Golf Carts With GPS

[phillyk]

My course will be buying a new fleet of golf carts shortly and I would like your opinion on GPS for golf carts.  The first question is about where you golf or you can choose your favorite course if you golf everywhere.  The second question is about whether you'd use the Food and Beverage function.

Regarding the last question, I want to know whether given the following information, you'd want to have a GPS at my course.  The course, one could say, is a mountain course.  Several holes of blind tee shots or approaches.  Lots of elevation change, as in multiple holes of 2 club up and down hill shots.  The only holes that align next to each other are 8&11 and 9&10.  Every other hole is either through the forest or lined with homes.  We currently have a yardage book that is free and doesn't really show a lot other than layout.  It does have pro tips, and these can be included with a virtual flyover for each hole on the GPS.  The more important piece of information is that my course is already cart mandatory.  We had a two-some in good shape walk our course playing this winter for a trial, and it took 4.5hrs.  A four-some walking couldn't possibly play in less than 5hrs with an empty course in front of them, and you'd have to be in fantastic shape to walk the course and play.  So having the cart anyway, would you like to have a GPS on the cart or would you not really care?

Thanks in advance for the responses.

Edited January 12, 2018 by phillyk

[iacas]

I voted no, and I generally hate those things. They annoy with ads, I don't want to use their scorecard feature, and their touch functions seem to be more frustrating than useful.

And from what I know they're expensive as heck.

[DeadMan]

I voted yes for GPS carts. I've used GPS carts before, and I think it's a really great feature to have. It's really nice when it's cart path only, too, because you have a better idea what club to bring with you.

A feature I really like about GPS carts is that you can see how far away other carts are. That's really helpful on courses you're not familiar with.

[Patch]

I've used carts before with GPS. Not a big deal for me. It's been a while though. Maybe they are easier to use these days. 

Never ordered any food/beverage off one. Some courses have phones on the 8th, or 9th hole. Used those a few times.  Most of the time I just ordered through the cart girl, and she would bring it to me. 

[Golfer gal]

1 hour ago, phillyk said:

My course will be buying a new fleet of golf carts shortly and I would like your opinion on GPS for golf carts.  The first question is about where you golf or you can choose your favorite course if you golf everywhere.  The second question is about whether you'd use the Food and Beverage function.

Regarding the last question, I want to know whether given the following information, you'd want to have a GPS at my course.  The course, one could say, is a mountain course.  Several holes of blind tee shots or approaches.  Lots of elevation change, as in multiple holes of 2 club up and down hill shots.  The only holes that align next to each other are 8&11 and 9&10.  Every other hole is either through the forest or lined with homes.  We currently have a yardage book that is free and doesn't really show a lot other than layout.  It does have pro tips, and these can be included with a virtual flyover for each hole on the GPS.  The more important piece of information is that my course is already cart mandatory.  We had a two-some in good shape walk our course playing this winter for a trial, and it took 4.5hrs.  A four-some walking couldn't possibly play in less than 5hrs with an empty course in front of them, and you'd have to be in fantastic shape to walk the course and play.  So having the cart anyway, would you like to have a GPS on the cart or would you not really care?

Thanks in advance for the responses.

A lot of the courses I play have GPS on the carts, and I like it for the most part.  We've had an issue at one course, where the GPS is just plain wrong, which sucks if you're used to using the function.  I've never bothered with the score-keeping function on them; it seems tedious, and I want more information about my game to take home with me for analysis. I've never ordered food or beverages from the cart, I just wait for the turn or the cart girl. I would be interested in the cart girl's opinion of ordering from the GPS, if it would be better or worse for her and her tips.  Whenever I play a new course, I really appreciate a cart GPS, and @phillyk for your mountainous course it sounds like a winner! At a new course especially, it's helpful to have pro tips on the various holes (though honestly they never give any info about playing from the forward tees...).  Some GPS carts only give front/middle/back, and others give distance to the pin, and most that I've seen have distances to hazards, which I like because I sometimes have trouble training my rangefinder on anything flat like a creek. I've used some with a cool touch function, where you can tap (like on your smart phone) anywhere and it will give the distance to that spot and from that spot to the pin.  

1 hour ago, iacas said:

They annoy with ads,

I don't think I've ever seen ads on any, but perhaps I'm immune...

@phillyk your course sounds fabulous!

[David in FL]

My club has 2 courses.  The carts on one were recently refit with GPS units. 

