What GPS System Do You Use and Why?

[junior lefty]

Oh, now I see. I don't think the cartpath is very soft if you know what I mean...

 

[arydolphin]

Sean,
I've got the Callaway Upro and had no problems with it, I can get 36 holes out of it before it needs to get charged again. Also, I know you live in the Boston area like I do, I haven't had a problem with finding courses in this area, which can be the issue with other units. I don't really use the hole flyovers all that much, but I do like using the maps to figure out layup distances or other things like carries over hazards on different lines or how far away the end of a fairway is on a big dogleg hole.

 

[KellyBo]

We bought the Golf Buddy World Platinum that is preloaded with 40,000 courses. We just turn it on when we get to a course and it loads up. Our course wasn't available on many of the ones we looked at but this one had it. No fees whatsoever. It's worked everywhere we've been so far.

 

[jnug]

I have both a uPro and an OnPar. Now that the bugs appear to have been cleaned up the onPar is much preferred at least in my case. Never thought I would like a touchscreen golf gps but the touchscreen has not been a problem and the feature set is really something.

You do want to check course availability on whatever unit you end up being interested in buying. If the course or courses you want are not already mapped, you could have a long wait.

 

[Sean]

I use a GolfLogix-8. I have had it for over two years now and have yet to renew my subscription. Still works, I can download courses and install them and they function. I got it cheap on ebay and it included the first year subscription for free. I saved about 60 bucks on the unit plus 40 bucks on the subscription.

It's no-frills though, and if you are looking for something pretty with bells and whistles, this isn't for you. What this thing does/is that others are not, is it's waterproof and uses regular batteries. It's also pretty shockproof so you can toss it to your buddy so he can get his/her distance too.

I also use my old Bushnell Yardage Pro rangefinder. Sucker just won't die and is only on its third battery in ten years.

I was thinking of a rangefinder, but I don't think I an keep my hands steady enough.

 

[Sean]

Sean,
I've got the Callaway Upro and had no problems with it, I can get 36 holes out of it before it needs to get charged again. Also, I know you live in the Boston area like I do, I haven't had a problem with finding courses in this area, which can be the issue with other units. I don't really use the hole flyovers all that much, but I do like using the maps to figure out layup distances or other things like carries over hazards on different lines or how far away the end of a fairway is on a big dogleg hole.

I'm very interested in the layup and hazard carry features, etc., of these gizmos Ary. I was at Joe and Leigh's yesterday and the gent there told my that a new uPro was coming out in February that would have a touch screen feature and all the other bells and whistles for $199 plus a lot of courses pre-loaded. Now I'm not sure what to do!

 

[Sean]

We bought the Golf Buddy World Platinum that is preloaded with 40,000 courses. We just turn it on when we get to a course and it loads up. Our course wasn't available on many of the ones we looked at but this one had it. No fees whatsoever. It's worked everywhere we've been so far.

40,000! I didn't know there were that many KB. Are you and Gray going to play them all? No fee? I like that.

 

[Sean]

I have both a uPro and an OnPar. Now that the bugs appear to have been cleaned up the onPar is much preferred at least in my case. Never thought I would like a touchscreen golf gps but the touchscreen has not been a problem and the feature set is really something.

You do want to check course availability on whatever unit you end up being interested in buying. If the course or courses you want are not already mapped, you could have a long wait.

That's a major consideration Jnug. I won't get a unit if the courses I play aren't mapped.

 

[jnug]

I had a Golf Buddy Platinum for about a week. It was pretty intuative which I like. I thought the screen could be brighter and I did not realize that it did not represent trees in any fashion. So it did not give you a feel for distance to the tree line and did not identify trees that were in fact hazards as hazards. You could identify a tree as a hazard in the unit if you found one that you wanted to identify that way but it did not have a symbol for a tree that it could bring to the screen.

This is also something to be watchful for when purchasing one of these things. Almost all of them will show a screen shot of a hole in their marketing material and will show trees in the screen shot. However very few of them have actually mapped the courses such that the unit actually brings trees to the screen so while they always market the product that way, very few of them actually have mapped the courses such that trees are shown. I thought that was an issue for me up here in New Hampshire but I could see where it would not be for others.

The first time I tried to use it, Golf Buddy said I needed to download the latest firmware and it gagged on that very first firmware download. I had someone from Golf Buddy tech support talking me through it so I did not do anything silly with it. It just gagged and once it froze up there was no way to reset it. Then they told me that they were actually making firmware upgrades every two weeks and wanted users to upgrade their firmware at least once per month! Since mine gagged on the very first firmware upgrade I decided that I would simply return it to the store since I could at that point do it. Firmware upgreades every month was the straw that broke the camels back in my case.

that said the Golf Buddy Platinum is one of the units that is full of potential much like the Onpar. I think Golf Buddy is just a bit behind with the development of that product but if you look at how well the tier 2 and Tier 3 Golf Buddy products work you have to think they will get the Platinum where they want it to be as well. Course availability is definately one of its strong points. While they state that the Northeast is a little weak for them, it had most of the courses I play available to download.

Anyway Sean you might really like that one because for whatever reason on a percentage of total courses basis most all of them have fewer courses mapped in the Northeast than in any othe region of the country. If you are interested in the new uPro it might be worth the wait till February to see it since there is not much golf left here in the Northeast before the snow flies.

 

[One-T]

I dont use one right now but I am wanting a UPRO very badly, I missed winning one by one click at the outting. UGH!

 

[staticline]

I have a uPro. One of my golfing buddies has the SkyCaddie 2 which works good also. Both are fine for what I want/need.

My personal preference is a GPS device. I am not a fan of rangefinders because I don't want to take the time do the point & click stuff to get the distance. I want the technology to do the yardage calculations without me having to do any extra work.

