GPS vs Range Finder

JB

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Which one do you use and why?
 
For years I used a Bushnell Yardage Pro 1000. This year I bought a GolfLogix-8. I actually still use both . . . the gps for off the tees and most greens. The rangefinder for hazards not listed on the gps (or if I want to know how far something is away, like a tree) and as a binocular for greens that I can't tell if the pin is front middle or back - - - I'll also hit the flag with the rangefinder while I have it out.

If I had to make a choice, I'd go with the gps; my game is not so exact that I have to know it is 139 to the flag. 145 to the center and 135 to the front is enough for me right now.
 
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My mind was strictly based on ease of use. I liked my range finder for a while and still find it useful now and then. But to be able to just glance down and look at the GPS is just so much easier.
 
I didn't mention that, but yes, it's a lot easier than pulling out the Bushnell and aiming it toward the target. Yardage at a glance is a big factor in choosing the gps. Not to mention line of sight issues you MAY encounter from time to time. What kind do you have?
 
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I have a Callaway Nikon Range Finder that I dont use much and I have a Skycaddie GPS that I really like. However we are about to do the review on the UPRO GPS. and at first glance, this thing is pretty cool. More on that on the main site soon.
 
Here is a total cut & paste from the Frat Party. I know there are people who will track all this down faster than I will, but hey--I'm addicted to my crackberry already. If this is as good as Bob says, I'll never turn it off again.

Have application developers killed expensive GPS units?
iphone.png

Kiss your sky caddy good bye. Tee droid is here! Many of us have Blackberry’s and Iphone’s, now there is a tool you can install on your smart phone to track your golf game in ways you have previously only imagined.

The name of the application for your phone is Teedroid I put it on my iphone and took it to the course.


TeeDroid Caddy, a golf caddying application for mobile phones and the TeeDroid website are all part of the TeeDroid golf system. Together they give you access to unprecedented statistics as well as the TeeDroid golfers network.
  • Get access to professional level statistics and tracking of your golf game
  • On course distances to front, middle, and back of the green, and landmarks
  • Synchronizes phone data with the TeeDroid website
  • Multiple scoring modes: Play-by-Play and Direct/Manual entry (Blackberry)
Once you get used to the interface it is nothing short of incredible. This application will track every aspect of your game. The GPS aspect is easily as accurate as skycaddie. Frankly, accuracy within 10 yards would be good enough for me. I watched the yardage change as I walked toward my ball.
Initially I found myself distracted while entering the stats. I also had the scorecard, which I probably would have been better off handing to my partner. I had some operator errors along the way, like keeping live scoring on and having the battery die after the 17th hole and not taking care to mark my ball on the device where it lay. I tended to enter it after I hit or after I made the next shot. This ruined the club distance aspect ( I hit my longest drive 23 miles) but I think that as I use it more, the easier it will be.


The stats are deep. Real deep.
  • Access to your golf rounds with hole by hole, play by play information
  • Round statistics such as Greens in Regulation, Fairways Hit/Driving Accuracy, Driving Distance, Longest Drive, Putts Per GIR, Scrambling, and Sand Saves
  • Putting statistics - distribution such as short of hole, past hole, and putts made by distance
  • Club distances - longest and average distance you hit your clubs
  • Mapping of rounds - see strokes overlaid on a satellite map
scorecard.png


All stored on the phone and on the teedroid website for access later. This will be a huge benefit to finally realize that you hit a lot of shots into the woods and maybe you need to work on that a bit.
There is a huge database of courses. 559 pages worth so far. You can map your own and receive reward points towards the annual subscription or you can request course mapping from the developers. I had one done in about 3 days.
Supported phones;
Currently the mobile application is available for Blackberry 8000+ series phones (Pearl/81x0, Curve/83x0, 88x0, 9x00).


