I am thinking about getting some kind of a range finder to help my golf game, I don't know if it will help but I like cool gadgets.
Do you have to get a membership to skycaddie in order to use it for golf courses?
Another question, would you think that a laser rangefinder or a Golf GPS is better all around?
Whatever your answer, which do you think is the best laser range finder or GPS to buy?
Our Answer
Wow..Nathan this is the kind of question that if you were to ask 10 people, you will probably get 5 that answer one thing and then 5 that answer something else. There are pros and cons to both laser rangefinders as well as golfing GPS units.
GPS units seem to be "cooler" and GPS is hot right now but they have some cons too. They aren't as accurate as you would like and can be off by as much as 10-15 yards depending on the unit or the course. They can have issues on days when it is overcast or cloudy, this is minimal but it happens. You also need to have your course mapped into the GPS if it isn't already there and you pay yearly membership fees along with fees to download courses etc. Add this up and sexy suddenly can become not so attractive in a hurry.
Laser rangefinders are simpler and not quite as sexy as a gps but they work well in about any weather condition. They don't require that the course be loaded into them and the best thing is you can use it for other things than golf courses. You can use it to hunt or for photography or simply to entertain the kids. It's a judgement call as to which way you want to go. Simple and dependable or sexy and still dependable most of the time.
As for a recommendation, it's hard to say because I don't know what you value the most but I prefer a laser range finder like the Nikon Callaway series.
