Bushnell NEO Ghost GPS Preview

In my travels this morning, I drove to a couple of courses and it found them all after about 1-2 minutes of syncing with the satellite. When I told it to "play golf" it displayed the sync with satellite graphic and then displayed the closest courses. The first attempt was when I was still about half a mile from the course and the others were while I was in the parking lot. After the courses were listed, I selected the one I wanted and then it loaded to the first hole with distances. Pressing the select button showed me the 4 closest hazards. I didn't have to download any of the courses to the unit.

Eager to get out to play so I can try it out. Seems like it is going to provide the information I was hoping.

Please remember to let us know how it works. My wife wants me to go back and get another one even though the first one did not work. Might have just had a bad unit the first time around.
 
Please remember to let us know how it works. My wife wants me to go back and get another one even though the first one did not work. Might have just had a bad unit the first time around.

I will do that. Hoping to get out Sunday; I had some surgery last week so I couldn't play my usual weekly round.
 
Took mine out today for the first time. I got a defective unit. It kept shutting off on its own. It barely lasted 3 holes before I had to turn it back on
 
I have used this unit for about 6 rounds and would like to offer my $0.02. I had a Garmin S2 when the first came out and for the most part really liked it until I began to have issues with it charging. I returned it and played without a gps unit for about a year. When the NEO Ghost came out I was very excited due to the price point and good overall reviews of the NEO watch. PROS - Charging and set up were easy and out of the box had no problem finding any courses that I played. Large, easy to read display, even in bright sunlight. When clipped to my bag on rounds I walked it was very convenient. Seemed to be very accurate. That's not too bad but here are the CONS - wearing this unit on your belt is completely useless. You can't see the display and removing it from its cradle to read the is difficult to say the least. I tried keeping it in my pocket and it's just a little too big for me to be comfortqble. The last course I played with it had 3 seperate 9's. It wasn't able to distinguish which tee I was on, which was a big disappointment. The garmin I had originally would recognize which tee box I was on and give me an option for the correct back 9. The NEO didn't and it was a pain in the but to start the process again to set up the course in the fairway of my 10th hole. Last thing I noticed was the unit didn't automatically advance on every hole which was not a huge deal but kind of annoying to have to keep manually advancing. I have gone back to the garmin S3 and even though it has more features than I will use, for only 50 bucks more, it suits me much better. I don't want to sound like I'm bashing thie Ghost, so to end on the positive, if you just want a simple easy to read gps unit that you will keep on your bag, the price is good and and may be a decent option.
 
Replacement had the same issue. Returned it, going with a different company.
 
Finally was able to play a round of golf and try out the Bushnell NEO ghost unit. Here are my impressions of the unit:

When I got the unit last week, I got took it out of the box, charged it to 100%, went to a couple of courses to see if it would recognize the course since people in this thread said that feature wasn't working for them, then powered it off with 100% charge.

When I got to the course today I turned on the unit and the battery was down to 96%, a little more than I expected but I guess it is what it is. While I was getting my clubs out of the car I went through the menus and had the unit find the course. By the time I got my clubs on the cart and paid my green fees, the course was in the list and ready to be selected. I selected the course and it set it self to the first hole and was ready to be used.

Before I talk about the unit itself, I'll explain my reason for wanting the unit since I already have a laser rangefinder. I love the range finder for shooting pins, but being generally lazy I don't really want to carry it with me when I walk across the course on cart path only days. I mostly want to use the GPS from 150 in to know ranges to the front, middle, and back especially when I get down to wedge and partial wedge distances.

Overall I like the unit a lot. No issues with recognizing the hole as it advanced from hole to hole as I went around the course. I tried the shot distance feature a couple of times. Probably not something I would ever use, but seemed to work pretty well. You press the shot button and the unit continually updates the distance until you get to your stopping point. The only reason I might use this feature is if it works without a course being selected so I can setup targets at various distances. The unit recognizes 4 hazards per hole. It appears that the 4 hazards are predetermined and don't change as you play the hole. The ones selected for the hole seems like the best and even when you pass the hazard and it is behind you the unit gives the distance to the hazard. Water hazards often provided the distance to the front of the water as well as the carry distance. I really liked it for wedge distances and I believe unit will be great for helping me dial in partial wedge shots. I did notice that once the distance to the middle of the green gets to be less than about 25 yards, the unit only displays the center distance but you can press the select button to see the front and back, but it switches back to center only after a few seconds.

At the end of the round (3 hours) I checked the battery and it was at 79% so it appears that the unit will easily be able to get 36 or more holes in during a day.

Pros:
- compact size, although it has a belt clip I don't think it will work well on a belt since it would be difficult to see. I had it in my pocket all day; my pants are not the popular tight fit.
- Easy to read and works well in direct sunlight.
- good battery life
- perfect for my needs to help work on partial wedge distances.
- accurate (distance were same as course yard markers and laser.)
- Cost, great unit for $100.

Cons:
- distances are to the approach front and back of the green. If you miss badly to the side or over the green, the measurement will be to the holes front. If you shoot over the green you can just reverse the measurements and be okay, but if you are way left or right, center is really all that is usable.
- can't clip on a belt. If you want that, you are probably better with a watch.
 
Can you measure shots with this unit?
 
Can you measure shots with this unit?

Yes. Basically you press a shot button which marks the 0 point and then go to your ball. It will tell you how far you are from the 0 point.
 
