How hard is it to manually map with skycaddy?

laseranimal · July 1, 2009

Here's my problem. I've got an older nikon rangefinder that's showing it's age. It's not picking up flags and I'm having a really hard time getting yardages to trees and bunkers. So I'm thinking of replacing it with a gps. But living

in the northeast it's a 6 month golf season and I travel outside of NY to play often and looking at skycaddies site it looks like the country plan is @$60 a year and a couple of the courses I play aren't mapped. So how hard is it to self map a course or am I better off using another option like the upro or buying a new laser?

phil75070 · July 1, 2009

If you really are interested in mapping or even editing a course, my suggestion would be to get the Golf Guru as it has much greater functionality in that regard. Unless it has changed, with the SkyGolf products all you can self map are front, center and back of greens, no intermediate targets or hazards, no Intelligreen feature. With the Golf Guru, you can fully map any course with up to 40 targets (I think that is the number) per hole, plus the outline of the green for use with their Smart Green (Intelligreen-like) feature. Additionally, for any of their "community mapped / professionally mapped" courses you can edit those to add waypoints, hide waypoints (can't delete them) and even replace the outlines of the greens if needed.

Carolina Golfer 2 · July 1, 2009

To answer your questin directly. I'll say it's very easy. I mapped a course the first day I had it last year. We were playing a 54 hole tournament and the course was new and not listed. So the first round, I quickly marked the front as I got on the green. I quietly moved to the back and marked it as others were putting and lining up to putt and I marked the middle once we were done and the flag was replaced.

It doesn't take long at all and for the next two rounds I had all the distances I needed. Now that is how easy it was. I know other posters may say others are better and have more features and that may be true. I can't speak to any others as I only have SC. But I wouldn't let the fact that a course insn't listed keep you from getting it. You can also request SC to add it and from what I know they usually will within a couple weeks.

I have the 2.5 and love it.

Babydaddy · July 1, 2009

To answer your questin directly. I'll say it's very easy. I mapped a course the first day I had it last year. We were playing a 54 hole tournament and the course was new and not listed. So the first round, I quickly marked the front as I got on the green. I quietly moved to the back and marked it as others were putting and lining up to putt and I marked the middle once we were done and the flag was replaced.

It doesn't take long at all and for the next two rounds I had all the distances I needed. Now that is how easy it was. I know other posters may say others are better and have more features and that may be true. I can't speak to any others as I only have SC. But I wouldn't let the fact that a course insn't listed keep you from getting it. You can also request SC to add it and from what I know they usually will within a couple weeks.

I have the 2.5 and love it.

What he said, exactly what he said. I have the 2.5 and I still love it!

Noelsy

PingG10 · July 1, 2009

Might it not be a better choice to evaluate other units rather than the SkyCaddie and make your decision based on which product has the courses you desire already mapped? Check the iGolf, Upro, Garmin-The SkyCaddie isn't the only unit on the market and has, in my opinion, one of the more repressive membership policies-before everyone who owns a SkyCaddie flames me for that let me add that their 5 Star mapped courses have about the most accurate information out there I just happen to prefer not having a time limited map data subscription system.

csrjr · July 1, 2009

To answer your questin directly. I'll say it's very easy. I mapped a course the first day I had it last year. We were playing a 54 hole tournament and the course was new and not listed. So the first round, I quickly marked the front as I got on the green. I quietly moved to the back and marked it as others were putting and lining up to putt and I marked the middle once we were done and the flag was replaced.

It doesn't take long at all and for the next two rounds I had all the distances I needed. Now that is how easy it was. I know other posters may say others are better and have more features and that may be true. I can't speak to any others as I only have SC. But I wouldn't let the fact that a course insn't listed keep you from getting it. You can also request SC to add it and from what I know they usually will within a couple weeks.

I have the 2.5 and love it.

I have the SC2 - will it map also? Can you add waypoints to an existing course? My home course has some new bunkers

Carolina Golfer 2 · July 1, 2009

To answer your questin directly. I'll say it's very easy. I mapped a course the first day I had it last year. We were playing a 54 hole tournament and the course was new and not listed. So the first round, I quickly marked the front as I got on the green. I quietly moved to the back and marked it as others were putting and lining up to putt and I marked the middle once we were done and the flag was replaced.

It doesn't take long at all and for the next two rounds I had all the distances I needed. Now that is how easy it was. I know other posters may say others are better and have more features and that may be true. I can't speak to any others as I only have SC. But I wouldn't let the fact that a course insn't listed keep you from getting it. You can also request SC to add it and from what I know they usually will within a couple weeks.

I have the 2.5 and love it.

I have the SC2 - will it map also? Can you add waypoints to an existing course? My home course has some new bunkers

I'm sorry I don't really know anything about the 2.0. I did hear there were some problems with it, but then I thought I read they sent out updates to correct it. I would think you could map it yourself with the 2.0. I can't do bunkers with the 2.5, just the green, so I'm guessing the 2.0 can't either.

You might want to call SC customer service. I haven't had an occassion to call them but I hear they are very good to deal with. Sorry I couldn't give a better answer.

BlackDiamondPar5 · July 1, 2009

Here's my problem. I've got an older nikon rangefinder that's showing it's age. It's not picking up flags and I'm having a really hard time getting yardages to trees and bunkers. So I'm thinking of replacing it with a gps. But living
in the northeast it's a 6 month golf season and I travel outside of NY to play often and looking at skycaddies site it looks like the country plan is @$60 a year and a couple of the courses I play aren't mapped. So how hard is it to self map a course or am I better off using another option like the upro or buying a new laser?

Instead of Skycaddie, why don't you just get the Golf Guru? I originally had an SG 2.5 that I got as a gift, which I returned before opening the box, because I didn't want to pay $60/year for a international membership. Also I didn't like the compulsory membership from Skygolf that made your download maps dissapear when your membership lapses. As a NY resident I also play out of state as well as Canadian courses, which would have required the international membership for $60/year from Skygolf. I researched the crap out of GPS devices on this site and others and finally ended up getting the G002 Guru. There is no annual membership fee and you have free access to over 20K courses, including international with Golf Guru.

With the Golf Guru you can easily map your own course, but there is little need to because they will map a course for you in less than 7 days if it's not already mapped (free of charge). I have made several course requests and they were done in a couple of days. For the heck of it I did try mapping a mini course around my neighborhood and it was pretty easy. I walked the cul-de-sac as the green, as well as adding bunkers and water hazards... all pretty easy stuff. Also with the Golf Guru you can add/modify hazards on courses they've already mapped. I have already added 2 hazards to my home course maps and it was very easy. I think you can have like 30 or 40 hazards per hole, which amounts to bascially unlimited for all practical purposes. Their maps contain plenty of detail per hole so I haven't added more than 2 hazards in 18 holes.

I've used my Golf Guru side by side to an SG5 and the yardages were the same. I've use my Guru side by side with a cart mounted GPS system and my yardages would update and stabilize significantly faster than the cart mount GPS. I've golfed in NY, Fl and in Canada using my Guru and it has worked perfectly on every course without exception.

Hope that helps.