Guru GPS Usage and club selection

[cdtate]

I just received my Golf Guru and went to the local course to try it out but the weather in Seattle did not cooperate. There is a par 3 nine hole course in addition to the 18 hole course and since it was not on the list of available courses to download I decided to accomplish this task. It was a piece of cake and since I am not very accomplished in the techno field this speaks volumes to how easy it is to map a course. I think that the screen on the bottom of the Guru makes it easy to operate with just your thumb since I was using my other hand to hold an umbrella...I wish it was a club and that I was playing instead of mapping. Anyway, the course is a bit "hilly" and I have often wondered how much should I club up for an uphill approach shot or down for a down hill approach shot. With the Guru in the "Menu" ..."GPS Status" page it tells you the elevation of where you are standing. So, by taking note of your elevation on the tee box (par three), hitting your shot, knowing the distance you hit your shot by using the mark function, and reading the elevation of the green, you can make a club selection the NEXT time you have a similar shot. Does all this seem too much and/or is there a better way of using the technology? It seems that hitting to an elevated green was a guesstimate just like guessing the distance to the flag on a flat course.

[stevesxm]

you need to understand the basic trigonometry to understand the answer. it is unlikely to me that your golf guru is giving you any sort of accurate true elevation. there is no mechanisim from which a gps can do this except for a look up table or barometer and the barometer would need a local zero... but the answer to your question is " who cares ?" your known club length is based on a horozontal reference plane, i.e. the start and finish of the shot is on the same level plane... a 5 iron is 150 yards, for instance. if the green is somewhat below you and it is 150 yards away TRUE... that is as if you stretched a tape measure from the tee box to the green then your 5 iron would be long by some amount because it would travel 150 yards before it got back to tee box height and then continue down and away by the amount of the elevation change... or the reverse if the green was elevated and the tee box lower...

 

but the differences are minimal unless you are really close. again for instance, there is a hole on st kitts where the fairway is about 90 feet below the green on a very steep slope. if you are at the base of the slope, you are about 10 yards away from the pin measured horizontally but the ball has to go 30 yards straight up , almost to get there. how do yo hit that shot ? there is a similar par 3 in reverse... tee box about 120 feet above, a 150 yard run to the green. thats a much easier shot.... but either way those are extremes and your gps is meaningless to help you club for it. for every other situation, where the tee box is 40 feet higher than the fairway or the fairway is 40 feet lower than the green which is 200 yards away, the elevation error is meaningless for a couple reasons. first the actual distance error is very very small... smaller than the difference between your 3 and 5 woods... so it will be the same club anyway... and second, as a player, you and everyone else you know and a lot of professionals don't have a 5 yard resolution in any club they hit 200 yards. so the error, for all PRACTICAL purposes is meaningless. the gps says 200, club for 200. if you are at the base of a mountain looking straight up or straight down at your next shot, then your gps info is meaningless anyway. in st kitts on the par 3 that was lower by 120 feet i hit one club less and landed in the middle of the green. on the green that was 100 feet higher, i was about 90 out... so hit a full pw which is normally good for 120 and landed on the green albeit it right at the far edge...

 

nothing in your gps is going to be able to make that decision for you.