GolfLogix and the Blackberry Tour

[njlam]

Given the Tour and GolfLogix are new, have there been problems?

As I use my Blackberry primarily for work, I try not to add applications unless I am absolutely sure it won't cause any problems to the phones basic functions.

However the idea of using the Blackberry as a golf GPS is so great, I am tempted to give this a try.

I have the new Blackberry Tour. Anyone with experience with this Blackberry and the new GolfLogix GPS software?

[MSchad]

I have the 8830 and tried the free 24hr trial which worked pretty good. I liked it so I purchased, but am now having problems down loading 18 hole courses?? Emailed and told them and am hoping it may be do to their servers being overwhelmed. Will wait and see what they have to say.

[madjsp]

I put a short review in the thread titled something like "golf logix and the blackberry bold"

Long story short, it was very accurate and i loved it! I will keep my bold (i use nokia unlocked phones) just for the GPS software. cheaper than buying a stand alone!

[doubld]

i have verizon wireless service. they are infamous for blocking 3rd party apps unless you purchase through them directly.
i have used a skycaddie sg3 for over 2 years but recently sold it. i am now using a laser range finder,
however i just upgraded to the new blackberry tour 9630.
i downloaded and used the golflogix software today.
OMG!!!!!!WOW!!!!!!!!
i immediately came home and purchased this.
having used the skycaddie i can honestly compare the 2. i was very impressed today. fast, accurate great features. easy to use. the skycaddie was slower.
i had great fun and would recommend this software, i think that you must have a world smartphone. a friend of mine has the 8330 curve and his yardages were all over the place.
cant wait to play tomorrow and use this again
oh, i went with a fully charged phone. i used the golf logix software throughout the entire round. i also recieved a few phone calls and made a few texts. after the round my battery was at 40%.

[boycer]

I tried to download the free 24 hours of golflogix to my blackberry tour, but it said the gps didn't work. Somehow you have to unlock the gps. Figured this would be cheaper than buying a SG5 and maybe I wouldn't lose it this way.

[limpwrist]

Here's a few posts I made on another forum regarding my experience over the past week with the Golflogix software on my Storm.

[quote]I just purchased the Garmin GolfLogix app for my BlackBerry, but haven't had a chance to really put it through it's paces. I played nine holes yesterday on the free trial and really liked the stat tracking capability, but the distances didn't mesh up with the course yardage markers (i.e. GolfLogix giving me a distance of 142yd while standing on the 150yd marker). I wouldn't be surprised if the markers are that far off given the quality of course I was playing (goat track muni). I am a little concerned that the BlackBerry GPS receiver's accuracy may be what was causing the discrepancies, but it only cost $38.95 for the app (no additional subscription fee) so I'm not too worried about it. I'll just go back to my SkyCaddie if this doesn't work out. The SkyCaddie is right on the money 99% of the time (1-3yd difference from markers at my home course).[/quote]

[quote]The GolfLogix software won't give yardages under 30yds, for some reason. Once you get that close to the green, it just displays "<30" for the front, center and back of the green.

There were a couple of minor annoyances with the software. The stat tracking is really cool. It allows you to track fairways hit, GIR, putts, chips/sand, score and average distance for each club in your bag. The problem is there is currently no way to delete a specific round from your stats pool. The wind the other day really had my distances skewed, so I'd prefer to just delete it altogether. I emailed their customer support center and was told that they were working on changes to the stat tracker and the ability to delete/modify previous rounds would be available in a software update.

