Looking into getting a GPS

[*sigh*]

igolf neo, skycaddie 2.5, golf logix - Some questions

I know there are lots of GPS questions out there, but none quite answered my question... If this post doesn't make much sense just tell me.. its 12:30 am and I'm tired.

So, I was holding out for an iphone app, and have a beta one testing on my iphone right now.. but I just don't think it's going to work out all that great.

So what I'm looking for...

I really want fairway points, I don't need a ton, but I need the course to be pretty well laid out so I can get good distances to hazards, doglegs etc... All of which seem to be able to do. I know they all have the capability, but the stuff I have read makes it seem like for like the igolf neo you have to add these points? Or do a lot of courses have a certain number marked out. All the courses I play on a regular basis are 4 star for skycaddie so that is good.

I don't play a ton of different courses so only having 10 available on like the igolf neo is not a big problem. So capacity isn't too much of an issue.

Rechargable batteries are always great, but built in batteries not so much unless they are going to last. It's much easier to carry a spare set around then having to worry about charging the GPS all the time.

It seems they all have their advantages, igolf new is the most affordable which is great, and the fact you can keep your courses is a nice bonus. But I'm not so sure its quite as full featured as I would like it to be. The sky caddie looks nice as well, price wise it's right in the middle, subscription costs are a bit higher though which is a negative, although I don't really need any more than in state so I guess it's not too big of a deal. The golf logix seems to get good reviews as well, seems like a solid little product, but it's the most expensive of the group, but seems nice and easy to use (I'm a techie so that's not that big of an issue), but it seems very low maintanence on the course. Right now I'm probably leaning towards the skycaddie 2.5.

Has anyone used one of these and can give me their input pros/cons of their current unit. If you have used more than one of these, which one do you like better and why?

[PingG10]

I have the iGolf GPSCaddie II (effectively the Neo's big brother)-very happy with the unit-it does provide all the information you are asking for (to various degrees).

 

The Pros of the iGolf GPSCaddie II unit (as I see them):

 

once you download a course it is "yours"-no time stamp, expiration. If you let your membership lapse after a year-you'll still be able to use your course data.

 

Simple and easy to use-mapping addtional points is very quick and easy-plenty of user defined points in addition to the pre-mapped points.

 

No software glitches-two of my golf partners have SkyCaddies (the 2.0 model, if I recall correctly)-both get distance "freezes" and lockups that require reset-don't know if this is a problem that can be resolved with a software patch-One guy I golf with has the fancy color one-his doesn't seem to suffer from this problem

 

Very easy to read screen in all light conditions.

 

Really fast satellite acquisition and hold. Much quicker than either of my buddies SkyCaddie units.

 

removable/replaceable batteries-I actually use Energizer rechargeable Nimh batteries-get all the convenience of rechargable batteries with the ease of replacement of AA batteries

 

Cons

 

Doesn't have the Intelligreen (or Greensenze) feature that two of the other units have-only F/C/B-doesn't make any difference to me-but a really good golfer might care.

 

No others I can think of.

[*sigh*]

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

And ya it seems like the older igolf's are almost a bit nicer, mainly due to the AA batteries. I will look into them, especially since size really isn't a big issue.

[TM golf guy]

I would have to put in a vote for the Golf Buddy. It comes with tons of courses preloaded. There are no download fees when you update the courses on it. They are constantly updating more courses. Reception is great. It is very easy to use. Battery time is good. If I were to buy a GPS, this would be the one for sure.

[jnunez73]

Im a dealer for skycaddie Ive had a sg3 for six months and I just got my sg5 beacause I got tires of getting battries for the sg3. There new models come out in november I would wait and get one of those if I were you. I love both of mine and ive tried the logix before another member had it and I didnt like it because of there was no igreen view. Its a personal choise dont let the money bug you its one of the best things you will buy.

[williethekid]

Anybody got greenfinder, its an app for iphone and blackberry. Its only $35 and I have $30 in gift cards from last xmas. Looks to be a great basic tool.

[phil75070]

My vote is for the Golf Guru. Downloaded courses come with hazards and other fairway features marked and if you want to change them or add others it is a simple process to do so as you can have up to 30 targets per hole!. It is one of the few to have a "smart green" feature; they call it "GreenZense", SkyGolf calls it "Intelligreen". This means you can get front and back yardages for any points along the outline of the green, through the center or though any place where you approximate the pin position. It uses an internal rechargeable battery but my grayscale unit would last over three rounds before needing recharging. There are no subscription fees and reasonably priced. It holds 20 downloaded courses and 20 user mapped courses. The new color unit is even better, holding 200 courses. It also ha a nice "marking" feature to measure the distances you hit all of your clubs.