Perfect, this seems like it would fit my needs very well for a great price.
 
My wife bought one. Today we took it to the club and guess what. It could not find the course. I spent some time today on the internet and after about an hour, I am not sure I was able to properly down load / sync the software. We will find out tomorrow. If it still does not sync, it goes back.

I hate stuff that does not work out of the box!

We were able to take a demo unit out to the course and ... it worked! The yardage is very easy to read in bright light and the keys are "stiff" enough that if you put it in your pocket it will not select something or turn off. I compared it to my Golf Buddy PT4 all day and it was always within a couple of yards of the PT4. It it a little slower to determine the yardage but after a few seconds it did settle down. There was one par three that is was 8 yards shorter than my PT4 but the rest of the holes were good. One thing to remember is that is measures to the front, middle and back of the green. If you miss the green on the side, you have to remember what the numbers are telling you. The hazards are is code FLB etc so that has a little getting use to. It also allows you to check your club distance which my wife used on several holes. The instruction book that comes with it is not very good but for the most part the book is not needed. Overall, we liked it. Simple to use, easy to read and looks like the distances are good. Once we give this back, we may purchase one.

let me add: we did not use the belt clip as it looked like it might break so we did not even try it.
 
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I just now saw what these look like for some reason. I think I want one, same badassery as my watch, but pocket sized.

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That is pretty cool looking.
 
That is pretty cool looking.

Shame on me, but I always just assumed it was a different watch version. This seems to me to be a hell of a solution for those so uber opposed to wearing watch in round.

I kinda really want one, if nothing else than to get rid of this badass tan-line. LOL
 
Shame on me, but I always just assumed it was a different watch version. This seems to me to be a hell of a solution for those so uber opposed to wearing watch in round.

I kinda really want one, if nothing else than to get rid of this badass tan-line. LOL

Good point on the tan line. If I didn't have my GPS unit that gives me the hole visual and was just doing a watch then I definitely see the benefit of getting rid of the tan line that we tend to get annually.
 
Good point on the tan line. If I didn't have my GPS unit that gives me the hole visual and was just doing a watch then I definitely see the benefit of getting rid of the tan line that we tend to get annually.

Its part of why Amanda bought me my Eco-Drive, she said I need to cover up that tan-line in public. Hahahahha
 
I really really want one of these!
 
Been using mine since March and I love it. I get about 3 rounds out of a single charge, but I generally charge it each week. I just put it in my pocket and pull it out for each shot. Quick, easy, and convenient.
 
Bumping this to ask: any thoughts on the Neo Ghost versus the Golf Buddy VS4? I'm in the market for an easy-to-use, small GPS system.
 
I just picked one of these up today (black), charging it now before heading to the course. I am playing today and tomorrow and should be able to provide some feedback later this weekend. Im excited to finally have some sort of GPS besides my lousy phone app and for the price I figured this would be a good entry unit.
 
So I got my ghost, threw it on the charger for 1 hour and headed to the course Friday. I found it very easy to use and read. It did take what seemed like awhile to pick up the satellite but it finally did and my course was first on the list.

I played my league course so I know it quite well and distances seemed to be pretty spot on. I have to say that having this in the pocket was not really even noticeable it's very light and much smaller than having a big phone in your pocket. Only problem is I had to get used to putting it in my left pocket because I keep my tees and ball marker in my right and don't want to scratch up the screen.

As much as someday I would like to have a laser this is definitely good enough for my needs right now. It makes club selection so much easier knowing front back and middle yardage. Though be advised it doesn't account for elevation lol. I made that mistake a few times...whoops!

Yesterday I played and outing at an unfamiliar course. Once again it took awhile to link up to the satellite but once it did all the courses were there. This course has 3 - 9 hole courses so I had to make sure that I picked the right one. We started on hole 9 for the scramble, it was as easy as hitting the down button to take me right there. This was a par 5 that had a creek in front of the green, my first chance to check out the hazards listed. All you have to do is push the middle button and up came distance to the water, carry over and the bunker on the right. Once again I found this very useful for club selection.

So my initial impressions of this device is I like it a lot. Having a watch on my wrist might be a little more convenient but for half the price this is a decent unit which gives me what I need quickly and accurately.
 
Have to say I was really enjoying this little unit, its quick, easy and pretty darn accurate on the 6 courses or so I have played in the 2 weeks I have owned it. It definitely has made club my selection much easier on approach shots not always having to guess....that is until I pulled my hand out of my pocket and it fell on the cartpath during Sunday's round. Now half the display is out. :bad:

I'm not a fan of the belt clip and its too small to be bouncing around in the cart so while I really liked this little unit for the price I think a watch may be the safer way to go for a few extra $$. Its clearly not very durable if you can drop it just once and lose half the display.
 
Thanks everyone for the great feedback - very helpful information. I may pick one of these up.
 
After looking at various units including many types of watches, stumbled across this thread.
It is very basic in its info, but exactly what I was after.
Have now used this at a couple of different courses, and I believe these are great value and compact.
Another huge tick.
 
I was thinking about one of these yesterday. Supposedly going on sale for $119, regular $149.... Might be worth it to mess around with. My NeoX watch just didn't get used enough.
 
I was thinking about one of these yesterday. Supposedly going on sale for $119, regular $149.... Might be worth it to mess around with. My NeoX watch just didn't get used enough.
$92 at Rock Bottom right now.
 
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