The other thing that bugged me was the inability to scroll through the mapped features for each hole. For instance, I was teeing off on a par-5 and the software displayed a long list of distances including water hazard carry, bunker, dogleg and 100yd lay-up. Well, obviously I'm not concerned with the distance to the 100yd lay-up point off the tee of a par-5, but it sure would have been nice to know on my second shot. However, the feature list automatically scrolls forward as you play the hole and I couldn't figure out how to get it to go back to the full list. I guess the software decided I shouldn't be thinking about laying-up from 220-230yds, but this particular green is ridiculously small and surround by a couple of severely punishing bunkers. It might be that I just don't know how to use the software completely, so I'll keep the jury out on that annoyance for now.[/quote]

[quote]Update - I think I'm going to stick with my SkyCaddie. The GPS function on the Golflogix software is all but useless except off the tee and normal approach shots. The inability to view distances to course features (bunkers, water hazards, 100yd layups, etc.) at will is a deal breaker. My SkyCaddie allows me to scroll through the mapped points for each hole from anywhere on the hole. Once you get off the tee, the Golflogix automatically changes to show distances to the front/center/back of the green. Well, what if I want to layup at 100yds because I hit a bad tee shot or going for the green is just too dangerous? Tough luck with the Golflogix. I mean, I can do the math and figure it out myself, but I would expect it to give me those distances everywhere on the hole if they are displayed while I'm standing on the tee.

The other problem I've found is that while the stat tracker is cool and probably very useful for some people, I've found it to be a major distraction for me. I played Sunday and tried to use Golflogix, but I just couldn't keep my concentration on playing. I shot an ugly 46 with five doubles on the front. I turned it off after about seven holes. When I started thinking about golf instead of tracking my shot distances and fairways/greens in regulation, I shot 39 on the back nine. I gave it another try today and made it through 4-5 holes before shutting it off.

Maybe they will update the software to make the GPS function more useful, but I'm done with it for now. Thankfully, it only cost me ~$39 to learn that lesson.[/quote]

[bigred90gt]

I think the "100 yard lay-up" is just a bit nit-picky of you to complain about. if you are 230 out, you have 130 to the 100 yard lay-up. Do you REALLY need your GPS to tell you that? The other issues seem valid, such as bunkers and hazards. I would think that it should show you that, as long as there is on between you and the hole. If you are 150 out, and there is a creek short of the green, I'm not sure if it is necessary to show you the distance to carry it, as you would obviously be going for the green, but being 230 or so out, that would definitely be useful information. I dont have a GPS, and I refuse to pay what they are being sold for. But, I am due for an upgrade on my BB (currently have the pearl and hate the thing) and will be getting the Tour in the next few days for about $100. For that price, and the $40 fee, I'll give it a go. A buddy of mine had no problems with it when we played the other day, and always yardages to any trouble, regardless of where we were at.

[limpwrist]

Nitpicky if you say so, but what if the 100yd lay up is not on a straight line between you and the green? For instance, imagine that you hit one into an adjacent fairway and going for the green is not an option because of trees. If the GPS is telling you it's 200yds to the middle of the green from your current location, the obvious method of calculation would mean you need to hit a 100yd shot, but hitting along that line might leave you in a thick bunch of trees. If there were a mapped point to the 100yd marker in the middle of the fairway, you would know the exact distance to that point (could be 50-70yds or could be 125-150yds). My point is that if they map the point and show it to you on the tee, then you should be able to see the same points from anywhere else while playing the hole.

On the issue of not showing other mapped features, I'm not always shooting for the center of a green. A green might be 20-30 yards deep from front to back, but if the hole is tucked in the right corner just over a bunker and just in front of another bunker, it would be nice to know the distance to carry the front bunker and the distance to the back bunker. I prefer to know a range of distances (i.e. pin is between 140-147 yards) as opposed to a precise yardage to the pin. Knowing how much room for error exists helps me because I don't feel like I have to hit the ball perfectly on a number. If you tell me to hit a 9-iron between 140-150yds, I feel confident that I could do it 75% of the time. But if you tell me to hit a 9-iron 150yds, I'm much more likely to leave it woefully short or overcook it.

[limpwrist]

As a side note, I just downloaded another app that looks pretty cool. It's called nRange (www.nrange.com). It only has the front/center/back of the greens mapped, but it allows you to view aerial imagery of the course and move a cursor to any point to get a distance on the fly.

