Golf GPS systems are rapidly evolving from only player enhancement to complete course management systems. The primary goal of a golf GPS system is to provide players with distances to all kind of features on the course and especially to the green they are playing. Some courses are better fit to use the capabilities of GPS than others. In order to obtain a satisfactory accuracy the GPS receiver must have a non-obstructed view of the sky. This makes that courses with lots of trees are less suitable for golf GPS.
Two approaches can be distinguished: course-owned golf GPS systems and player-owned golf GPS systems. The only advantage of a player owned system for the course management is that the golf GPS can reduce the time it takes to play a round. This means that a course can accommodate more players per day, which results in higher revenues.
Course-owned golf GPS systems offer a lot more opportunities for the course management. Especially the systems with two-way radio-communication, which allow the clubhouse to be in permanent contact with every group of players and to know everything that is happening on the course. Golfers can order food and beverages, while still playing, and the management can send useful information like weather-forecasts and even advertisements to the players.
Findable Golfball System
Radar Golf has developed a U.S. Golf Association-conforming golf ball that contains a radio-frequency tag. The company’s Ball Positioning System (BPS) technology enables a golfer to find a “lost” golf ball via a RadarGolf Handheld device. The handheld device “beeps” when pointed toward the ball. Detection range is 30-100 feet. The RadarGolf Handheld transmits a specific radio frequency signal that is received and reflected back by the RadarGolf microchip. The handheld provides a visual LCD signal strength display and pulsed audio tone feedback to the golfer looking for their ball.
Player-owned golf GPS systems for PocketPC and Palm PDA
Examples in this category include the StarCaddy from LinksPoint. For PocketPC and Palm. It displays a digital map of the golf course. It indicates the distance to the spot where you would like to play the ball and simultaneously the distance from that spot to the green. StarCaddy keeps gross and net scores for both match and stroke (medal) play.
Another golf GPS example is MasterGolfGPS. Enables map importing from websites or from scanned maps. Maps can easily be calibrated. It lets you keep data and personnel notes for every hole of a course and records game data for an unlimited number of players for a round. A golf GPS for Palm devices is the GPS-Caddy from Golf Ranger Systems. The unit automatically knows what course and hole the golfer is playing. There is also a demo mode, allowing to preview a course.
Pocket Golf Pro golf GPS is a software solution that combines 3 cutting edge technologies, the Pocket PC, the Internet, and GPS Positioning. Pocket Golf Pro can significantly improve the golf game of any golfer, no matter what the skill level. Pocket Golf Pro will also save time, up to 25% per round. Pocket Golf Pro also has a Personal Edition, developed especially for the individual golfer. With PGP Personal Edition you get the same great features on courses that don’t have the rental option available.
Pocket Golf Pro provides 4 essential functions on the golf course. First, using real time GPS satellite information, PGP will tell you how far away from the front and center of green you are at any given moment. It can also recommend a club if you use the shot by shot option. Second, PGP replaces your paper scorecard with an easy to use electronic version. Third, PGP can track each shot by up to 4 players on a given round, for later statistical analysis. Lastly PGP can give you live data as to how other golfers faired on the hole you are playing, longest drives, and many other interesting facts. Once you have played your round and the course uploads your data, you will receive your scorecard via email. After that you have the option of using a FREE website to analyze your game.
MobiGolf is an invaluable aid for golfers which can be operated anywhere on the golf course using only a mobile phone. The mobile application is implemented using Java 2 Micro Edition technology and provides the golfer with a software solution that can be used whilst on the golf course. The system primarily acts as score carding application. Advanced features include a golf club advisor utility that advises the user which club to select in the current position. A handicap calculator is also included that allows scoring data to be analysed to calculate the user handicap. The next release of MobiGolf will allow golfers to view a live leader board during competitions and scores can be uploaded after each completed hole.
The Windows application complements the mobile application by allowing golfers to upload the data recorded whilst out on the golf course. A more detailed analysis of scores can be given and the application can also connect to the golf club web service to submit information such as scores and player data. Additional multimedia features such as video clips and animated diagrams act as a training guide to the user.
By connecting golfers with the local golf club server, a more interactive system is gained. The web service can power a MobiGolf web application which can be integrated with the golf club web site. The web service also provides MobiGolf applications with downloadable course information that can be viewed in the mobile or Windows application.
