GPS; Its just a gimmick!

[shivas irons]

Reading these posts is sending to to sleep,see what I did there Bratty :thup: .I tried to close my thread but was criticised and told I should keep debating!!

 

[chrisd]

Jeeeez theres some stupid people on here ,I`m not contradicting myself at all and will stand firm that GPS is a waste on time,what i`m saying is if you think its so beneficial then you must be gaining an advantage.Do try to keep up and stop just coming out with "this is a wind up" If you dont understand whats going on give up!! and as for "nobody on my side" well good i`m not one of the GM forum sheep!!

Thats just the problem, I do understand whats going on - you're either trying to wind everyone up or a complete doughnut for brains, because, if you don't get that the reason "nobody's on your side" is because you are completely wrong and not because we are all sheep

 

[shivas irons]

I definitely would not want to be the person behind the keyboard of shiva right now

Now that comment could be construed as a threat,not nice and not what i`m here for.......

 

[Captainron]

Bored now. Time to put this to bed guys.

 

[Imurg]

I'd still like to know what advantage a GPS gives you over a Strokesaver...?

Both give yardages - one requires an amount of pacing, the other an amount of glancing at a screen.....

One works in the rain, the other gets wet and falls apart......

Shivas - you choose not to use a perfectly legal device - hey, that's your option.
Just because someone else does choose to use one, why do you think they have an advantage?
You choose to use a Titanium driver - they might choose a wooden one. Doesn't that give you an advantage?

You might choose to wear waterproof shoes with metal spikes, others may choose non-waterproof shoes with worn cleats - who has the advantage on a wet day?

You're entitled to your opinion.
Overwhelming opinion on here thinks you're wrong.
Doesn't make us sheep - maybe it makes you the goat......

 

[Val]

I'd like to know where i can get a gos that will get me a lower handicap, I said it before the gps doesn't swing the club

 

[chris661]

I tried to close my thread but was criticised and told I should keep debating!!

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

[kid2]

Ok i bought the latest issue of Golf International mainly because they do great interviews and instruction.....

One other reason i picked it up was that there is a massive interview in it will Billy Foster......
So..................................As im flicking through just waiting for the kettle to boil for a brew here is just a snippet from the interview.....

Interviewer Carolyn Nicoll...............

Question: Whats the best golf gadget on the market today?

Billy's Answer : As a caddie, it's got to be the laser. I've always done my own yardages, and it wasn't all that long ago i was still using a yardage wheel, the type that you see the guys measuring the motorways with.
And i had a bit of string that I'd pull out of the box. I remember one hole in Sun City in South Africa and i had this yardage string going through snake-infested jungle and the over the water to a short par three. It took me over an hour to get a precise number to the centre of the green.
Now I'd just walk on the tee, zap the flag and it would tell me - 130 yards precisely.
Before the laser it could take me six hours and more to map a course....Now i can have it done in three.................


So take what you want from that Shivas.....

But there you have in black and white what the "Best caddie in the world" thinks of DMD's.....


Now im off to make me Brew

 

[Foxholer]

Very interesting post, Mashie. Thanks for adding some clarification.

Is it really that it was done by eye? By caddies? I ask only because to my mind the caddy would have paced out the course or had so much experience on it, that they KNEW the yardage, not that they were somehow able to solely look at a distance and say, "that's x"? Also, if they'd paced yards out for years, they would get better at judging distances, which I feel I have by using my GPS (rather than pacing stuff out).

In those very early days, the caddie did nothing more than carry the golfer's clubs. The player, normally quite 'high' in society, the legal profession/judiciary or the Military, would hardly deign to take advice from a mere lad! There may have been a 'fore-caddie' as well (where the term 'Fore!!!' comes from). These days, they have far more things to do - eg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=narf4NzlFKo&feature=player_embedded#!

I believe that painting, I think of Dr John Rattray, the original of which I've seen at Muirfield, contains quite a bit of 'artistic license'!

