Why not Sureshot GPS?

[birdieman]

ok Everyone's banging on about Skycaddie.
Why does no-one shout about the Sureshot by Motocaddy. They claim for £100 cheaper it does more than the SG5!

At £199 it's not much more than the 2.5. You get 3 free courses which Skycaddie charged £29 a year for I think so overall it looks like a good package.

As someone who hasn't yet splurged on a GPS but probably soon will why should I not buy a Sureshot over a Skycaddie SG5?


Does Skycaddie have more courses in their directory?

Thanks, Apologies if this has been covered before.

 

[Robobum]

I looked at the sureshot before getting my SG5. They seemed perfectly fine from what I could see. It did look incredibly flimsy in comparison.

 

[johng]

Hi Birdieman.

I believe the bias towards SkyCaddie is down to how they claim they map the courses, by hand, on site and not by the use of Google earth etc. My take is that folks believe this is more accurate.

I use Caddy lite and at £100 including 2 courses think it's brilliant. Admittedly they use google earth pictures for detail, but, and it is a big but, I'm not sure that anyone on here is that competent to need absolute guaranteed accuracuy to the inch. Even the GPS units themselves only guarantee accuracy to approx 5 yards.

they all seem good pieces of kit, and it's a case of pay your money, take your choice. Also there may be the possibility of not wanting the piece of kit that nobody else rates or has in case you're 'wrong'. They all work, do the same thing and will help your game. End of.

Go for the Sureshot and save a few quid for another piece if kit, od the Caddy lite and have 2 pieces of kit.

John.

 

[birdieman]

Even the GPS units themselves only guarantee accuracy to approx 5 yards.

Surely that can't be right, that's a big error factor, I thought it was about 1 yard.

I can do 5 yards off a paper strokesaver!

Thanks for the rest of the advice anyway - google earth looks pretty decent to me but doesn't cover my area to any useful resolution unfortunately. That's maybe why Sureshot don't have my course covered which I've just discovered.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

A lot of it comes down to the fact that SC measure on the ground and Sureshot and others rely on image mapping. It should mean that SC is the more accurate +/- 1 yard. I'm not expert enough to argue whether google imagery vs on the ground mapping is any better or worse but I thought the design of the SC looked better and at the time Sureshot did not have my course mapped which made it a no brainer.

I am developing a liking for the Sonocaddie and had I known about them at the time may have been swayed although the price I got my SC5 was probably too good to turn down

 

[Dodger]

I worked for SC mapping courses and the info is said to be no more than 1 yard out and I believe they are the only company to map the courses by sending people to actually do it on the gound as oppossed to using other means like Google earth etc or at least they were 18 months ago.
Sureshot claim to do this too but my course has on their system despite no-one from the company ever having been there!

 

[kingshankly]

I went for the sc myself even though it didn't have my course mapped out and the sureshot did but ithought it was the better option have requested my course to be mapped until then I will have to map it myself

 

[viscount17]

I've just had a look at the Sureshot site for my course.
On the plus side it gives a date for the data but as this is 30 dec 2007;
1 I doubt it
2 I know that it will be inaccurate due to changes.

Skycaddie (I have the SC2.5) doesn't provide a date.

Both claim to have 'professionally mapped' 'on the ground'.

Anybody buying the same data as is available on Google Earth for my course will be at minimum 2 years out of date.

It would be nice to be able to get a preview of the course mapping before we buy.

 

[Dodger]

I can assure you SC is professionally mapped on the ground by a 'mapper' who walks the course from 1st tee to last green mapping the needed points.

 

[SammmeBee]

I can assure you SC is professionally mapped on the ground by a 'mapper' who walks the course from 1st tee to last green mapping the needed points.

I can confirm this to by 100% correct.....

 

[birdieman]

Anyway made a decision and got the Skycaddie 2.5 earlier, hoping it might help me score a little better by giving me a quick yardage and therefore remove some indecision.

 

[viscount17]

I can assure you SC is professionally mapped on the ground by a 'mapper' who walks the course from 1st tee to last green mapping the needed points.

I know this to be true of my course, Dave, one of the assistant pro's was there when SC did it.

 

[TonyN]

SC will also come out and make amendments to any courses if they are requested!

 

[Cernunnos]

I was under the impression that the main difference with Skycaddy & its competitors was the quality of the GPS equipment used to get the readings on the course to provide accurate yardage information.

