Cart GPS - thanks goodness for what it can do

[rkim291968]

My home course finally decided to join 21st century and replaced all their aging carts with new ones.   The new ones came with a GPS.   It's not new - I've seen it in other courses and it was great.   But I am amazed how much it can improve our golf experience.   For those who have been using the GPS, what other good features am I missing from below?  

• GPS - exactly to the pin.   They must "laser" it and enter the data every day.   I don't need my laser rangefinder anymore. 
• On rainy or frost days when it's cart path only, the cart is automatically disabled when it enters into fairway.   Every time I see golfers ignore cart path only rule I cringe for the damage they are doing to the course.   No more.
• For every so often, GPS will pop up a friendly message to fix divots & ball marks.   Yeah!   Hopefully, these reminders work on some.
• For holes with blind spots, a similar pop up message shows up.   And cart location of front group are displayed on screen.   You have no excuse to hit into a front group anymore.
• One can order food and drinks using the GPS touch screen.   No more delays ordering food at the 9th hole cafe where sometimes, the group behind has to wait for the front group to get their sandwiches.

 

[RFKFREAK]

23 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

My home course finally decided to join 21st century and replaced all their aging carts with new ones.   The new ones came with a GPS.   It's not new - I've seen it in other courses and it was great.   But I am amazed how much it can improve our golf experience.   For those who have been using the GPS, what other good features am I missing from below?  

• GPS - exactly to the pin.   They must "laser" it and enter the data every day.   I don't need my laser rangefinder anymore. 
• On rainy or frost days when it's cart path only, the cart is automatically disabled when it enters into fairway.   Every time I see golfers ignore cart path only rule I cringe for the damage they are doing to the course.   No more.
• For every so often, GPS will pop up a friendly message to fix divots & ball marks.   Yeah!   Hopefully, these reminders work on some.
• For holes with blind spots, a similar pop up message shows up.   And cart location of front group are displayed on screen.   You have no excuse to hit into a front group anymore.
• One can order food and drinks using the GPS touch screen.   No more delays ordering food at the 9th hole cafe where sometimes, the group behind has to wait for the front group to get their sandwiches.

 

Somewhat OT since I've only played once where a course had GPS on the cart and don' t have anything to add but which is your home course if you don't mind my asking.

[iacas]

I still use my laser, fwiw. It's faster and more accurate.

For the hole locations they probably just click a spot on a map where the hole is cut.

[rkim291968]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

For the hole locations they probably just click a spot on a map where the hole is cut.

Nah.   I lasered it and compared.   They showed almost identical distance (+ or -  one to two yards, margin of error on laser) every time.   Before the new carts, they have been posting exact yardage on 4 par three holes every day.   So, my hope was high that the GPS hole locations are exact to the pin and they didn't disappoint me.  

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

Nah. I lasered it and compared.

You can't really say "nah." That's probably what they do. At most places… they click a spot on the map and the software knows where the hole is cut that day.

And lasers are still going to be more accurate than GPS.

[rkim291968]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

You can't really say "nah." That's probably what they do. At most places… they click a spot on the map and the software knows where the hole is cut that day.

And lasers are still going to be more accurate than GPS.

I will find out from the course for a small wager .  

[Club Rat]

They are a great addition for any course, wish we had them. A key feature is when playing at a different course, the ability to see the hole layout, touch the screen to obtain the yardage to certain points along with zoom views. Wish they become somewhat reasonable in costs for private cart owners.

According to Visage, who has teamed with Club Car, based on a golf course with a 70-car fleet and 22,400 rounds of play, they deliver a superior experience for golfers all for less than $1.87 per round. The golf car giants have just introduced golf’s first mobile information system. Known as Visage, the system represents the golf car industry’s most extensive marriage of vehicle and technology to help course managers address critical revenue and expense needs while enhancing customer satisfaction.

Visage, a joint development of Club Car and GPS Industries LLC, puts a robust set of features and benefits at the fingertips of golfers that include high res graphics, touch screen display, electronic score card for up to four players, tee shot distance, real time vehicle tracking, two-way standard messaging, pace of play and more.

The Visage comes packed with touch-screen technology, a 10.2-inch screen with 1000 nit brightness that automatically adjusts for changes in natural light and enhanced graphics of each hole.

[isukgolf]

I love cart GPS ... on the courses I play if you get into a "no-cart" area ... you have to reverse out ... and it goes really slow in reverse. 

[AbsoluteTruths]

A course near me(Eagle Creek) used to have these in their carts but not any more. I really liked the feature that showed how far the cart in front of you was away. 

[Dave2512]

On November 30, 2015 at 10:43:32 AM, rkim291968 said:

I will find out from the course for a small wager .  

You will find there will be variances. We have been using GPS for a decade or more. The tech specs and margin of error for the quality of devices courses use in carts is more than a couple yards. 

Even if they are tediously imputing coordinates for each hole placement, which is what it would take, there will still be device error. 

[WUTiger]

GPS is good for tee shots and general planning, but I like to use laser for approaches. And, on cart-path only days, I often have to walk 50 yards to my ball. This throws off the angles for GPS measuring accurately how far you are from the pin.

 

[Dave2512]

Best and I mean BEST thing they can do with GPS is use it as a pace of play clock. I've seen everything from reminders you are on pace or behind pace to carts that actually shut down in certain areas if groups are really slow. A course here also has hole fly-overs and voiceover tips that run between holes and that is cool if you aren't familiar with the course.

[rkim291968]

3 hours ago, WUTiger said:

GPS is good for tee shots and general planning, but I like to use laser for approaches. And, on cart-path only days, I often have to walk 50 yards to my ball. This throws off the angles for GPS measuring accurately how far you are from the pin.

 

At my HI, a few yard difference from 60 yards or longer is a noise.   But I use laser myself to give me a bit more confidence.

[Dave2512]

Honestly I use my laser more to see what I have to carry than choosing a club thinking I'll stick it on the flag. I want to know how far my duff has to fly to carry bunkers etc. GPS carts are great for this, if the mapping is really good.

[RickK]

I have played a couple of courses with similar GPS devices on their carts and the disabling feature to prevent people from driving where they are not supposed to.  I think they are great just from that standpoint.  I also like the feature where you could see where other carts were on the hole you were on.  That was pretty neat.  

Unfortunately, one of the courses that needed the disabling feature and the where other carts were got new carts this past year and they are not GPS enabled.  

I remember they also had a TV monitor in the pro shop where they could keep track of where everyone was.  

As far as the GPS accuracy...I will not get into that debate that seems to have started on this thread.  I will say that it was accurate to the point where I did not feel the need to use my own equipment.  

[Golfingdad]

On 11/30/2015 at 8:53 AM, rkim291968 said:

GPS - exactly to the pin.   They must "laser" it and enter the data every day.   I don't need my laser rangefinder anymore.

No, they don't do this - that's a ridiculous and unnecessary amount of work every day.  Most of these courses also have a pin chart with 3 or 4 or 6 different zones for each hole.  They simply have to mark the rough center of each zone once and then tell the computer which zone their using that day.  It's going to be within a couple of yards every time since the zones aren't going to be that big.

A couple of my favorite courses had those GPS and they replaced their carts with new ones that DIDN'T have those GPSs.  Which is fine by me because I rarely used it other than to locate the group in front of us on partially blind shots.  Otherwise all I was doing was closing ads every time I looked at it.