This is an affluent private club, where the members are very familiar with the courses, the courses are well marked, and I doubt that a single member doesn't have a personal GPS or rangefinder.  

The only reason for adding the units, as far as I can tell, is to manage where the carts are allowed to travel by setting up virtual boundaries where the cart is disabled if you stray too close to the green, or tee box, or any other place deemed off limits.  Sounds reasonable in concept but in actual practice, it becomes an enormous pain in the ass when the assistant pro in charge of screwing with the membership doesn't update the virtual boundaries from one day to the next, add/remove restrictions as conditions change, or accurately update for changes in pin position.

In short, I hate the damn things.  

Editted to add, with respect to F&B, save the money from the GPS and use a small portion of it to ensure that the beverage/snack cart is well equipped and manned.

Edited January 12, 2018 by David in FL

[Shooting29]

Like @David in FL, I myself hate them. They are annoying with ads and I've never played a course with them where they were calibrated correctly. You would have to click finished with hole in order to advance and you have to wear your finger out on the touch screen. 

The first thing I do when I get on a course with GPS carts is find the OFF switch or the mute button and drape a towel over the screen.

 

[dennyjones]

There are two course I played last year that have GPS.   One is full of ads and is very annoying.  They do seem to work well but sometimes I forget to utilize the GPS.    The other is very picky with the cart location and will actually stop the cart if the driver travels in the wrong location.   There is one hole where they have a pretty severe down hill slope and people are warned to avoid the area and treat it as cart path only.   If the cart gets too close to the hill, the cart beeps and stops for a full minute.   One can always see carts backing up and driving 1 mph toward the cart path.  

I like them but they wouldn't be a deal breaker either way for me.  

[phillyk]

46 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

There are two course I played last year that have GPS.   One is full of ads and is very annoying.  They do seem to work well but sometimes I forget to utilize the GPS.    The other is very picky with the cart location and will actually stop the cart if the driver travels in the wrong location.   There is one hole where they have a pretty severe down hill slope and people are warned to avoid the area and treat it as cart path only.   If the cart gets too close to the hill, the cart beeps and stops for a full minute.   One can always see carts backing up and driving 1 mph toward the cart path.  

I like them but they wouldn't be a deal breaker either way for me.  

This will be something at my course as well. We have two slopes that most people know to avoid driving down. But then you have the not so bright people go through and flip the cart trying to go down. So yeah i will be in charge of creating those dead cart zones. It is mostly something we want for winter so we can enforce the cart path only rule, but there are areas of the course in summer that gets beat up.

The other thing is these gps were  upgraded this last year to a new system. So far the reviews look good. Ads are at the discretion of the course. The only ads we’d do is to promote a tournament or concert we are hosting.

[NM Golf]

I voted no, I am not a big fan, I can get my own yardage. In fact the course I often play that has them, we turn ours to marshall mode so it will leave us alone and not beep every time an ad pops up.

[Lihu]

13 hours ago, phillyk said:

My course will be buying a new fleet of golf carts shortly and I would like your opinion on GPS for golf carts.  The first question is about where you golf or you can choose your favorite course if you golf everywhere.  The second question is about whether you'd use the Food and Beverage function.

Regarding the last question, I want to know whether given the following information, you'd want to have a GPS at my course.  The course, one could say, is a mountain course.  Several holes of blind tee shots or approaches.  Lots of elevation change, as in multiple holes of 2 club up and down hill shots.  The only holes that align next to each other are 8&11 and 9&10.  Every other hole is either through the forest or lined with homes.  We currently have a yardage book that is free and doesn't really show a lot other than layout.  It does have pro tips, and these can be included with a virtual flyover for each hole on the GPS.  The more important piece of information is that my course is already cart mandatory.  We had a two-some in good shape walk our course playing this winter for a trial, and it took 4.5hrs.  A four-some walking couldn't possibly play in less than 5hrs with an empty course in front of them, and you'd have to be in fantastic shape to walk the course and play.  So having the cart anyway, would you like to have a GPS on the cart or would you not really care?

Thanks in advance for the responses.

I've never really known the cart GPS to be very accurate, but accurate enough to harass people when they fall behind PoP.

[billchao]

I don't play often at courses where I have to take a cart and I use my own GPS and rangefinder, so I don't care if a course I play has it. I wouldn't order food or beverages, either.

What is useful about cart GPS is being able to know where other carts are on blind shots, if that function is enabled, but nothing I couldn't find out just by simply driving up ahead to look. I'd be doing that anyway just to survey my landing area, so I guess I'm a firm "no" vote.

