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.
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.
GPS Terms Glossary
TRACK: This indicates the direction in which you move. Sometimes this is called HEADING. For navigation on land this is OK, but a boat or a plane can travel in another direction, than the direction in which it is headed, due to wind or current.
TRACKLOG: This is the electronic equivalent of the famous bread crumb trail. If you turned (automatic) tracklog on, your receiver will, at fixed intervals or at special occasions, save the position, together with the time, to its memory. This can be invaluable if at any moment during your trip you (have to) decide to go back exactly along the route that brought you to your actual position.
TRACBACK: Among the best known GPS terms, it is the navigation method that will bring you back to your point of departure along the same trail that you traveled to your actual position. In order to be able to use this method, you may need to copy the tracklog to one of the free track channels. (This is where you need your manual for). Often a saved track can only contain 250 points, but be assured that your GPS receiver will do a wonderful job in choosing the points which best represent your traveled track.
WAYPOINT: Probably one of the most used general GPS terms. A waypoint is nothing more or less than a saved set of co-ordinates. It does not have to represent a physical point on land. Even at sea or in the air, one can mark a waypoint. Once saved in your GPS receiver, you can turn back to exactly that set of co-ordinates. You can give waypoints meaningful names. They can be created ‘on the fly’, which means that you can register them at 130 km/h on the road or even at 800 km/h in a plane. Your GPS will attribute it a number, which you can change to any name you want, once you have the time. You can also manually enter a set of co-ordinates, that you found on a map. This way you can plan ahead a trip or a walk with as much detail as you like.
Waypoints are very powerful navigation aids and for really critical operations it should be considered to not only store their co-ordinates in your GPS receiver, but also in your paper notebook. After all a highly sophisticated device as a GPS receiver could stop functioning correctly for a lot of reasons.
ROUTE: A route is a series of two or more waypoints. To create a route, you have to tell your GPS to reserve some place in its memory for a new route and then you indicate which waypoints will form the route. You enter them in the order in which you want to travel them, but you can easily navigate them in reverse order. You can add waypoints and delete others, but once saved, the order in which your GPS will guide you along the waypoints is fixed.
This is a great way to plan ahead a walk. You can even create waypoints and routes on your desktop PC and transfer them to your GPS receiver. All you need for this is a cable which links your GPS to a RS232-port(COM) on your computer and a piece of software, that enables you to mark points on a map at your screen. We will treat this in more detail elsewhere on the site. You will see that this is absolutely not rocket-science.
ROUTE LEG is the straight line between two adjacent waypoints in a route.
GOTO is also among the best known GPS terms and probably the most used navigation method with a GPS receiver, because it is easily understood and executed. If you tell your companion that you will GOTO waypoint X, it will calculate the direction and distance from your actual location to the set of co-ordinates, represented by the indicated waypoint. Your GPS receiver is unable to know what obstacles, hazards or whatever, if any, there are between you and waypoint X, so it will guide you in a straight line to the indicated point. This is great on open water or in the air, but on land it is often not the best method.
BEARING: Once you told to which point you want to travel, your GPS will continuously calculate in which direction that point is situated, seen from your actual position. That direction is the bearing. If you navigate along a route, the bearing will be the direction to the NEXT waypoint in the route. If you do or can not travel in a straight line to the waypoint, the bearing will fluctuate all the time.
TURN: This GPS term indicates the difference between the direction you should travel in (BEARING) and the direction in which you are actually traveling (TRACK). An indication of ‘28L’ means that you should modify your actual direction of travel with 28° to the Left, if you wish to ever reach your point. In principle, when you have the reading of TURN on your navigation page, you don’t need the readings of those other two GPS terms BEARING and TRACK, but most people prefer reading these two.
