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With phone apps, why buy a GPS?

SuperStroke
Pkielwa said:
Just a thought for those who have a smart phone and are pondering a stand-alone GPS unit due to battery drain during a round: my Mophie external charger was $70... A GPS unit is significantly more expensive and it drains/needs charging as well. I run my phone that has GolfLogix going and Pandora at the same time. I bring my Mophie for charging if necessary, and my JBL Charge speaker can also charge my phone. Anyway, I use my laser for yardage and phone app for scoring and stats. Mophie and a phone App is a cheaper way to go...
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I agree with the external charger/battery case. I use my phone with Golfshot and works well. Tried Golflogix about 2 years ago but was slow to update and didn't like the apps functions while playing. In a few cases the problem using the phone app is if you don't get cell coverage, you can't log into the app. I use a Leupold rangefinder as well which gets the most use.

I think I would like the easy use of a GPS watch, but don't want to pay yearly fees. Anything out there like that?
 
I don't know about the US but in the UK in competition play GPS apps used on mobile phones are illegal. Under R&A rules if your device can access the internet you can't use it even if you don't access the internet during the round. As the majority of my golf is tournament play I have to use a dedicated device.
 
Adrian Twiss said:
I don't know about the US but in the UK in competition play GPS apps used on mobile phones are illegal. Under R&A rules if your device can access the internet you can't use it even if you don't access the internet during the round. As the majority of my golf is tournament play I have to use a dedicated device.
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Both the R&A and the USGA use the same rules. They changed this year to allow the use of GPS on mobile phones by local rule.

Check out the Q&A on randa.org
 
I used my phone exclusively for 2 years and laughed at my buddies with their expensive equipment. I decided to buy a watch gps that shows hazards a few weeks ago. Played it for the first time last weekend and I'll never go back to the phone. Nothing to lug in my pocket or wait to dial in. I just look at my watch, select my club and swing away. Love it.
 
Love the gps....no smart phone for me and no desire to ever get one. I'll stick with my old flip phone.
 
I have a Garmin G5 (first edition). I have a GPS on my iPhone as I love GolfSHot. I have found the GPS in my Garmin to be more accurate, as well as it is usually approved for Tournament play. The features of the GolfSHot app and its add ons are really nice, and super convenient. If I did not play in tournaments, I might be tempted to just use it.
 
I had a stand alone GPS but never really liked it...(Smithfaced is now the proud owner of it), I use the Golfshot APP on my Iphone 5...only drains about 20-30% of the battery and I love the stat tracking it provides as well.

Although I have been thinking about getting one of the watches.
 
The watch is interesting, but I can't wear a watch while playing. It seems to get into my head during the swing...
 
thewitt said:
The watch is interesting, but I can't wear a watch while playing. It seems to get into my head during the swing...
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I didnt think I could either until I started wearing a fitbit flex band to track my walking and activity and the first time I played golf I didn't even think about it being there..it wasn't until it vibrated in the middle of my round to tell me I hit my goal of steps for the day that I remembered that I was wearing it.

So I figure if I can wear it...why not the watch?
 
TripleBogieTim said:
I had a stand alone GPS but never really liked it...(Smithfaced is now the proud owner of it), I use the Golfshot APP on my Iphone 5...only drains about 20-30% of the battery and I love the stat tracking it provides as well.

Although I have been thinking about getting one of the watches.
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I love the stat tracking as well! I use the app for that purpose as long as I am allowed to have my phone on the course. I still use my Garmin for GPS tho...
 
I had a Garmin S1, for a season, I hated wearing a watch. Ended up strapping it on to my bad as I walked. I ended up downloading the Golfshot app on my iPhone 5 and have seemed to use it a lot more. Although I seem to forget to input my scores and then get all confused 4 holes later :banghead:
 
When I was in the market for a GPS device, my biggest turnoff were monthly/yearly fees. I searched around the independant review sites and found out about golfshot and went with it on my iphone 5. $30 and thank you very much. Love it.

As far as tournaments go with the new rules, I'll go with my rule about boats and just borrow one
 
SouthpawSlice said:
When I was in the market for a GPS device, my biggest turnoff were monthly/yearly fees. I searched around the independant review sites and found out about golfshot and went with it on my iphone 5. $30 and thank you very much. Love it.

As far as tournaments go with the new rules, I'll go with my rule about boats and just borrow one
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Just so you know, if you turn back the date on your computer, that takes care of the yearly fee problem.
 
Yahash said:
I have a Garmin G5 (first edition). I have a GPS on my iPhone as I love GolfSHot. I have found the GPS in my Garmin to be more accurate, as well as it is usually approved for Tournament play. The features of the GolfSHot app and its add ons are really nice, and super convenient. If I did not play in tournaments, I might be tempted to just use it.
Click to expand...
They changed the rule now, your allowed to use the phone just like the stand alone units. Somewhere in the begining of this thread someone posted the rule
 
Yes, I had to get a Morphie or turn off and on during the round. Going back to using Gofshot vs. the GolfLogix.


Pkielwa said:
Just a thought for those who have a smart phone and are pondering a stand-alone GPS unit due to battery drain during a round: my Mophie external charger was $70... A GPS unit is significantly more expensive and it drains/needs charging as well. I run my phone that has GolfLogix going and Pandora at the same time. I bring my Mophie for charging if necessary, and my JBL Charge speaker can also charge my phone. Anyway, I use my laser for yardage and phone app for scoring and stats. Mophie and a phone App is a cheaper way to go...
Click to expand...
 
I use Swing By Swing golf app, and really like it. Drains about 30% or so of my battery (which bothers me a little, but not a whole lot, I have an old phone anyway), is fairly quick to lock, very accurate, and provides a great map of any hole I've played. It pulls the images direct from Google Earth, so you can zoom in to pace off yardages for bunkers etc. in much the same way as manipulating Google's map program. I don't see any real reason to get a dedicated GPS device, unless I really felt like I needed to leave my phone at home. And if I really need to leave my phone at home, it's not one of those rounds where I care much at all about yardages...or scores, and shots are measured 1.5 oz. at a time, if you catch my drift.

My only real downside about my phone is remembering to mute the text conversation from my fellow #Hackers! Those guys all wanna talk about golf while I'm trying to play golf! :alien:
 
With the golflogix app I will probably never buy a stand alone unit. Only about 20% of my battery gets used (iPhone 4s) and it is pretty accurate. The only down side is that in order to keep it from being a pain in the butt I have to turn my passcode off.
 
Hate to revive an old thread, but...

I have to +1 the golflogix app. I played 36 holes 2 weeks ago and it only drained about half of my battery (iphone 5s). I track everything and it gives you a good analysis of your round afterwards. I don't know if they're still doing it, but when I upgraded to the Champion level it was $20 but they gave you $20 off a round if you got it through golfnow.com (in the app) and also 20% off another round. Seemed like a good deal to me.
 
If you live where service is good then I see no problem with using your phone, I don't and it destroys my battery.

Also you can't use it in tournament play unless they have a local rule allowing it.
 
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