It doesn't have the stat tracker features of Golflogix, but I don't particularly care about that anyway. It's subscription price ($29 per year or $85 lifetime) after the 30-day trial is less than Golflogix as well if that is a concern for anyone.

[bigred90gt]

I went to that site, it is some weird blog site. I searched golf gps on their search function, and it came up with no results.

[kiwiSouthPaw]

I downloaded and installed on 8330M Curve.

It wouldn't activate so called "Customer Service" and they said that the "M" model was not compatible.

Wish I didn't have to install the app to find that out...

[limpwrist]

[quote name='bigred90gt' post='1941616' date='Sep 9 2009, 03:22 PM']I went to that site, it is some weird blog site. I searched golf gps on their search function, and it came up with no results.[/quote]

I messed up and posted the wrong URL. I edited my previous post with the right URL... [url="http://www.nrange.com"]www.nrange.com[/url].
Sorry 'bout that.

[limpwrist]

[quote name='kiwiSouthPaw' post='1941701' date='Sep 9 2009, 04:06 PM']I downloaded and installed on 8330M Curve.

It wouldn't activate so called "Customer Service" and they said that the "M" model was not compatible.

Wish I didn't have to install the app to find that out...[/quote]

Which one is not compatible, nRange or Golflogix?

[bigred90gt]

I just finished playing a round with my new BB Tour with the Golflogix app on it, and it worked flawlessly. A few times, it took a bit for the yardage to catch up, but for the most part it was spot on and fairly quick. I opted not to use the scorecard or stat tracking feature, since I use the Par-formance book, but it asked me if I wanted to use it.

The 100 yard lay-up stayed on for me for quite a while. I dont recall where it went away, but I know that on the par 5's, it gave me yardage to the 150, 125, and 100 lay-ups.

[limpwrist]

[quote]The 100 yard lay-up stayed on for me for quite a while. I dont recall where it went away, but I know that on the par 5's, it gave me yardage to the 150, 125, and 100 lay-ups.[/quote]

I'm thinking the problem I was experiencing is probably a bug in the software for the Storm because they had just released that version a few days before I downloaded it.

[Big Ben]

This is a tempting service to try; how has the GPS effected the battery life?

[bigred90gt]

[quote name='Big Ben' post='1946145' date='Sep 11 2009, 09:54 PM']This is a tempting service to try; how has the GPS effected the battery life?[/quote]

I took my phone off the charger at 6am, and was receiving emails all day, as well as several calls. After I finished 18, I still had 1/2 the battery left.

of course, we played in about 2.5 hours, but I'm pretty sure it would have been fine. I have a tourney Sunday, which is usually a 5 - 5.5 hour round, so I'll let you know how it does after that.

[malibubs]

Have been using it for about 2 weeks on my iPhone. Works really well. Coming from skycadie sg2. Runs iPhone battery down pretty well, but that is an iPhone issue. Had an issue with the 9th and 18th hole at my home course being mixed up. I e mailed them and the response was immediate. i was very impressed with the customer service. They had it fixed in minutes!!!

[bigred90gt]

It worked like a champ for the tourney today. Yardages were spot on. I had an issue getting it to pick up the satellite for the first hole. I pulled out the battery on the #2 tee box and re-started the phone. It came right up after that, and never had another problem (though this was a phone issue, not an issue with the program). After the round, which was from 11:02 to a little after 4, I still had over 1/2 of my battery. I'm pleased for $40/year, plus I got a nice new BB too.

[umlawdig]

[quote name='limpwrist' post='1942064' date='Sep 9 2009, 05:33 PM'][quote name='bigred90gt' post='1941616' date='Sep 9 2009, 03:22 PM']I went to that site, it is some weird blog site. I searched golf gps on their search function, and it came up with no results.[/quote]

I messed up and posted the wrong URL. I edited my previous post with the right URL... [url="http://www.nrange.com"]www.nrange.com[/url].
Sorry 'bout that.
[/quote]

FYI to non-residents - looks like nrange is U.S. courses only.