Does such thing exist? (GPS)

[turtleback]

I've been looking at different GPSs and it seems like none of them have a feature that I think would be a natural.  I'd like to be able to "register" the position of the ball after each shot so I could, in effect, replay the round later by cycling through the different positions each shot was hit from.  Getting the distance from one ball location to the next, with perhaps the ability to enter the club you hit, would give an accurate picture of how far you actually hit each club (as opposed to the"in your dreams" view most of us have, lol)  It seems like this would provide the ultimate in round analysis, since you would be able to accurately review every shot you hit.  But none of the units seems to have a feature like this.  Am I missing something?  Am I ahead of my time?  Am I a crackpot?

[gwlee7]

Seems like it would be easy enough to add since almost all GPS units have a "mark" function on them.

[The Road Dog]

Oh another Poll!

I vote Crackpot.

Actually that would be interesting if it was fast enough.  It might consist of the recording sw on the GPS or GPS equipped phone. Then sw for a laptop at home that could take the course data and create an overlay of that course allowing you to input data for each position.  You might have to input that data on the course when the position is recorded making the recording process longer. Still it is an interesting idea.

[ghalfaire]

The GPS I have does (will) measure the length of any shot. But there is no way to save it to memory for later review.  But there is always pencil and paper for that.  But measuring your length with each club is worth while and for me was an eye opener over the tried but not true method of using sprinkler heads and score card yardages.  Although my ego like the latter answers better.

[Vladimir Puttin']

It's cool idea but would it really give you good information.  There are other factors that determine how far you hit the ball like wind and elevation change, so the yardage you got off the GPS would be skewed.

Here's what I suggest - on the occasional hole, stop at the 200 yard marker on a relatively flat fairway and hit a couple shots, say, your 150 yard club.  If you end up 50 yards from the green, then you know how far you hit that club and more importantly , you'll get a dispersion pattern.  Obviously you can't do this on a weekend morning because you'd slow play but a weekday evening is a great time to get some practice shots in and it's usually really affordable.

Something you can do during a slow weekend round while you're waiting on the tee box is hit some full wedges or low lofted irons from near the tee box (don't take divots out of the tee box hitting practice shots - move to the side in the longer grass).  Again, this gives you an idea of how far you hit that club and will give you a dispersion pattern.

Finally, avoid firing multiple balls at the green to practice distance because of excessive damage - actually, some courses prohibit this and may kick you off for 'on course practice'

This is what I do and not only does it help my game but it makes a slow round more productive.

[Missouri Swede]

It looks like the app YourGolf (for android or iPhone) does exactly what you're describing.

I've never used it, but it looks interesting. I'd be interested to know how it compares with Golfshot, Golfcard and Golflogix apps.

[lumpuckeroo]

Originally Posted by turtleback

But none of the units seems to have a feature like this.  Am I missing something?  Am I ahead of my time?  Am I a crackpot?

Yes, Yes, Yes!  (jk)  I like the idea, but current equipment will not allow you to mark 40 or 50 different locations in memory.  Not sure even the GPS units that are not for golf allow you to mark that many positions, but that is probably the next "step" in golf GPS hardware (and something else for me to buy).

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by turtleback

I've been looking at different GPSs and it seems like none of them have a feature that I think would be a natural.  I'd like to be able to "register" the position of the ball after each shot so I could, in effect, replay the round later by cycling through the different positions each shot was hit from.  Getting the distance from one ball location to the next, with perhaps the ability to enter the club you hit, would give an accurate picture of how far you actually hit each club (as opposed to the"in your dreams" view most of us have, lol)  It seems like this would provide the ultimate in round analysis, since you would be able to accurately review every shot you hit.  But none of the units seems to have a feature like this.  Am I missing something?  Am I ahead of my time?  Am I a crackpot?

You can do it with most hiking GPS units, but I've never heard of it in one designed for golf.  I don't know if using a hiking GPS and marking a waypoint each time you get to your ball would do what you want or not.  That way you can record the location of the ball for each shot.  Then you can upload to your PC and put the waypoints on a map.  It won't give a readout of the distance between each pair of waypoints on the unit, at least my eTrex won't.   I think I can record up to 200 waypoints.

[Clambake]

There was a patent granted in Jan 2010 that seems to encompass what you're talking about: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2;=HITOFF&u;=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r;=12&p;=1&f;=G&l;=50&d;=PG01&S1;=%22golf+gps%22&OS;=%22golf+gps%22&RS;=%22golf+gps%22

Don't know what company this might be associated with.   Callaway has a lot of patents granted over the last couple years for golf GPS devices, but this isn't one of theirs.

[turtleback]

Why would that be?  It is just text data.  How much space could one data point take?  Even if it took 1K per point you are looking at well under 100K of memory, which is tiny nowadays.  All I want the GPS to do is record the points.  Then download the data to a program on a computer that can put them into context, compute stats, etc.  Produce a Shotlink type round review.  I just can't see that this would be that difficult.

[zeg]

The only reason you can't do this is that they apparently don't feel it's something that will sell many golf GPSes.  I think it'd be fun to be able to do, but pretty much as a gimmick, I don't know what I'd do with the feature except try it once.

