How We Test: Course Detail

Beyond the availability of courses, we tested to see how much information each device provides about the hole – including views, distances to various marked points, including trees, creeks, bunkers, the end of the fairway on a dogleg, and even lay-up points.

Users should note that in general, graphic hole images, such as available on the Garmin Approach G5, are significantly easier to see under bright light as compared to satellite images, such as found on the Callaway uPro.

Do-It-Yourself
Beth: We have a great section of…do-it-yourself.
Andy: Do YOU like to do-it-yourself?
Beth: Sometimes. I mean…if the mood strikes.






Seriously, we can’t help but quote “The 40-Year Old Virgin” whenever we see “do-it-yourself”. And yes, we should just grow up.

Hand-in-hand with the evaluation of course availability is the ability of users to supplement the available course information on their own. Can you add additional hazards or bunkers to an existing course map? How easy is it to do these things? And if a course is not available on a device, can you map the course on your own, either with the device or from a PC (using Google Earth or other satellite imagery)?

In each review, we note the strengths and weaknesses of the various devices when it comes to supplementing the available course data with your own information.

The GolfBuddy Tour, Sonocaddie V300 and Golf Guru 4 all offer the ability to map courses during play with relative ease. Other devices do not allow users to map points, some due to the fact that users can already obtain distances to any point on the course (such as the Callaway uPro and Garmin Approach G5). Table 1 below indicates the total number of marked points that can be added per hole (excluding the front, middle and back of the green, which we assume to be a baseline requirement).

Table 1. Total Points That Can Be Mapped per Hole

Golf GPS Device Additional Obstacles
Golf Guru 4 30
Golf Guru Color Guru 30
GolfBuddy Tour 11
Sonocaddie V300 10
Sonocaddie V500 10
GolfLogix GPS-8 6
Bushnell Neo 4
SkyCaddie SGX None
SkyCaddie SG5* None
Callaway uPro None
Callaway uPro Go None
Garmin Approach G3 None
Garmin Approach G5 None
GolfBuddy World Platinum None
IZZO SWAMI 1500 None
OnPar Touchscreen GPS None

* The SkyCaddie SG5 can only mark distances to the front, middle and back of greens when mapping a new course. Additional obstacles cannot be added to an existing course map.