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  1. #1
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 hoolio is on a distinguished road hoolio's Avatar
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    Garmin Introduces Handheld Golf GPS Unit...

    ... and makes me think that I'm looking at a golf game for the original Nintendo.

    http://garmin.blogs.com/pr/2009/01/g...nchId=newsroom

    Looks a little lame, but there's only one picture. Garmin usually has pretty solid GPS products, so hopefully there's more than meets the eye.

    It says it's pre-loaded with 1,000 courses in the states and there is no annual subscription fee, but that kind of makes you wonder if there are going to be regular updates for courses in the States, and more importantly Canada. One would hope that the lack of added revenue from the course subscription doesn't lead to poor course information.
    Let's put a Smile on that Face!

  2. #2
    Founder Kilroy is on a distinguished road Kilroy's Avatar
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    Looks interesting. If you can map courses yourself it will be great, but I could not find any more info on the Garmin website except for that aricle.
    Life dinnae come wit gimmies so yuv got nae chance o' gitt'n any from me.

  3. #3
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 hoolio is on a distinguished road hoolio's Avatar
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    It was just announced today, probably at CES 2009. I wouldn't expect a product page to go up for a while. It looks like it kinda has a Google Maps feel to it, you can zoom or get measurements to different places on the course. I'm not sure if its just to specific things like the SkyCaddie, or if you can zoom to anything that has been properly placed on the hole.

    I like the idea of being able to move the pin to where you think it is. It's nice to know the length of the green, but when you're hitting in from one side of the hole and the pin is on the far opposite side of the green I don't think most current GPS' take that into account.
    Let's put a Smile on that Face!

  4. #4
    Hall of Fame spackler is on a distinguished road spackler's Avatar
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    Pretty sure you could map your own courses on their Golf Logix. Garmin uses satellite pictures to map and are pretty good about responding to requests for course mapping. They also have far more courses mapped than SkyCaddie (which have been more accurate as they send people out to do the mapping), so I wouldn't worry about Canadian courses. It looks like it has a lot of the same features that make SkyCaddie the leader in golf GPS (moving the flag around on the green, looks like an intelligreen type feature too) but a LOT more user friendly with the touch screen and numbers coming from an image of the hole. I recently got a SkyCaddie, but I will return it and get one of these if they come out soon enough.

  5. #5
    Singles Match Play Champ 2009 Team Match Play Champ 2013, 2014 leftylucas is on a distinguished road leftylucas's Avatar
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    This is the type of unit I have been looking for because if I am off the fairway (this is hypothetical of course !) and wish to hit to a spot on the fairway rather than go to the green this unit will show me the distance to that spot when I touch the screen. It is also great if I need to lay-up to a certain spot on the course.

    I am unsure if other GPS units do this. This is where my laserangefinder had an advantage because I have always been able to site a spot and know my yardage.

    Are there any other GPS units that have this spot selection? I will definitely invest in one when they come out.
    Lefty Lucas
    I am abidextrous, I once golfed right-handed and now I shoot left-handed just as badly!

  6. #6
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 hoolio is on a distinguished road hoolio's Avatar
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    Would you not require a specific landmark to even be sure you're getting yardage to the correct spot? I haven't used the SkyCaddie, but if I remember correctly, they give you distances to specific things like the edges of water hazards and bunkers, right?
    Let's put a Smile on that Face!

  7. #7
    Singles Match Play Champ 2009 Team Match Play Champ 2013, 2014 leftylucas is on a distinguished road leftylucas's Avatar
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    From what I saw and read on the website it seems you will be able to touch the screen at the spot you wish to go to and it will relay the yardage from your ball (where you standing) to that specific spot. It also displays ydgs to the hazards but if you want to improvise a ydg then it can do that too. The screen is pretty good so if I am on the right side of the fairway and wish to hit out of the rough to the other side on an angle I can use this device to give me a good idea of how far I can go before I reach the other side of the fairway. This would help me eliminate errors in ydg estimates to odd targets or from odd places on the course which naturally no other OGers ever have!!
    Lefty Lucas
    I am abidextrous, I once golfed right-handed and now I shoot left-handed just as badly!

  8. #8
    Hall of Fame mpare is on a distinguished road mpare's Avatar
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    Nice device, but for $500 US it's expensive.

  9. #9
    Singles Match Play Champ 2009 Team Match Play Champ 2013, 2014 leftylucas is on a distinguished road leftylucas's Avatar
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    Your right Mike, but compared to the other higher end GPS models for golf it is a competitive rate. If I sell my inventory of extra clubs I will afford it no problem!!
    Lefty Lucas
    I am abidextrous, I once golfed right-handed and now I shoot left-handed just as badly!

  10. #10
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 hoolio is on a distinguished road hoolio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mpare View Post
    Nice device, but for $500 US it's expensive.
    Assuming that the course selection is competitive (spackler seems to think it is), and that you plan on keeping it for a couple years, the price comes down a bit in comparison to a SkyCaddie due to the fact that you don't have to pay for a membership plan to get courses.
    Let's put a Smile on that Face!

