
I have tried a total of 4 golf GPS this past season in the hopes of finding the "Right" one. Of the four units I put to the test, it came down to two. The Sonocaddie V300 and the OnPar. The other two units were the Callaway UPro and Skycaddie SG5. I will start off by stating why these two units did not make it into my final comparison. The UPro was very nice however in order to maximize its potential, you had to pay $5.00 for each course in the Pro Mode. This enabled the GPS to display the actual picture of the hole itself. It is very cool, very cool however I play approximately 20-35 different courses every season. I would have to pay an additional $100 to $175 for all my courses, assuming they were all available. I did not like the additional cost aspect. Same goes for the Skycaddie SG5. You had to pay an additional $50 per year to utilize this system. That's $50 a year, every year. If you do not pay the $50 annual fee, it renders your unit useless. None of the courses will be available for use. This is not very good at all if you plan on using this device for a couple or even a few years and then decide you no longer want to pay the $50 annual fee. All your courses you had downloaded currently and in prior years, puff gone. WTF is that??? Not my cup of tee. (Pun intended).
Now on to the OnPar. Most of the bad reviews here and at other sites were very early reviews, soon after the product was released. They simply had very, very little golf courses available for download. Only a handful were mapped. OnPar has been hard at work adding approximately 1000 courses every month since its initial release. Now they have an unbelievable amount of courses available. The system itself has gone through a couple of firmware updates since its release. I must say that the time I have spent with this device has been nothing short of amazing. The system is incredibly stable and it has a ton of courses mapped. Every course I play with the exception of one is available. I requested this course to be added and per OnPar, once you register your product, you will have one request for your home course they will map within 1-2 weeks. That is pretty solid.
This GPS is just incredible. All the courses available are free, nothing, nada when you register. Thank God for that! Once you purchase this unit, that is it. No additional cost. The price of this GPS has come down considerably since its release as well. The early adopters payed $479 for this unit. You can now get this unit from $399 via OnPar website which includes a free belt clip, car charger and temporary cart mount. Very good deal. You can also get just the unit for anywhere between $350-370 on Amazon. I personally purchased mine on EBay for $277.00 brand new in its original packaging, never been used. Now that was too good a deal to pass up. Now you know why the two other devices I mentioned above were not even close economically speaking.
As far as the performance goes, it works just as advertised. It acquires the satellites very quickly and maintains its lock. The battery life is great lasting a full two rounds before it needs charging. The unit itself is very easy to see in all types of light especially direct sunlight. It has a light sensor built in that automatically adjusts to current light conditions. Very cool. The touchscreen is sensitive but not overly sensitive. You can use your finger, a tee or golf pencil to mark your points. You can use your hand even with a golf glove on. It is very easy to mark this device to see the yardages to bunkers, lakes, creeks, other various hazards so you can avoid them. You will always see your remaining distance no matter where you are. It continually updates your position and yardage. This device will hold up to 300 courses. Yes, 300!! That is way cool!! It will track your shots which is very easy to do and keep your critical statistics. After a few rounds with this device, it will even learn your distances you hit with every club and then recommend a club for every instance. How cool is that!! There are many more features to this unit, but I have covered the main points. Everything, and I mean everything has worked flawlessly. I bet if the early adopters would review this product now, they would have a totally different opinion and rate this product much, much higher. If Amazon would allow more stars, I would give it the max.
The only criticism I can give it is as follows. I wish this unit displayed predetermined way points on each of the courses. Trust me this is just a nitpick. All you have to do is just touch the front of a bunker for example to get that yardage. Touch the back of the bunker to get the carry yardage. It would just be nice to have some of these already listed on the map. Other than that very little nitpick, there is no doubt I have found the "Right" Golf GPS.
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OnPar Golf Touchscreen GPS.