mruseless

Update: uPro updated the software for the device a few months back. I've now had the chance to play a few rounds with it, and wanted to post my experience. The new update does several things. 1) the greens are now outlined in white. Makes them a little easier to see, since the screen is sometimes tough to make out. 2) the "mark" feature has been re-worked. Now, when you hit "mark", a small red box appears in the lower right corner, showing current distance from the mark. This is VERY useful when you aren't sure where your ball is, but know roughly how far you hit it (please disregard this comment if you are always in the fairway :) ), and also when you want to call out the distances to your buddies without resetting the mark. 3) the "measure" feature now updates dynamically. Before the update, it would only give you distance from your current location. If you moved, it would not update. Now it does. Much better. 4) download speed is a little better. In my original review, I noted that it took a long time. It's still a bit pokey, but better than it was. There are some other smaller tweaks, but those are the ones that I noticed the most. Stability is improved as well, I have yet to experience a crash or freeze since the update. Overall: excellent! This GPS unit still gets my highest recommendation. P.S. One more comment: I've had the device for about a year. In that year, they have mapped 99% of the courses in the Denver area. The only course I could find that isn't mapped is Sanctuary, a completely private course, invite only. I've played it twice :)

Name: Eric Wong Email Address *: same as forum, or use this: scbeta.3.mruseless@spamgourmet.com Licensed Owner of Scorecard (Y/N): Yes Number of Rounds in Scorecard: 33 (bought it mid-season last year) Operating System (and version): XP Pro SP3 1-3 Sentences about why you'd be a good choice: Love the product, use it for every legal round (about 40-50 per season), and I'm a stats nut. I print and study my stats after every round to help focus my practice time, and I've made a few suggestions on the forum, too. I routinely submit bug info for other software products I use, both as a beta tester and as a user.

50, I think.

Check out the review thread, I think you'll find the answers there. E

Ditto that. I posted a review here: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthr...highlight=upro Pretty soon I'll add a post to include the new software update (which is awesome, BTW) E

Keep in mind that I'm a 17, so I'm closer to a high-handicapper than a mid. For my last 20 rounds: Fairways 43% GIR 21% Putts: 35.5 So you can see my putting needs work, but so do my approach shots. I use Scorecard, so here are some other stats I keep close track of (also for the last 20 rounds): 3 putts: 3.5 Putting Accuracy, 0-3 ft.: 80% Up & Dn: 24% Up & Dn first putt: 13.5 ft. Sand Save: 16% So you can see I need a lot of work on my putting. I need to get that % inside 3 feet to almost 100%. I think that alone would bring my U&D; and SS percentages up. And next most important is my chipping and pitching. I would like to average closer than 8 feet. 13.5 ft is way too far.

I think there are two good points to be made by posting blow-by-blow descriptions. One is that, as others have said, blow up holes often begin with a bad tee shot. The other is to show the effects of poor course management. In these descriptions, how many bad tee shots have been followed up with a sensible wedge back to the middle of the fairway? Most (including myself) followed a bad tee shot with an attempt to make the green, or a hybrid out of the weeds, or something like that. That's where you really start to add strokes. Perhaps an even better question is: when the fairway is narrow, why do we insist on hitting driver?

I know you weren't knocking the uPro, and I wouldn't take offense even if you were. I've had a very positive experience, but not everyone will like it as much as I do. I don't think my Visa automatically doubles the warranty, but I'm not sure. I had the impression that they sell extended warranty services. But I'm sure a quick phone call or two would answer that.

You might want to check with your credit card company. I use a Visa, and you can purchase extended warranty coverage for any electronics through them. I also found this: http://www.the-gps-place.com/index.a...ROD&ProdID;=156

Also worth noting that SkyCaddie has a 90 day warranty and uPro has a 6 month warranty.

I used to work in retail. In my experience, people bring things back for all sorts of reasons. Some don't like it, some found it cheaper elsewhere, and some just don't read the manual and take it back because "it doesn't work". I've found that about 90% of high-tech returns that are supposedly "defective" are in fact just fine and either the user didn't understand how to operate the device, or they were using that as an excuse so they wouldn't be questioned. Its certainly possible that 7 have come back, but I doubt that all 7 were truly defective. And that's just one person's recollection. I think it is a bit hasty to talk to one person and conclude there is a quality control problem. I found that one time I thought the device had locked up, but it was actually just stalled doing something (maybe re-acquiring a satellite signal, not sure). After about 15 seconds, the device started working again.

If you plug it into a USB port with the power turned on, the screen lights up and it tries to connect to the website (I assume it charges too). But if you plug it in with the power turned off, it will charge from USB. The red charging light will come on, and when its finished charging the light will blink.

I charge mine through a USB port. Yours won't? Could be defective, or perhaps a non-standard USB port?

Awesome!!

