These GPS range finders?

[jfrain2004]

Hi,
Looking into getting one of these gadgets as want to try and get my iron distances down to the correct yardage rather than saying "I think I hit my 9 about 145" I want to know is it 143 or 148. I left this till now as my instructor tells me my swing is very consistent and so too my distances. ( There was no point in wondering what my 9 iron distance was until I was able to hit repeatable shots down to +/- 1 or 2 yards )
So, pray tell. My own home course, assuming it's not pre loaded onto the device how do I input the location of green/bunkers/ water etc. I'm guessing I do a walk round of the course or something and in the middle of green #1 I somehow punch in x marks the centre of green #1 and same for hazards etc?

Thanks ... J

[bcp]

I have a sky caddie and have been very pleased when it is working. I have had multiple issues with the software resulting in having to send it back for replacement. I have SG3 which uses AA batteries. The courses are prepopulated and you download up to 10 on your unit. I have not found a course in North or South Carolina that was not in the system.

[MPS67]

I own the iGolf Caddie II. I downloaded some of the courses that I often play on, but found them inaccurate. So I remapped them myself. To do so, you simply have to enter the unit into a teach mode, walk to the green position (front, middle, back), click a calibration button, and wait a few seconds in place before accepting the reading. My unit has a second page where you can record (I think it's up to eight) custom locations using the same recording technique. When you enter in a custom point, you have the option to label it with up to six characters, I think. So, for a bunker in the middle of the fairway, you could choose FWYBNK as a label, for example.

[blue3715]

  jfrain2004 said:

Hi,

I was at the Barclay's a few weeks ago mashalling a hole. Even with the range books the caddy's get, EVERY caddy would pace the ball from the fairway markers. Most courses give you pin sheets of the day. Mine does and it shows the yardage from center and side (e.g. +6 10L) so +6 yds and 10 yds from the left side of the green.

With the plates and tee sheet i don't have a need for the sky caddie. If the plates are really bad, then alert the pro shop, or use your 9 iron and bust it off (like the gamblers do).

[tjy355]

  jfrain2004 said:

Hi,

I think most folks use these things with the course info downloaded from the provider. I do think there are ways to map your own course or add to the data of an existing course and I'm sure the method varies by manufacturer.

[iacas]

  blue3715 said:

I was at the Barclay's a few weeks ago mashalling a hole. Even with the range books the caddy's get, EVERY caddy would pace the ball from the fairway markers.

That's because their yardages are from the sprinkler heads... they don't magically know in the middle of "nowhere" exactly how far they are. They have to pace it off from something.

[firecracker]

If you have a PDA, Blackberry, etc. go to www.Golftraxx.com

I mapped my course and it is terrific, as well as free!

[mkrolewski]

There are lots of different makes and different methods of entering information.

Most gps units only allow tracking of the F/C/B of the green. That is 3 specific points on the green per hole.

Golf Guru allows one to pace the perimeter of the green.

Many allow for some targets on the fairway. Some as few as 3, some as many as 30. Some allow only one point per target, some allow a "to" and "clear" for each target.

There are some items that are difficult to mark eg the pond/creek running along the edge of the fairway or one crossing the fairway or long bunkers. The best suggestion is to pick several spots like right, left and center for the object ( assuming that there are enough targets in your device ).

In trying to map most courses, I found I ignore many items especially greenside bunkers. Many courses, one is really only mapping the greens.


By the way, I have found most downloaded courses, etc to be extremely accurate. My gps reads out onto the green and I often see 0 at the edge of the green. I have seen bad measurements or reversed front and back nine.

My largest concern/complaint is missing items like end of dog leg or that dog leg corner.

[jfrain2004]

Hey Firecracker,
So are you saying with a GPS enabled Blackberry you can install Golftraxx software and then proceed to map your own home course on it and then read off your distances as you play your round?
I need to get myself a pda so this could be killing 2 birds with one stone :)

[neophyte]

GPS help a lot but they are not perfect.

This summer I was in Myrtle Beach on a course with GPS in the carts. On one hole my cart and my brothers were side by side and facing the green. The GPS in the two carts were reading 93 and 98 yards.

Also on courses you don't know, do the GPS units tell you the line to the green when you can't see the flag or green, or the line to hit off the T so you don't deliberately hit out of bounds.

[firecracker]

Yes! I like the fact that I can map parts of my course of importance to me. For example, on a dogleg, I map the distance to the "corner" of the dogleg so my second shots have a chance of reaching but not overshooting the corner. The price (free) is right and the guy who runs it is very helpful. The only thing it doesn't do is automatically calculate shot distance. But that is easy to work around.

[runwme]

I went with golf guru for ease of mapping and you can add up to 30 points of interest per hole. Also when you map the green, you walk the perimeter and can move flag on screen to get exact distance to where flag really is ( not just front, center and back of green)

[jfrain2004]

After a lot of research and some guidelines from yuo guys in here I opted for ( not trying to plug for these guys here btw ) http://www.igolfscorer.com/
got myself a gps reciever like a previous post said for 15 Euro and the application itself for a further 30. Best thing is the shot stats that you can gather on yourself. Really hits your ego when you see how long you don't hit that Big stick but surprising results on iron distance.
Can anyone here tell me if it is legal in Europe to use a gps distance aid in a golf competition?