What is the best golf gps device?

bmay529

I have used a Bushnell laser rangefinder for the past few years. Great product. I am thinking of buying a gps devive, watch or clip-on... for convenience, I don't currently wear a watch while playing golf. They seem much handier to use. All I really want is distance to green front/middle/back and to any hazards. It would be great to know the distance to clear a hazard but I haven't seen that feature and it is not essential. Any user advice would be very welcome as I am getting a bit confused with all the choice.

JIdontknow

bmay529 wrote: »

I have used a Bushnell laser rangefinder for the past few years. Great product. I am thinking of buying a gps devive, watch or clip-on... for convenience, I don't currently wear a watch while playing golf. They seem much handier to use. All I really want is distance to green front/middle/back and to any hazards. It would be great to know the distance to clear a hazard but I haven't seen that feature and it is not essential. Any user advice would be very welcome as I am getting a bit confused with all the choice.

Something like the bushnell neo ghost could suit you if you want away from a watch and want the basic distances. It's about 2" square and less than an inch thick. Gives front middle and back and also some distances to hazards on each hole.

The_Kew_Tour

Is there any app out there that records how far you hit your drive etc.

bmay529

JIdontknow wrote: »

Something like the bushnell neo ghost could suit you if you want away from a watch and want the basic distances. It's about 2" square and less than an inch thick. Gives front middle and back and also some distances to hazards on each hole.

Thanks. I was looking at this online and wondered if anyone was using it and how they found it. A golf shop said they had stopped selling Bushnell watches (only watches) as they had been troublesome so was a bit concerned about Bushnell but they now have the new neo ghost range. Was also looking at the Golf Buddy WT3.

bmay529

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Is there any app out there that records how far you hit your drive etc.

Some of the golf gps watches will do this

getoffthepot

As far as know the Skycaddie is the only one that's ground mapped. All others are mapped using satellite imagery.
The Skycaddie will give distance to and to clear the hazard.
My missus has a Busnell Neo watch and the mapping is done with satellite imagery.
I know this as our club had major changes made in the last 6 months and Sky golf have come and gone but the Bushnell is not updated as the satellite imagery for the area has not been updated.

Skycaddie all the way!

Golfgraffix

getoffthepot wrote: »

As far as know the Skycaddie is the only one that's ground mapped. All others are mapped using satellite imagery.

Skycaddie all the way!

Golf buddy is mapped by hand, sky caddie is mapped by low flown aerial imagery and the rest are done by satelite imagery.

By the way there is nothing wrong with using satelite imagery, for most parts of Europe you can get very up to date imagery quite cheaply, just because Google or Bing is out of date it does not mean that you cannot but the data off the commercial suppliers.

Accuracy is quite good too, relative accuracy is about 30cm and with ground control points you could easily get an image to be +/- 1m

J

neckedit

getoffthepot wrote:

As far as know the Skycaddie is the only one that's ground mapped. All others are mapped using satellite imagery. The Skycaddie will give distance to and to clear the hazard. My missus has a Busnell Neo watch and the mapping is done with satellite imagery. I know this as our club had major changes made in the last 6 months and Sky golf have come and gone but the Bushnell is not updated as the satellite imagery for the area has not been updated.

Golf Buddy PT4 if its affordable for you is the best on the market imo...like an old stroke saver only digital and visually very appealing, dispite some initial software issues, that are acknowledged by GB in the first roll out, they are problem free and easy to use. Fantastic after sales service too.

Golfgraffix

neckedit wrote: »

Golf Buddy PT4 if its affordable for you is the best on the market imo...like an old stroke saver only digital and visually very appealing, dispite some initial software issues, that are acknowledged by GB in the first roll out, they are problem free and easy to use. Fantastic after sales service too.

