GPS pre-loaded courses

[Fish]

Because they td me and my pro has had them at the course. It's so all over the Web and packaging.

Oh, well it must be true then

I have ground mapped 100's of courses for SkyCaddie and every time I visit a course I introduce myself to the Pro's and ask them when they were last visited by anyone, the answer is always the same, only by SkyCaddie whether it be me the year before or the last time changes were made, they go on to state they have never had anyone else ask to come to the course to update changes.

That said, a few years before Golf Buddy were making their current false claims of 'teams of expert mappers who walk courses', which I believe is with the legal teams currently in the USA, they (GB) would have a student turn up at a course with a clipboard and a basic GB GPS and an aerial ground map and they would 'verify' the course, what the point of that was who knows but then they were just trying to be a little clever with their marketing wording, now they just simply lie!

I've just been onto GB's website and looked at a few courses I've updated over the last few years and none of them have been updated since 2011. One of those courses is my own here in Coventry where I actually sent GB an email to inform them of forthcoming changes and invited them to the course, at that time my course was an Open Qualifying course and yet it still states on their website it was last updated in 2011!! We have had substantial changes since that time, which I have obviously walked and updated immediately but no Golf Buddy GPS will show them unless they've picked it up by the third party aerial satellite they use the same as all the other brands admit to using.

SkyCaddie have mappers placed all over the country covering their own areas, none of us ever bump into anyone else on a course that requires updating and we are never informed by a Pro who would know who's out on his course, that anyone other than ourselves attends a course to 'map it' or have even called them knowing changes had been made!

 

[Fish]

I don't think GB do walk the courses, I think it's only SkyCaddie. That said I have found that the accuracy of GB and a lot of the others vs SkyCaddie is usually within 1-2yds.

Yardages will be similar, the main area of difference is what an aerial photo can pick up against a ground mapper, like carry distances and run offs into rivers, ditches and bunkers, false fronts on greens, 2-tier greens etc, all things a photo cannot distinguish, also, all the other brands have absolutely no control on when their devices will be updated with new imagery, they could be lucky and it be weeks, or it could be months, as far as many UK courses I have updated and just checked on their websites, it's currently years! Once informed of changes we will not only attend a course, we will constantly revisited it as & when required, nobody else does..

 

[IanM]

I've had Skycaddie for quite a while... units have always worked well and (as far as I know) see pretty accurate...

Paying the subscription isn't ideal and the need to download manually is old fashioned... will I change in Feb when sub expires? Don't know!

 

[Fish]

Its a SG2.5 I think and have to annually subscribe.

It was quite innovative when it was released in 2011, lay-up and carry distances and will hold 10 courses in it's memory once uploaded, obviously then the wireless units came about, then colour right up to the now all singing & dancing Touch. Technology grows so quickly now but for its time it was an excellent unit and I know a few at my club that have them and as they only play a small number of local clubs in the area, rarely have to upload a course.

Every now & then trade in deals surface, keep your eye open as there usually very good.

 

[Marshy77]

It was quite innovative when it was released in 2011, lay-up and carry distances and will hold 10 courses in it's memory once uploaded, obviously then the wireless units came about, then colour right up to the now all singing & dancing Touch. Technology grows so quickly now but for its time it was an excellent unit and I know a few at my club that have them and as they only play a small number of local clubs in the area, rarely have to upload a course.

Every now & then trade in deals surface, keep your eye open as there usually very good.

It does its job for me, like you say I keep my local courses on it and only have to add the odd course on to it.

 

[LincolnShep]

Some interesting comments, thank you everyone. Looks like there is no need to worry about 'missing' courses regardless of brand - the differences are elsewhere. I'll have to do some research now.