Portable GPS units ??

[bigripper33]

Hi all!

Any of you lads played a course with the GPS units??..or are there any courses yet using them..I heard some courses have a handheld yardage thing where you don't need to rent carts to get 'em...

If anyone knows about it....please respond!

Thanks,

Ripper

[4jag]

You can buy your own skygolf gps unit that works with a PDA either handspring or Palm. You can either buy a porfessionally mapped course from their website (I don't know if they have any ottawa courses yet) or map your own as you play using the device.

http://www.skygolfgps.com/

[Chieflongtee]

Pretty decent.
http://www.golfwits.com/

[Colby]

Gary,

I heard somewhere that using one of these for a handicap round, or any other "official" round, was similar, if not the same, as using a laser or distance scope, and could not be used. Is that correct?

[Gary Hill]

ALL of the devices mentioned above (cart gps, hand-help gps, laser range finder, etc.) are absolutely prohibited under the Rules of Golf.

[Curious George]

Which is odd, because laser range finding is FAR more accurate than GPS. Normal GPS has a huge error (civilian anyway), certainly more than is useful for golf.

Conceivably, if you're using differential GPS (which could make the signal accurate to about 3 to 15 feet or so), it would be ok, but its unlikely: DGPS requires one stationary receiver and one satellite. A GPS course I played in the U.S. was ridiculous, the yard markers were far more accurate.

Get a laser range finder.

[Kilroy]

Get a laser range finder.

Just don't use it.

[Colby]

Originally posted by Dan Kilbank
Just don't use it.

Not for official rounds anyways

[powerlefty]

I think that courses using GPS on carts all use differential GPS stations located at various locations (if using 1 station they would get shadowing and some areas would be without coverage for the correction factors) around the golf course and they use telemetry to transmit the correction factors. They also calibrate daily to where the pin is on the green. I have found these systems to be reasonably accurate (probably no different than pacing the yardage). They are especially useful when playing at a course where you have never played before and probably speed up play where carts are mandatory - if you did not have GPS you'd drive to your ball (or parallel to it on the cart path) and then wander around trying to find a yardage marker. If carts are not mandatory the old-fashioned method of wlking by a yardage marker or sprinkler head and counting paces is just as accurate and quick.

I have a GPS for my Palm pilot and it is fine for figuring out where you are to an accuracy of probably a few meters (if 5 satellites or more are "in view") on the ground but is significantly off when measuring elevation. For example when testing it on a drive to work over several days my house bounced up and down in elevation by 10 meters or more.