I would second that, I have had the WT4 since they came out and loved it.

ozymandias10

golf buddy all the way..great product

bmay529

getoffthepot wrote: »

As far as know the Skycaddie is the only one that's ground mapped. All others are mapped using satellite imagery.
The Skycaddie will give distance to and to clear the hazard.
My missus has a Busnell Neo watch and the mapping is done with satellite imagery.
I know this as our club had major changes made in the last 6 months and Sky golf have come and gone but the Bushnell is not updated as the satellite imagery for the area has not been updated.

Skycaddie all the way!

Thanks. That's very useful and interesting... there is a lot that can be learnt on boards!! As a result have looked at the SkyCaddie Aire 2... but some of the user feedback seems not great??

ryaner777

If the PT4 is a bit out of budget I'd highly recommend the garmin g6, all the same features as the PT4 and very easy to use. about £100 in the difference.

martinkop

I'd second the Garmin G6. Good distance measurement for bunkers, water carry etc. and it zooms in on the green and allows you to position the pin, assuming you can see it of course. Good for recording round stats too.

Senna

Another recommendation for GolfBuddy. Have a wt4 watch and wouldn't be without it now. Give distances front/middle/back of green, bunkers and if there is other features on the hole like dogleg or drain. Although I only use the green distances 99% of time.

getoffthepot

Skycaddie is ground mapped - 'walks EVERY course with professional-grade survey equipment '
you can follow Steve @SkyCaddieSteve or @SkyCaddieUK as he goes from course to course.

Skycaddie also has the ability to zoom in and move pin position.
It will also let you calculate how far you have hit any shot or mark a spot and calculate distance to it when on a practice ground.

My feedback as a user HC 8 and that of my Son HC 5 is totally positive.

https://twitter.com/SkyCaddieSteve

http://www.skygolf.com//

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?eid=0569b05c-0200-4e1f-ad92-09477f6c9af8&pnum=14

Felexicon

bmay529 wrote:

Thanks. I was looking at this online and wondered if anyone was using it and how they found it. A golf shop said they had stopped selling Bushnell watches (only watches) as they had been troublesome so was a bit concerned about Bushnell but they now have the new neo ghost range. Was also looking at the Golf Buddy WT3.

I bought the WT3 last week and have used it for a few rounds. It's my first GPS device and I'm loving it. Gives distance to front/back/middle of green, distance to all hazards and you can use it to measure shot distance. Also allows you to change pin positions to give a more accurate distance to the part of the green you're aiming at.

Boskowski

Have the Garmin S1 wrist watch and would buy it again. Center, front and back is all it gives and it's all I need and want. Accuracy is quite impressive.

Can't say it's the best out there as I haven't tried any other ones but I like the fact it's just there on my wrist and it works really well.

Eric the Eagle

I have the Garmin S1 and I find it great to use. It also measures shots.

bmay529

Garmin models seem to be popular

bmay529

Thanks for all the advice. I decided in the end to go with a Bushnell Neo Ghost. It's about the best value for a gps device, small at about 2" square and clips on to a golf bag or you can pop it in your pocket... I don't wear a watch while playing golf. It simply gives distances to front/middle/back of green and to 4 hazards... that's all I want. Anyhow it got its first run today in Tulferris. Setup was dead easy... located the course... and setup hole 1, then auto changed holes as I played them. I checked the accuracy a few times against the course markers and they were all spot on. However I had one problem in that it auto powered off four times during the round. I had to switch it on, select the course and advance to the hole I was on each time. Has anyone had a similar experience with their golf gps. I wonder is it a fault or if it lost the gps signal and if that would cause it to power down? Also, does anyone know where I can get a list of the abbreviated hazard codes... some are easy such as LFB but I cannot figure out others!!

