Golf GPS System - recommendations?
 

We just spent the longest amount of time in The Villages since we purchased last summer and was out golfing every day possible! It was so much fun and we met some very nice people. A few of the guys I played with had rangefinders and I would now like one...recommendations please.

What do you use (like)?
General cost?
Any annual or subscription fees?
Best place to purchase?

Thanks so much in advance for your responses!

The most popular seems to be the Golf Buddy which is preloaded with ~25,000 courses. No annual fee. Just turn it on at the 1st T box and it will automatically dtect the course and hole #. Golf Buddy features 3 different models with the cheapest ~$250 and the most expensive ~$350-$400

Golf gps
 

I have had Golflolgix because of the Garmin Name. It was somewhat accurate in FL but did not work well at all in the White Mountains of NH.

I have been using Sky Caddie SG5 model for about two years and it is very accurate everywhere. Originally sold for $429 now available for $199 Highly recommend it. Yearly subscrtiption is $49 for all states plus you can keep your score and your stats can be uploaded to their web site.:BigApplause:

I had a Golf Buddy, it worked just fine but the font was too small, couldn't read it without reading glasses, which I don't wear playing golf. Sky Caddie SG5 is my choice, can load 20 courses which takes care of the Championship courses here.

I got a super deal on a Callaway UPro Go. No annual fee. Had all the Villages courses, including the executive. Paid $150 on Ebay and got $50 rebate. That's a while ago so probably not still availabe.

I paid $199 for Golf Buddy Tour. It has all the courses in TV. Why spend an extra $100 on the Golf Buddy Premier unless you play lots of golf outside the United States. BEWARE!!! I hear some GPS only have Championship courses on them. I used the Golf Buddy Tour the other day. As practice I walked across my lawn to the 7th tee at Redfish Run and the GPS said, Redfish Run- hole 7

I bought a Sonocaddie gps three years ago on ebay for $120. You can download up to five courses for free. There are other options for unlimited downloads.

Golfshot GPS
 

$29.95 ap for most phones. Mine is on my IPhone. No update fees and it gives both picture views and yardage views. Thousands of courses. Will give you a map to the golf course. GPS very accurate and mails your scorecard home to you when you are done if you want or allows you to post it on FB. :highfive:

Wow - thanks
 

Thanks to all who have responded - if there are other ideas, please keep them coming!!!

The phone app - does it included all the execs as well as our championships? I play both in TV and found it very helpful when playing with the guys who had them.

The Villages is selling the Golf Buddy Tour for $199
 

Posted on all bulletin boards....We have a golf buddy and it is nice to just show up and turn it on....Think we have owned them all, sky caddie the first, G1, G5 all requiring downloads and annual fee...Ugh.....U-pro had nice overhead view of hole, but the golf buddy platnium has a great touch screen ability, only complaint is the screen is sometimes hard to see in the shade, better to read in the sun with many options (yardage from and to traps/water)....I'm sure many will tell you the most accurate is the bushnell, although many friends tell me that you have to have a steady hand to zero in on flag....

I am moving to TV in April and haven't used it there yet. I will try it out in Dec when we come back down to finalize the house part. Lot is already picked out. SANIBEL!!!!!!!

Congratulations!
 

We drove around Sanibel while we were down latter part of June and 1st week of July - another fantastic Village! Let me know...not returning to TV until Christmas so probably won't rush out to purchase one...

I am happy with the one below (nothing too fancy). It runs on my BlackBerry. It is as accurate as the phone's GPS which is better than me. I have found the yardage matches up with expensive units when I play with other folks. If I recall it was $29'ish. No maintenance fees, no cost at all after purchase, unless you change phones. Details on the web site:

http://www.nrange.com

My buddy got an app for his Droid for $10 which did the same ..

If I was to spend hundreds of dollars to know my yardage, I would get a laser range finder where I could get yardage no matter where I am. i.e., driving range. It is accurate to one yard, just my opinion....

Just upgraded from Sky Caddie SG2 to the newest SGX. The most accurate gps I have ever used. More features than the average golfer will ever use.

Try it on demo days and you will buy one.:BigApplause:

Any reviews for the different golf apps for the iPhone? I have a sky caddie SG5 and it works really well, but then your carrying that and the phone. It would be really nice to have it on a single device. And that cost is $129 for 3 years of service.

Questions would be:

accuracy
battery hours impact
update fee's
original cost
number of courses
cover executive & championship
ease of use
features
distance to traps, water, etc
any other comments

Thanks

Callaway UPROMX is brand new with 25000 courses no annual fee and costs $199 we have 2 and a sky caddie 2.5 will be selling

I just bought a new Garmin Approach G3 for less than $200 after rebate. Rebate expires at the end of this month. Has all Villages courses. Free updates. No subscription costs.

Doesn't all of Callaway's GPS's have a one time activation fee? How much is this fee?

Nope....only for one of the features which shows graphic of green, any hazards and distances to hazards, front, middle and back of green. It's $50 one-time for all courses...it was free for one course when i bought it so i have my home course on that program. Nice feature...may consider upgraded to all courses in the future.

NO on the Callaway
 

They have redone their website and it is a total mess. You may get a download, but the next time you go there online it may delete all of your courses and then not let you download anything. Stay away! I have one and I can't even log on!

