golfingal

As a 10 you would be playing just for the experience. A 5 could be a little more competitive but still will get blown away by the scratch and + golfers over several days of play. There's nothing like the experience of playing in something that's so serious however - it can help make you tournament tough - but you'll have to play in many high end events to get the full benefit. If you can afford the time and money - go for it! I could have never competed back home in CA, but we moved to WV last year (small state without year round golf = less competition) and I placed 4th in the Women's State Senior, and 12th in the State Championship. I aim to win the Senior this year and place higher in State. I think the top end events are extremely valuable in learning the "vibe" - one should also hopefully win a lot in regional events and club events to help learn how to close while moving up the ladder.

Thanks - I ended up trying FOUR BROWSERS before I could see the links. NOT WORKING - Safari Firefox Opera WORKED - Chrome

Interesting question - it sounds like it's LEGAL but the answer isn't clear for sure to me... Can't play a RH shot Set up for a LH shot and get cart path relief Drop and play it right handed. (forgetting the 2nd relief complication) (This is about as marginal as Schwartzel taking cart path relief with an arms stretched out driver because he didn't like the lie - then hitting with a sand wedge after the drop.)

Quote: Great video, Mike! Thanks for taking the time to put it together. Ummm, what video? All I see is a still pic with print too small to read in the original post?

let us know if you find an app that you find to be exceptional After trying it out on course today, sorry to report Swing By Swing seems to be lacking a user adjustable "layup" calculation. Unless I completely missed something? This is a very critical feature IMHO for course management on courses one is unfamiliar with - or if one gets in trouble and needs to hit an exact number to be smart and safe (or reach a good number going in) for the next shot. If you look at the nRange App you'll see how that works. This is also something found on all the Garmins and probably all other hardware boxes too - kind of a basic thing for golf GPS units... Sure, S xS it's free. Can't argue with that though!

? The basic Swing by Swing app is free. The scorecard add-on is $12/yr and the Looper add-on (which includes the scorecard) is $47/yr. As I detailed elsewhere, I got the Looper add-on but it was too distracting to me (although it did do everything it said it did) and I was able to get a full refund (and they even let me keep it for the rest of the year). So I am a little confused about the $20 one time fee you mentioned. Since you said that you want basic functionality I think the free version would suit you perfect. Plus, I have had excellent battery stamina with it. I start at 100% and have never been below 50% at the end of 18. I like Swing by Swing but I may try some other free apps. PS: I appreciate you mentioning nrange - it looks nice - but unfortunately they didn't have 2 of the 3 courses I play regularly. Sorry for the confusion - it was MY confusion. The $20 fee is in fact a one time for nRange. I looked at so many of these I forgot which ones were which. Battery Stamina was my biggest concern with running an app. With nRange I also found excellent performance, using less than 1/2 of my stock EVO battery (as opposed to GolfLogix full drain). I was also really messing around with the scorecard for probably 50% of the time it was on so it should be even better if I just forget that stuff and play. As expected, I found using the scorecard to be a pain although conceptually accumulating my long term GIR, FWY, PUTTS etc. would be fun to see though I'm pretty aware of what I'm doing usually anyway and have a hand written system in place I keep every time I play (just don't keep them archived and totaled to see trends). Missing courses - I ran into that with Swing X Swing too - probably the best thing is to keep at least a couple of these Apps to choose from as backups to one another in case a course is missing. I'm going to try SxS on the course next and see if I find it useable - though I do still really like the nRange UI the best so far out of all the ones I've tried. The SxS pinch/zoom feature is really nice - much better than the tiny buttons nRange has. Though two finger turn/rotate would be nice. I visited a new course yesterday (Pete Dye Golf Club - his personal signature course) and found that I only needed to know layup distances a couple of times during the entire round. Any of these units would easily help calculate that... (SxS didn't have this course) I only made one mistake off of the 11th tee - due to not being able to see the full shape of the fairway. GPS units don't show elevation - and there was a severe downslope over there I couldn't see.

Quote: I just have one more plus for the dedicated unit... try that phone app the next time you play in a steady rain. I'm not familiar with a phone that's waterproof like my G5. In the long run it's what one prefers. I used to have a simple front - middle - back GPS which I supplemented with a laser. Now I still have the laser, but I find that I almost never pull it out of the case because the G5 seems to cover all of my needs. That's another good one - goes kind of also hand in hand with the Garmin heavy duty build quality. It is clearly more designed specifically for sports as opposed to a smart phone. I'm still testing out some of these, but almost always want to know the laser yardage too if the shot is under 130 yards. +/- even just 3 yards is huge if you're trying to hit it tight but still play safe and smart - and not be short or long. I'd rather have a 10 foot putt than a 20.

Quote: Out of curiosity, what did you find "pathetic" with the Garmin? All you asked for in you opening post was a basic GPS distance measurer. I find that the Garmin is exactly that, and that it lets you get distances to any feature on the hole - trees, bunkers, hazards, and to any point on any of those features, as well as to any point on the green. Not sure what more you need? Apologies, I probably should have used a more politically correct word. The main differences on the Garmins I found wanting were very small screen size (even on the big one), less bright, more difficult to move the layup marker (due to size) than most of the Android Apps. Then you add in the extra navigation/visual features the apps offer on top like scrolling, zooming and more and ultimately the 10X (or more) price differential - the Garmins really fall short for me. The good points of Garmins are the heavy duty build and super simplicity. Side by side though (and I did this quite literally), my preference was the big bright EVO screen - regardless of price or other considerations.

