Thinking about getting a skycaddie or other gps. Need help

[whitehead31]

here is what I'm looking for.

- battery life. I don't care if it comes with a rechargeable one or you have to put your own in. I just don't want it to die while playing

- don't care about other features. I mostly want yardages to front, middle, and back of green. But I do like yardages to hazards and fairway bunkers. I don't vare about my scorecard and some of the other features

- convenience. I just want to put it i my cart and look at it when I need a yardage. I don't want to have to hit a bunch of buttons to find a yardage. That is why I like ny iphone app for yardage. It shows you yardage to all hazards and bunkers and also 100 and 125 on par 5s, but I'm tired of pulling my phone out all the time and plus it is not as accurate.

 

Thoughts? welcome to all suggestions. Main ones I'm looking at is sky and garmin. Don't realy want a touchscreen. Main difference I see is preloaded vs having to load, fees vs upfront cost, and amount of courses available.

 

Thanks

[Carolina Golfer 2]

I'm still using the SC 2.5 for the exact reasons you mentioned. I just want front/middle/back and distance to bunker. When fully charged I easily get 2 + rounds out of it, a lot of times i'll charge it in the car on the way to the course and I'm good to go.

I've got friends that have the newer SC 5 and it's nice and all, but the battery life is a bit shorter and I don't need all the scorekeeping things. I have begun to hate paying the renewal fee each year, but so far I've done it.

[allegrolink]

Beware of annual fees. My SkyCaddie had courses I normally play loaded and since my home course has GPS carts, I let the subscription lapse after years of paying the $30. That meant I could not change the 10 courses loading on my SkyCaddie and any updates to the courses would not be reflected. This year, they wiped all the courses off the devise because the subscription was lapsed (mine and every other one). So, it can only be used again if I pay $30 a year.

If you want front back and middle, the Garmin watch is great. Two of my playing partners have them. It finds the course for you (no pre-loading) and there are no subscription fees. Charge seems to last for two rounds.

[chas521]

If cost is an issue, you might want to look at the Bushnell Neo+. Simple and no recurring subscription fee.

[Connard]

If you have a Droid phone try the SkyDroid app for $1.99 with no annual fees and free course downloads. It has been awesome for me so far.

[TM_HOYER]

Since you do not want a touchscreen, then Garmin is not for you. The G3 and G5 are touchscreen.

I have own the Skycaddie SGX and have owned the SG3 and SG5. The SGX is lot more than what you saying you want. I would recommend the SG3.5. It uses AAA batteries, a readable color screen, a list of reach / carry distances for hazards / bunkers / landmarks / targets, and front / back / center for greens. You can turn scoring on or off. When you go to the next hole, it will automatically advance to the next hole and it will go the intelligreen view at 150 yards from the hole (you can change the yardage if you want). I use the cart mount with my SGX and most of the time I look at it to get my yardage as I get out the cart and reach for my club. You can get one for $129.95 from Skycaddie that is certified preowned if you want to save some money.

[ALPINE240]

yup, i used a skycaddie 3.5 as well.. liked it cause it was simple to use, in color, and uses AAA batteries (i just keep a few batteries in my bag). the batteries usually last about 2 normal rounds.
yes, you need to pay annually for it, but the reason people do pay is that Skycaddie has the best mapped courses since they send out people to the actual course to map. all the other non subscription based gps uses google earth and satilite images to estimate the front, center, back of each green.
I recently just switchd to a laser rf so i dont have a need for my 3.5 anymore. if you are interested in buying it from me, PM me...