Can't really decide on which to buy. Has anyone tried both of these and have any pro's and con's??

Thanks, Mike

I have used the Pinseeker w/o slope (1/2 of this past season) and the Sky Caddie (2.5 years).

The SkyCaddie is a little easier to use if the course is pre-mapped by SkyGolf. The Pinseeker can be a little harder to handle, you would be surprised how much your hands shake.

However, the SC often lost the signal and I thought it gave too many yardages that proved not to be correct. A friend of mine plays on a min-tour in which an event was sponsored by SC. The consensus was they all preferred the Pinseeker.

I sold my SC and bought the PS. The PS is more versatile all around. You can shoot the pin, the bunker, the tree that's in your way. The SC can only give your the measured distance of objects it has previously marked. So the SC can tell me how far the 100 Yard marker is when I lost it right deep in the trees, but it can't tell me how far in the tree line I am.

Basically after a 1/2 season with the PS I found it to be more useful and less of a hassle. No battery recharge, no courses to set-up or down load. Just a 9 volt battery and your ready, pont and shoot.

In practice rounds the PS was invaluable in laying out a course for the tourney the next day. I was able to make solid notes and distances.

BUY the pinseeker.

Joe

I've used a cheap range finder before and it was fine. I've never used the newer (better) ones.

The thing I like about my SkyCaddie is knowing front and back yardages. You can also toggle pin location so you can get a pretty good yardage to the flag as well.

In my area almost all the courses I play are mapped so that hasn't been a problem. They have upgraded their webiste interface for downloading courses and it seems to be alot better. I have had a few problems with losing a signal like Joe mentioned.

All in all the SC has been great for me. The most useful things have been, like I said, getting a front,middle, and back yardage but also figuring out my partial swing wedges. Through trial and error I've been able to dial those in just by paying attention to where a 1/2 sand wedge ends up relative to the yardage I've just figured.

Isn't there a monthly fee for the skycaddie? If so how much?

If you go to their site, you can see all the options for subscriptions.

I've used both and personally prefer the rangefinder. The SC is probably faster for general yardage but I like the option of being able to "shoot" the range to the front trap, back of the green, or the tree in the fairway...whatever I see. Plus it's also great for range sessions.

Membership plans are per year:

STATE $29.95/yr
COUNTRY$49.95/yr
WORLD$59.95/yr

You can also add an additional state for $5.

If you live and play where you can see your targets, you have a rock steady hand and perfect eyesight that will allow you to tell the difference in shading for a sloping target, get a rangefinder. If you can't always see them and the other issues come into play even ever so slightly, the SkyCaddie will get you a good yardage to play with. Regardless of the tool, you must have a reference to validate the distance unless you can se the Front, Back and shape of your target. A perfectly steady hand is required or you may miss that small target you are shooting at from 200 yards. Keep this in mind when you buy. I have the Sky Caddie and I love it.

I had the skycaddie SG2 and found it to be accurate and dependable. Just got the skycaddie 3 and they have improved. I liked the idea of using 2 AA batteries instead of charging. The new model has a bigger screen, backlighting for easy viewing, and easier to use controls. Over the last year alot of courses have been added to the library on their website and more show up all the time. You can map your own courses (front, back, and middle of the green only), and do not need a membership to use it in this manner. Professionally mapped courses will give you hazard distances and carrys, and the intelligreen feature which shows the actual shape of the green and your angle into it, it also allows you to toggle the pin on the green to its position giving you that yardage along with the front, back, and center. You can mark your psition when you hit a ball, go to it, press mark again, and it will give you the distance you hit the shot. I've mapped the driving range to dial in distances also. I've used the mark feature to hit a dozen balls with each club, walk out to them, get the average distance of each club, and adjust my lofts to match the distance gaps. Overall, a very useful addition to all this equipment I have sitting here!

I have both and they both have their merits. The Pinseeker is very quick and can be useful to see where the pin is on the green and the exact yardage with slope. The SG2 is great for giving you front and back yardages, as well as layup yardage. The SG2 is also great for marking distance so you can learn what your exact carry distance with each club is. Bottom line both are great units.

I have used both I like the SC over all because if you cant see your target you cant shoot your distance, also on very flat courses its tough to get distance to the green.

Look into the new Nikon 500g

It now has a scan button -- just keep it pressed down and scan the fron and back of the green.

It's also much smaller than the PS.

But the handshake thing still gets me.

If you have lots of SkyCaddie courses mapped in your area and don't mind spending $30/yr, the Caddie is very convenient.

PS - I have had the Caddie for almost 2 years and had none of the problems experienced by the one guy who panned it.

It has worked perfectly.

Best of both worlds is to have both - of course. As to having a laser on a range, most range balls aren't good for anything but looking at ball flight - draw, straight or fade. They're certainly not good for judging your distance.

I think I am going to eventually but the iGolf GPS caddie for several reasons:

(1) it's cheaper than the Sky Caddie (same price as SG1, cheaper than SG2, 3, 4)
(2) when you buy it, you get 50 credits for downloading courses (and $29/year subscription gets you unlimited downloads)
(3) when you buy it, you get 1 credit good for asking iGolf to professionally map a course within 48 hours
(4) the courses you download are stored on your computer and are yours to keep forever.
(5) you can add 8 custom points per hole to the professionally mapped courses.
(6) once you map a course with custom points, you can trade the map files with other iGolf users.

If anyone has any bad experiences with the iGolf, please let me know, because right now I'm not seeing a downside compared to Sky Caddie.