GPS/Rangefinder Thread

scotts33

Here ya go boys! 😁

Discuss.

johnnydoom

Have had great luck with Bushnell GPS Phantom and Neo Ghost. I'd say they are accurate over 90% of the time and the only course I've found them off on several holes is at a local 9 hole goat ranch. On that course it is right on 6 holes and so way off on 3 others that it is obviously wrong. I wonder if they redesigned the layout shortly after opening it. I have had an issue once or twice where the satellite link wouldn't connect and let me load the course.

I'm, at best, a mid 80's scorer and so don't have the distance control of better golfers. The middle of the green is usually my best play, and if being honest, I probably should play for the best location to miss the green rather than play for the green if score was of greatest importance to me. I don't want to mess with the bulk of a range finder. Edit to add, I probably wouldn't even use a GPS if all of the courses I usually play had obvious and visible 150 yard markers.

sdandrea1

Forged or cast?😈

johnnydoom

sdandrea1 You're straying into religious territory now. Since we're outside of the hidden P&R folder, I'll just say that I'm a sinner that is trying to repent with some classic Wilsons.

Spuzz

sdandrea1 Forged or cast?

OEM or component?

Rickochet

I have tried using a friend's range finder and always had issues focusing on the target so GPS works best for me. I had a few different cart mounted units and the last one was a Golf Guru that you could also use as a car GPS nav unit but the company went tits up. I have used many different watches and currently have a Bushnell Neo which does everything I need. Yardages F-B-C and distance to hazards is all I use.

sdandrea1

johnnydoom classic Wilsons.

👍

bogeypro

I tried a rangefinder before buying a GPS and I found the rangefinder accurate but difficult to hold steady .... why don't they add image stabilization (or IBIS) like they do in cameras? Maybe they do now but they didn't years ago. At my skill level, and I hesitate to call it skill, front-middle-back numbers are sufficient for me.

mikeintopeka

bogeypro I found the rangefinder accurate but difficult to hold steady .... why don't they add image stabilization (or IBIS) like they do in cameras?

I do have stabilization on my Bushnell rangefinder. The unit gives a little buzz when it picked up the flag and has a reading for me.

I knew it had this capability and it's pretty darned neat...late in my league round this week, the shadows were long and the sun directly in our eyes so we couldn't physically see the flag. I just held the 'search' button on my Bushnell by holding it down and scanned the horizon where we knew the green was located. Sure enough, the unit buzzed when it found the stick and I even could look in the lens for the position on the green it was located.

ode

Have them both....rarely use the gps anymore on my home course. Rangefinder less and less. Course is marked fairly well and am able to judge yardage well enough when on or close to the fairway. Pin flags are red white blue for f/m/b so that helps but it's not always a guarantee to the location on the green. Devices come in handy when I've went a bit wayward😉

bogeypro

ode Nothing worse than hitting a "wayward shot" to an adjacent fairway, taking your best guess at a yardage and hitting a solid shot that clears the trees & is heading straight for the green. But it ends up either 8 - 10 yds short or over the back because you pulled the wrong club based on a bad yardage guess. Now I have a solid number & it's up to me to pull the right club (for me) and execute the shot.

sdandrea1

Sprinkler heads with yardages, 150 marker, 100 marker.

bogeypro

mikeintopeka Glad your Bushnell has image stabilization, seems like an obvious addition to make the small hand-held device useful. I usually tried to hit someone on the green with the lazer, if the green was empty I'd try to hit a bunker wall. Trying to hit the stick from 150+ was frustrating, the courses I usually played did not have reflectors.

MartinD

I have an old Bushnell rangefinder (Pinseeker 1500) that I got from Gunga at one of the Desert Storms that I attended, which makes it at least 12 years old - still works, though, as long as I put in a new battery every year or so.

My GPS watch (Garmin Enduro) is primarily a running watch, but a lot of Garmin running/multisport watches include golf functionality - all the hardware needed for golf GPS tracking is already there, so it's just a case of adding the golf feature through firmware. I am limited to one course at a time (as opposed to most golf GPS devices, which have basically every course in the world available as standard), but I play almost all of my golf at one course, and it only takes a few minutes to upload the data for a different course if needed.

Par4QC

Using a Bushnell Phantom. It's as accurate as I need, for F, C, B. It seldom aligns with what the course markers are placed to be, or what the scorecard says. But imo, that's on the course having 'cheater' markers.
Only bad thing about these GPS units is they do not do doglegs, always a straight line from teebox to pin. Which is great for someone like Jake, but not me.

And like a dumbass, I'm sitting here and just now remembered it will show me other things on each hole. I've only had it for a couple years, so I've got that excuse.😫

garyt1957

Par4QC Speaking of courses using cheater tees, I played a course the other day that virtually every hole was marked 50 yards and a couple times more than it actually was. Course was marked as 6200 yards and played maybe 5400. Only the par 3s were accurate. The most obvious was a par 5 for men listed as 510 or so that was within 30 yards of the ladies listed as 385! Only white and red tees and no place farther back where they could have had another set

KCee

I have both. Garmin S20 watch and Shotscope laser. I mainly use the watch. Maybe 1-2 times on uphill shots I break out the laser to make sure they haven't used the Red flag at the back of the green......that's become a thing at my club lately lol. Sometimes on the doglegs I laser the corner tree. We have a few that are 90* and it definitely helps to try to get the right yardage if the tees are up.

ode

Yup👆

mulegolf

I've never owned a range finder but I've owned several GPS units. I had a Garmin Approach G10 for a few years and at the end of last year I decided to try a Garmin Approach S10 watch. I gave the G10 to my son. I've used the S10 watch now about four times. I like it as it's quick at telling me the yardages to the front, middle and back of the green but I found that I missed the feature that allowed me to move the pin location on the green. That comes in handy on larger greens. I decided to sell the Approach S10 watch for $90, although I haven't done anything to do so yet. I got a new Garmin Approach S40 watch. It remains to be seen how I like this one.

LBlack14

I've always used the Izzo Swami GPS, 1st the 1500 and I still have the 3000 in my bag.