Looking into getting a GPS

[bradbuff]

The Sky Caddie gives you the distance to the front, back and center of the green to start with. You can adjust the center by moving the cross hairs to where the pin is located. The cart Gps is aligned to a cap on the stick, so it will give you exact distance to the pin. You must adjust the Sky Caddie to the placement of the pin to get the most accurate yardage. If the person using the Sky Caddie doesn't make the adjustment, there could be a differential between the cart GPS and the Sky Caddie.

 

Money isn't the primary issue, but it is an issue. Otherwise, all the people promoting the other units wouldn't always mention "and there's no annual fee".

[HarryBee]

The Sky Caddie gives you the distance to the front, back and center of the green to start with. You can adjust the center by moving the cross hairs to where the pin is located. The cart Gps is aligned to a cap on the stick, so it will give you exact distance to the pin. You must adjust the Sky Caddie to the placement of the pin to get the most accurate yardage. If the person using the Sky Caddie doesn't make the adjustment, there could be a differential between the cart GPS and the Sky Caddie.

 

Money isn't the primary issue, but it is an issue. Otherwise, all the people promoting the other units wouldn't always mention "and there's no annual fee".

 

Sure, I have an SG5 so of course I know it gives front, middle, and back......but when you move the cross hairs you are estimating where you think the pin is relative to the front middle or back. This is the same as when you do it using a distance marker on the course. It is an estimation, and I have found that particularly with large greens, many players are off by as much as 6-12 yards or more when estimating. At times this can be as much as a club difference. For a high handicapper that might not matter, but for someone with good distance control, it can make a difference.

 

In terms of price...it's interesting to note that the Upro costs 399 plus a download fee for pro mode course that will take it up by another 100 or so depending on how many couses one wants to download. The Bushnell Pinseeker runs in the low 400's........and the SkyCaddie SG5 runs around 400 plus the yearly fee. So it appears that for these three, the prices are pretty close.

[robb01]

Ive been using a skycaddie while I practice and I think its a great unit

[phil75070]

The Sky Caddie gives you the distance to the front, back and center of the green to start with. You can adjust the center by moving the cross hairs to where the pin is located. The cart Gps is aligned to a cap on the stick, so it will give you exact distance to the pin. You must adjust the Sky Caddie to the placement of the pin to get the most accurate yardage. If the person using the Sky Caddie doesn't make the adjustment, there could be a differential between the cart GPS and the Sky Caddie.

 

Money isn't the primary issue, but it is an issue. Otherwise, all the people promoting the other units wouldn't always mention "and there's no annual fee".

 

Sure, I have an SG5 so of course I know it gives front, middle, and back......but when you move the cross hairs you are estimating where you think the pin is relative to the front middle or back. This is the same as when you do it using a distance marker on the course. It is an estimation, and I have found that particularly with large greens, many players are off by as much as 6-12 yards or more when estimating. At times this can be as much as a club difference. For a high handicapper that might not matter, but for someone with good distance control, it can make a difference.

 

In terms of price...it's interesting to note that the Upro costs 399 plus a download fee for pro mode course that will take it up by another 100 or so depending on how many couses one wants to download. The Bushnell Pinseeker runs in the low 400's........and the SkyCaddie SG5 runs around 400 plus the yearly fee. So it appears that for these three, the prices are pretty close.

 

Wow! That is pretty poor usage of the device to be off 6-12 yards! I play on large greens that typically are 35-40 yards deep and one of my playing partners uses a laser and I use the SG2 or, now, the Golf Guru. Two other guys have GPS devices, one the SG5 and the other a SG2 and there is never more than a couple of yards difference in what any of us gets estimating with the GPS and what the guy with the laser gets. Sometimes, he gets nothing because from where he is he can't see the pin. When one takes into account the vagaries of other factors that affect shots, the lie, wind conditions, etc., that difference is meaningless unless you are on a par three, ball sitting on a tee, and you have the ball striking consistency of one of the top players in the world.

[Desert Golf]

I've had a Skycaddie SG2 for a year and a half. I love all of the features on the gps unit but there are two reasons why I wouldn't recommend buying a Skycaddie product.

 

Skycaddie units are very poorly constructed (at least the SG2) and are very buggy. I'm on my third unit (under warranty) in less than a year and a half so that should tell you something. My warranty is now over and my latest SG2 is falling apart. The button to mark distance doesn't work any longer, the belt clip doesn't work properly (screw keeps coming out) and it is now difficult to charge. I take good care of all of my equipment and for the price I paid for this unit I would expect it to last at least a few years.

 

The second reason is that the customer service at Skycaddie is terrible. I had to wait over 6 weeks to get a replacement unit (under full warranty) and the one they sent did not work and looked like it had been abused. It took a LOT of effort on my part to finally get a replacement that was acceptable.

 

The Skycaddie units have great features but the poor construction and horrible customer service will send me looking elsewhere when my SG2 gives up the ghost.

[bradbuff]

The earlier Sky Caddies did have some problems, just as some of the new entries are experiencing now. The newer units 2.5 and SG5, and soon the 3.5 do NOT have those problems and work perfectly well. Do not judge the perforance of the current Sky Caddies based on your experience with the SG2. The difference is night and day.

[Wayneo]

The Neo is a great unit for the price. If mine were to break, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. PingG10 is right on in his comments.

 

Mapping is dead easy, and like someone else already mentioned takes 5 seconds after you're standing at the location you want mapped for the unit to write to the unit.

 

Although you/they are allowed 6 characters for a mapped point, they rarely use all the characters available to them. So for a dog leg, they'll usually just show EOF. I would prefer DL_CTR then an EOF mapped so I'd know the ideal location to hit the ball, and then the max distance before I run out of fairway. Or, CRK for Creek, while they could use either CRK_ST for creek start and CRKCRY for creek carry.

 

Just my two cents.

[stevestrike]

I would prefer DL_CTR then an EOF mapped so I'd know the ideal location to hit the ball, and then the max distance before I run out of fairway.

I agree, and I love my Neo too!

 

For the EOF issue, you can to two things:

 

1. Remap the EOF point to where you consider to be the ideal point

2. I simply add another point called layup, so I'll know how far I want to hit my shot

 

On one hole that is a sharp dog leg left, you can cut over it depending on how far you carry your driver. If the tees are up that day, it's quite easy, but when they are back it's quite a bit different. I have a custom point called "cutdog" that tells me exactly how far I'd need to carry the ball to cut the dog leg and land in the fairway.

[Cruz]

Hi all, new here but have read all the pros and cons on these units. I decided on the uPro just simply for the extra funtionality and the fact that they can continually drop software updates thus saving you from having to buy the "latest". I will be testing it this Sunday out at a course here in KC Metro area (Shiloh Springs) that have basic GPS on the carts and will compare the accuracy against them.

 

To ninothing, if you are up to it maybe we can set up a round and really put these 2 units through their paces. I would give a detailed review if I could have an SG5 alongside.

 

Hit 'em straight all!