SkyCaddie . . . are you considering it, I'm hooked!

[RX Phoenix]

Played my second round with SkyCaddie and like I've been told, it went much smoother than the first time around. This time I didn't pay much attention to it off the tee, just used it for iron yardages.

Did it help?

YES, a huge help, no more need to try and walk around and locate a sprinkler head, much less wasted time. Played a round in 3 hrs. Always have exact yardage and it is very accurate. It absolutely adds confidence to your game, it's a lot easier to commit to the club you have when you know down to accuracy of 1 or 2 yards how far it is to the pin.

The one I have enables you to move the pin to where it is cut that day and get exact yardage to that position as well as the yardage to the back and front of the green.

Are you considering using a personal GPS device . . .
i'm not going back to guessing at yardage, half of the time I couldn't get yardage so i'd have to just hit and hope, no more. What a great feeling to stick a 54* wedge 84 yards, not in the front of the green and not in the back, but right next to the pin, I did that a lot today, pin high!

[flap]

Is it worth 50.00 a year more than a laser?Also how hard is it to change courses if you travel?Any additional charges for more than the 10 courses that are held in it?

[RX Phoenix]

If you are going to travel you download the courses you expect to play before you go. If you don't know which courses you will play, then this is a potential problem unless you have access to a laptop and internet connection to download the course when you find out where you will be playing.

Advantage would be ease of use, getting accurate yardage to front and back of green, layup yardage, trap carry yardage, seeing configuration of green, being able to mark distance of your shots . . .

But the travel glitch should be addressed, maybe proshops should have an internet connection that allows downloading their course into SkyCaddie, that would help.

BTW, you can erase the courses and add new ones, just can't have more than 10 at any one time, I don't know if you can upgrade this feature, but they should add an upgrade.

[J.P.]

RX! That is a great point!

I use a Bushnell Pin Seeker though, but whatever one uses to find accurate distances, the instant benefit is BEING PIN HIGH OFTEN!!!

I may not be able to hit it straight all the time, but now, with the "gospel truth" in distance to the pin, it is rather amazing how often I am now pin high, be it left or right.

It is a bit sad to think about the years I've played without a distance measuring device - never really had a chance to score.

Glad you enjoy your GPS!!! I think my laser is in the process of taking 3 to 5 shots off my scores - I think your Skycaddie will do the same for you!

have fun!

[Upright]

I'm too cheap to buy one! However, if Santa has been paying attention .... *shifty eyes* ... I might have one soon.

[Hogan Fan]

I would love to have a Skycaddie! Are there different variations?
This year I joined a site to download yardage books. I gave you a picture of each hole without the yardages. They have almost every course in the world available but without giving you the yardage it was a complete waste. I didn't have time to map the course myself. Now the Skycaddie will do all that for you! I'm getting one soon!
Would like to know more about how to operate one if anyone can help.

[BigAl5150]

You can read a review from last year here and you can see the different models here .

[Hogan Fan]

Thanks BigAl (thought you were my father in law, we call him BigAl too)
I'm printing these reviews now, it will make my day at work go by faster.

[RX Phoenix]

Here's one reason i prefer a ShyCaddie device over laser range finder, happened to me several days ago.

Crushed a drive down the right side over a hill, ball trickled down onto a cart path then over the side of a gully down 50' into a deep ravine. I'm hitting totally blind, but take out the SkyCaddie and it gives me exact yardage to the pin, 159yds.

You don't have to have line of sight to the pin with the GPS device.

I find myself feeling like a pro on the course just because i know exactly how far to hit it and what club to hit no matter where i am. Pro's always seem so sure of themselves, why, because their caddie always has exact yardage, to carry the front bunkers, to front of green, to pin, to back of green, that's really part of the secret to playing well.

[cmarkmyers]

There are definite downsides to a GPS - Weak/no signal if it is overcast, no way to tell the distance to unmarked objects, and not all courses are supported. But I still love mine. My only wish was waiting a bit longer to get one so I could have gone after the water resistant ones.

[Guest]

  Hogan Fan said:

"This year I joined a site to download yardage books. I gave you a picture of each hole without the yardages. They have almost every course in the world available but without giving you the yardage it was a complete waste"...

Care to give up the site? I'm just curious to see it. Thanks

[Hogan Fan]

Hey JMoss, sorry to take so long to get back to you. That website for yardage books is
www.golfwits.com/ . You can buy a 5 map pack or a 10 map pack pretty cheap.
You have to get the download to print the maps and the software is kinda tricky but there kinda neat if you can figure it out. I cut mine out and made small spiral notebooks - easy to get in your pocket.