 

It also uses one of the most accurate GPS receivers out there and they actually claim accuracy to within +/- 1 yard (subject to the accuracy of the map), which is the same level of accuracy most manufacturers of laser devices claim (but without inaccuracies introduced by mapping errors - but lasers have other drawbacks).

[Babydaddy]

I love my Sky Caddie SG 2.5. The two main selling points were professionally mapped courses with hazards and landmarks and the intelligreen feature.

It has a GREAT battery life, and the set up was easy, quick and painless. I did not want to spend time mapping various landmarks on any course. I wanted to download and go. There is not one course that I play in 3 states that is not a four star course on the sky caddie website.

Also, I am a mac user and they have the sky caddie software for mac. The software is great and easy. Everything about Sky Caddie is solid and easy to me.

As I have gotten older I have learned that you usually get what you pay for. People complain about the subscription fee, but I don't have to do anything but a 30 second download. The skycaddie is absolutely easy to use and does not require fiddling on the course as my prior GPS unit did. Plus I can mark my shot distances easily. The intelligreen feature is the real key as it allows you to orient to the green from where you are and adjust the cross hairs to be exactly where the pin is.

The greens are shaped on the unit as they are in real life. That is a huge deal to me. The unit I have is solid and well made, and the buttons are great.

If you want simple, solid, and thorough and I can't say enough good things about the SG 2.5

 

Rock on

Noelsy

[brycerudd]

Babydaddy hit the nail on the head. I went with the SG 2.5 and have never had a problem.Its smaller than my cell phone and very easy to use. I only have to recharge the battery after about 8-9 rounds.

[Bob Cat]

*sigh*,

did u keep the 2.5?

i'm in buy mode and wondering what your verdict was on the 2.5.

[bradbuff]

SG 2.5 is the easiest and best unit available. The SG 5 is even better. The people here who hype the other units just don't want to pay the money for the best. I want to spend my time playing golf, not walking around greens to measure them. If you want the best unit just pay the money and enjoy it. It has the most courses mapped and in the greatest detail

 

You just go play golf instead of hoping some other company upgrades their software and gets your courses mapped sometime soon.

 

You get to play more golf if you don't have to go out and map your courses yourself.

 

Have fun

[boon44]

The NEO is really a super little GPS. Most bang for your buck for sure. Many of their courses have different hazards already set up, but if not on a particular hole it is sooooo easy to add them yourself and takes 5 seconds max. I have really enjoyed mine. Good Luck!

[stevestrike]

SkyCaddies are neat, but keep in mind that you cannot change/add/edit custom points. You are stuck with what the professional mapper put into the course. Most of the time, this is good enough.

 

I thought I would need more than the four custom points than my Neo offers, but I have yet to need them. iGolf has most of the bunkers, EOF, and water hazards pre-mapped. Any that aren't are very easy to add.

[medic170979]

I looked at all of them extensively like you are doing and I decided on Golf Logix. Here is why:

 

Best course library for my area - including 2 of the little 9 holers I play for practice in a pinch for time

 

Simple - I turn it on and it gives me yardage, including 6 points per hole on most of my courses for doglegs, bunkers, water

 

Cost - $25 a year for any course in US

 

Management - Software is easy to use and allows 25 courses on the unit

 

Rugged - case resists water and me dropping it out of the cart and running it over (not like I've done that ;) )

 

I think all of the GPS's out there are good to some degree, and it just depends on what your looking for. Golf Guru just required too much effort from me to get the most out of it, and Sky Caddie didn't seem worth the extra money for my area (YMMV). So when it came down a GPS that I could just turn on and use, I picked Golf Logix, and I'm happy with it for that reason. Just my $.02.

[stevestrike]

Can you map your own courses with the GolfLogix? Can you add/edit/change custom points? I know you couldn't on the first version, but I don't know if they changed it for the most recent one.

[jcigars]

Just picked up a SG5 with my AMEX reward points. Only used it a couple times so far but I think it's a keeper for sure ;)

 

Jimmy

[sdrem]

There'e a new product out now, Upro Golf GPS, That may blow away all the others. The following site has a demo of the product,

 

 

Check it out here: http://www.intheholegolf.com/store/upro-gp...tml#description

[sdrem]

here is the company website: http://www.uprogps.com/design/

[phil75070]

here is the company website: http://www.uprogps.com/design/

 

There is a rather lengthy thread discussing this device that started back in January.