There is no technical reason why this is not possible, the only possible difficulty would be adding a user interface for it (and that's a very small difficulty).  It's probably market segmentation: it's a feature that, as Fourputt points out, hiking (and also mapping) GPSes have had for years.  There's nothing stopping a company from very cheaply putting out a GPS that does everything for hikers and golfers.  After all, both basically need maps and positions, and have a couple of additional features specific to the task.  However, if they did that, you'd buy one GPS instead of two...

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by zeg

The only reason you can't do this is that they apparently don't feel it's something that will sell many golf GPSes.  I think it'd be fun to be able to do, but pretty much as a gimmick, I don't know what I'd do with the feature except try it once.

There is no technical reason why this is not possible, the only possible difficulty would be adding a user interface for it (and that's a very small difficulty).  It's probably market segmentation: it's a feature that, as Fourputt points out, hiking (and also mapping) GPSes have had for years.  There's nothing stopping a company from very cheaply putting out a GPS that does everything for hikers and golfers.  After all, both basically need maps and positions, and have a couple of additional features specific to the task.  However, if they did that, you'd buy one GPS instead of two...

This is the key.  Why bother if it wouldn't sell more units?  Most players don't care and wouldn't use it, so it makes no sense to spend money on developing it for a golf GPS.  It's included in a hiking GPS because hikers and hunters often do want to backtrack the same route to get back to where they parked the car.  They also want to be able to save it to some sort of mapping software so they can repeat the hike or find that hunting spot again someday in the future.

[hkphooey00]

You can use a GPS camera and take a picture of every shot.  Spot will be geotagged, then you can view it using Google Earth or Picasa.

[dsc123]

If you have a smartphone you get this.  I like GolfCard the best on my droid (works with iphones too).  After i hit the ball i tell it to mark the spot, walk to the ball, set the club and the swing type (full, 3/4, 1/2) and it records it.  Then it uploads the stats to your account online after the round.

[sam004]

Originally Posted by turtleback

I've been looking at different GPSs and it seems like none of them have a feature that I think would be a natural.  I'd like to be able to "register" the position of the ball after each shot so I could, in effect, replay the round later by cycling through the different positions each shot was hit from.  Getting the distance from one ball location to the next, with perhaps the ability to enter the club you hit, would give an accurate picture of how far you actually hit each club (as opposed to the"in your dreams" view most of us have, lol)  It seems like this would provide the ultimate in round analysis, since you would be able to accurately review every shot you hit.  But none of the units seems to have a feature like this.  Am I missing something?  Am I ahead of my time?  Am I a crackpot?

I have the Garmin G5 and I believe it will help you achieve what you are looking to do for the most part.

Without sounding like a commercial, here are a few things you can do with it.

Follow the link for the web site for more info.

Keep score for up to 4 players. All scores are retained on the unit and can be viewed on a PC in a web browser via the USB connection.

Track Stats - Fairways, GIR and total putts, also stored with the scorecard.

It gives you a outline view of the hole, with a touch screen to measure between any point from your current position up to the back of the green.

The flag on the screen can be moved to reflect the current pin position. ie giving a more accurate idea of actual distance to the pin.

Distance to bunkers and hazards are indicated.

Also with the correct update has software to track how far you hit each club.

Lastly, one thing I discovered on my own, was that the unit keeps a record of GPS position during your round and while the unit is powered on.

While browsing the file system of the unit, I discovered a folder marked GPX. In it was a folder named current, which contained my most recent round

and another named archive, which had 20 gpx files of my last 20 rounds.

I found that by importing this file to Google Earth, it will display location speed and elevation points during your round.

While the data is not exact, as I believe there is some averaging of the data, it is a fairly close representation of your round.

It works best if your are walking or riding in a cart by yourself. otherwise it may show shot locations of your partner.

I can post a screen shot or 2 of this if anyone is interested.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=31070

[sam004]

Here's a shot of GPS data from a round at Hickory Stick in Greenwood IN

[turtleback]

Thanks for posting this.  Actually, since I posted the original message I got a smartphone and downloaded a program, Swing by Swing, that has this feature as an upgrade.  The irony is that after I got the upgrade and tried it for a couple of rounds, it turned out that the act of recording the shots distracted me from focusing on my game and I returned it for a refund.

[Grumpter]

Originally Posted by zeg

The only reason you can't do this is that they apparently don't feel it's something that will sell many golf GPSes.  I think it'd be fun to be able to do, but pretty much as a gimmick, I don't know what I'd do with the feature except try it once.

I actually think it could be a very useful tool..... IF they paired it with a few things.

1) Stand alone software for the computer that would allow you to record each round and shot (I think this would be a given if the unit records each shot on the unit itself).

2) The standalon software would be database driven so you can compare various shots from various rounds

3) Courses transmitted pin locations to a central unit so pin locations are a known factor by the GPS unit

This way you could record each shot and then analyze the results later. How close do you get to the pin on 100 yard shots, 150 yard shots etc. How many putts do you make at under 6 feet, 10 ft, 15ft. How close do you get to the pin from 20 yard chips, 30 yard chips? How often do you make sand saves etc.