 i keep looking at gps on ebay anyone know what is the best one?
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 clive but dont want to sound arrogant but i use a 3 quid course planner seems to work ok
gps my ar@e
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 Clive, Ive got the Bushnell Pro rangefinder, you need a steady hand but it seems to work. Dont buy it in the UK though, it will cost you £300 upwards, i got mine from the states with p&p it cost £168, Bargain!!!! Not sure about GPS, dont you need to have your course programmed into them, sounds like a lot of hard work to me!!!
Hymo, i see what you saying but if you play 56 different courses then its the same price as buying a course planner and you dont have to store a dirty great wodd of planners.
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 Worth considering a pda and either CF of bluetooth GPS. That way you can use different software and also use it for tomtom, films, games, MP3s, address book etc. It is much more versatile that a standalone system.
I use an HP HX4700 with a Haicom Hi-305iii compact flash gps card. With intelligolf software it seems to work quite well. I mapped my course using google earth. If you do go this route, make sure you get a sirf iii gps as they get a much better signal than others.
hope this helps!
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| Edited: 12/12/06 22:11 |
thanks for the replies i looked into the pda option but it looks really fiddley and i don't need it for other use's so i think it has to be a purpose made one but which one is best?
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 Every single one of them will give you yardages to front/centre/back
As long as the course is mapped. If not, you have the facility of mapping them yourself.
Some of them have a feature called intelligreen which no matter what angle your hitting to the green from will give you a graphical representation of the green as well as yardage to front/centre/back from the angle of attack.
Just find one to fit your budget and it will do the job.
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I Tried the GPS caddy which is the UK system but the unit is huge, i ended up with an iGolf which is about the size of a nokia phone and is much more "trouserable",
I bought mine from eBay for £150 after the company sent me the user manual so i could check out how to map courses. Billy
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thanks all for the input i have gone for the igolf and am very please with it
it is small to handle good on batteries and easy to self map a good bit of kit that can save you shots
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| Edited: 11/01/07 08:59 |
i have used the sureshot gps system, its really easy to use and it as got a large amount of courses available. the main thing i would say about buying one is make sure the courses you tend to use are mapped
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Jarvo good point, get one which your course is mapped on, I use the mark one eye ball as my course isnt on most GPS and my handicap has improved from 16 to 11 in last 2 years, so will spend my money on balls, gloves etc
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 GPS's only gives you the distance - what bloody use is that? Any mug can judge distance - unless they have monovision. That's why we have two eyes. I find that cupping my left palm over my eyes and squinting - coupled with picking the tips off a few blades of grass and flicking them in the air works better than GPS ... sucking an index finger and holding it up is also cool.
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Quite agree Taz and for the price of a GPS can keep me in new golf balls for at least 3 years lol
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 I hired one of these GPS thingys from our pro shop - not sure if other clubs do this but our pro has a couple he hires out ~ nice little scam / earner he's got going ... I also purchased the strokesaver course book for our course - one quiet afternoon I strolled up and down the fairways and checked some salient distance features as marked in the course guide with the GPS - none of them were out (as in inaccurate) by more than a couple of yards the 150 , 100 , 50 yard marker plates we have set in the fairways were all accurate to the green centres on account of the fact that our course is one of those that has been mapped by Skycaddie (or whoever does the mapping) and that the marker plates came into being after this mapping + the fact the course guide is a new one (as in updated from the one I had 3 years ago) then I'm all set ... my home course is the place I play for a good 98% of the rounds I play in a year , thus I'm unclear what a GPS unit is going to do for me should I ever buy one ....
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 Nothing at all. Don't waste your money. I have one but my course does not have accurate markers (a 150 yard post that gets moved each time the rough is trimmed) and I do play a variety of courses. I also like gadgets, which, if most GPS owners are honest enough, is one of the drivers behind getting one. Whatever rings yer bell.
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I also like gadgets, which, if most GPS owners are honest enough, is one of the drivers behind getting one. actually Eugene that's a good point (and one I hadn't really considered) and when I think of the people at my club who have these GPS units (or similar) and knowing their character make up they are indeed fascinated by gadgets ... in the general scheme of things when you look at the cost of these GPS gadgets (£150 for a basic unit ??) then it's actually a piffling amount of money if placed in relation to say membership subs / cost of a set of irons / cost of a decent driver / cost of glove even ! I can see why people buy them (if they're gadget driven) and I can see some merits in owning one if you're a nomadic type player - for what they cost the novelty value alone must be worth it - ? main thing I baulk at (and I've seen it written on many golf forums) is the belief that a lot of players feel they save half a dozen shots a round simply by having a GPS in hand - ???? ..... that's still something that mystifies me
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For me, it makes my golf more enjoyable. What used to bug me, was on the odd occasion I hit a shot as I intended, only to see it fall short or fly over the back of the green because I'd miscalculated distance. It also give me more confidence when standing over an shot to a green, as I know, regardless of how well I hit the shot, that if the ball is not on the green, it won't be because I have messed up the yardage. If you are not sure if you have the right club for the distance, you are more likely to duff it, either from trying to hit it too hard, or not committing to the shot. I guess that's where people claim it takes shots off your game and I can see some logic to that. I accept the argument that measuring distance is a skill, but if a rule is introduced to give me help in determining distance, why not make use of it. A football manager would never send out a team with only 10 players, no matter how crap the 11th is, why should golfers be any different. If your budget is limited, and you have to choose between investing in a course of lessons to improve your game, or buying a GPS, I would however recommend the lessons.
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 Do any of the current crop of devices allow you to map your own course? So could I get one and actively get out onto my local course and map the features and hazards? Also would your attitude change to them if you could buy a cheap bluetooth GPS unit (£30) for your mobile phone and download free golf gps software for it? You would have to map the course yourself though.
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Today I was 10 yards inside the 150 yard marker, wind against and very damp conditions - 140 yards - I thought '7 iron' - but took a 6 to be safe. Hit it flush and covering the middle of the green pin all the way .... .... until it dropped 5 yards short of the green and ended on the fringe 40 foot from the flag. I really wish I had a GPS to hand - I could have chucked it a bit further than the iron 
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