Golf Forums - Which golf GPS is easy to use and value for money?

Hi Guys

Its a long story but I have still to get my xmas present from my dear wife.
The budget is £300!! I know I have spoiled her this year!
Anyway I think I would benefit from a handheld golf GPS to help with knowing distance etc.
As you know the market is flooded with so many of them and I am trying to decide which is best.
I thought I would ask you kind golfers for your thoughts.
I mainly play in the UK.

Many thanks guys and all the very best to you all for 2010.

I appreciate any comments.

DE

-- 29/12/2009 20:32:26: post edited by David Ellis.

hi,

there are lots of decent ones out there, I have a sky caddie 2.5, it is a decent bit of gear, the only issue I have is that each year you have to pay a subscription. £29.99 for a birdie one which  means you can download courses from the UK.

The GPS holds 10 courses at once and it is easy to download them. If a course you want is  not on there  site , then if you contact sky caddie they will try and get it mapped asap.

There are other good ones out there , but the sg2.5 can be picked  up for around £150.

I think the diff between both models is that the 2.5 does not have a colour screen and is not as big.

Hope this helps

Guy

Would also recommend the Skycaddie 2.5, have had mine just over a year and cannot fault it. Smaller and Compact compared to the SG5 and basically has the same features and gives the same information except not in colour. all you want is the yardage so what colour it is in seems pointless and a waste of money.
A friend I play with has the SG5 and he spends more time asking me for the yardage then checking his own, as it seems that pretty colours take longer to update 

Yes there is the yearly subcription of £30 for the birdie (UK) courses, but the sky caddie web site is very good and has a vast amount of courses in its database.

The SG 2.5 is only £150 whilst the SG5 is £270, so even with £30 for the subcription you will still have over £100 to splash out on some other golf gear

-- 30/12/2009 14:15:21: post edited by mark rowley.

If you already have a phone with integrated GPS, I would recommend getting golf logix. http://golflogix.com/ Is only about £20 per year and even has nice pretty colours. Use the rest of the money for a golf weekend!

Hi,

if you can get a copy of Golf Monthly they have 12 diffrent GPS/distance devices being reviewed in the latest copy.

 

Cheers

Guy.

I've just seen a review of the 'Snooper Shot Miser'. It looks pretty impressive - SkyCaddie on Steroids!

It's got GPS with course mapping but then in addition to showing you the standard distances you can touch the screen and it'll tell you how far that point is from you, how far to the pin from there etc. Which would seem great for Course Management.

Has anyone even seem one of these thing? and if so, Does it do what it says? Is it reliable? Is it worth £50 more than a SkyCaddie 2.5?

Thanks 

did you notice the snooper only has a battery life of 5 hours? That must be one of the shortest battery lifes in use. Also, you have to pay for each course you download (Like the CaddieAid system). Thats ok if you are playing the same courses on a regular basis, but if you like playing new courses, the cost will soon mount up. Its one of the things to take into account when picking which one to purchase. I have a couple, with the CaddieAid being very good and does not need a GPS signal for you to work our distances, as it uses photogrpahs of the course, but the downside is the text settings, they are very small. Mainly though, i use my SureShot, as its easy to read.

Last point about courses - the databases are not the same for all the units, so make sure your regular courses are on the database. If its not, make sure the unit has a mapping facility for you to do it yourself.

A good golf GPS application that is pretty good is the Golfshot application for the iphone. Just google it.  CaddyAid is another good one.

I use Freecaddie on my Windows phone at the moment, but will be switching to Golfshot soon.

skycaddie gets the vote.........so easy to use........Go buy it you wont regret.

That's a pity. I quite liked the idea of a touch screen application which would allow me to work out the best place to land the ball to leave me the best shot to the green (I know, I know it assumes I have the consistency to do that but you have to hope!).

Plus I don't have an iPhone so can't go for the great apps which keep popping up on there. 

So, I guess it's the Skycaddie for me.

Pete.