I've demoed the Garmin Approach G3 now, and frankly the unit is pathetic compared to running an app on my Android HTC EVO. This has made me seriously rethink buying a dedicated golf GPS. Especially at $259+ tax versus an app at ~$20 - or even FREE if you want to put up with ads or limited features. I've looked at Golflogix (recurring annual fee), Swing by Swing (not bad and only a one time $20 fee) and many others now. The one I like so far is called nRange http://nrange.com/ - it has a good clear split screen for fairway/green and also allows you to choose fairway only with adjustable targets. Best of all it's free unless you want scoring and no advertising! Going to try it out today and see if it drains the battery as bad as Golflogix or not. Even so, maybe the money for hardware is better spent adding an external battery charge pack for the phone as opposed to a dedicated GPS. The big bright EVO screen sure makes a difference - also more info is available with a better interface in general.

Out of curiosity - does the Callaway Upro MX charge with a standard USB cable (or mini USB)? (In the past I have used a solar charger on my Sky Caddie and never needed to take it in the house to charge since.) Still, I hesitate on this unit - the reviews on Amazon are almost universally horrific.

Thanks for the replies so far - the Garmin are Mac compatible too where I've seem to discover the Golf Buddy are not. The Garmin 3 sounds interesting - I will have to look again at the Callaway too and just use Firefox. they changed from an original per course download scheme for Pro mode - to a flat unlimited rate now (one time only I think?) Meanwhile in my searches I've found a couple of useful sites for comparing units now - http://criticalgolf.com/golf-gps-reviews/ http://www.golfgpsreviews.com/golf-gps-comparison/ They aren't fully up to date but at least give some good info. Keep the good inputs coming! The Garmin 3 is top of the list now.

We had Skycaddies for years but let the "subscription" go due to the PITA of downloading courses all the time, limited number of courses on the unit, and the recurring fees that are punishing and not competitive with the rest of the GPS market. We currently use a laser finder only. It's great especially for really accurate play - BUT - knowing front/back/middle of greens - and hazard layup/carry info on courses we're less familiar with would be really great. Almost all "reviews" online are thinly veiled softball sales pitches. Where is the harsh truth? ha ha Things we would like (ideally) - No Fees - EVER (not even for "enhanced" features) No downloading of courses - no going to websites - instead, preloaded/auto recognition of courses Renderings of the shape of greens, widths, and pin location customization If it MUST be updated online - a user interface for Mac OSX (have PCs too, but really? yuck) Rechargeable long life 3 rounds+ Battery preferably with a mini USB port for easy charging universally anywhere Cool features like - flyovers, touch screen, even color are really just fluff. Nice if it's there - but don't want to pay another $100 for it. UnCool features - Stat Tracking, scoring etc. - HATE IT. It clutters up the unit with nonsense. Play golf. If you can't hit fairways, greens or make putts - go to the range! LOL Garmin, Golf Buddy, Callaway are some brands we've seen. There a 5 different models of Golf Buddy but strangely they don't even have a model comparison on their own website! Garmin's website is bit of a mess and Callaway's doesn't even work currently in Safari or Opera! An extra FWIW, I've tried/used GolfLogix on my phone and while OK, it has two major problems - battery hog - can't even get one full round out of it. Cluttered user interface filled with unnecessary stuff (stats etc.)

Thanks again all - I guess for now I'm going to probably wait on getting new ones. The point about non-conforming grooves is a good one and the old grooves are good up until 2014 for amateur competitions - though by the end of 2011 pretty much all the new, old groove clubs will be gone off the market...

Thanks for the replies - to clarify - by "limited resources" I don't mean finances - I mean there is no "Max Out Golf Lab" equivalent - no high end analysis place that can really help tweak ones clubs to the absolute optimal setup. Irons tend to wear - the grooves get softer and cut up after thousands of hits. But arguably as pointed out - if it ain't broke - don't fix it. ha ha I guess it's the crispness of the contact and spin I am looking to help - which probably is most important on P-7 or so... I realize that equipment/money doesn't buy better game - I'm self taught and it's all about practice and feel. But - tighter iron shots = less putts = better scores! :-) Capitalizing/improving on the strong parts of my game can only help.

Hi all, I'm trying to decide if it would be worthwhile to get a new set of irons or just continue to use what I have. Iron play is one of the strongest parts of my game, but my set is now about 6 years old. I've only been playing about 7 years now and am a 5 handicap and win a lot on the local and regional level. Even though I'm an older gal, I play men's clubs because I'm 6' tall and need the extra shaft length. I hit irons higher than most gals I know and can work it right or left as needed. My distances are usually spot on most of the time. My irons generally go 10 yards (+/-) difference from one another - with an average 6 iron being 130 yards. (+/-) another 10/club for draw, fade, hard, easy) I've never had much backspin on short irons or wedges - never been able to figure that out - but I do generally hit down on the ball (not sweep it). I play ~125 rounds a year. Current irons - Ping G2 - Green Dot (Upright) Steel shaft, regular mens flex (the extra weight is no concern - lighter/flexier graphite does scare me a bit) I love my Pings, and looked at the G10s, but boy do they look like the same darn irons to me! The cavity back is nice and the face is just forgiving enough. Going to Blades might be a stretch as I'm not getting any younger, LOL! I have only one hybrid on my bag - a #1... it's nice for some types of shots, but my irons are way more precise. I "fit" myself with the Ping Green Dots - I would go to some place like Max Out Golf Labs this time, but no longer live in California....recently moved to a small city back east with limited resources. This all might be too much info - but trying to decide it's it's worth it for new ones - or stick with what is working well for me..... Thoughts????