Rangefinder or GPS....wheres the best money spent?

[Dub]

Let's say you are gonna invest in your game an purchase a high quality laser rangefinder or a gps unit.

Which do you choose?


Which have you chosen?


I'm in the market for something to help. I already have a laser rangefinder....it's one I used to use for archery / bowhunting....had it for several years. It's not very golf friendly and was thinking of either updating it a better model for golfing or possibly going with a gps unit.

Either one will really speed up the game and make things much more clear on club selection.

[SandyFeet]

Rangefinder because you can use it for other stuff as well. I'm an avid hunter and sport shooter and those things are really handy. Plus, with the rangefinder, you can range things such as trees, hills, traps etc that you may be targeting that may or may not be in the GPS. This is just my opinion and hope it helps ya.

[Dub]

Some of the newer "golfing" rangefinders are so much easier to use than mine.

My buddy has one that can pick up the flag with great ease.....I struggle doing that with my old model.

Also his takes AA batteries.....mine uses some other mess that can be hard to find and very....very pricey. I'd rather just use rechargeable AAs.

Some of the new gps units look great, too.


Decisions.....decisions.

[SandyFeet]

Or get both, its the great American way!

Some of those GPS units are getting really nice, I'll give you that. Also, you can download things onto your iphone/blackberry for little to no money but you can always tell your wife that you NEED a rangefinder and then you'll essentially have both.

You probably can't go wrong with either.

[Titleist Man]

Well personally i use a 25$ app on my iphone and it works VERY well. I can get a yardage to any point and its only 25$$$$.

[Damien45]

I have a UPro and would keep it, however:

I am in the Navy and travel. I may play golf in another country that isn't supported. If it is supported, I may not be able to get an internet connection to update my UPro. If I knew where I was going before being deployed, then I could maybe preload it. That doesn't happen.

SO, sadly, I am gonna look at a laser scope. At least that way I will never have to worry about internet connection and/or supported course.

[supoffset]

i have the igolf gps. real small easy to use 99 free courses when you buy. i think i paid 135 or so. has alot of info loaded but it is very easy to load a custom feature. battery seems to last forever
frank

[Danattherock]

I got a Golf Logix GPS the other day after seeing the infomercial on the golf channel. It is essentially a Garmin e-trex unit programmed for golf. These are awesome gps units if you are not familiar. Had Garmin not made it, I would not have gotten it. My wife and I float remote arctic rivers in Alaska each fall. Flyfishing and rafting for 40-60 miles over a week or two. We use the Garmin etrex for our gps units. That is how we get to the right gravel bar for the bush plane pickup. If this unit is good enough for remote river travel, it will sure as heck get me around a golf course. Ha ha..

I used it for the first time today. Amazing. Just amazing. Last night I hooked it up the computer and downloaded 20 courses that I am likely to play. This took just a few minutes. Childproof, really. Took it out today and was extremely pleased. It tells you yardage to bunker, yards for 150 yard, 100 yard, etc.. lay up distance to green. After the drive (on par 4/5) it tells you the distance to front/center/back green. It advances as you go, automatically, and you don't have to do anything but look at it. Could not be simpler, yet give all the info you need in my opinion. I got the optional protective case, $19.99, and put the gps in it and clipped it to my golf bag where my towel/brush goes. Worked out great. I am there getting a club, look at the gps, go about my business. They sell a suction cup golf cart mount, but that looks clumsy to me.

It has a feature (one button you press) that measures shot distance. Just hit the shot, hit the button, go to ball, hit the button again, and it reads of 272 yards, etc... I am on Nantucket and had 30 + mph winds this morning. Drove what looked like a perfect drive and did the distance of shot button. Turned out to only be a 188 yard drive! Also really enjoyed measuring the distance of my gap wedge, pitching wedge, etc.. Great to see an actual number, like 87 yards, instead of my normal guesstimate. Can't recommend this gps unit enough.

If anyone wants one, be sure to get it on Amazon, $226, it is $299 at the Golf Logix website. The subscription is $30 a year. But that does give you access to download 23,000 courses. My home state, North Carolina, has 615 courses listed. Every course I could think of was in the data bank. You can download one course for free without doing the $30/year subscription so if you play on the same course all the time, this may very well be an option for you. It is easy to add/delete/change the courses you store in the gps unit. As I said, you can store 20 courses at a time. Just takes a few minutes and the software is idiot proof. Wish I had bought one of these years ago.

http://golfgps.com/

[Bristol]

I have a GPS (GolfLogix) and I like it a lot. I think it's the better choice if you can only get one. The reason I say that is because I play with a guy who has a laser and depending on the course, his laser is not useful on quite a few holes. We played at a course a couple weeks ago that had a lot of doglegs, elevated greens and blind shots. He was simply out of luck on some of those holes while I had no problem getting yardages from my GPS.

Now if I had the money I would also get a laser to use at the driving range so I could see exactly how far the targets are from me.

[Danattherock]

Now if I had the money I would also get a laser to use at the driving range so I could see exactly how far the targets are from me.

