SkyCaddie SG3

[Brock]

review after 3 rounds

I got the SG3 on order 2 weeks prior to Christmas. Reviewed and researched a lot of Golf GPS but narrowed it down to two(2) systems. One had more user accessible mapping options and pretty much all the rest was the same as far as information given. The other was a little more cumbersome to get through menu and find what you wanted if not shown on main screen but other than that it had good reviews and was listed as accurate system. It was priced about the same depending on where you looked.

So I got the SG3 after reveiwing available courses in my area and comparing it to the other system. There were two courses not covered...Legend Oaks was the one I would play the most that was not on list as 4 star course (meaning it was professionally mapped by SkyGolf personnel or someone they trained to do it for them in this area using SkyGolf equipment with permission of Course Manager). Submitted to SkyGolf through their online service and forgot about it.

I will go over some of the main features and reasons I got the SG3 over the other SG# and other devices:

Appearance and heft/size: The new device is very easy to hold in hand and not overly large or small. Black/Grey finish with easily accessed controls. Large LCD display screen with good contrast that is adjustable for lowlight or bright sunshine and info is sized according to importance. Distance to green is largest number with smaller info showing rear, center, front of green marks and shape of green according to your angle of approach. Buttons are BACKLIGHT on left side top, POWER/LOCK on right side top, Lft Key, Rt Key, Joystick, Help, Hole, Mark, Menu, Info.

Joystick is used to move your cursor anywhere on green or to select a fairway target for a layup. Left and Right keys are function buttons much like cell phones have that you use the most.

On Screen Indicators: It has a battery power indicator, satellite signal level, Hole number, and distance as marked in Y-yards, Mi- miles, K-kilometers.

System Use: Only works with WinXP/2000 or higher, IE 6.0 or higher.. Just recently was made compatible with Mac.

Battery:SG4 and SG5 have a rechargeable battery pack that must be fully charged before first use. SG3 uses 2 (two) AA batteries. Rechargeable are suppose to last 12 hours now if fully charged which is great so not sure if they updated the battery pack this year as many reports online say the battery pack last slightly longer than 2 rounds (8 hours) if fully charged.
For the SG3 batteries it also claims 12 hours of use but my use shows you get about 2 rounds of golf with regular generic batteries. If I use the high-end batteries for electronic devices they tend to go slightly over 2 rounds of golf.....about 2.5 rounds (10 hours) of a normal 4 hour round. I have played in warm weather and at 58*F and did not notice a huge difference in power consumption. I bought the SG3 for two reasons instead of the SG4 or SG5. SG3 was cheaper with same exact functionality as SG4 other than battery. I have rechargeable batteries on camera and few other things and since I leave SG3 in truck or golf bag I would forget to charge it after every round. With SG3 I keep a set of batteries in golf bag and a big package in my desk. Take batteries out to use for every round or can buy in most stores on way to course and even some Pro Shops if needed. I cant sit an hour and wait for it to recharge. So use and batteries chosen determine length of use available.
Battery compartment is on rear with keyloop for opening. It reminds me of the Magellan and Garmin setups and had me question immediately who might be making these for SkyGolf. I think it is Magellan as Garmin has their own out on market now but they are two of best personal use GPS available so it should be very accurate and reliable.

Activating and setup: It had a software disk included and had specific instructions for installation...but when I went to set it up it had me download the software from website instead of using the provided disk so not sure if it was upgrade or a default to ensure most current version if connected to internet during install. Worked like a charm. Setup account and it recognized device and let me set my name and contact information and logged the serial number of the device so if it is ever lost or stolen and someone connects it to the SkyGolf site it will detect my reported device and its location...so I have been told. :haha: Not sure if they notify you or authorities or what but implied it was trackable as a security feature but they can disable the device so it is unusable by the bastxxx that stole it :) .

Course Ratings: Four Stars- recorded by one of their professionals, contains up to 40 targets per hole of golf.

Three Stars- recorded by professionals prior to implementation of the IntelliGreen feature; so does not include intelligreen. Though I have yet found a course that was three stars as most have been remapped since book was written.

Two Stars- recorded by other members of SkyPlayer community (ME AND YOU) that share their mappings online. Only able to display distance to Green (front, rear, center). No hazards or other targets mappable.