 

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=133765

[dwheat71]

If you are looking for good fairway information in addition to the other details, the uPro probably provides the best information there, and is smaller than the SG2.5. The SG5 / 2.5 are the next best in my opinion in this area, followed closely by the SonoCaddie V300.

 

I have started a review of the SG5, the Golf Buddy Pro, V300, and uPro on the thread above (http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=133765)

 

I'm hoping to add more this weekend.

[ninothing]

played my first round with my SG 2.5 yesterday (Tiffany Greens in KCMO). The carts there have GPS. I played with a group that rode while I walked ... I thought the GPS and targets on the SG were amazing

[HarryBee]

SG 2.5 is the easiest and best unit available. The SG 5 is even better. The people here who hype the other units just don't want to pay the money for the best.

 

I find that kind of silly....in fact, I have the SG5, Bushnell Pinseeker, and the Upro GPS. There are serious pros and cons of each. I don't think it's just a "money" issue and would be interested in bradbuff's opinion about why he finds the SG5 better than the Upro.....or how he feels about estimating pin distances on the green instead of shooting an exact distance with the Bushnell. Simply saying that the SG5 is the "best" doesn't capture the complexity of issues or add to the discussion.

[phil75070]

All of the SkyGolf units have one advantage, that being the fact that the maps are generated by someone actually walking the course. There are also drawbacks to that, too, if the course makes any changes as there is no ability to self-map anything other than FCB for greens. Others use the same GPS receiver, so there is no advantage in accuracy. Others have features just like Intelligreen, so no advantage there. Disadvantages include the annual fee, no upgrade path, you lose use of pre-mapped courses if your annual membership expires, no keeping scores or stats, very basic "marking" capability, larger and heavier than many units out there, reputed poor customer service.

[bradbuff]

OK, here are my thoughts and why I said what I said.

 

The Upro is a very new unit and they are going through the growing pains that Sky Caddie did many years ago. There are plenty of threads on this forum about the problems that Upros have encountered and I'm sure they're trying to address them. But it takes time. They don't have nearly as many courses mapped as Sky Caddie does. I hear that they try to get your requested courses mapped as soon as possible, but I also see that they make errors on which hole is which, etc. You can read about it here all of the time. Sky Caddie remains the only manufacturer who actually send people to the course to do the mapping.

 

I work in a golf shop and I have seen more than half of the Upros our customers bought come back because they couldn't get them to work properly. This almost never happens with one of the newer Sky Caddies, 2.5 or 5.

 

And Sky Caddie also updates existing courses all of the time. Since I got my first Sky Caddie in March, the SG2.5, They came out and remapped my home course even though no major changes had occurred. When I was on their web site and looking at the courses that were on "My Sky Caddie", it showed that an update to my home course was available. So I deleted the old course and downloaded the new version in about two minutes. They had added more landmarks, false fronts, etc., just making their information more extensive. There had been NO major changes to the course.

 

As to the the exact yardage to the pin argument, I also have a Bushnell. I prefer to get a landing "zone" safely on the green, as opposed to a precise landing "point". I do not have precision distance control in my game that many professionals possess, and I would venture to say that most of the people on this forum don't either. A landing "zone" makes me feel more comfortable about being able to put the ball safely on to the green.

 

It always seems to be mentioned that the annual fee is a drawback of some kind. That is why I mentioned the money thing. If you don't pay your fee they won't let you download and they will turn off the courses already on your unit. I don't see that as a drawback, I see it as paying for what I get. I pay them to go out and professionally map the courses so that I don't have to go do it myself, as is required by some of the competitors. The old adage of "You get what you pay for" applys here.

 

I don't want to learn to be a good mapper, I just want to play golf. I'll pay the annual subscription fee and let them do the mapping and the updating for me.

 

You can agree with me, or not. But those are my thoughts and why I said what I said. If it helps someone make a decision, I'm glad to have helped. If you think its all crap, well that is your privledge and all it has cost me was a few minutes.

 

BB

[EJ Mac]

I have the SG5 and to this day have no regrets on my purchase and have found it to be quite accurate and very useful.

[PlaneMaker]

Given the number of courses in the United States I don't believe that it is possible to physically map each one. So, does SkyCaddie map all of their courses in person or do they map them by satellite as the other companies do?

 

Do they then physically map the most popular courses?

 

The reason I ask is that the Sky Caddie SG5 that I was witnessing was significantly off in comparison to the Prolinks GPS that was installed by the course in each of the carts.

 

I am guessing that since the course bought the GPS for every cart from Prolinks at significant cost that the Prolinks would map the course and make every effort to ensure that yardages were correct.