GolfTraxx has integrated Google Earth .kml and .kmz map data for all GolfTraxx golf GPS users. GolfTraxx already supplies its customers with free golf course hole-by-hole information for 20,000 courses in US and Canada, which can be directly downloaded to PDA devices via GPRS or WIFI access as part of its voice-powered, 100% open standards Golf GPS solution for TREO 650, Palm One, Palm Life Drive, and Pocket PC with built-in Voice Response. Now, using Google Earth as the collection device, GolfTraxx customers can quickly and easily map local courses, then send the newly mapped course data to GolfTraxx for addition into the GolfTraxx database. GolfTraxx now also supports the Garmin line of PDA’s and GPS products, including the Garmin 10 Blootooth GPS receiver and the Garmin Ique series of PDA’s including the Garmin M3, M4, and M5.
The PDA Caddy is a universal PDA holder that securely cradles your PDA, allowing it to be fastened neatly under the clip of your golf cart steering wheel. The PDA Caddy holds nearly all of the PDA’s on the market including Palm, Dell Axim, Treo, Samsung, Kyocera and IPAQ that are used to run IntelliGolf, StarCaddy and other handheld golf software programs. Also holds your SkyCaddie golf GPS and GPS Caddie units.
A Golf GPS program for pocketPC is GolfPS. With GolfPS you can preview a detailed layout of the course before you play and you can measure the distance between any two points. The map shows the exact position of every shot in the fairway, the rough or on the green. Shot records can be kept for two players and a scorecard for four players.
The Mobile Golf Scorer is your golf GPS solution to record your scores during play and to analyze your game statistically. On the course you use the Mobile Golf Scorer on your pocketPC and at home you can use the desktop version. The program comes in three versions: Par, Birdie and Eagle. The Eagle version allows the use of a GPS receiver, plugged into or serial connected to your pocketPC to measure the lengths of your strokes and see the distances to the green or other point of interest.
Pocket Caddie, golf GPS software for the pocketPC, has minimized the input necessary, by providing the right information at the right time. Distances instantly change on the screen as you move without pressing any buttons. The hole automatically changes as you approach a new tee box. You can track the distance of your shot and increment your score by pressing only one button. You can mark your own course with the unique Easy Mark feature or download professionally marked courses from the web. Voice response conveniently speaks distances as well as suggest clubs so you can get valuable information without even removing the unit from your belt clip.
IntelliGolf Scorecard Software for Palm OS, pocketPC, Symbian OS and Windows PC is the only golf GPS software to include all 7 S’s of Golf: Scoring, Statistics, Sidegames, Shot tracking, Signature courses, Sharing of Rounds and Satellite GPS (for Palm PDA and pocketPC versions). IntelliGolf now supports Internet and wireless access to any of IntelliGolf’s 18,500+ signature courses, including their digital scorecards, via the Courses web page. The program supports NMEA compliant Bluetooth (i.e. wireless) and serial connected GPS receivers with enhanced WAAS/SBAS accuracy. Version 3.6 for Sony Ericson P800/900 Smartphones has been released on May 11, 2004. Version 7.1 (July 27, 2004) adds support for embedded GPS on the Navman PiN pocketPC and the Garmin iQue handheld.
Version 7.7 of IntelliGolf (October 19, 2005) supports Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0.
Player-owned golf GPS systems for cell phones
iGolfScorer is the world’s first “mobile phone” golf GPS scorecard application to also offer GPS functionality. iGolfScorer works on most mobile phones that support Java MIDP 2.0 or the Symbian operating system, actually a whole range of models from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. All you need is a separate Bluetooth GPS receiver.
Now you can view distances from tee-to-green with GPS accuracy! The features include:
- Distance calculator provides you with GPS distances from “any” location on the hole to the 200, 150, 100 yard / meter markers, to the front, centre, and back of the Green.
- Record the GPS distance, club used and landing position for every stroke you make!
- Stroke length Statistics: iGolfScorer can now tell you the average and longest distance you hit each club in your bag.Now you know exactly how far you drive the ball!
- Club Selector! Let iGolfScorer suggest which club to use for your next stroke based on the historical stroke data already stored from previous scorecards!
Stand-alone player-owned golf GPS systems
The Caddy Aid PDA, is a golfing encyclopedia you can take with you on the greens and fairways. It has standard distance guides and local golf rules, which you can use to plan your strategy hole-by-hole. You’ll appreciate the real-time aerial images of the course you’re playing, courtesy of the built-in GPS functionality. An amazing add-on is low-level flyovers, TV-style, that you can watch again and again (provided that you can put up with the ads included).
