skycaddie question

[birdieman]

I am thinking about skycaddie for Xmas and the other skycaddie post prompted this question.

Does the skycaddie give you yards to the exact pin placement (that moves around the green obviously) and not just the edge of the green?

For me it is the distance to the flag on the green that is crucial to club choice, especially on large greens. You can get the yards to the edge of the green or bunkers etc from a plain old strokesaver fairly well so I don't want to waste cash.

Is a rangefinder better than a skycaddie but what use is that if you cant see the flag?
Thanks

 

[hackamore]

No it doesn't give the distance to flag, it gives distances to fixed points. However if you can see where the flag is on the green you can move the crosshairs to that point on the image of the green on screen and that will give to yerdage to that part of the green.
Obviously this isn't going to be 100% accurate but its the best you'll get with a gps system unless they start putting gps transmitters in flagsticks or something.

As you say the rangefinder will give you exact distance to pin but yuo do need clear line of sight and a fairly steady hand.

 

[USER1999]

No, it will only give you front, middle and back to the green, from any angle of approach. My course has different coloured flags for pin placements, so I know roughly where the pin would be, but to me, it is more important to divide the green into zones, than know where the pin is.

If you want to find the pin, you need a laser, but what the laser won't tell you is how far from the pin to the back of the green, which may influence your club selection.

There is a lot of debate, which you have no doubt read, on this subject, and it really does fall into two camps as to which you think is best for you.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The measurements are front middle and back on each green and can be read from anywhere on the hole (or adjoining holes as I have proved!!). My club has red flags for those on the front third, yellow for those in the middle and white for those in the back portion of the green.

As already mentioned you can move the marker on the green on the skycaddy to give an approximate position of the flag and it will recalculate and give the readings to the front, middle and back from there.

 

[USER1999]

This range thing may be more relevant in Scotland (particularly the old course) where greens are bigger. I can see that given a 100 yard long green, knowing front/m/back might not be much help. But for most of the courses I am likely to play, the greens are more like 35 yards or less, and so it is easy to work out club selection given this level of information.

If the pin is in the middle, you have (give or take a few yards) the correct info, if at the back I halve the difference between middle and back, etc. This normally gets me close enough, given I play off 12, and my ability to hit an exact yardage with a 7i is limited.

Maybe the OP needs to play with each, and make a decision based on this, as it is easy to think you want one thing, and subsequently find you needed something else. It is an expensive decision, there is no doubt about it.

I have played with people with range finders and they take longer and are more fiddly. It depends what you are prepared to go through, and to what use you put the info.

 

[birdieman]

Thanks for the replies, am now more informed.

As long as GPS-ing is legal I might try the skycaddie, I don't want to be pulling out binoculars (rangefinder) for every shot then hopelessly duffing it 40 yards west of the green! The skycaddie is more discreet I think?

I like the idea of the different coloured flags equating to flag positions on green, my club do nothing, not even a ball on flagstick being high middle or low. I really struggle sometimes judging how far up the green flags are. If I was on the ball I would look at other greens as I go round but I forget normally.