cwill
New member
Thanks guys. Good to know. I don't own one yet, but like calebt17, I'm looking to add one to my gear sometime soon.
GPS vs Range Finder
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- #102
I can tell you that many of them, you do not lose the courses. Skycaddie once again ruins it for us.
cwill
New member
calebt17
New member
Bushnell XGC Pro is normally $350 but they are offering a $100 rebate on their XGC, XGC Pro and a $50 rebate on the Neo if purchased by 12/31/09.
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- #105
Quit teasing. I want to switch so badly, but I still have another month to go with this Skycaddie unit. It is gone very soon.
cwill
New member
Amazon currently has the XGC Pro for $275. After the $100 rebate, you are down to $175 - a great deal.
pjcedog
New member
I did not buy a Skycaddie specifically for that reason.
provisional
Could Care Less
I should add that even though Sky Golf will render the unit useless for not paying the annual fee, once payment is made, all the information is still there. here's what happened. I was traveling last spring. Every time I would turn the unit on, I would get this note on the screen that my annual renewal was due. Not wanting to bother with it at the time, plus I had left my usb connector at home, I let it lapse. At some point I could turn the unit on, but nothing would work. Once home, I paid the renewal, and everything went back to normal. I even purchased an up grade. Cost me like $79 I believe.
calebt17
New member
Skycaddie sounds like they hammer you on fees and upgrades.
provisional
Could Care Less
They do, and a big reason I will going with a different brand later on when my annual runs out. Maybe even sooner, since there are some pretty nice deals to be had out there right now on this type of toy. Their claim to fame is that they use the extra fees that others do not charge for, so they can pay the guys who actually walk their courses inputting the yardage info. They say other brands do not do this, so their's is more accurate. Who knows, and who cares. Side by side with other brands I have seen the same yardage numbers. Annual fees vs. no annual fees, for the same info, is a no brainer.
tee it high
In the Great White North
Bushnell = iGolf
Bushnell = iGolf
I currently use the Bushnell XGC. Actually I am using the iGolf triton and then Bushnell bought out the product line last year. It is a great GPS and it offers lot of functions that are easy to use and handy to have on the course. I have found it to be just as acurate as a laser and to be honest it really does help to speed up the pace of play because everyone in the group can have numbers right away. No need to pace anything!
I think the one thing that I have really benefited from with the GPS is my work at the range. I actually walked the range and mapped the location of all of the targets and yardage markers. It makes a big difference when you are aiming at the 150 marker but are in reality 165 away and wondering why everything is falling short. The area that is has really helped me is with my wedges. Now I can set up at very specific ranges and see what my wedges can do.
I think all level of handicaps can benefit from this technology especially when you apply it to course management. Having a hard number staring you in the face is more of a reality check than pacing it off and standing there thinking you can make it or trying to decide how far it is to the lay up area.
Bushnell = iGolf
I currently use the Bushnell XGC. Actually I am using the iGolf triton and then Bushnell bought out the product line last year. It is a great GPS and it offers lot of functions that are easy to use and handy to have on the course. I have found it to be just as acurate as a laser and to be honest it really does help to speed up the pace of play because everyone in the group can have numbers right away. No need to pace anything!
I think the one thing that I have really benefited from with the GPS is my work at the range. I actually walked the range and mapped the location of all of the targets and yardage markers. It makes a big difference when you are aiming at the 150 marker but are in reality 165 away and wondering why everything is falling short. The area that is has really helped me is with my wedges. Now I can set up at very specific ranges and see what my wedges can do.
I think all level of handicaps can benefit from this technology especially when you apply it to course management. Having a hard number staring you in the face is more of a reality check than pacing it off and standing there thinking you can make it or trying to decide how far it is to the lay up area.
calebt17
New member
Great feedback,
On the accuracy thing, Q: How accurate is my Bushnell Golf GPS?
A: The Bushnell GPS are as accurate as any other golf GPS in the market (+/-2 yards).
Why do they call it skycaddie if they walk all the courses, skycaddie sounds better than walkcaddie I guess.
On the accuracy thing, Q: How accurate is my Bushnell Golf GPS?
A: The Bushnell GPS are as accurate as any other golf GPS in the market (+/-2 yards).
Why do they call it skycaddie if they walk all the courses, skycaddie sounds better than walkcaddie I guess.
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- #113
I compare every GPS we review with my Skycaddie as well as Rangefinders and yardage markers. I never notice much of a distance at all.
Fourputt
Head Rules Official
Under ideal conditions you won't see much difference. But... there are several variables that can come into play which affect GPS accuracy, most notably is the number of satellites that are being received at a given moment. The max possible is 12, but it's not unusually for there to be only 6-8 at one time, and the fewer satellites in view of the unit, the poorer is the triangulation. At an absolute minimum there must be 3 or you cant get any position at all.
If you examine the true accuracy data for consumer GPS, it is a time or percentage weighted number, meaning that the unit is accurate to x distance for y percent of the time. Most units are marketed at +/- 3 yards, but all that means is that they have to be that accurate at least 51% of the time.
I don't know if any of you have ever tried Geocaching, but you find out in that hobby that there is an inevitable error in GPS location. A person can hide a cache, mark it's coordinates precisely with their GPS, publish those coordiantes, but when another participant tries to find the cache with his GPS, it can easily be off by 50 feet or more. The reason is that the cache owner may have received an error of 20 or 25 feet when he hid the cache, then the searcher has a similar variance in the opposite direction, resulting in a rather large total error.
The same thing happens with Golf GPS... the technology is virtually the same. Most of the time they will be within that advertised +/-3 yards, but occasionally they will be off... and it isn't always easy to tell when you come up wrong on a shot if it's the GPS or the shot execution that's at fault. So use it with that slight grain of salt and you will probably be mostly happy with the performance of your GPS. Contrary to Prov's assessment, you will still be more accurate than just eyeballing it, even if you are a low handicapper.
bogey_russ
outside operations
callaway upro is on my christmas list... a big draw towards that particular one is the no subscription fees
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- #116
As mentioned above, we loved the Upro in our review. There is no yearly fee, but the advanced features prices recently went up and it can cost quite a bit to use them if you play numerous courses.
Esox
New member
My wife found a price from some camera place where the price was $249 - $100 rebate - a 2-3% Bing rebate. She's a shopper!
It came yesterday. Can't wait to give her a go in four months.
Kevin
calebt17
New member
Does the camera place have a name and online store?
Esox
New member
It does, but I don't know it. My wife's out drinking wine. I'll get the name from her when she gets home. Might have been $259, but I think $249.
Kevin
What advanced features? I just looked on their website and I didn't see any advanced features listed. Advanced features such as score keeping capability and voice recognition have been promised since the thing was introduced but so far nada.
They do have a new model called the Uprogo which is preloaded with 18k courses.
I have used my upro for about a year and I don't have any complaints. I really like how small and light it is. It easily fits into my front pocket and I don't even know it's there until I need it.
Smallville
#ICanHitADraw
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- #122
Basic Mode is free as always. But pin point and flyovers and more are advanced modes and cost money.
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- #124
That is correct. The prices have gone up according to our price sheet from the time of our review over a $1.50 per course for advanced mode.