And it was the USGA that first limited club numbers to 14 in 1938. R&A followed a year later.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Reading these posts is sending to to sleep,see what I did there Bratty :thup: .I tried to close my thread but was criticised and told I should keep debating!!

Debating is find. Being dogmatic and entrenched and changing your story with each post just makes you look a bit daft. You are entitled to your opinion although the consensus would indicate you are in a minority but thats fine. Its when you start hurling stuff about munis and coming up with ridiculous notions about these DMD's being such an advantage that handicaps need to be adjusted accordingly that you make a rod for your own back. What I find the most interesting are the number of different threads on here now where you say you wouldn't play with someone because..... must be hard work getting a three ball in a comp that meet your stringent playing criteria. What was that Joan Armatrading line... me, myself I

 

[MashieNiblick]

Very interesting post, Mashie. Thanks for adding some clarification.

Is it really that it was done by eye? By caddies? I ask only because to my mind the caddy would have paced out the course or had so much experience on it, that they KNEW the yardage, not that they were somehow able to solely look at a distance and say, "that's x"? Also, if they'd paced yards out for years, they would get better at judging distances, which I feel I have by using my GPS (rather than pacing stuff out).

People like Allan Robertson and Old Tom Morris who were caddies and greenkeepers as well as professional golfers (and club makers) knew the Old Course like the backs of their hands but like now I think the key would have been knowing what line to hit on, where the bunkers are, where the swales are, how the ball would run etc, rather than exact distances.

I don't want to go beyond what my limited knowledge would justify as it is only based on having read a few books about the history of the game, but the point is I don't think it was really a question of judging the distance in terms of yards but of judging how far to hit the ball, of seeing and executing the correct shot, to get to the green. Even today lots of people will tell you that on a links you can forget yardages, especially if the wind is blowing.

Foxholer, thanks for additonal info. I read that even John Ball only used 6 clubs and I think during the 19th century the number of clubs people would have used was fairly variable. As you say there are pictures of caddies with armfuls of clubs on the other hand some show caddies holding just a few.

Golf and history are my 2 passions and this has whetted my appetite to do a bit more reading about how the game was played in the early days.

 

[RGDave]

I'm not going to waste my time reading much of this.

I'd struggle to tell the difference between 140 and 150 yards....I like to know the distance, always have done. It's just quicker with GPS. I don't carry it on my home course b.t.w.

It would be a shame to see my GIRs go down even further, it's enough of a miracle just to hit the ball straight the correct distance.

As for "If you use a driver deduct that off the distance of the hole and use the relevent club to reach the green" that's just silly. My drive could go 220 or 240 or whatever.....daft.....daft......

 

[Slab]

I've enjoyed reading the debate & am glad the Op started it

What struck me (& I know this is off topic) is how passionately some will defend their right to use GPS (despite alternatives being available)
I do wonder if all those posters have defended the right to use belly putters & chippers with the same fervour, as it seems opinion in those threads are very much weighted against the use of these two products to the point of ridicule!

What's the difference?

 

[Foxholer]

Don't have a problem one way or another about banning Long and Belly putters. The stroke is different to any other club (bracing) and that seems to provide an advantage. They do also seem to have disadvantages too - seems long putts are rather more difficult than with traditional putters. They have 'kept some players in the game' when they've acquired the yips, an affliction I wouldn't wish on anyone.

No problem with Chippers. Legitimate club imo. Sand and Lob wedges are recent 'inventions', so same would go for them?

If you are going to question golf club progress like that, then questioning the use of steel or graphite shafts is just as valid.

And GPS/Laser technology is here to stay. I actually think the authorities have got it wrong about the presence of a compass (or even thermometer) on an Ipod/Smartphone - though wind-speed meter might just push it over imo.

