Guru Losing Custom Targets... and why!

I've had some frustration recently when reviewing targets, both custom and pre-programmed and it finally "hit the fan" when I programmed my local driving range with various targets from 125 to 200 yards out. This range also has a miniature green about 100 yards out that I mapped too.

So I turn the Guru on, load the "course" (range), and head out to the driving range. I'm about 1/4 mile from the course and I see all my custom targets that I've created. Then I park the car and one target falls off. Then I walk to the teeing area and all my targets have disappeared! I walk back to the car and all my targets but one has reappeared.

I give Amanda a call at GolfGuru and she tells me that if the targets are located further from the green, or behind you, they will "fall off" the screen. This is a programming decision to reduce clutter on the screen and not an error. Well, all my targets were beyond the green, under normal practice situations, but NOT behind the green where I happened to park my car!

Sometimes during a round I'll jump forward or back to review a custom target, but I find it sometimes missing. Then I try again at a later time and I can see it. It all is a function of the "beyond the green" or "behind the golfer" filtering that is going on within Guru.

In the future, for anyone mapping a driving range, you'll need to go out to the farthest target and map a small green around that target since every hole needs a "green". Then add all the other custom targets that will be short of the "green" and you'll be good-to-go!

Oh, and did I add that Amanda's help was top-notch as usual?

Here is how I mapped my range. Rather than map the range as a single hole, since each of the pins on the range has a small green I mapped each as a different hole. This included a separate short game area. I can understand where if you map the range as a single hole that targets beyond your mapped green would not show up.

I mapped the driving range on the course where I live, since this is where I hit the majority of my practice balls. I set the last flag out of four as a green. Although, it doesn't have a green around it, I mapped the last flag (250 out) as a green, and just tried to do a small circle where the flag was in the middle. This way, the center of green distance would be real close to the actual flag position.

If your course has nice greens around each flag the best you can do is mark the to and clear distance for each flag using the front of the green as the to distance, and the back as the clear distance. You'll then have to work the flag distance in your head. This is if you want all your targets on one hole. I prefer to put all four flags on 1 hole, but if you want to have a green somewhere in the middle, you should make it a separate hole. This is probably a must if you have a driving range where the greens on the driving range are as nice as the ones on the course. Here you can have a hole set up for each flag/green, and just switch to the hole that represents the flag you are shooting at.

Oh yeah...don't try to set up that 40 yard chip shot as a target. The Guru drops the target when you're within 50 yards, so trying to set up anything inside of that won't show up.

Oh yeah...don't try to set up that 40 yard chip shot as a target. The Guru drops the target when you're within 50 yards, so trying to set up anything inside of that won't show up.

Thanks for the tip! I was curious where that target went on the chipping range.

P.S. And yes Amanda is the best.

Oh yeah...don't try to set up that 40 yard chip shot as a target. The Guru drops the target when you're within 50 yards, so trying to set up anything inside of that won't show up.

I was thinking about what I said there, and basically, you can set up a chip shot green using a hole by itself. Just map a green only on a hole and viola, you have a chip shot distance. Just do a small circle around the flag. Greens don't drop off at 50 yards, so you you can get distances from zero to 999.

Targets also fall off if they are extreme angles (~80 degreens) to the green. There must be a lot of real-time trig calculations going on inside that device!

I recently "upgraded to beta version 1.18" and had some difficulty modifying targets. Amanda from Golf Guru was kind enough to return my phonecall a few hours after I called to tell me that a new version 2.0 was going to be released by mid week. Bottom line, I've never received better service from any company!