[HarryBee]

OK, here are my thoughts and why I said what I said.

 

The Upro is a very new unit and they are going through the growing pains that Sky Caddie did many years ago. There are plenty of threads on this forum about the problems that Upros have encountered and I'm sure they're trying to address them. But it takes time. They don't have nearly as many courses mapped as Sky Caddie does. I hear that they try to get your requested courses mapped as soon as possible, but I also see that they make errors on which hole is which, etc. You can read about it here all of the time. Sky Caddie remains the only manufacturer who actually send people to the course to do the mapping.

 

I work in a golf shop and I have seen more than half of the Upros our customers bought come back because they couldn't get them to work properly. This almost never happens with one of the newer Sky Caddies, 2.5 or 5.

 

And Sky Caddie also updates existing courses all of the time. Since I got my first Sky Caddie in March, the SG2.5, They came out and remapped my home course even though no major changes had occurred. When I was on their web site and looking at the courses that were on "My Sky Caddie", it showed that an update to my home course was available. So I deleted the old course and downloaded the new version in about two minutes. They had added more landmarks, false fronts, etc., just making their information more extensive. There had been NO major changes to the course.

 

As to the the exact yardage to the pin argument, I also have a Bushnell. I prefer to get a landing "zone" safely on the green, as opposed to a precise landing "point". I do not have precision distance control in my game that many professionals possess, and I would venture to say that most of the people on this forum don't either. A landing "zone" makes me feel more comfortable about being able to put the ball safely on to the green.

 

It always seems to be mentioned that the annual fee is a drawback of some kind. That is why I mentioned the money thing. If you don't pay your fee they won't let you download and they will turn off the courses already on your unit. I don't see that as a drawback, I see it as paying for what I get. I pay them to go out and professionally map the courses so that I don't have to go do it myself, as is required by some of the competitors. The old adage of "You get what you pay for" applys here.

 

I don't want to learn to be a good mapper, I just want to play golf. I'll pay the annual subscription fee and let them do the mapping and the updating for me.

 

You can agree with me, or not. But those are my thoughts and why I said what I said. If it helps someone make a decision, I'm glad to have helped. If you think its all crap, well that is your privledge and all it has cost me was a few minutes.

 

BB

 

Brad: I think you missed my point. Sure you like your SkyCaddie....I like mine too. I was just challenging the idea that anyone who gets one of the others over SkyCaddie just didn't want to spend the money for the one that you happen to think is the best.

 

With respect to not caring about having exact yardages to the pin.....that's fine for you. Many others feel that an exact yardage to the pin, particularly from 150 yards and in is VERY important. One can compute a landing zone from the exact distance to the pin. But if you have misjudged the distance to the pin by 8 or 10 yards....which actually happens all the time. In my group, we have actually noticed some pretty big mistakes in pin distance judging when using distance markers and adding or subtracting for a front or back pin.....versus the readings we get from the Bushnell So maybe some people have decided on a laser device for that reason, as opposed to just not wanting to pay the dollars for a SkyCaddie as you suggested! Incidentally, there's no great financial savings in getting a Pinseeker over a SkyCaddie.

 

And finally, with respect to the uPro, much of the problems you describe are old news. Bottom line is that it works great, and the 3.0 software corrected the bugs. There are several features of the uPro that offer significant advantages to the SkyCaddie, as well as some disadvantages. In terms of accuracy, i've been using the uPro and SkyCaddie side by side.....and they are equally accurate. They both use the UBlox GPS system.....and mapping on site appears to be no more accurate than the system uPro is using with satellite imagery.

 

Frankly, I'm very much on the fence about which of the 3 devices I would choose if I could only have one. If scoring alone was my primary goal, I'd probably go with the Bushnell Pinseeker. But I like having a GPS device too.

 

My point was simply that it is a LOT more complex than just a money issue.

[is76550]

i have the sg4 and it is great love the measuring device its good to know how far you hit each club.

[EJ Mac]

Plane maker as far as I am aware Sky Caddie physically walks and maps there 4 star courses although I could be mistaken. I have had one instance where a few targets on a 4 star course were not mapped but it could be that the course was new and maybe the tributaries were added after mapping had been done.

[PlaneMaker]

Plane maker as far as I am aware Sky Caddie physically walks and maps there 4 star courses although I could be mistaken. I have had one instance where a few targets on a 4 star course were not mapped but it could be that the course was new and maybe the tributaries were added after mapping had been done.

 

My mistake.

 

What would be the explanation as to why there were significant yardage variations between Prolink mapped course and a Sky Caddie mapped course?