# GPS toys



## old zeke (Dec 14, 2007)

Has anyone used or played with any of the golf gps rangefinders out there? A golf buddie has a skycaddie and it seems pretty handy. It would have been kinda helpful today when I was on 13 fairway after my tee shot on 12. I still made par but it seemed liked a lot of work trying to figure out how far out I was.


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## BOXCAR (Mar 22, 2007)

I was wondering the same thing. I might decide to trade my Ping driver towards one. Just not sure which one. Skycaddie or golflogix


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## broken tee (Jan 13, 2008)

BOXCAR said:


> I was wondering the same thing. I might decide to trade my Ping driver towards one. Just not sure which one. Skycaddie or golflogix


Go with Skycaddie, friends That I play with use the system I they swear by it. As another forum member put it I'm "old"
and need all the help I can get.


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

broken tee said:


> Go with Skycaddie, friends That I play with use the system I they swear by it. As another forum member put it I'm "old"
> and need all the help I can get.


Who would of said that about you Bob? Did you know that getting old is a fact growing up is optional? I've had a small search around the net and I can't find a sky caddie or a like that has a lot of aussie course in it. Is there some where you can load course on to these or do you just have to map the course one day when your on it?


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## broken tee (Jan 13, 2008)

Surtees said:


> Who would of said that about you Bob? Did you know that getting old is a fact growing up is optional? I've had a small search around the net and I can't find a sky caddie or a like that has a lot of aussie course in it. Is there some where you can load course on to these or do you just have to map the course one day when your on it?


According to my friends you download the courses, and people are still wondering when I'll grow-up, I'll just keep em guessing.


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

Surtees said:


> Who would of said that about you Bob? Did you know that getting old is a fact growing up is optional? I've had a small search around the net and I can't find a sky caddie or a like that has a lot of aussie course in it. Is there some where you can load course on to these or do you just have to map the course one day when your on it?


With Sky Caddy you pay an annual subscription for the privilege of downloading courses directly to the GPS unit. You can't save them on your computer, and the unit only holds 10 courses at a time. That way they have you on the hook for as long as you want to play more than those 10 courses. 

I went the laser rangefinder route because I don't like being held for ransom. I also like that the battery lasts more than 2 rounds (my laser is still on the original non-rechargeable battery and this is my second season with it), and I can literally get the distance to any object I can see, not just what happens to be programmed into the unit for that hole. And the laser doesn't care what golf course you are on or where you might be in the world, because it doesn't depend on any preprogrammed information.

I have friends who use the Sky Caddy GPS and love it, while I (and other golf buddies) use the rangefinder and swear by that. It's a matter of personal preference, but do some research and know what you are getting, don't just go by the hype. There are GPS systems that I feel offer a better deal than Sky Caddy. Some include a 3 year course download subscription in the purchase price, some allow unlimited downloads and they can be saved on your PC. All GPS units are equally accurate (+/- about 3-4 yards), so look for the other features that matter to *you* to help make your buying decision.


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

thanks for that Rick I look up some laser range finders when I next get some spare time.


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## broken tee (Jan 13, 2008)

old zeke said:


> Has anyone used or played with any of the golf gps rangefinders out there? A golf buddie has a skycaddie and it seems pretty handy. It would have been kinda helpful today when I was on 13 fairway after my tee shot on 12. I still made par but it seemed liked a lot of work trying to figure out how far out I was.


Just out of curiousity. Don't these fancy toys take the fun out of guessing? I like toys but I'm also a little old fashion too.


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

I like fancy toys I still dont think it will help my game it might be good to know how far I've hit it and how far to the hole the only problem then is me getting it to the hole. I think I could spend that money on better things to improve my game hehehe


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## centaur (Oct 2, 2007)

*SkyCaddie SG5*

I have a SkyCaddie, the SG5 version which is the newest available. I love it. I can tell distances to the center, back or front of the green; tells me distances to water or sand traps along with distances to lay up if I choose; I can set it to show me how far I hit my driver or whatever club I want to know the distance; etc...... 

Each course available to download onto your SkyCaddie is rated from 1 star to 4 stars. Go to the SkyCaddie site to see the differences b/t 1, 2, 3 and 4 star courses. 4 star courses means that the information provided on your SkyCaddie was professionally done and very accurate. Of the courses I've played, they have all been 4 star courses; even the one our company uses for their biannual golf tournaments where the course is in ridiculously bad shape. I would have thought this course would have been at most 2 stars b/c I didn't think it would have been worth having a professional go out there to load in all the data to have accurate information given the course is in terrible shape. But it is. I would think that most course available to download are 4 stars.

I have not had any any problems with mine. As for only being able to load 10 courses onto the SkyCaddie, I don't see it being a big deal b/c you can remove whichever course you don't play that often and replace it with the course you are going to play next. I just don't see most people needing to have more than 10 course loaded onto the SkyCaddie at a time. I'm sure you won't be playing more than 10 courses in one day. 

Yes, you do have to pay for a subscription in order to download courses from the SkyCaddie website. It's about $50 or so per year. I don't mind it to be honest. If it were $100 or more, maybe I would reconsider. They do have to pay someone to go out there and survey the course and load accurate data for you, so I don't mind. 

So there you have my thoughts on the SkyCaddie. I am glad I have it and is very useful for someone like me who is an intermediate player.


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