Development is underway to release the TeeDroid Caddy mobile application for:
  • iPhone 3G - available through Apple Appstore soon!
  • Android/Google Phones ready for when phones are released.
  • J2ME - application for Java compatible/enabled phones such as Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson.
Internet access and GPS receiver (built-in or bluetooth GPS receiver/puck) are necessary, provider internet charges may apply.


The best part?


Price.


$19.95
That’s it. Less than $20 for all this functionality. You cannot go wrong. It’s a no brainer.
 
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It all sounds good, but how does it work? Plus, many cell carriers cripple the ability of their GPS on cell phones...
 
It all sounds good, but how does it work? Plus, many cell carriers cripple the ability of their GPS on cell phones...

Nary a clue. A gearhead I am not. But I figured someone with some time on his/her hands must be.
 
Nary a clue. A gearhead I am not. But I figured someone with some time on his/her hands must be.

I came across this post searching for mentions of TeeDroid and I will make a stab at explaining how it works (I wrote the software for the BlackBerry version as well as the website).

TeeDroid uses the GPS built into smartphones to calculate distances between known points on the golf course and the current location of the phone. TeeDroid also lets you search for courses via your current GPS location, or you can search by name, city, state, and/or country. As far as I know Verizon is the only network to prevent access to GPS receiver - you can still use a GPS bluetooth puck.

TeeDroid is not only a rangefinder but also lets you track your game, TeeDroid has multiple scoring modes to suit all users:
- Manual scoring lets you track per hole score and optionally putts/gir/fairways hit/scrambling/sand saves (available on BlackBerry, coming soon on iPhone).
- Play by Play lets you track each individual shot. The system then calculates all your stats from the shots entered. Stats are the same as for manual scoring and additionally: average distance hit each club and detailed putting statistics.

If you want to see examples of the statistics head over to site not listed my club averages are available at the bottom, click the start time of each round to get stats for that round. Users can set what detail they want to share - default is name and join date.

TeeDroid is available for Blackberry Curve/Pearl/8800/Worldphone/Bold, iPhone, and will be released for T-Mobile G1 in the next couple of days.

If you have any additional questions let me know and I will gladly answer them.

Finn
 
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finnk,
After speaking with people at both Garmin and RIM, it seems as though the GPS units in phones are not nearly as accurate at pin pointing your position as they are in a handheld GPS unit. Antenna is just not strong enough according to both parties.

I am curious just how accurate your findings have been. Plus, let us not forget that quite a few cell carriers cripple their GPS units in their phones, so that you have to use their GPS service.

ANd lets not even get into the cell battery issues that come up when GPS is used.
 
finnk,
After speaking with people at both Garmin and RIM, it seems as though the GPS units in phones are not nearly as accurate at pin pointing your position as they are in a handheld GPS unit. Antenna is just not strong enough according to both parties.

I am curious just how accurate your findings have been. Plus, let us not forget that quite a few cell carriers cripple their GPS units in their phones, so that you have to use their GPS service.

ANd lets not even get into the cell battery issues that come up when GPS is used.

JB,

BlackBerry phones report the accuracy back for each GPS satellite fix calculated. In the interface I display an indicator showing the accuracy, green for good, yellow for ok, and red for bad.

The GPS chips that are in the phones are the same GPS chips that are used in other electronics. Some chips are better than others, however most new chips are capable of accuracy in the single meters range. Another factor is the antenna, and the number of satellites that are in view. The more satellites the more accurate the fix. Accuracy is a guarantee of sorts, basically we know you are no further than x meters from the fix.

I have played a lot of rounds with my BlackBerry 8820, and it always displays a green indicator. Meaning the accuracy is 5 meters or better. During testing comparing my BlackBerry, several blue tooth GPS pucks, and a Garmin unit, and they were all very close. The worst performer was actually a Sony gps key chain, though it contained an older model gps chip so it was expected. The 8800 contains a SiRFstarIII-LT chipset, which is the same chip that is in Garmin units.

My 8820 uses about a third to half the battery playing a full round of golf. So battery life is not an issue.
 
