gps caddie thingymabob

any body use one of those gps caddie gadgets? i saw different ones, skycaddie etc. and was wondering

A. are they any use

B. do you have to pay a subscription to use them even after youve bought them

have a search through the forum David as this comes up quite a bit.

People have different views on usefulness and prices range from free to quite a lot upfront + subscriptions. Plenty of choice about.

Hi David, I use a snooper sapphire gps and would not be without it now as it's like having a 15 th club in your bag. The sapphire has free course downloads for life unlike most others that require a subscription or course fee. I also use freecaddie on my smartphone and find it just as accurate and  is a free download if you have one of these phones.

The new motocaddy S3 has a USB charging port to power GPS devices and iphones etc. on the course.  Bit pricey at the moment but proves it can be done....

Murray,

I also use a gps app on my iphone (freecaddie).  If you fully charge your iphone before going out, switch off the auto-lock and exit the app between shots (you can access it again as you approach your ball) then it will get you all the way around

yip i use my iphone thanks to mr millichip who very kindly shown me how to get it i thought they were all at a charge but its totally free and very acurate ,the battery lasts a full round easily when fully charged has chris says .

David

I have a sureshot gps its fantastic. It comes with a free download of 3 courses which are not interchangeable. I however went for 10 courses interchangable this should be enough. If im playing somewhere new then I delete 1 and add new course. It says the battery will last 36 holes but if i forget to charge it, it runs out after about 12 holes. But it may well do 36 in 1 day as it always has loads of charge still in it after 18 holes. My membership costs £20 a year or £40 for 3 years. I find ir very accurate so it give confidence in club choice. I dont use it for scoring as I fill the card in anyway but it does count your scoring if you want. Never really looked around at other types of gps but did have a range finder but not east to use and could not pick up flag if trees or bushes were behind. Have a look around, listen to other users of similar gismos. But I would highly reconmend sureshot.

Dave CAC handed Geordi

I have got freecaddie on the iphone must say never had a problem with the battery just click the power button after everyshot then when you unlock the phone it is still there running in the background.

 I have found a huge flaw with the program the yardages are no where near for my new golf club at whychwood, luckily there are yardages on every sprinkler head so it's not needed to much but it would be usuful to get it working. Does anyone know if you can contact anyonne at free caddie to let them know?

Sorry Chris, gotta disagree.  I downloaded my free app as I thought I had nothing to lose and tried it out on a course I had only played a couple of times before.  I found that the readings compared well with a "genuine" golf gps.  I also found that when stood on the 150 marker, the reading was no more than 1-2 yards our (well within tolerance).  I also tried walking from 150 to the green to see what happened.  The app read 150 to the front as I stepped to the edge of the green.

My personal view is that while you may get a more accurate view from a "proper" gps, the free apps are close enough to give you the guidance the typical amateur is after

GreenfinderGPS is my prefferred weapon of choice used it this weekend on my blackberry (other phone options are available) it cost £26 a year and is very good nice & east to use and nice and accurate, it gives you distances to Front Centre and back of green plus both distances to, and carry distances to bunkers ect plus the option of an aerial view which allows you to work out your positioning which i felt assisted me with my course management, i won the tourny with a round of 80 and won nearest the pin. All partly down to good course management. 

been using skydroid for a while now on my Motorola milestone. Costs 1 dollar, you can map any course you like and whilst playing you get google maps overlay and can touch the screen to get the distance to anywhere (eg that huge bunker in the distance etc). Accuracy is spot on with my courses yardage markers and I played 27 holes last weekend and the battery was still half full.

Best one dollar I spent