GPS for me!

[bunkerputt]

So I just played my first round with a Callaway uPro that I bought the other day. Man! Birdied with it on the first hole! It was on a par 3 that I'd never birdied because the pin is almost always back and the green runs off sharply to a really difficult chip. I've never had the confidence to go at it so I end up having a 30 footer minimum. I had an exact yardage and new without a doubt that I could keep it from running off but still take an aggressive swing. Knocked it to 3 feet! It almost felt like cheating.

<------------- Keep an eye on that number! It's going to be dropping quite a bit really soon.

[is2linda]

NICE! I also underestimated the power of the GPS, but it really takes out some strokes. the yardage sticks on the courses arent always accurate and i sometimes find myself short of the green, or stuck in the backside bunker. Although it wasnt a GPS, i burrowed a Bushnell from my friend and it knocked down 4 strokes!

Hopefully for christmas imma buy a GPS or Bushnell

[pxc]

With GPSs getting more popular are rangefinders ever going to come down in price?

[andef]

I hope to buy a Bushnell Tour V2 soon. It's definately a good advantage to have, especially to avoid guessing distances and coming up short/long. At least I know I can only blame my swing if I hit it too short.

[Bug Bunny]

I picked up a skycaddie 2.5 today. Got to play nine with it before being rained out. Was pretty impressed!!!

[flopdarock]

my brother has the cally upro and that thing is money...
i need to get one asap...
it really sucks having to go to a course youre not familiar with and not know yardages... or being at a course where yardage markers are just scarce... ive been in that situation too many times to count... plus trying to locate sprinkler heads takes too much time

[bunkerputt]

my brother has the cally upro and that thing is money...

It's definitely worth it if you play a lot of courses that you're unfamiliar with. It's pretty much google maps on a GPS. No one walked the courses, they just have some guys called "mappers" that take the google stuff, outline the green, pick out the traps and convert it to a "proprietary" format for the upro. What sucks is that sometimes you can't physically make out the hazards using that method, so a lot of times you get weird things like thinking a certain area is a hazard when it isn't, or conversely not getting the real hazards and only getting the ones you can see from space. For example, one pro-mode course I ordered had one hole that used the wrong green because the real green was obscured by tree shadows. But they get feedback and it takes a week's turnaround time to get it fixed. For popular courses, I'd bet the mapping is pretty good.

What would be nice is if they would allow users who know the courses edit the map data. That way you could improve the usefulness quite a bit. So the moral is, even with the upro, you have to know the course somewhat.

[TN94z]

So I just played my first round with a Callaway uPro that I bought the other day. Man! Birdied with it on the first hole! It was on a par 3 that I'd never birdied because the pin is almost always back and the green runs off sharply to a really difficult chip. I've never had the confidence to go at it so I end up having a 30 footer minimum. I had an exact yardage and new without a doubt that I could keep it from running off but still take an aggressive swing. Knocked it to 3 feet! It almost felt like cheating.

Good deal! I love my GPS! It amazes people that I play with how much off some of the markers are on the courses we play. It makes a big difference. I really like it on errant shots, where you would have to walk like 50 yards to get a distance and then walk off what you think it is...

The Upro looks pretty good as well. That is the one with the flyover view, right? That would really be nice to see a high view of all of the trouble that is ahead.

[kfowler]

I bought my uPro last fall. Great customer service as I had an issue with mine at the beginning of this season. I feel handicapped with out it. It's especially helpful when hitting from another fairway. The mark feature is really nice for getting distance on your clubs. Drives are always shorter than what everyone thinks.

uPro is supposed to be launching their next version soon which will have voice recognition and I believe score and shot tracking.

[kpaulhus]

^ I hear you on that. When it feels like I crushed that ball and it ends up only being 245...I used the gps on the cart this past weekend to mark my drives and man I never thought the wind played that big of a factor. On ball looked golden but only went about 210 yds. Then another, with the wind at my back, I hit the ball a little low off the tee so it shot up real high.....with that wind gust it marked off at 295 yards. Im sure the saturated soggy fairways didnt help my roll much either.

[TN94z]

^ I hear you on that. When it feels like I crushed that ball and it ends up only being 245...I used the gps on the cart this past weekend to mark my drives and man I never thought the wind played that big of a factor. On ball looked golden but only went about 210 yds. Then another, with the wind at my back, I hit the ball a little low off the tee so it shot up real high.....with that wind gust it marked off at 295 yards. Im sure the saturated soggy fairways didnt help my roll much either.