With the uPro, there are no courses added. You have to go the website and select the courses you want to be on the device. Most courses have a BASIS option for FREE, which give you yardage to Fr/Mid/Bac, but no yardage to bunkers or water, etc. The PRO option costs a couple bucks a course, which gives you all the extra yardages, and the flyovers.

My golfing buddy is a big fan of the skycaddie because they supposedly send someone out to walk every course so maybe they have to most accurate yardages.

Even if the above is true, they probably sell there data to all of the other companies, anyway. So, who cares about what company gets the information.

In all honesty, I really only need the device if I'm in another fairway or I'm looking to layup to a good distance, or avoid trouble. As far as yardages to the green, I've found that 99% of all 100/150/200 yard markers are within 1-2 yards accuracy. And nobody's game, that's not a tour pro, is that dialed in to worry about 1-2 yards, heck even 5-10 yards for that matter. Golfers that are in the fairway, or just barely in the rough, and spend time looking at the gps devise need to get their head examined. The shot dispersion from their irons doesn't justify that time/cost of gps usage.

 

[One-T]

I have a uPro. One of my golfing buddies has the SkyCaddie 2 which works good also. Both are fine for what I want/need.

My personal preference is a GPS device. I am not a fan of rangefinders because I don't want to take the time do the point & click stuff to get the distance. I want the technology to do the yardage calculations without me having to do any extra work.

With the uPro, there are no courses added. You have to go the website and select the courses you want to be on the device. Most courses have a BASIS option for FREE, which give you yardage to Fr/Mid/Bac, but no yardage to bunkers or water, etc. The PRO option costs a couple bucks a course, which gives you all the extra yardages, and the flyovers.

My golfing buddy is a big fan of the skycaddie because they supposedly send someone out to walk every course so maybe they have to most accurate yardages.

Even if the above is true, they probably sell there data to all of the other companies, anyway. So, who cares about what company gets the information.

In all honesty, I really only need the device if I'm in another fairway or I'm looking to layup to a good distance, or avoid trouble. As far as yardages to the green, I've found that 99% of all 100/150/200 yard markers are within 1-2 yards accuracy. And nobody's game, that's not a tour pro, is that dialed in to worry about 1-2 yards, heck even 5-10 yards for that matter. Golfers that are in the fairway, or just barely in the rough, and spend time looking at the gps devise need to get their head examined. The shot dispersion from their irons doesn't justify that time/cost of gps usage.

so, you wanna hook a brotha up with the Upro of yours? you obviously have no need for it! hehe

 

[RxGus]

I dont use one right now but I am wanting a UPRO very badly, I missed winning one by one click at the outting. UGH!

But... you got the divot mat! What is there to be disappoint about?

 

[One-T]

But... you got the divot mat! What is there to be disappoint about?

No disappointment at all

 

[Super Tuna]

I've taken the plunge on a Garmin G5 (or rather that's my wife's Xmas present this year to me) after playing around with my buddies G3 for the past couple of months.

Reasons
A: It's $200 off at Golfsmith right now
B: All the courses I want/need are preloaded and updated fairly regularly
C: It's Garmin. The GPS is spot on and we've never had a problem with finding satellite's
D: The touch screen is durable as is the rest of the unit. We've used the thing in the snow, rain and baking heat and it's taken it all. He's even run the thing over with a golf cart and it's still ticking (I wouldn't recommend this however heh).
E: Aside from knowing layup points and the like, I really wanted the stats tracking feature and they're really quite good on this unit. Not as expansive as the OnPar unit but still pretty sweet.

 

[staticline]

so, you wanna hook a brotha up with the Upro of yours? you obviously have no need for it! hehe

My driver ain't the most accurate club in my bag. I tend to get a little too familiar with other fairways. LOL!

 

[One-T]

My driver ain't the most accurate club in my bag. I tend to get a little too familiar with other fairways. LOL!

hahaha, I feel your pain, my driver hates me right now!

 

[PAR_6]

I've taken the plunge on a Garmin G5 (or rather that's my wife's Xmas present this year to me) after playing around with my buddies G3 for the past couple of months.

Reasons
A: It's $200 off at Golfsmith right now
B: All the courses I want/need are preloaded and updated fairly regularly
C: It's Garmin. The GPS is spot on and we've never had a problem with finding satellite's
D: The touch screen is durable as is the rest of the unit. We've used the thing in the snow, rain and baking heat and it's taken it all. He's even run the thing over with a golf cart and it's still ticking (I wouldn't recommend this however heh).
E: Aside from knowing layup points and the like, I really wanted the stats tracking feature and they're really quite good on this unit. Not as expansive as the OnPar unit but still pretty sweet.

I second the Garmin G5. I bought one last December. Then in June I decided that sometimes the G5 is a little hard to see in the sunlight so I sold it. After that I bought the Sonocaddie V500, Bushnell XGC (for the 2nd time), Onpar, Sonocaddie V300 but I was always comparing them to the Garmin so I bought another G5 about 2 weeks ago. I am really loving the G5 again. I think that part of the problem with the 1st G5 was that I was using the Garmin Slip Case which made it a little harder to see and use. This time I just bought a leather case and a screen protector and it is working well that way. I still admit that at times you still have to work a little to see it in bright sunlight but now I am willing to put up with that happily. For me I want to be able to move the pin around on the green, keep round statistics, and have No Fees. The Garmin satisfies all 3 of these. The Garmin is just solid and easy to use. None of the other units that I mentioned let you move the pin around on the green and that is just something that I like to do.

 

[Fiver]

Call me old school, but I use the SkyCaddie sg2. It may be the size of Zack Morris' cell phone, but man has it been reliable.

 

[rbrown2769]

I use the golf guru G002...monochrome...I like it a lot.