I'm sure that sky caddie is the only company that employ golf pro's to actually walk all of the courses and plot them via gps this makes them all accurate yardages

I recently downloaded an interesting app for my Android phone. It's called CaddieDroid. What's different is that it has no courses to download and simply uses a satellite view of the course. Since it is only using GPS and the satellite view, it will show any course you happen to be standing on.

Rather than give you yardages, it allows you to input how far you hit each club in your bag. On the display, there is a stick pin where you are standing. When you select a club, it draws a circle to show how far you hit that club. You can tell if you'll hit the green or if your normal distance will put you into a bunker, etc. You can also track you club distances and it will present you with an average for that club and a circle.

The link to the app is below. It's free and again, there are no courses to download....

Enjoy....


https://market.android.com/details?i...=search_result

Skycaddie
 

The most remarkable thing about some of the GPS units, is when you have two identical units in the same foursome, BUT different yardages....This happened three times (different days) with skycaddie.....For the average Joe, probably doesn't matter but they do advertise that theirs is the MOST accurate....

And I have a Callaway Upro and it's just as accurate as the SkyCaddie. I don't think that walking the courses as SkyCaddie advertises makes them any more accurate than the other gps's

John

That sounds interesting. Downloading all these golf courses sounds archaic to me. There should be some sort of measuring device where you could just point to the tee flag and get accurate yard readings. Maybe laser beam?

There is...... they are Laser rangefinders, I had a bushnell one it was good, but only if you can see the flag, sometimes it picked up other things , the sky caddie's are much better.....especially if you are like me and spend some of your time in the trees, bushes etc

Downloading the courses lets you see distance to bunkers and other hazards. Allows you to plan your shots better. Now if we could just download a better swing...

Golf GPS Systems
 

It appears I am in the minority and I love gadgets but I think they are a waste of money for most golfers. I wonder how many would say that a GPS system helped their game( saving strokes). If a person who shoots 90 then shoots 85 great, but I would guess it has no positive impact on scores.

The man who dies with the most toys wins!
My sins are old cars and they don't help much on the golf course.

Had the skycaddie but it became obsolete quickly. Played a number of times here and the guys I was with had various devices. When I played in a group where nobody had one my game suffered horribly. I went out and got the Golf Buddy. Pound for pound it is the most accurate and easiest to use. Quickest to get an accurate measurement, uses more satellites to triangulate and knows where you are. I have tried the phone apps but they hardly last 9 holes before draining my battery. Golf buddy has 10 hours on a charge.

There are many devices as I have used/demo'd SkyCaddie, UPro and Freecaddie (IPhone free App). They are all god but I love my Golf Buddy and went to Market Night to get a nice faux leather holster for it (perfect fit)

I'm sure this is true
 

Unless you are a walker and then you are saving steps, works for me!

I agree hedoman
 

The ole boy bought every gps known to mankind and we love Golf
Buddy....little hijack, where was your home in NC, we lived in Morganton..

This site will let you see all the different systems in one place http://www.tgw.com/promo/golf/gpsGuide/gpsGuide.jsp Price may or may not be good. Site also lets you compare different units.

Charlotte '75-79 Daughter and son in law live in Chapel Hill

I have Golfshot for the Iphone. Its has very accurate distance readings. The cost is $29.95 with no annual fees. Has pictures of the entire hole, which has come in handy when you can't see the pin. It has other companion Apps to analize swing & weak parts of your game.
The only drawback, doesn't have all the exec. courses. So I can't use it there to keep score. Excellent App!

Has anyone tried to download Bonifay the Villages into the Golf Buddy. I tried but it looks like a duplicate of the other Bonifay Country club in "Bonifay Fl". Maybe i did something wrong but I was hoping to see Destin and Fort Walton come up under our Bonifay.

Thanks for your help

I believe that Bushnell's range finder is about as good as anything if you are willing to pay the price, but.... out at Bass Pro Shop, they have range finders for hunters. They are almost a duplicate of the Bushnell model except it does not have the golf symbol when you "zero" in on the flag. Everything else is the same except it cost $120.00 and you get a $10 rebate. I like the range finders since you can "zero" in on a fairway bunker or a particular tree.
And you do not have to worry about what course you need to "dial in" or pay an annual fee.

Played Bonifay yesterday and no luck with Golf Buddy.......Sky Caddie has it to download but I would like to add it to my GB

Bonifay is stunning BTW!

Gps
 

Skycaddie 5. You can load 20 courses, and can easy change them. Inventory has all the florida course on or off TV location, plus all the executive courses.

I have the Callway/Nikon LR1200 golf rangefinder. It works great and I often find when I play with golfers using a GPS they are sometimes 5 or 10 yards off because they don't know the exact position of the pins. The rangefinder I can just grab it and in a couple of seconds I know the exact distance to the flag. The only drawback is when you might have a blind shot, which isn't too often down here except maybe on a dogleg.

When I bought mine the Callway LR550 was $299 and the LR1200 was $499, the 1200 means it has a 1200 yard range although when you get above about 250 yards it's hard to hold it steady enough to hit a small target such as a flag. I found my LR1200 new in the box on eBay for $279 with shipping included from a dealer named 'Golfetail', they always have great bargains on eBay. That was almost half price and I've never had a bit of trouble with it.