Unpublished- Courses created by yourself using SkyCaddie. Not viewable by other members.

Now on to the good stuff...using the thing.

Acquiring signals: Book recommends a full 5-10 minutes of warm up for it to cycle through program and find satellites, acquire them, download positional data. It will display up to four birds on screen but can acquire more I was told by customer service. If you are just learning to use it there is a DEMO mode which will not search for birds but use a loaded help course to display functions. One time it took an hour to acquire one satellite. I turned it off and let it sit and then tried again and it came right up with full accuracy shown in display. I had just received a software update through SkyGolf and loaded a new course that I requested earlier to be mapped. It may have been installing the new software as it was first time I turned it on after downloading. No other issues since then and it was rainy and overcast...but the second time it got full strength and standing on a 192yd marker in fairway it showed a fluctuation between 192-193....longer I stood there it stayed on 192. So I would say that is pretty good accuracy.


Course Selection and Display: You go through and setup how you want your display...what are your desired targets or numbers to be displayed...and you have already downloaded courses from website so you should be ready to play. If you are at pro shop, driving range (also mapped by SkyGolf) it will automatically get set for this course and if you have AutoHole on it will go to First Tee.

On the Tee: I pull up cart as I have it clipped to bag so bag is in line with WHITE tees.... check reading while getting club and compare it to the what the card says. Usually I have it set to show fairway hazards and targets…this way it tells me if I get near a target what I have leftover after laying up. It really is nice to be able to tell there is a bunker, water hazard, or the end of the fairway is far closer than you thought and you decide not to go for the original shot but play it safe or change your choice to avoid trouble.
Also, this is where you can determine distance of drive off tee or anywhere for that matter. You hit the MARK button, confirm you want to MARK BALL LOCATION. Then you go tee off or hit ball. When you get to your balls new location you hit MARK a second time and it calculates your total distance. If you see the ball impact mark on fairway or green you can denote your CARRY distance and not include the roll.

When going to get on the green and maybe you are not on fairway but off to side…you can see shape of green and know that while normally it is a 35yd green from front to back…that on path you will be hitting it might only be 15yds so you might want more loft to keep ball from running off back of green. Or that there is a bunker on back side of green you cant see so to be sure to land short if anything. Great feature.

I have not had courses that use all the symbols for marking yet but here are some that are available to be marked on a course:

Back of Green, Center of Green, Front of Green, Green, Zone of Green, Lay Up To, Fairway Target, End of Fairway, Marker, Water to Carry, Water, Creek, Hazard, Ditch, Out of Bounds, Mound, Bunker on Right to Carry, Bunker Right, Bunker on Left to Carry, Bunker Left, Bunker, Bunker in Fairway, Upslope, Downslope, Tree, X-to point on course, Leaves (distance left to green), Pro mode for Front of Green, and many other descriptors that help isolate each item marked or location.

Another feature I like is that I can set a distance from Green to targets to automatically be shown. So if I want it to show any TARGETS over 150yds it will pop them up. If I want it to tell me when I am 100yds or 127yds from the Green because that is distance of my Go To Wedge, then it will. Also, I can set distance where it automatically switches from normal view to Intelligreen view…default is 150yds…but it can be whatever distance you feel comfortable of getting it on the green and want to work according to pin placement and not just hit center of green to be safe like most High Handicappers.


Overall Impression: So far it has been fabulous when using 4-Star courses. The distance to Green was nice on the user mapped versions but find myself using SG3 more for fairway hazards and targets, knowing where to lay-up and distance left to green, and hazards around green such as bunkers or water. I am high handicapper so usually go for center of green unless chipping but then I can see the flag and don’t need the SG3. My friends were skeptical at first but after one of them was going to take the angle on a long par 5 and I laughed and then hit my iron to a lay-up position he was wondering why I did not go for it too. Then he hit and we went to next shot and he was in a bunker you could not see from hitting location but I saw on SG3. So then I started laughing and kidding him. Next hole he wanted to look and I would not let him…I wanted him to REALLY want it. LOL Last time we played he was checking for lay-ups and hazards every hole almost that had a dogleg in it. LOL

Was it worth the money? Yes, as I got it on Overstock.com and got FREE SHIPPING so the shipping and reduced price paid for my first years subscription for Unlimited course downloads in my state of South Carolina.