Built in to the Brim of a standard Golf cap the SkyKap Advisor is sophisticated electronics, allowing what appears to be a ordinary cap to function as a complete Golf information system. Controlled completely by Speaker Independant Voice Recognition, this allows the golfer to get yardage data, enter and track scores, pace of play timing functions and many other capabilities.
Built into the inside head band is a high quality specialized microphone. Instead of picking up audio directly from verbally spoken sound waves, sound is picked up from bone conduction. This makes advisor completely unsusceptible to wind noise and side chatter as it only “hears” the wearer. The Advisor continually monitors the users speech and acts accordingly. All commands are prefixed with the word “advisor” to discriminate normal speech from commands, so to get yardage to green, the user may simply say “advisor distance” and a pleasant voice responds with yardage information or other helpful details as requested.
Using a state of the art golf GPS, real time positioning information is continually tracked against a detailed map of the users selected golf course, and distances to green leading/center/trailing, water bunkers and fairway boundaries are calculated. By using an easy to learn set of voice commands, anything from simple green distance to a full explanation of all in range features can be listed.
In addition to uploading/downloading courses, the user can review the entire history of his recorded play on the course from any saved game, and see every hit and recorded distances and use that information to improve his/her game.
The SureShotGPS golf GPS from Absolute Software is an Australian designed, compact (10 x 7 x 2.5cm), hand held, easy to use GPS device specific to golf with the option of attaching to your belt, golf cart or buggy. Wherever in the world you play golf, the SureShotGPS will allow you to obtain distances from tee to green. A player can also record distances for each club and then use this data to provide personal club selection on course. Data for up to 10 golf courses can be stored on the device at any one time. Course data can also be recorded by the player or downloaded by subscribing to the Tee2Green database.
The SG2 Personal Digital Caddie from SkyGolf GPS. About the size of a cell phone, you can clip the SG2 to your belt and take it anywhere. SkyCourses can be downloaded to the SG2, but you can also record the front, center and back of each green on the course you play. The successor for the SG2 is the very highly rated SkyCaddy. The SkyCaddy system is approaching 10.000 courses programmed in the U.S., with more coming aboard weekly, and another 2.000 courses logged in worldwide. The SkyCaddy device itself can hold up to 10 courses in its software at a time. Courses can be changed by easily hooking up to a computer and download other desired locations.
The iGolf Handheld, which is a golf GPS receiver, designed by Golfers, for Golfers. It measures accurately the distance to Front, Center and Back of the Green. Readings in Yards or Meters.
A somewhat different approach is the Suunto G9 Golf GPS Watch. It allows golfers to: instantly and accurately measure individual golf shot distances, track club selections and scores, and store additional input gained on the golf course, easily download all golf shot measurements and on-course data from the G9 to a home computer for ongoing and learning benefits for players of all abilities.
TOUCHMaster PRO for Golf from InTouch Technologies, Inc. provides state-of-the-art golf GPS distance technology and contains a wide range of graphical, scoring and statistical collection features. The weather-resistant and ruggedized device displays the hole number, par, handicap, player designation, club selections, number of putts, number of penalty strokes, greens and fairways in regulation, saves, sand-saves, ups/downs, chip-ins, and total score for up to five players per round.
QuickRange GPS, the talking range finder, is a tiny handheld device with incorporated GPS receiver. QuickRange GPS gives you the information you need to improve your game, a simple and accurate audible report of your distance to the center of the green. It is the simplest distance to green reporting device on the market. A simple press of the button and QuickRange GPS talks to you providing an audible report of the distance between you and the center of the green.
Golf Plus UK Ltd has launched a brand new portable golf GPS distance-measuring device that can help save golfers as much as three or four shots a round. The revolutionary new ‘Caddy is designed to be attached to a golf bag or a belt clip and is accurate to within +/- 2 yards. It will give you the distances you need, when you need them, on the course of your choice – now.
It has even been proven to help to speed up play, providing totally hands free and interference free operation. The Caddy is a portable version of the golf GPS distance systems found on golf buggies at premiere golf clubs in America and the UK. It can currently be used to provide accurate distance information on around 750 British courses, with more and more courses being mapped all the time.
An update with all new golf GPS devices and programs update In October 2008 we have created a new page new Golf GPS with all information about new golf GPS devices and programs.
Cart-mounted golf GPS systems
Examples in this category include the OnCourse GPS from Rite Concepts. An easy to use system for the players, yet with full two-way communication possibilities between carts and the ProShop. The ProShot Golf DX-1800 is a steering column-mounted unit that is un-intrusive to the player’s line of site. Golf carts equipped with this system can easily be tracked, communicated with and reported on in real time.