The Sureshot looks a reasonably good piece of kit at least on paper & what its capable of providing, but seems more like something you'd pick up for a toddler from Mothercare than a hightech piece or equipment.

Add this to the claims made by skycaddy about their readings of course over the competitors, though its up to us as to whether or not to accept claims by any GPS equipment provider. We all are now aware of certain issues some people have with Caddyaid mapping.

Really not sure what to think as to accuracy of any GPS device, though perhaps its something that should be tested by golf magazines to see how accurate each of these devices actually are in comparison to each other & even from one example of the same device & another of the same.

 

[Fyldewhite]

I don't own either of these and am somewhat sceptical. Many friends have these and they seem to always disagree on the yardage by 2-3 yards. Not a massive problem I agree but is it so much better than pacing from the 150 markers ?

Playing a good shot is all down to confidence at the end of the day and on my course I'm confident I can match the GPS by pacing from my own markers and I don't play away enough to justify £2-300. Google Earth is very accurate by the way (if your course is covered at high resolution). I just measured the inside lane of my local running track at 401.77m, not bad, on a 150 yard shot much more accurate than GPS - and free !

 

[Leftie]

"I .....am somewhat sceptical. Many friends have these and they seem to always disagree on the yardage by 2-3 yards. Not a massive problem I agree"

Was discussing this "inaccuracy" theme (both GPS and course markers) this morning on the course. I have a Skycaddie 2.5 and my playing partner had the 5 version. On several holes we stood on the 150 or 100 yd markers and, guess what. Both units gave exactly the same reading - provided you gave it about 15 seconds after walking to settle down, and the reading was always within one yard of the course markers.

On this last point, from the many derogatory comments I have read on this Forum about course yardage markers, I assume that our course is one of the few in the country that has accurate markers. If you feel that the course that you play has inaccurate markers, take it up with the Greens Committee or whoever at the club. Failing that, the R and A should be made aware of this problem . Or could it be that some golfers don't actually hit the ball every time to the distance they think they do/should?

Given that accuracy of the SkyCaddie is reckoned to be within about 1 or 2 yards (say 1% error over 150 yds which is probably better accuracy than a golf pro can hit) then if you get 2 units with that built in error you might find a combined error of 2 - 3 yds difference between them.

"but is it so much better than pacing from the 150 markers ?"

Provided that you can accurately pace out yards, then there is absolutely no benefit other than saving quite a bit of time. There again, assuming your paced out distance was to the centre of the green and the pin was near the back or front , would you bother to pace out the extra or lesser distance to where the near where the pin was?

 

[Imurg]

I found this "settling" with my 2.5 yesterday. I needed to stand for 5-10 seconds to let it settle before I could be sure it wasn't going to move again. To be fair if it fluctuates between 152 and 149 to the centre its not going to make that much difference. And the settling time is quicker than the time I would normally spend looking at the yardage anyway

 

[viscount17]

On this last point, from the many derogatory comments I have read on this Forum about course yardage markers, I assume that our course is one of the few in the country that has accurate markers. If you feel that the course that you play has inaccurate markers, take it up with the Greens Committee or whoever at the club. Failing that, the R and A should be made aware of this problem . Or could it be that some golfers don't actually hit the ball every time to the distance they think they do/should?

if all the markers were out by a consistent error at your home track it wouldn't matter, you would have adjusted to 150 actually being 145 without being aware of it.

it's when the markers at a new course are not accurate, and you don't know their error, and when the odd marker is out (whether home or away) that the 'irritation' arises.

Of course, as you say, you still have to be capable of hitting to that accuracy.

 

[Leftie]

Was discussing this "inaccuracy" theme (both GPS and course markers) this morning on the course. I have a Skycaddie 2.5 and my playing partner had the 5 version. On several holes we stood on the 150 or 100 yd markers and, guess what. Both units gave exactly the same reading - provided you gave it about 15 seconds after walking to settle down, and the reading was always within one yard of the course markers.

Given that accuracy of the SkyCaddie is reckoned to be within about 1 or 2 yards (say 1% error over 150 yds which is probably better accuracy than a golf pro . can hit) then if you get 2 units with that built in error you might find a combined error of 2 - 3 yds difference between them.

Further to the above, at today's game at Princes, Smiffy and I both had SC2.5's. Every time we checked, the distances shown were the same.

BTW, even though there were high stakes on the match, both of us were quite happy to share the yardage information with our opponents - as I'm sure most of us would if our opponent couldn't or didn't want to afford one.