Is the subscription worth it vs the other FREE ones? I think it is when I spend that much on a box of balls and then lose them over two or three rounds of golf easily. Also, some of the FREE ones use overhead imagery and don’t personally map each course. Though imagery can be accurate I prefer a on site mapping. Also, not all the courses I play are available on the others and while they can map them alone I believe there are more in USA on SkyGolf than others. In a year it may not matter as every course will be mapped that is at least 1 year old but right now there were only two in my whole 30 mile radius around Charleston that I would play that were not mapped and now they both are less than a month later.

Is the accuracy good as advertised? With anything the accuracy is always dependent on other factors. With a laser rangefinder it is dependent on the steadiness of the user in selecting and holding it on a valid target, on being able to visually SEE the target unobstructed (not through trees or bushes), of weather considerations like rain, fog or dust that affect laser accuracy significantly, and size of target for getting accurate readings. Is it on flag or on the green behind flag….. With a GPS it is ability to get 4 or more satellites for optimum accuracy, heavy cloud cover or obstructions from heavy trees or buildings can affect accuracy but most golf courses are not under a canopy of trees or along a street of office buildings but can still happen. I would say that if you are not familiar with course and learning how to manage a course then the GPS is way to go as it helps you with lay-up points, un observed hazards or obstructions to consider and gives you good estimate of how far it is left to target or green. If you are mid-low handicapper and play the same courses over and over or buy yardage books at all your courses and are good at playing smart golf and knowing your clubs and your limitations then I would say the Laser Range Finder is good for you as you are able to shape shots and do some things a mid-high handicapper cannot. I would definitely recommend either to any golfer and lean towards the GPS variant more often than not.

Customer Service and Reliability? It is the leader in golf GPS and has a proven Cust Svc reputation but with any service there are exceptions I am sure. I have not had to use them but expect no issues based on companies reputation. Large customer base, good money backing projects, widely recognized and USGA certified device. They are likely the benchmark all other Golf GPS have to aspire for or at least what they will be compared to by users in the market to purchase a device.

I have no real complaints and so far only positive experiences with my SG3. Yes it does not have the color screen and larger memory of the SG5 but 10 courses downloaded with full mapping is not bad at all and I can delete one and download another in 5 minutes if needed. It also was almost $175 cheaper than the SG5 for a bit more memory, color display and a rechargeable battery. Not worth it to me as it is a tool and not a pleasure device. It is exactly the same device as the SG4 except for the rechargeable battery. Once again I prefer to be able to put a fresh battery in it anywhere I can find AA batteries and not be stuck without it if I forget to charge it as it takes some time to recharge completely. I can stop and scrounge or buy two batteries and get me through a round of golf very easily almost ANYWHERE. So again the nearly $75 difference is not worth it to me for a tool for golf.

Is there anything I wish it would do or do better? Yes, I wish I could map a course myself and include fairway hazards like bunkers and water even if I could not do all the other multitude of 40+ items offered with their SkyGolf mapping. I would like to be able to walk a course and put in the major items instead of just the front, center, rear of Green. I also wish it came with a carrying case in addition to the belt clip but have found online (Ebay) where they are offering cart mounts (cup holder and roof frame) far less than SkyGolf offers them. Also there is a case with a carabiner so you can clip it more locations such as push cart, bag, belt loop, etc and offer some additional protection from weather....for about $19 for cup mount and case together. I also wish it would show the accuracy in a distance representation like my Garmin and Magellan devices do I use for hunting and backcountry hiking. It gives a representation of if I have 6 satellites then my accuracy should be within 1 foot or less.....but if only 4 birds then it may be 6 feet or less depending on angle of satellite view, weather, terrain, etc.
If anyone is in Charleston and wants to check it out….just let me know and we can play a round or just go for a walk here at course where I live to show what it can do and you can make an informed decision based on actually seeing and using one rather than reading someone like me and their experiences. If you are in the market I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the major players but the top 3 are definitely better than the lower 3 all things being equal. IGolf and Sonocaddie are the other two I seriously considered.

Thanks for the time and the very verbose post… as for a rating...I would give it a BIRDIE. Better than PAR but not a best of possible Double Eagle but with a couple small changes it could be a DE.