GPS....should I get one????

[Crey23]

Ok, I know that Iw ill eventually will end up getting one these things, but my birthday is comming up, so I trying to see if should ask for one (it's better wehn you don't have to pay for it, don't you think? )

The question is basic...I'm not sure if I would use it much. Most of the courses I play have a GPS unit in car, but they seem not to be 100% accurate, but good enough. So the question about shelling $200, $300 bucks needs to be mildly justified in my head!

I was looking at the SkyCaddie SG4, the SG2.5 & SG2.5 Lite all of which are in the $200-$250 range. But I was wondering what were your experience with these units, or if you prefer any other and why? I am not planning on spending over $250, but I could be convinced if it's really a great benefit for the extra $$$$. As for the memberships, I am not that up-in-arms regarding the $30 membership with Sky Caddie, I think it's a pretty reasonable price, sinse I don't play out of state, and if I ever need to, I'll upgrade. But I am not sure what other charge.....some, Sonocaddie maybe, charge I think per course...$1.2 to $10...

So, let me know what you use, how much does it cost to buy courses, and what, if any issues do you have withy it...

Thanks!

[PiKapp23]

I have owned mine for a year and have been surprised at how much it's helped me improve my game. Knowing a yardage instead of 'guess-timating' has definitely helped me work on my irons and become more consistent because I know at a particular yardage exactly what club to hit. It's also helpedme with those yardages 100 yards and in because I now have a very consistent swing for 75 and 50 yards.

I bought the cheapest unit available at the time and have been really happy with it. I wish it had some additional info sometimes (such as distance to carry a water hazard or bunker, etc.), but I think I prefer it over the others because of the size, simplicity and the fact that once I download the courses I play I do not have to continue to be a 'member' and pay annual fees for courses (unless I play new courses every year, which I do). The iGolf (now Bushnell) is nice and cheap, but still very helpful. The membership is $35 (maybe $40 now) and you get 100 course downloads for that. You can edit the courses on the device so if you find problem or want to add a custom point you can do that easily.

[jorruss]

Drop the Sky Caddie if your carts already have a basic GPS. Get a Bushnell or Leopold laser range finder. You'll find those are accurate to within 1 yard, whereas a commercial GPS like the ones on golf carts and the SkyCaddie are only accurate to +/- 5 yards.

Check out the review by iacas:

http://thesandtrap.com/accessories/l...efinder_review

[Dub]

I played a round with my Father on Wednesday. He recently bought a Bushnell Medalist with Pinseeker mode.

It was so easy to pick up the actual flag and get perfect yardages every time.

I will be getting one of these very soon. I can't stress how accurate and easy it was to use.


At the end of the round he gave me his Garmin GolfLogix...saying he hoped I enjoyed it better than he did. He said that the best thing about them is when you have blind shots....they will aid you then....but he wouldn't trade any GPS for his Pinseeker.

[umpiremark]

I bought the Neo from iGolf and absolutely love it. $149.99 and paid the $29.99 one year membership to download 100 courses (I don't know 100 golf courses!!!) ... very basic, distance to front/center/back; distances to sand traps, water, edge of fairway, etc. And you can add custom points. Never have to pay a fee again, unless I want to download 100 more courses again. I know the SkyCaddies and others are color and have way more features - but they cost you an annual fee. But I just need to know where the center/front/back is from where I'm standing and where the hazards are or add in a lay-up point to a dog leg.

I love mine; small, simple, useful. DEFINATELY aids in speeding up play too.

[DES NUTTZ]

If your courses already have GPS then maybe just get the rangefinder ...but then again I can't say much because I plan on getting an SG5 in the future

[CarlSpackler]

Do any of the units that have been posted about have the capability to tell how long your last shot was? I think this would be a good feedback tool for approach shots. I would also love one that maps out shots where I can download them and analyze my round similar to shotlink on tour.

[YogiTKE]

You can pick up the SG4 for under $200.

[umpiremark]

The iGolf Neo I have has the ability to mark your shot for distance.

[jorruss]

The issues I have with the hand-held GPS units are twofold:

For one, you have to subscribe to some sort of yearly plan to get course updates and some courses may not be included, rendering the unit useless. It's already expensive to buy, I don't want to pay every year just to get updates.

The other problem is, you have to take an educated guess as to the distance to the pin with a Sky Caddie, since it only gives you yardage to the front/middle/back. While this may be adequate for most golfers, being a tournament player I need to have exact yardages. I may not be good enough to hit my irons the exact same distance every time, but I need the confidence of knowing the precise yardage for my approach, especially when the pressure is on.

As a further note, of all the Florida State, Golf Channel Tour and other tournaments I've played in since they allowed the use of distance measuring devices, I've never seen anyone with a Sky Caddie. Everyone I've seen uses the Bushnell, Nikon or Leopold Rangefinders.

[wtd]

For what it's worth, I own both a uPRO GPS and Leupold Rangefinder. More often than not I leave the uPRO at home. I never forget the Leupold. With the exception of the occasional blind shot, I find the rangefinder to be a much more valuable tool.

[GDWindowpane]

I have a SkyCaddie SG2.5. It has the capability to measure your last shot. In fact, there is a software upgrade that will do this automatically. Right now if I want to measure a shot I press the mark button from where I hit, walk to my ball, and press the mark button again and it will measure it. Does not store the info or map it. That certainly would be a fantastic feature.

If your carts already have a GPS then I wouldn't bother with another GPS. I bought mine because I play a lot of different courses, most with out GPS in the carts. I really don't use it much on my home course as I know the distances pretty well. Of course it does come in handy when I hit the occaisional errant shot which puts me in a strange place.

Hope this helps...

[CarlSpackler]

Another interesting question just occurred to me. How do the different devices know what hole you are playing. If you pull your drive into the fairway of a neighboring hole, will it think you are playing that hole instead of the one you should be? Not that this ever happens to me of course.

[deafheaven]

I love my igolf neo. It's simple (front, middle, back of green), inexpensive ($150) and small enough to keep in your pocket.

[GDWindowpane]

The SkyCaddie that I have asks you if you're on the next hole, answer no and it will give you the distance to the green you are on...

[gmanuel25]

I may re-consider getting a range finder. I was initially turned off of to them because I on more than one occassion got behind a group of hacks using one that would measure everything in sight and would proceed to chunk an iron 40 yrds and then start all over again. It seemed to slow down the pace of play.

I'll rethink this since I was considering a GPS. Hopefully, I was behind the wrong people and this was just bad timing.

[GDWindowpane]

The issues I have with the hand-held GPS units are twofold:

$60/year for all courses in the US; price of one round of golf at a decent course. I'm sure not all courses are incluced but SkyCaddie has the most and I've never found one that hasn't been included.

The intelligreen feature has a "cross hair" that you can move around the green which will adjust the yardage to that spot. Adjust it to the pin sheet and you're all set. Also, the new software upgrade will automatically give you depth of green at what ever angle you're coming into it. I agree that the rangefinders are more accurate. Quite useful at your handicap but I haven't dialed in my iron play (yet) to the point that a +/- 3 yard error will matter greatly. Gets me in the right ball park and then it's feel from there. Plus I tried to use a rangefinder but couldn't hold it steady enough to get a decent reading. Of course I had had a few beers the night before so I wasn't at my steadiest...

[deafheaven]

I may re-consider getting a range finder. I was initially turned off of to them because I on more than one occassion got behind a group of hacks using one that would measure everything in sight and would proceed to chunk an iron 40 yrds and then start all over again. It seemed to slow down the pace of play.

All I can say is that for me, it speeds up play. I really only use it for approach shots.