Skycaddie rangefinders..

nd4life · June 15, 2009

I have never used one but am looking to purchase. My question is what am I gaining/losing between the SG4 and SG 2.5? I'm trying to figure out if it is just a size difference or if there is another reason the 2.5 is more expensive than the SG4.

Thanks!

ggammell · June 15, 2009

From what I have read, the 4 has some reliability problems. It is being phased out (mostly on clearance now) in favor of the 2.5 and 5. I just picked up a 5 for the larger color screen.

nd4life · June 16, 2009

But if I don't mind the greyscale screen am I good to go on the 2.5?

By the way, thanks!

balbowski · June 16, 2009

The 2.5 does have a smaller screen than the 4 but its not a huge difference. The main difference is the updated technology on the 2.5. Having the external antenna it is able to pick up more satellites and pick them up faster. So that equals a more accurate unit than the 4.

But overall you should just go with the Garmin Approach G5, touchscreen, courses preloaded, keeps score, no download fees, its wonderful.

nd4life · June 16, 2009

But if I don't mind the greyscale screen am I good to go on the 2.5?

By the way, thanks!

nd4life · June 16, 2009

If I had 4 or 5 hundred bucks I would surely go with the garmin. Just wondering what was best in the 200 250 range which looked like the above listed units...

klaymon · June 16, 2009

But if I don't mind the greyscale screen am I good to go on the 2.5?

By the way, thanks!

Yes.

stryper · June 16, 2009

If I had 4 or 5 hundred bucks I would surely go with the garmin. Just wondering what was best in the 200 250 range which looked like the above listed units...

2.5 works for me.

Turbs · June 16, 2009

Hi there, if you do some searching in this site there was some talk a while back that the older sky caddies used an adopted format/program which caused a lot of the issues with the SG4's. I went with the SG2.5 as its relatively inexpensive, with the latest software and updates. There is lots of info in this site you just have to do the leg work!

I also have the Golf Buddy Plus unit and wasnt totally satisfied so I reserched the units and went with the SG2.5 so far it been a great tool. Easy to use and very accurate!

Cheers Turbs!

Carolina Golfer 2 · June 16, 2009

I have a 2.5 a buddy has the 5.0. We played 54 holes together in one day last week in the same cart. His what I could tell. His display of course is a bit bigger and make it easier to read at a glance if you just keep it in the cup holder which we both did, mine on the driver side his on his side. The center distance is displayed in big numbers at the top of the screen on the 5.0 versus the 2.5 it is the same size as the front and back. He has intelligreen, I don't feel I really need it, the center of the green is good enough for me (a 16 HC, he's a 5 and is probably better served knowing where the flag is)

We both had the distances to hazards but being a bigger screen he had less scrolling to do, but mine only took a couple clicks of the button. His battery life appeard longer. We both began with fully charged batteries. After 36 holes I had less than a third bar left he had a bit more. I turned mine off for the beginning ofthe final round, so we'd be assured of having at least one work all the way through 54 holes. His ended up making it fine.

Don't know if that helps you with deciding, but for me they do essentially the same thing and the price difference was enough for me to go with the 2.5. I'd stay away from the 4 model, I've heard people ended up returning it for the 5.0 after not being happy with it.

bradbuff · June 16, 2009

Just to clarify, both the 2.5 and 5 have the intelligreen feature. They both do exactly the same thing, the only difference is the size of the screen and the color option.

I bought the 2.5 first, and it does everything the 5 does, but I wear glasses to read and had some difficulty in reading the smaller screen.. So I gave it to my wife and got a 5. Both are very good and as long as you have good vision, the 2.5 will be just fine for you.

Carolina Golfer 2 · June 16, 2009

Just to clarify, both the 2.5 and 5 have the intelligreen feature. They both do exactly the same thing, the only difference is the size of the screen and the color option.

I bought the 2.5 first, and it does everything the 5 does, but I wear glasses to read and had some difficulty in reading the smaller screen.. So I gave it to my wife and got a 5. Both are very good and as long as you have good vision, the 2.5 will be just fine for you.

Sorry If I gave bad info on the 2.5 and intelligreen. I swear I didn't think it has it. That's probably what that users manual was for :)

thlongball · June 16, 2009

I would completely advise AGAINST the SG3 & 4 units... stick with 2.5 & 5 as mentioned above... different antenna and chipset.... The 3/4 have lots of problems... I've seen many come into the golf shop....

spacecowboy · June 16, 2009

I respectfully disagree with the above post regarding the SG3 and SG4. I recently went through a pretty thorough decision process to choose a rangefinder/gps. I originally tried a Bushnell Laser, but immediately traded it in when very time we would arrive at a ball, one of my playing partners with a gps would announce the distance before I could even reach for the Laser. I first tried out the Bushnell Yardage Pro GPS, it was accurate at the course I bought it at, but must have had a bad map for the course I play the most, because it was off at least 10 yards on many spots.

I then tried out a Golf Guru. The reviews would indicate that this is the way to go. I cannot disagree, but my personal experience led to a unit that would just not lock on to the satellites, and kept drifting.

One of the things that I found that I did not like about mapping from satellites was that the mapper is not looking at the course as it would be played from ground level. A course I played with the Guru had no hazard on a hole that the guru was giving me yardages to and to clear a hazard. The yardage was dead on, but the hazard turned out to be a shadow across the fairway from a tree. Satellite photo must have been at the same time of day!

I decided on skycaddie. I already knew that I wanted easy to use, and didn't care about scorecard, club selection features, etc. I wanted intelligreen(or similar), auto hole advance, and yardage to hazards. Color didn't matter to me.

I was reluctant to buy the SG3/SG4 because I too, had heard of problems. I researched comments and reviews of users after the release of firmware 2.0. It seemed that the 2.0 was a great fix to an awful design.

I bought the SG3 on Ebay, brand new, including the leather case, for about $140.00. I have now used the skycaddie SG3 for several rounds, and it has been flawless. I wasn't real excited about paying the $50 per year, but after comparing to my buddies golf logix and the others I tried, this is truly the way to go. I believe it does make a difference that someone walked the course. i.e. distance to the end of the fairway is much better than just distance to the hazard.

I hope this was helpful, and good luck with your decision.