  11. #11
    Singles Match Play Champ 2009 Team Match Play Champ 2013, 2014 leftylucas is on a distinguished road leftylucas's Avatar
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    One would also have to be able to input courses if they were not in their database and I did not read anything about that. The course database is likely very extensive as their previous model (golflogix) had a subscription component and it included all the local courses I searched including Sorcier which I figured would likely not be there.
    Lefty Lucas
    I am abidextrous, I once golfed right-handed and now I shoot left-handed just as badly!

  12. #12
    Singles Match Play Champ 2009 Team Match Play Champ 2013, 2014 leftylucas is on a distinguished road leftylucas's Avatar
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    True

    Quote Originally Posted by hoolio View Post
    ... and makes me think that I'm looking at a golf game for the original Nintendo.
    It is kinda comical but as long as one can clearly relate what he sees on the screen when on the course then its all good. I am not sure if the shape of the green is also accurate?
    Lefty Lucas
    I am abidextrous, I once golfed right-handed and now I shoot left-handed just as badly!

  13. #13
    Founder Kilroy is on a distinguished road Kilroy's Avatar
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    If you could import Google Earth or your own graphics, and survey courses yourself it would be perfect. I think that's wishfull thinking.
    Life dinnae come wit gimmies so yuv got nae chance o' gitt'n any from me.

  14. #14
    Hall of Fame spackler is on a distinguished road spackler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hoolio View Post
    Assuming that the course selection is competitive (spackler seems to think it is), and that you plan on keeping it for a couple years, the price comes down a bit in comparison to a SkyCaddie due to the fact that you don't have to pay for a membership plan to get courses.
    I'm assuming that they've been able to write a program that interprets the hole data from satellite pictures much like they did with their Golf Logix unit. With the Golf Logix, you could put in a request and the course would be mapped within a week as all they were doing was just running a program. If they haven't got that down for the G5, and they are mapping like Skycaddie does with people in the field, then it will not be so quick to add courses. I hope that they do hit the ground running with a big course list, because the best feature of the SkyCaddie is the mapped green (intelligreen), and if Garmin has been able to extend that to a fully mapped hole, it will make for a great little unit. It still won't be as pinpoint accurate as a rangefinder, but for a hacker like me it will have all the info I need.

  15. #15
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 hoolio is on a distinguished road hoolio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kilroy View Post
    If you could import Google Earth or your own graphics, and survey courses yourself it would be perfect. I think that's wishfull thinking.
    Assuming Google can keep updating their Satellite image DB with more and more hi-res images then I can see a smart company taking advantage of the enthusiasm of their customer base to let them do some of their work. If they were to provide the mapping software which could integrate with Google Earth, and users could map out their favourite courses then upload to a centralized server. They could even implement a rating/comment system to weed out the good maps from the bad.

    I was going to comment that this wouldn't work for some courses in the valley. I was planning on using Renfrew GC as an example, but when I went to Google Maps to make sure that the resolution was still horrible, I was greeted with improved resolution images of the course.
    Let's put a Smile on that Face!

  16. #16
    Putter dr_barger is on a distinguished road
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    I make my own golf maps for standard Garmin handheld GPS (E-trex Vista). My website hosts a Google map that you can draw the course overlay. A quick conversion program allows you to download the map into the GPS. The map will display on any Garmin GPS, but to get distance measurements, it has to have an "Off-Road" mode. I've tried the Nuvi 205 model, but it only displays distance in feet/miles or meters. The E-trex series works best.

    Check it out. It's free. I can't post the link due to this site's spam blocker. So you'll have to Google for Garmin-GPS-golf-maps-ohio.

    There's a database of user-generated maps and detailed how-to instructions posted as well.

  17. #17
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 hoolio is on a distinguished road hoolio's Avatar
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    Looks like Garmin has seen that there is light across the border and will be releasing an update with what looks like close to 800 courses in Canada. Update is slated for January.

    I like my Sky Caddie, but I find that it never gives you all the distances that you want to know. I've played a few courses and wondered if the SC guy came out on his own. It would seem that the best idea would be to walk to course with a knowledgeable A-Flight course member (or the Pro) and find out what golfers would want to know distances to under real conditions (tail-wind, head-wind).

    I also like the idea of having a full course overview (like the uPro) and no subscription fees. Might switch over and give the Garmin a try this year. If anyone has any experiance with it, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
    Let's put a Smile on that Face!

  18. #18
    Team Match Play Champ 2009 geronamo is on a distinguished road
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    The list of Canadian course can be found on the garmin website. Looks pretty decent.

    http://www8.garmin.com/intosports/golfcourseca.html
    PROUD MEMBER OF THE 2007 & 2009 OTTAWA GOLF RYDER CUP CHAMPIONS!!!

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