 

[chrisd]

I've enjoyed reading the debate & am glad the Op started it

What struck me (& I know this is off topic) is how passionately some will defend their right to use GPS (despite alternatives being available)
I do wonder if all those posters have defended the right to use belly putters & chippers with the same fervour, as it seems opinion in those threads are very much weighted against the use of these two products to the point of ridicule!

What's the difference?

I come from the stance that, if it's allowed by the rules of golf then its ok to use/do it - I use a belly putter and will continue to do so until the rules forbid me to. I personally don't think that the rules will change and I do get brassed off by the continual comment about "spirit of the rules" in these matters.

The rules are the rules - if you dont want to use a GPS or a belly putter it's fine by me , but please everyone, don't dress your decision up as in some way "holding the moral high ground"

 

[MashieNiblick]

I come from the stance that, if it's allowed by the rules of golf then its ok to use/do it - I use a belly putter and will continue to do so until the rules forbid me to. I personally don't think that the rules will change and I do get brassed off by the continual comment about "spirit of the rules" in these matters.

The rules are the rules - if you dont want to use a GPS or a belly putter it's fine by me , but please everyone, don't dress your decision up as in some way "holding the moral high ground"

Chris I absolutely agree with you that if the R&A say it's Ok then it's Ok, they are the final arbiters, but I also feel that it is interesting and fun to debate whether we think the R&A are right and as you say the Rules can be changed.

I hope that I don't come over as claiming any moral high ground on threads like this. If so apologies, but I like to be honest about why I think what I think. My interpretation may be wrong though and I hope that I acknowledge that other points of view are valid and respect them even if I diasgree.

What I don't like though is when any of these debates become personal and degenerate into slanging matches. I always feel it is a shame when that happens. There's such a wealth and diversity of knowledge and experience on here and we come together on this brilliant forum share that as golfers. And at the end of the day it is only a game, albeit the best game ever invented.

 

[chrisd]

Chris I absolutely agree with you that if the R&A say it's Ok then it's Ok, they are the final arbiters, but I also feel that it is interesting and fun to debate whether we think the R&A are right and as you say the Rules can be changed.

I hope that I don't come over as claiming any moral high ground on threads like this. If so apologies, but I like to be honest about why I think what I think. My interpretation may be wrong though and I hope that I acknowledge that other points of view are valid and respect them even if I diasgree.

What I don't like though is when any of these debates become personal and degenerate into slanging matches. I always feel it is a shame when that happens. There's such a wealth and diversity of knowledge and experience on here and we come together on this brilliant forum share that as golfers. And at the end of the day it is only a game, albeit the best game ever invented.

To be fair Mashie I always look forward to reading your postings and usually agree with the content too. For me, it's just the Shivas and Papyt's of the world who post a contentious subject (or a normal item contentiously written) and carry right through to the bitter end telling us all we are wrong when we disagree with them, contradict themselves and then start getting obnoxious with poster who don't share their views


You, Mashie are absolutely fine as far as I am concerned, I do read most of your posts and always find them interesting

 

[Val]

The rules are the rules - if you dont want to use a GPS or a belly putter it's fine by me , but please everyone, don't dress your decision up as in some way "holding the moral high ground

:clap: :thup:

 

[Dave3498]

I came back and started playing again in 2112. I noticed that I could comfortably hit a 400 yard drive with the new Javelin balls that change into a spear shape after you've hit them and never slice or hook. GPS went out years ago after they started using the side fairway buffers which are marked at every 1 foot to the hole. The buffers also stop you rolling into the rough. Our course standard scratch is 22, but the course record is 17. I think this is thanks to the new rule allowing the use of feeder gutters on the greens. We have 12 radial ones on our greens and they all feed nicely down to the hole. The course is still 7200 yards but we can now get round comfortably in 1 - 1.1/4 hours. We all laugh when we see pictures of the antiquated kit that golfers had to use years ago, especially GPS.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Dave,
How much roll do you get out of a "spear shape" golf ball?

I only ask as I'm intrigued by the need for buffers on the side of the fairways.