Wind can kill a ball. I played a scramble this past weekend and we had 85 yards left on a par 4. I pull my SW and take a smooth swing (85 yards is a perfect distance for my smooth SW) and it was on a line to the pin. The wind began gusting and blew the ball about 20ft right and into a bunker. It was crazy! You could see the wind just grab it and take it.

Anyway, I have really surpised many of the guys I play with when i start marking their drives! It is an eye opener

[bunkerputt]

^ I hear you on that. When it feels like I crushed that ball and it ends up only being 245...I used the gps on the cart this past weekend to mark my drives and man I never thought the wind played that big of a factor. On ball looked golden but only went about 210 yds. Then another, with the wind at my back, I hit the ball a little low off the tee so it shot up real high.....with that wind gust it marked off at 295 yards. Im sure the saturated soggy fairways didnt help my roll much either.

I've got a 105 yard shot with my 52* dialed in. I was slightly into the wind reading about 100, so I thought the shot would come off about right. I hit it pure and straight and it eased up to top of the tree line, then it shot straight up into the air, blew a bit right, and landed short of the green. I measured it and it was 90 yards. That wind took off 15 yards from the shot. It was pretty eye opening. I hit another one just for info with an easy PW to keep the spin off and it was just about right for the way that hole was playing.

[kpaulhus]

It really is crazy for the higher shots, like driver and wedges. On one hole in particular instead of using my 52 from 110 out I punched a 7 iron to the fringe and it rolled up nicely. I didnt want to risk putting it high and having the wind carry it to the water. The gree had a bunker to the left and water to the back and right.

[jaragon126]

I have been toying around with the idea of getting a GPS or rangefinder ... but can they really make you play better?

The guys that I have been paired up with on the course that have these things are usually awful ... so knowing the yardages isn't really helpful since they can't hit the ball well anyway.

I could see if you were playing on a course that didn't have ANY yardage markers at all, where these would be a must. But most courses have a few markers here & there that you can get to.

As for the speed of play issue, if EVERYONE used a measuring device then it MIGHT make things speed up ... but that's not going to happen. So the 5 minutes I spend walking off yardages should be fine since I'm waiting on the people ahead of me anyway.

It would really be cool to be able to measure off the distances you hit your clubs, although doing that during a round of golf probably isn't the best time to do that. I suppose GPS devices are best for this as opposed to rangefinders.

But rangefinders don't require downloading "maps" and paying additional subscription fees.

[kpaulhus]

I have been toying around with the idea of getting a GPS or rangefinder ... but can they really make you play better?

I agree with you on this. If you dont know how far you can hit your clubs, what good is it to know the yardage. Now if I know that my 6 iron is a 165-170 club, then knowing the yardage can only be an asset.....a very nice asset lol

[TN94z]

I have been toying around with the idea of getting a GPS or rangefinder ... but can they really make you play better?

For me the biggest help is using it for unfamiliar courses. This can really help on hazard carries and what not. I use it every time I play. It is nice to have when you aren't that close to a yardage marker as well. It is 6 of one half a dozen of another. Some courses don't have many markings so that helps. Also some of the courses in my area, the markings aren't accurate. I guess it is a situational personal preference kind of thing.

And also, if you don't know how far you hit your clubs, then it doesn't help that much anyway...you are right!

[jaragon126]

Ya on unfamiliar courses it would be good to have and for hazards.

I actually tried fumbling around with a couple of the blackberry applications that supposedly did GPS and that was a nightmare. Never got it to work ... played horrible for a few holes before I just put the phone away. Ugh.

They are definitely fun gadgets to have, but does it take away from your game of golf when you have to pull it out on every shot?

[TN94z]

Ya on unfamiliar courses it would be good to have and for hazards.

For me, it is quite the opposite. It really gives me a ton of confidence to have an exact number in my head. I could walk the yardages and figure it up (that is how I used to do it) but like I said, many of those are not accurate. I guess it just all depends on what makes you feel more confident....to me, it is the GPS, or laser. I have actually been thinking of giving up the SkyCaddie for a laser. I haven't made up my mind yet though