Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?

Super Active Golfer Posts: 1687 Join date: 2009-11-29

Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?
Always tempted to buy, but worried it will become a white elephant.
I have a iphone GPS and find it quite a hassle to use it.

Super Active Golfer Posts: 1364 Join date: 2009-06-21

I use it on my HTC, only think is have to do homework before taking it to the course... have to do all the markings using google map.

seebayho wrote:

Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?
Always tempted to buy, but worried it will become a white elephant.
I have a iphone GPS and find it quite a hassle to use it.

Here my experience. I have a distant range finder 1st and bought a GPS "Golf Buddy Pro" later. It is the black and white sheen that is cheaper than a color sheen vision. I have American friend brought it from the States. Golf stuffs is much cheaper in the States compared to Asia.

Distant range finder was rather slow in giving you information as you need to look through it as you are playing. I like this GPS of mine .. It can tell all distance of hazard from whatever you are standing on the course. I like it when I can mark and check how far I hit for each shot too when on the course.

I do not know about other brand of GPS but this one I have now, no problem in downloading all the courses (you need to do it one time only after you open the box). I understand it have 20,000+ golf course available. If they do not have the course you want, just email them a score card and you can download it from their website within a week .. Easy. If it work for me in Indonesia, China and Vietnam. I am sure it work in Singapore.

Here the website : http://www.golfbuddyglobal.com/ ... Go the this site and check courses map already available before you buy.

I hope this infor help Smile

Pak Slicer

How much you bought your device?

Hi Slicer,

Thanks for the info. DO you by any chance know how regulary they update the library?

went to the Vietnam website but the updates seem to be quite old. I know that the Song Be link is old as the club added a new 9 hole extension to the course.

I am considering buying something like that for myseef here in Vietnam.

SBH, u can borrow my Bushnell V2 to try first vs using a distant range finder or GPS. so that you can make a better decision as to making a purchase or not.

Junior Golfer Posts: 155 Join date: 2009-11-15

No horse run... laser better

Once, I was in a flight where one was using his GPS and I was using the laser rangefinder. Although I dun have the convenience of constant updates on the phone, but the phone took a while to get a decent yardage. However, witht the laser finder, gotta take a couple of secs to view, aim and fire the laser. But after tt, dist was accurate.

The laser rangefinder will set u back a couple of hundred dollars. Really, it what suits ur needs.
Hope tt helps.

Super Active Golfer Posts: 1687 Join date: 2009-11-29

eiji wrote:

SBH, u can borrow my Bushnell V2 to try first vs using a distant range finder or GPS. so that you can make a better decision as to making a purchase or not.

I have bought a gps but quite problematic to use.
After a while I become lazy to use it.
Eiji, do you find it useful?
How often do you use it?
After a while , do you tend to be lazy to use it?

Thanks for the offer.

i think its very useful, i am still very new to the game and i haven't got all the yardage in my clubs down very well, so it helps with that for now and also gives me confidence when i stand over my ball knowing the exact yardage to pin or hazard. for the short shots, it helps with club selection and approximate backswing distance for those half wedge shots.

the v2 is very light and u can wear it around ur belt or put it in your back pocket or just place it in the buggy. just grab it as u get off the buggy, walk to your ball, point and shoot, takes like 20secs? i work it into my preshot routine

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jurongtiger wrote:

Pak Slicer

How much you bought your device?

JT, I do not remember how much I bought mine but the same on line shop that I bought from is selling them cheaper now

Black & white sheen Golf buddy Pro for Usd 240.00
Color sheen golf buddy Tours for Usd 290

https://www.golfsmith.com/ps/browse/accessories-gps-systems

Winston wrote:

Hi Slicer,

Thanks for the info. DO you by any chance know how regulary they update the library?

went to the Vietnam website but the updates seem to be quite old. I know that the Song Be link is old as the club added a new 9 hole extension to the course.

I am considering buying something like that for myseef here in Vietnam.