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Im going to stick with the logic of RIM and GARMIN and stay with a handheld device. I do not think we are quite there yet.

And if the cell company does take away your GPS and you have to buy a puck to use a service like this, then it is almost worth having a separate device anyway. Not worth the hassle...Convergence is getting there, but just not yet.

I have tried the softwares such as Intelligolf and while they claim to do the same thing as the handhelds, they just never quite live up to the claims. I am not saying yours does not, but I know for a fact that the handheld works. I dont want to get out to a course and wonder if it is accurate or if it is functioning. When you buy a handheld, you are also getting the software and courses (via subscription usually). Most software companies like yours are a little slim right now...Promises of mapping always exist.
 
love my SkyCaddie. i would never buy a laser, and i'm the Toy Master.
 
I have a GolfBuddy Plus and I love it. No subscription fees to buy! Download all the courses you want for no charge. Holds 1000 courses. Not that I need 1000. In fact it came with a ton already loaded. I deleted all but British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario courses. Any other ones I can get when I need them.

GLF_BUD_GPS.jpg
 
Wait till you guys see my review of the UPRO. This thing is fantastic. Best thing is, the company is going to be giving one away here.
 
Most people do not need accuracy down to the foot. 10 yards, give or take, is good enough for me.

The teedroid has a couple of things going for it.

One is, it's cheap.
two, it's accurate. I have found that it's within 3 to 5 yards of marked sprinkler heads, ditto my laser and the difference between the teedroid and a sky caddy is insignificant.

This is not a reason to rush out and buy an iphone or blackberry, it's just a great application if you already own one.
 
10 yards give or take is a lot of distance for most golfers. That is a full club length and at the course I play is the difference in flying the green and into the water or being on the green.
 
there are a couple of things i don't understand about my SkyCaddie(SG3) though.

why does it hold only 10 courses?
why can't it hold some notes i want to save about holes?

i even bought a Sony Clie to fix the second issue.
 
10 yards give or take is a lot of distance for most golfers. That is a full club length and at the course I play is the difference in flying the green and into the water or being on the green.

I certainly agree with you. I am fairly new to the game and have a horrible time with judging distance....by using my gps and reading the yardage it sure helps me select the right club. I am staying out of the water and beaches a lot more too.

What can I say, I am a beginner........from the sounds of things many of you are not new to the game and may think differently.

And today, I even dropped a point in my handicap - only down by 1 but it's better then gaining :banana:
 
10 yards give or take is a lot of distance for most golfers. That is a full club length and at the course I play is the difference in flying the green and into the water or being on the green.


the 10 yard figure is just me saying.....the teedroid is within 3 yards, generally speaking, of the sprinkler heads, 150 marker and my laser. At least that has been my experience. Very often my laser and my phone completely agree.
 
Anytime I have tried a cell GPS device on the course it was 8-12 yards off. That is just too much for me. Again, this was just my personal try. For some apparently it works better.
 
Wait till you guys see my review of the UPRO. This thing is fantastic. Best thing is, the company is going to be giving one away here.


When do you expect the review to be out Josh? I know you've mentioned you used it a few times; something like that though it almost seems like you need more than a few rounds to give it a good in-depth review. Looking forward to reading that one.
 
I would say the review will be out this coming week. I have now used it for 5 rounds.
 
To the original ?; I decided I was going to get one or the other. Tried the GPS. It is nice and work well, but went with a Cally LR550 rangefinder instead and here's why...
I'm not a good golfer, I frequently hit chili peppers on any given shot. So I like being able to pinpoint a target such as a tree and develop an idea of where I need to aim to. LIke if I am fading the ball, etc, knowing that the pin isn't an option, but being able to take the right club (if I do hit it right) and not playing into a bunker, stream, etc.

For my game at this point, the rangefinder makes the most sense.
 
Scooter,
Wait till you see that the UPRO can actually do that as well. Pinpoint a target and it gives you a measurement.
 
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