If you frequent the same range, just walk out before/after hours and measure the distances and write them down for future reference. Use the "distance of last shot" button on the Golf Logix. I plan to do the same myself. It will be nice having an actual yardage, rather than the number on the sign which I feel is often innacurate. Then you have to take into account which station you are on if you are not directly in front of the sign/green you are aiming at.

[Dub]

I've had excellent results with Garmin products in the past...depthfinders and travel computers mainly.

I'd certainly give them a good look on the gps.


I played a local beauty yesterday, The River Golf Club. They use Laser Link system....you rent a gun that shoots the exact distance to the flagstick....hits some type of beacon / prism thing that worked flawlessly....the batteries died on our unit on No. 4 hole....cell phoned the pro shop and had a replacement in hand before finishing the hole.

It was really nice to have the exact yardages to the pins....it helped my game a great deal...especially on the partial wedge shots...an area where I ordinarily would have just guesstimated. Knowing exact distances helped me stiff a few of them.

It certainly helped my score....out of the foursome I played in....I normally would finish 3rd.....not yesterday...finished 1st. I attribute the club selection to a good bit of that....made confident swings....no doubts about if I had pulled the right stick....just positive thoughts and deliberate passes at the ball.

I'm going to demo a few buddies lasers and see if any of them will get easy and accurate flag yardages....my ten year old Nikon 440 doesn't do so well in this capacity. It was great for bowhunting....but not so great for golf.

[goblue107501]

They use Laser Link system....you rent a gun that shoots the exact distance to the flagstick....

This has always been my argument for rangefinders. I can buy a yardage book at the course, use the markings, and get front/middle/back yardages. It really doesn't matter unless you get a pin sheet for the day, which I have never seen a course do on a daily basis. With the rangefinders I can always get the distance to the flag. Although I played with a friend who had a GPS and he was able to move a cursor around on the green on the screen and get a more accurate reading on the pin, but it is still a guess. I have played many courses that have huge greens front-to-back and you can't see where the pin is. It is nice to know that you have 120 to front, 135 to the middle, and 150 to the back, but if you don't know if the flag is sitting at 146 or 124, you could be two clubs off. With the rangefinder I find myself around pin-high much more than when I didn't have a rangefinder.

There is no subscription fee and there is nothing you need to do other than keep in in your bag. If you think about it, the initial cost of the two is pretty close, anywhere from $300 to $500+ depending on what you get. But when you add the $20 or $30 yearly fees for the GPS, the five year cost went up $100+. Whereas the rangefinder is a one time fee and will last for many years if you take care of it. As far as golf goes, the rangefinder is pretty maxed out on technology. It doesn't need to read anything over 300 yards and it is already accurate under that number. I have been using one designed for hunting that is about 5-6 years old and it still works great. GPS is constantly getting updated and improved so the model you buy this year may not be as good as the one you can buy next year. For those that say the rangefinder doesn't work on certain holes because of a dogleg or things in the way, I have yet to play a course where I couldn't get a reading. So I guess it depends on the courses you play. There are very few courses where you won't be able to see a green on a par 4 for you second shot. If you can't, hit your drive in a better position. Par 5, I have seen this quite a few times. Typically if you are on the hole you are playing, you should be able to see the green for your approach. As far as the battery goes, I use it for golf in the summer and my friend (who actually owns it) uses it for hunting in the fall and winter. This will be my third summer with it and we have yet to change the battery. I don't play all that much, so I don't use it as much as some, but the amount of time the unit is 'on' is only a few seconds so the batteries last a very long time.

[theballbites]

i have an uplay upro gps, its highly rated http://budurl.com/golfgps , and the course overview is awesome! lasers dont give you much information like the gps!

[Guest]

which iphone app did you go with? I downloaded one and hated it.

[jonathan0530]

I just purchased the Sonocaddie XV2 Personal Golf GPS. Haven't had a chance to use it on the course yet but it seems pretty cool. No membership or fees!

[Dub]

Broke out my old Nikon again on the last round I played.....last Friday.

It worked great on picking out the actual flag at distances around 130 yds or less....more than that and it would read all over....background rangees, etc.


I'll be playing in a group on Wednesday that has one of the newer Bushnells. I'm looking forward to trying that one out.

I can't get over how the Laser Link really helped me score the other day.

[Mr3Putt]

I'll be playing in a group on Wednesday that has one of the newer Bushnells. I'm looking forward to trying that one out.

The Laser Link system uses a reflective prism on the very tip of the flagstick. The handheld gun is nothing more than a laser rangefinder. If you play that course again, whip out your older Bushnell, you'll be picking up flags from 900 yards. The secret is the prism. Exact numbers, and pin high approaches are the definitive reason I go with a laser rangefinder. (besides the 400 other reasons that have been rehashed over and over)

[Dub]

Cool.


I don't play that particular course very often, though.


I'm hoping the newer rangefinders with the pinseeking modes will be loads better at giving me ranges to the actual flag.....