If you were a resort destination, I'd say yes just to provide additional amenities to guests, but I don't think it's necessary for a private club.

[phillyk]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

I don't play often at courses where I have to take a cart and I use my own GPS and rangefinder, so I don't care if a course I play has it. I wouldn't order food or beverages, either.

What is useful about cart GPS is being able to know where other carts are on blind shots, if that function is enabled, but nothing I couldn't find out just by simply driving up ahead to look. I'd be doing that anyway just to survey my landing area, so I guess I'm a firm "no" vote.

If you were a resort destination, I'd say yes just to provide additional amenities to guests, but I don't think it's necessary for a private club.

Our owners eventually want this course to be a resort course (we are the standard public, daily fee course right now), so kind of like you said, we want to increase the value of playing here.  Do we absolutely need GPS? No.  But if we can add GPS at minimal to no cost to our regular players and to new ones, it adds a big plus!  There are 9 holes that have somewhat to fully blind shots, so definitely knowing where the group in front of you, without having to drive 200yds, would be good.

Edited January 13, 2018 by phillyk

[Fourputt]

On 1/11/2018 at 7:46 PM, DeadMan said:

I voted yes for GPS carts. I've used GPS carts before, and I think it's a really great feature to have. It's really nice when it's cart path only, too, because you have a better idea what club to bring with you.

A feature I really like about GPS carts is that you can see how far away other carts are. That's really helpful on courses you're not familiar with.

This is a good benefit from them.  It can eliminate a lot of delays to simply know for certain when the group in front of you is out of range.  Even though I have and love my own GPS, it won't do that.

On 1/11/2018 at 11:42 PM, Shooting29 said:

Like @David in FL, I myself hate them. They are annoying with ads and I've never played a course with them where they were calibrated correctly. You would have to click finished with hole in order to advance and you have to wear your finger out on the touch screen. 

The first thing I do when I get on a course with GPS carts is find the OFF switch or the mute button and drape a towel over the screen.

 

I've only played a couple of courses that have them, but I almost never even have to touch the screen.  I've never had an issue with ads, nor with beeping unless I've accidentally driven it somewhere off limits.  I like that it tracks how far ahead or behind the pace you are, and I like that they place the flagstick on each green to reflect the approximate real hole positions for that day.  I can only do that with my GPS if I can see the green surface from where I hit my drive.

I took the second choice for #2, not because I'd be concerned about time, but most days I don't eat on the course.  Some days I do, and I would only use it if I needed to that day.  Most of the time we plan to do our lunch in the clubhouse after the round.

[mcanadiens]

The only time I had a cart with GPS was on vacation where my buddy and I were playing with a friend who was new to the game. That GPS unit was positively disgusted at our crappy pace-of-play on that late afternoon. It showed how many minutes behind we were in big red numbers.

We had made sure nobody would be behind us when we made the tee time, so the GPS nagging was kind of funny.

 

[Nutsmacker]

Sometimes the GPS systems are good and fairly useful, but most of the time they are not worth it.  If I can drive the cart anywhere on the course, than I find them to be somewhat useful for distances.  If it is a course I have never played before and they offer some type of "tip" than I will use it.    But trying to use the screen and figure out distance when its cart path only is useless.  The ads are annoying.  When they were first introduced to golf carts I thought it was really cool and it helped a lot.  Now, with the advent of smartphones and the accompanying golf apps, range finders, etc.  there is not a lot of need for the in the cart GPS.  I have also found that the in the cart ordering rarely works properly and its much easier to make a phone call.  

[billchao]

1 hour ago, phillyk said:

Our owners eventually want this course to be a resort course (we are the standard public, daily fee course right now), so kind of like you said, we want to increase the value of playing here.  Do we absolutely need GPS? No.  But if we can add GPS at minimal to no cost to our regular players and to new ones, it adds a big plus!  There are 9 holes that have somewhat to fully blind shots, so definitely knowing where the group in front of you, without having to drive 200yds, would be good.

Based on this, I'd say go for it. Other than the cost, there's really no downside to having it, I don't think.

@Fourputt came up with a lot of points I didn't initially think of, but agree with. I do like having some idea of where the pin placement for the day is.

[DonRSD]

I hate GPS carts. Seems like they set where to drive and thus I have to walk more from cart to ball and back to cart. Honestly - it adds 30-45 minutes to each round for no reason at all. I use my iPhone (swing by swing) and/or Garmin S60