Tommo 76

bmay529 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. I decided in the end to go with a Bushnell Neo Ghost. It's about the best value for a gps device, small at about 2" square and clips on to a golf bag or you can pop it in your pocket... I don't wear a watch while playing golf. It simply gives distances to front/middle/back of green and to 4 hazards... that's all I want. Anyhow it got its first run today in Tulferris. Setup was dead easy... located the course... and setup hole 1, then auto changed holes as I played them. I checked the accuracy a few times against the course markers and they were all spot on. However I had one problem in that it auto powered off four times during the round. I had to switch it on, select the course and advance to the hole I was on each time. Has anyone had a similar experience with their golf gps. I wonder is it a fault or if it lost the gps signal and if that would cause it to power down? Also, does anyone know where I can get a list of the abbreviated hazard codes... some are easy such as LFB but I cannot figure out others!!

Happened me the first time I used mine too but not since, cant remember but I think I toggled the auto off setting on and then off and it worked. I find it a right little gps, gives the basics, auto advances, measures shot distance etc. Try toggle the auto off to on and then to off again, see if that works. What abbreviations are you not sure about?

bmay529

Thanks Tommo 76... I will try to find the auto off switch on it. I found an abbreviations list for the neo watch and they looks similar, as follows

Hazards within the iGolf application are shown as abbreviations. These abbreviations are defined as follows:
1. LFB- Left Fairway Bunker
2. MFB- Middle Fairway Bunker
3. RFB- Right Fairway Bunker
4. LFW- Left Fairway Water Layup
5. LFWC- Left Fairway Water Carry
6. MFW- Middle Fairway Water Layup
7. MFWC- Middle Fairway Water Carry
8. RFW- Right Fairway Water Layup
9. RFWC- Right Fairway Water Carry
10. FGB- Front Green Bunker
11. RGB- Right Green Bunker
12. LGB- Left Green Bunker
13. BGB-Back Green Bunker
14. RGW- Right Green Water
15. FGWC- Front Green Water Carry
16. FGW- Front Green Water Layup
17. LGW- Left Green Water
18. BGW- Back Green Water
19. CRK- Creek Layup
20. CRKC- Creek Carry
21. EOF- End of Fairway

Tommo 76

When you power it on, you've two options: Play golf or settings. Press the bottom of the three buttons on the side to move to settings then press the middle of three to enter settings. Here there is various settings including setting time and date etc, I havent mine on me at the moment but use the top and bottom of the three buttons to scroll up and down and there is something like auto off switch this to off.

See comment here under review at bottom:

http://www.direct-golf.co.uk/golf_accessories/bushnell/gps_neo_ghost_golf_gps/p19263.aspx

bmay529

Thanks again Tommo 76. Found the auto off switch and set it to NO. Thought I changed this when I got it but maybe not. Playing again on Wednesday so we will see how it goes. The review you referenced is spot on... a lovely little device and good value... but have to agree the belt/bag clip is very flimsy and I would not risk it on a belt. I will keep an eye open for something more robust to hold it.

Tommo 76

I got a carbinger clip and clip it onto the side of the bag where the tag for the towel and accessories etc is and it works great. Look at it when getting a club out of the bag then, and not worried about it falling off belt or constantly checking its there. Also got an iphone screen protector and cut it to size to put over the screen just incase it got scratched. Right little gps though, simple to use and accurate yardage. How much was yours if you don't mind me asking?

bmay529

Hey Tommo 76. The Bushnell neo ghost was selling for €150 but I got a deal for €130. So far I am very impressed... exactly what I wanted. I too use a carbinger clip on to my golf bag but I still feel the cradle and its clip holder would shatter very easily so will look for something better. I also have in my mind that when you go to play those par 3's where you have to walk back a good bit from where you leave your bag... you might like to take your gps with you!! Also you need to be careful as it could be easily nicked by being popped out of its cradle when unattended, maybe around a clubhouse etc before/after play!!

Boden08

I bought the SkyCaddie GPS watch in the US last July and it's a comfortable watch. Battery is charged off the PC and lasts forever if you're not on Golf mode - otherwise it's only good for one round.
I made the big mistake of wearing it every day as I like and don't get to play golf too often these days. Plastic watch strap broke as they do. I contacted SkyGolf and was told that they can't be replaced so now it's a golf bag item only...AVOID