Bro Winston,

I do not know how regular they update the library but I am sure all USA courses are updated since it is an American product.

However, as I say in my message, it is not a problem at all to get them updated. I would suggest that you do not buy one yet but email them by sending the address of the golf course and a score card of Song Be and see how fast they get it updated. You do not need to be a unit owner to do this.

In fact, you can have all Vietnam golf courses updated before you buy the GSP unit.

Furthermore, if you buy one and encounter any problem, just pm me and I will try to help since I am using the same unit without any problem.

Btw, I played Song Be before, nice course. I will in HCM sometime in begin of July, maybe we can play. If not, at least have a Vietnamese Pho Smile

seebayho wrote:

Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?
Always tempted to buy, but worried it will become a white elephant.
I have a iphone GPS and find it quite a hassle to use it.

i have the GPS in iphone and the Bushnell V2 (without slope).
while i have more or less stopped using the iphone, i am still using the rangefinder.

I use the rangefinder mostly on par3s, approaches and to determine hazard distances.
like what eiji has mentioned, V2 is light and small...you can keep it in your pocket too.
aim and shoot...very simple, very fast.

GPS on iphone is slow but I can't comment on those dedicated Golf GPS handhelds as I do not have one. If it is like those GPS mounted on buggies then it is actually very fast and useful as you can use it to measure your drive distance (which is difficult using rangefinder as you need line of sight) and it displays all hazards distances; which should speed more decision making.

Maybe someone can comment how they determine the pin position distance using the GPS?

Newbie Golfer Posts: 10 Join date: 2009-11-01

I have used various GPS (Intelligolf, some google map thingy, etc etc) and a friend of mine has a Laser Range finder (Bushnell Tour V2 I think)

Laser Range finders are typically good on courses which fairly flat (or when you are not behind any trees) as you will require line of sight to obtain your distance read. The pinseeker technology on my friends bushnell seems to work pretty well for people who do not have steady hands; you can probably google how the technology works.

On the other hand, a GPS will not require line of sight to your target. It also is alot quicker to obtain your required information since it does require you to aim at anything. However, I realised most GPS will require some fee to download the course information or you will be required to do some "homework" to pre-mark your greens say from Google map. My personal view should you get a GPS is not to use the ones for phones as running the GPS on your phone is rather power intensive and unlikely sustain a round of 18 holes. The dedicated GPS systems will last alot longer!!

My 2 cents
Lionel

Newbie Golfer Posts: 10 Join date: 2009-11-01

eden wrote:

Maybe someone can comment how they determine the pin position distance using the GPS?

The GPS systems I have used provides distance in relative to where you are to
1) Front of green (example 100m)
2) Middle of green (example 115m)
3) Back of green (example 130m)

TITW wrote:

No horse run... laser better

Once, I was in a flight where one was using his GPS and I was using the laser rangefinder. Although I dun have the convenience of constant updates on the phone, but the phone took a while to get a decent yardage. However, witht the laser finder, gotta take a couple of secs to view, aim and fire the laser. But after tt, dist was accurate.

The laser rangefinder will set u back a couple of hundred dollars. Really, it what suits ur needs.
Hope tt helps.

I am unable to comment since i have not use a laser rangefinder before but you appear to miss understood the GPS unit that I am talking about. When you mention using phone and "dun have the convenience of constant updated on the phone " I think you are talking about GPS software that iphone or other phone has.

The GPS unit is just a unit by itself that search for the best satellite signal. The one that I am using, take about 1 min to search for the best satellite signal. Once you are lock on, it show all information on the course as you travel from hole to hole ( the distant measurement change as you are walking toward the green ).

As for prices, I understand most GPS unit are cheaper than laser rangefinder now. Please understand that I have nothing against laser rangefinder but just sharing and exchange information. No offense Bro Smile

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» Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?

Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?

Are those distant range finder useful? GPS or the view finder better?

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