The upscale, state-of-the-art ProLink GPS boasts a high-resolution, color monitor neatly affixed to each golf cart. It displays pinpoint-accurate distances to the hole, as well as vibrant and easy-to-understand graphics of fairways and greens’ hazards and contours. Better navigating the course and taking guesswork out of the game aids golfers’ shot selections and, in turn, speeds pace of play. Other features include ordering food and beverage at the touch of a button while on the course, as well as personal scoring and tournament leaderboards.
In addition to game-improvement and enjoyment features for golfers, ProLink has become a necessary marketing and management tool for courses to quickly realize revenue increases and bottom-line savings. The no-hassle, reliable and robust ProLink golf GPS system enhances and benefits: food-and-beverage sales; green and cart fees; innovative and unobtrusive on-screen advertising for local businesses and course merchandise, tournaments and memberships; optimal tee-sheet yield; and enables courses to market a competitive advantage to secure more golf rounds from new and repeat players.
ProLink Solutions has introduced its cart-mounted GameStar and ProStar GPS systems. They both come with a 10.4″ high resolution color screen. GameStar and ProStar’s large font sizes and display allow golfers of all ages to view the dynamic graphical overviews, distances to the pin, fairway hazards, landmarks, undulations, pro tips, pace of play timer and radial arc for cart path only holes, along with many other features.
The UpLink System consists of a golf GPS system, a wireless communications network, a Windows-based computer system for the clubhouse and three distinctly different versions of user-friendly Uplink caddies, used by the golfers. GPS Industries Inc.(GPSI) developed the Inforemer GPS Golf. It is an information system that incorporates unique wireless technology, Internet protocols and the global positioning system GPS and DGPS. GPSI recently purchased the exclusive Differential GPS (DGPS) golf patents in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
These countries represent 5358 golf courses, 91% of total golf courses in Europe. GPSI also owns the exclusive DGPS patents for Australia and Japan. The portable units run on Windows CE, allowing managers to customize their software to create a distinct look for their Inforemer system. It is a Unicode compliant solution, which facilitates the translation of the user-interface into any language.
GPSI, at the 2005 PGA Merchandise Show, during the last week of January, introduced completely new wireless applications to its Inforemer Wi-Fi GPS Golf Business Solution:
- Wi-Fi wireless security cameras to protect and monitor golfers and assets in real-time anywhere across the golf facility;
- Wi-Fi GPS Learning Center Solution, extending interactive wireless golf GPS solutions to driving ranges and practice facilities.
Industry firsts, the new wireless applications are completely integrated into GPSI’s Inforemer, already recognized as the industry’s most comprehensive golf management solution with the broadest product line. Inforemer remains the only golf business solution powered by a Wi-Fi network infrastructure.
GolfStar America is a cart-mounted system with two-way messaging with Pro Shop. Course Management can monitor and track each individual cart while on the course through the use of the GolfStar Control Station. Two-way communication allows Course Managers to send instant messages to individual, groups or the entire fleet of carts. Features that aid the golfer: Distance to pin measurement, Pro tips, Digital scoring, Distance to all designated hazards, Drive distance analysis, Food and Beverage ordering and 911 Alert. Ability to display on-screen advertisements and local course promotions utilizing the graphic display unit.
A first-of-its-kind GPS solution, INOVA from UpLink Corporation is integrated right into the golf car and is currently available with premier Club Car Precedent vehicles. While offering a strong esthetic appeal to golfers with a dashview display, INOVA enables course managers to improve safety and security by tracking vehicles in real time and remotely controlling car paths and speed. Bundled into a complete revenue-generating management solution including integrated advertising, tournament, pace-of-play and food and beverage applications, INOVA represents the new generation of golf GPS.
The RangerPlus from Golf Plus, Ltd provides full color graphics that reflects consistent distances from ball to center of the green. Added to regularly updated on-screen information and positional tips, this cart-mounted system removes uncertainty over club selection and makes course management easier.
Course-owned portable golf GPS systems
Portable units have the big advantage, that you can operate them at the exact location of the ball. Therefore the displayed distances are the real distances to overcome, without corrections for the difference between cart and ball location. The above mentioned Inforemer units, although cart-based, are portable. GolfLogix’s xCaddies are very small portable units, manufactured by Garmin and based on their eTrex model. These units will not work if taken to another golf course. Another example is the XY Golf Portable GPS System. These units can reside in a cradle, attached to the golf car or clipped to a golf bag.
With about 50000 golf courses worldwide, there seems to be an enormous potential for hard- and software developers of golf GPS systems.
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