Last weekend I had a 9 on a par 5 hole, it went something like this: 1. Tee shot hooked into the trees. 2. Recovery shot forward, should have went sideways. Ended up behind another small tree next to the fairway. 3. Tried the hero shot, a 5 iron which I thought would just clear the tree (it was only about 10 feet tall). Hit more of a stinger straight into the trunk and bounced back toward me. 4. Punch shot forward well to the side of the tree. Should have done this on my last stroke! 5. Missed my approach shot (175 yards) right of the green 6. Hit a poor chip shot, leaving about a 35 footer. Getting pretty irritated at this point. 7,8,9. Three putt, which always seems to happen on blow-up holes, probably because I've lost my focus by this point.

The Art of the Short Game - Stan Utley The Art of Putting - Stan Utley Who's Your Caddy? - Rick Reilly

I hit my drive into the right side trees on a long par four. When I tried to chip out, my ball came within about a yard of a small fox walking along the treeline. She looked at my ball, looked at me, then squatted and pee'd on the ball. Then she trotted about 15 yards away and sat down and watched my next shot. My playing partners were rolling, and kept saying, "that's gotta be good luck in some culture!" I bogeyed the hole.

Yeah, makes me pretty mad too. Luckily it doesn't happen too often any more.

Yup, I agree with you here. I stopped using the flyover after the first couple rounds. Kind of nice, but more eye candy than anything. This is another area that I think SkyCaddie does better. When you hit "mark" on a SC, it gives you a running total of the distance from your mark. This could be handy for finding a ball too. For example, if I know I hit a 3-wood 230 yards, I can start looking around at that distance. Perhaps I'll email this suggestion to uPro. The web site says this add-on feature is supposed to be out later this year. But I'm not holding my breath. I also tend to run a little paranoid with electronic scorekeeping. I don't want the device to hang or crash and lose my data. I'll probably stick with a paper scorecard. After the first few rounds I got a lot faster at using the device, and also at not always needing to look at it! (overcoming the gadget factor). I also agree that it would be nice to be able to switch holes while in pro mode. E

The version numbers indicate revisions. I have personally requested revisions to 3 or 4 courses, and they have always gotten it done in a couple weeks or less. When the revision is posted, it comes up as a new version number. I had not noticed the "requests" thing before, but I would assume its the total number of requests... If there are no ratings for a course, it defaults to 5 stars. Kind of stupid, but that's the way it is. So just ignore them until they get enough customers to put real ratings up. They both do the same thing, but this is one place the SkyCaddie's system is a little better. SC has a graphic of the green that rotates so it matches your view of the green. The uPro gives you front, middle, and back of the green, but it doesn't rotate the view. If you look on the satellite image view, you will see a little red diamond that indicates your location, but the image itself is not rotated. So what I do is turn the uPro unit itself until it matches my view. I don't need to do that, but sometimes it helps my visualization a little bit. I can't help you on that one, except to say that sales seem to be strong based on conversations at my local GolfSmith, and customer service is good. Those are good signs.

I've been on both sides of this. I have a buddy who has been golfing much longer than I have, and he keeps commenting on how "I practice too much". It got to the point where he really didn't want to play with me any more. I kept talking to him about the handicap system and eventually convinced him to play me for beers with me giving him strokes (he refused to take strokes before). Once he came around, we had fun again. On the other side, I've got a friend who is much better than me, yet he is very stingy with the strokes he gives. I can never beat him because he will not give me enough strokes. I don't really enjoy playing with him because I have little to no chance of winning. So lately I just refuse to bet. (We usually play a $2 Nassau or a 6-6-6). So the bottom line is this: put some money on the line with them, and make sure to give them enough strokes so they have an even chance to win. Then maybe everyone will enjoy playing together again.

I'm with the OP on this one. My worst holes almost always start with a bad tee shot. Then I have to pitch out, hopefully forward. It seems that on a lot of these holes I end up losing my focus and end up three putting too.

I suppose you could be right, they could be licensing maps from Google. I didn't think so based on what they told me, but you never know. Or maybe something changed.

Yes, there were a couple courses I played where things were not mapped correctly. I notified uPlay and they corrected the courses in just a few days. I believe Google Maps gets their satellite data from the USGS and other sources. But since uPlay licenses their images from these same sources, your point is essentially correct, but not technically correct.

I think they are a bit behind, since several courses in my area were planned for July but didn't get mapped until September. But I suspect they will get caught up some over the winter. I do think they listen to requests, since anything you request is listed on your homepage. Since I've gotten the device I've requested 4 courses, and 3 of them are now mapped (although it took them a couple months). Correction: all 4 of them are mapped, since the most recent one was posted today! And it wasn't scheduled to be mapped until February. Of course, its possible that someone listed that as their home course, since they have a 4 day mapping guarantee for your home course.