardages to the green are accurate then the rest is gravy.

On the higher res satellite images you can actually see golf carts on some of holes from when the photos were taken!

[bobbyb]

That sounds great. They carry it at several stores here locally. I'm going to try to see it in person today or tomorrow before making a decision. I'm playing on Saturday and would love to be able to try it out then.

Another question, they have nearly all of the courses near me available. However, the course that I am playing next Thursday has an "availablity date" that is a couple months away. How have they been on getting to your requests for a course? Do they listen to requests? I am thinking of calling them and asking them about this before I buy but I don't know that I will get the correct answer.

[mruseless]

  bobbyb said:

That sounds great. They carry it at several stores here locally. I'm going to try to see it in person today or tomorrow before making a decision. I'm playing on Saturday and would love to be able to try it out then.

I think they are a bit behind, since several courses in my area were planned for July but didn't get mapped until September. But I suspect they will get caught up some over the winter. I do think they listen to requests, since anything you request is listed on your homepage. Since I've gotten the device I've requested 4 courses, and 3 of them are now mapped (although it took them a couple months).

Correction: all 4 of them are mapped, since the most recent one was posted today! And it wasn't scheduled to be mapped until February. Of course, its possible that someone listed that as their home course, since they have a 4 day mapping guarantee for your home course.

[style2k7]

I was not impressed with the upro I actually sent it back an got a Skycaddie SG5. The upro uses google maps for it's images and depending on when the images for your golf course were taken that is how the flyover will look. So the images for my courses were taken in the winter or early spring the golf courses were still dormant and in spots there were still patches of snow on the ground which upro actually mapped one spot as a hazards and some hazards like a large tree in the middle of the fairway was not mapped at all. Just was not what I expected. I'm sure for warmer climate areas the flyovers and other images are nice.

[mruseless]

  style2k7 said:

I was not impressed with the upro I actually sent it back an got a Skycaddie SG5. The upro uses google maps for it's images and depending on when the images for your golf course were taken that is how the flyover will look. So the images for my courses were taken in the winter or early spring the golf courses were still dormant and in spots there were still patches of snow on the ground which upro actually mapped one spot as a hazards and some hazards like a large tree in the middle of the fairway was not mapped at all. Just was not what I expected. I'm sure for warmer climate areas the flyovers and other images are nice.

Yes, there were a couple courses I played where things were not mapped correctly. I notified uPlay and they corrected the courses in just a few days.

I believe Google Maps gets their satellite data from the USGS and other sources. But since uPlay licenses their images from these same sources, your point is essentially correct, but not technically correct.

[style2k7]

  mruseless said:

Yes, there were a couple courses I played where things were not mapped correctly. I notified uPlay and they corrected the courses in just a few days.

Well the reason I say they get the info from Google is because as I was downloading the course I could see the the location it was getting the infor from in the lower left corner of my browser and it was saying googlemaps.

If I'm not mistaken.

[mruseless]

  style2k7 said:

Well the reason I say they get the info from Google is because as I was downloading the course I could see the the location it was getting the infor from in the lower left corner of my browser and it was saying googlemaps.

I suppose you could be right, they could be licensing maps from Google. I didn't think so based on what they told me, but you never know. Or maybe something changed.