Golf GPS Review
I first came across someone using a GPS for golf a couple of months ago and I initially thought it was just a gimmick and probably illegal. They are neither.
I had never played with Steve before and in fact met him on the tee where I thought he was busy checking his mobile. My first thought was “Oh no here we go, one of those who spends his life on the phone whilst playing golf – without consideration for the rest of the 4 ball”.
Wondering whether to say anything he interrupted my thoughts with “One eighty five to the bunker on the right and two oh five to clear it”. I said “that would sound about right” and asked him if he had been a member for a while. He said no he wasn’t a member and this was the first time he had played the course!
Yep, you guessed it, it turned out his “mobile” phone was a golf GPS.
I was fascinated and I spent the rest of the round totally absorbed by this tiny little machine which was giving almost pinpoint accuracy in terms of distances to all sorts of places on the course. Steve said the first time he used it he beat his previous best round by 5 shots which he swears was because of his GPS.
What really amazed me about Steve was his club selection and the speed at which he played. He would simply walk up to his ball check his “caddie”, take a quick look around – I suppose to confirm wind direction and any undulations that he might have to consider – select a club and fire away. Not a care in the world and seldom if ever did he ever come up short.
On the other hand, although I knew the course backwards I was still referring wherever possible to sprinkler heads for distances or doing a rough calculation when I was off line – which was often. I would invariably leave my approaches short whenever I missed the green. Once I owned my own GPS I realized that this was because I did not know how far I hit the ball with each club. It’s a humbling experience to come to terms with reality!
Over a few beers after the game Steve showed me all the features of his Golf GPS and explained that other “fancier” models had even more features than his. At the time I couldn’t imagine anything fancier than what I had seen that day!
But I have since learned that there are a lot of different brands and models of GPS and that each have different features.
When looking to buy a golf GPS you need to do some research and besides your budget the features you need to look for are:
Accuracy – determined by the number of satellites the unit has access to Screen resolution – determines how easy it is to read the information under all lighting conditions. Plus some of them come with a colour screen. Power source. Internal or external batteries and how long the unit can run before needing to recharge or replace the batteries. After sales service. Vitally important for ensuring you can get courses downloaded. Is there an annual fee? Some GPS models require an annual subscription for a variety of options including number of courses available for download, where these are stored, whether you retain ownership of them, can you share them with other users etc.? Size and weight. Do you want something that fits comfortably in your pocket or is most of your golf done from a cart? Can you use it to keep score? A great feature for those rainy rounds of which there are many for me living in New Zealand. No more soggy scorecards. Can you keep track of fairways and greens in regulation? This really interests me because it means I can reflect on the game at any time and work out what I am doing wrong and consequently work on my weak points. Can you work out exactly how far you hit each club? And I thought Steve was just very clever! You can even add your own reference points with most models. I have since found this to be a really useful feature at my home course and always map courses I play for the first time. If I think there is a particular feature, such as a tree, that I feel should be plotted – then in it goes.Like Steve my first game with a golf GPS also knocked a good couple of strokes off the round but unlike Steve it wasn’t my personal best – I think I was too busy showing my new toy off to my four ball and trying to operate all the different features.
Before I chose the first model I bought, yes I now have two and am about to purchase my third, I did a thorough golf GPS review and am happy I did. Although to be hones if you stick with any of the popular models you won’t go far wrong.
No-one could give you a better golf GPS review than existing users and you can be sure that any of the top fifteen most popular units will do the job admirably.
By: Lawrence Bredenkamp
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