GPS's ? Helpful or not?

Thats a good price and a great investment - only issue I have with them is that if I forget mine then I'm practically useless as I cannot judge distance at all.
 
Very useful imo because you get yardages that would be difficult to get with a laser like front and back edges of greens (that i tend to work off much more than either a lasered pin yardage or centre green) and layups/carries off the tee to/over bunkers, ditches etc

Think the usefulness skews a bit more towards the laser the better you are and care more about stiffing it rather than covering greenside bunkers etc
 
Orikoru said:
I've been using GPS apps on my phone for over a year now. I could not be without it. I'm pretty rubbish at judging distance by eye, so getting the right yardage from the GPS is key for me in selecting the right club. I'd rather be correct on it that trying to work it out by eye and maybe be 10 yards out. Plus the phone apps are free so it's a no brainer.
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Any recomendations?
 
Wouldn't be without my SkyCaddie touch.

Love the feature where I can drag the cursor to give me distance to that point and distance to the hole. Great for knowing if to lay up short of a hazard or try and carry it.
 
Westy said:
Wouldn't be without my SkyCaddie touch.

Love the feature where I can drag the cursor to give me distance to that point and distance to the hole. Great for knowing if to lay up short of a hazard or try and carry it.
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Every GPS app I've tried has that. Hole19, VPAR, SwingbySwing, etc, they all do that.
 
Westy said:
Never said they didn't. Just saying that's one feature I find really useful.
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Oh yeah, definitely. Having got used to that I don't know how people make do with just a straight number to the pin/green etc. If you want to know how many yards to lay-up before a ditch, you need one of these apps. If you want to know how many yards puts you in position A on a dogleg, you need one of these apps.
 
Surely the apps just use up loads of phone battery and 3G or 4G mobile data when getting the Sats?? Also, they will be out of date if courses make any course amendments. Wouldn't be without my Skycaddie TOUCH. Invaluable piece of equipment.
 
OP

Have a Garmin S3 watch for anything over ~130 yards and laser anything closer (well, between that and 80 or 90 yards). Picked up my Bushnell laser on ebay for ~80 notes and its worked perfectly for the past year or so, found it an excellent addition to the watch as some of the yardages are off at my home course (just a couple of greens) and if I'm playing a new course it's even more useful. If you can afford them and you reckon you know your wedge/9 iron distances within 10 yards or so, they'd be a great investment imo.
 
Orikoru said:
Hole19 has the most accurate GPS function of the ones I've used. Others seem to take a bit longer to adjust to your exact position. Hole19 is speedy, make sure your phone is well charged before you go out though.
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I would second the comment about battery life, I use Hole 19 as a back up in case my batteries run out and was a bit shocked the first time I used it.
 
Would not be without a GPS device. I forgot it one day and had a horrible day guessing. I know what I hit each club and trusting in a GPS gives me confidence.

Which one - so many to choose from. I had a standard front/middle/back which was great for courses I knew well. I play a lot of unknown courses and needed something extra. I bought a garmin G6 and have not looked back. No interest in distant to bunkers, but to doglegs and layups to water etc is invaluable.

Understand your needs and go from there. Buy smart once
 
Orikoru said:
Every GPS app I've tried has that. Hole19, VPAR, SwingbySwing, etc, they all do that.
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They may not though mate, SkyCaddie as previously stated walk the courses, so if a course has had new bunkers put in or taken out SkyCaddie update the course once walked, that’s part of the reason SkyCaddie have a subscription for some products
The satellite imagery used by the apps may not change for anything upto 5 years, so not all hazards maybe shown.
 
Very useful, My Garmin has a basic view of the hole, ideal for new courses to know where hazards are. I do use a laser from 100 yards and in as I've worked really hard on my distance control and pitching so prefer to know the correct distance to the flag
 
Seems way more people use a GPS than i would have imagined ! Will get to test it on saturday and let you all know how i get on !
Thanks for the replys
 
pauldj42 said:
They may not though mate, SkyCaddie as previously stated walk the courses, so if a course has had new bunkers put in or taken out SkyCaddie update the course once walked, that’s part of the reason SkyCaddie have a subscription for some products
The satellite imagery used by the apps may not change for anything upto 5 years, so not all hazards maybe shown.
Click to expand...
Ok, that's fair enough, I've not tried the SkyCaddie one to know it was any different. In fairness though, the courses I play are not wildly altering their lay-out that much.
 
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