Whats the best Handheld GPS, for the money?

[atb5079]

Getting one this Christmas, but don't know which one is the best bang for your buck. Need advice.

[Lihu]

Does your phone have GPS on it? I cross verified a bunch of GPS hand held units and found the phone to be within a few yards of the GPS units.

Lots of the people I play use the SkyCaddie or the Garmin watch sized GPS.

[atb5079]

Yeah it does but my phone does hold hold a charge. I kinda like the laser rangefinders, but I guess they aren't exactly as detailed as like a Garmin or Sky Caddie. And whats the deal with the watches? Just smaller and cheaper?

[Lihu]

Yeah it does but my phone does hold hold a charge. I kinda like the laser rangefinders, but I guess they aren't exactly as detailed as like a Garmin or Sky Caddie. And whats the deal with the watches? Just smaller and cheaper?

The golfers keep them on their belts or wear them as a watch. http://www.golfsmith.com/product/30082955/garmin-approach-s1-gps-watch or http://www.golfsmith.com/product/30077996/golf-buddy-voice-gps. They are really convenient, but you need to hit a bunch of buttons to get anything other than distance to the center of the green. They look pretty convenient other than that. I'm sure you can ask for some gift certificates to various sports places and wait for the after Christmas sales.

When I am using GolfLogix, the GPS readings come for free. I also bought a bunch of extra batteries for my phone, but find it inconvenient to change them as it takes a minute to boot up the phone.

On a side note, I play golf to get away from all the electronic gizmos I need for work, so I tend to enjoy dead reckoning and estimating stuff with the distance markers. I only take the rangefinder and GPS out when I am trying to get distance readings on my clubs, on an unfamiliar course or something like that.

[atb5079]

You make some very good points. Noted.

[lumpuckeroo]

I'm a fan of the GPS devices and it really depends on the courses you play, just which one might be best.  I have the Skycaddie SG5, my brother has a Garmin, we find that our yardages are never the same, but always consistent, his is always 2 yards more than mine, trivial I know.  Also, the course that we joined is an older course, greens are round, some a little oval, none any more than 30-35 yards, front to back, so front/back/middle is all that is required and one of the watches would be more than sufficient.

However, if you play a variety of courses, and courses you've never played before, the full GPS is better, as it will show you the hole layout and has a lot more features.  As far as which company to go with, kind of a toss up, there is a yearly fee for the Skycaddie, but about the cost of one green fee.  Mine does only hold 20 courses at a time, and I've forgot to load a new course that we were going to play, that can be a bit of a problem.

[Lihu]

My partner used a "Swami" and it told us much longer distances than reality. I pulled out a 9i on my approach, and felt like a 52 degree wedge was perfect. Lucky for me I was able to chip from the back of the green.

I would recommend spending just a little more, unless you don't mind needing to "help" the GPS along.

[dkolo]

Getting one this Christmas, but don't know which one is the best bang for your buck. Need advice.

Costco will be selling the Garmin G3 GPS over Black Friday for $99. It have it, and it's great. It's an older model but it uses, what I believe to be an advantage, replaceable AA batteries (so if your battery is dead because you forgot to charge it or you've been playing all day, you can swap out batteries instead of waiting 3 hours for your unit to charge. Unlike some other brands, Garmin offers free lifetime course updates (I usually plug it in every Spring). I find its accuracy to be great. I keep it inside my push cart and have it handy whenever I need a distance. For the money, I think it's a steal (I bought it 2 years ago for $150).

[GoodGuyGreg45]

Yeah it does but my phone does hold hold a charge. I kinda like the laser rangefinders, but I guess they aren't exactly as detailed as like a Garmin or Sky Caddie. And whats the deal with the watches? Just smaller and cheaper?

You could replace your phone or battery with what you would spend on a handheld and then get an app?