I have usually shied away from any new golf technology (I was the last of all my golfing buddies to switch my driver from a persimmon to stainless), and I never really gave much thought about all the hype of the GPS and Laser range finders on the market, and boy was I wrong!

While on a little golf vacation last month I got paired up with a guy and his wife who were using a GPS device called the GolfBuddy. They swore up & down that it had completely changed their game (I chuckled to myself “Yeah, right!), giving them pinpoint yardage from anywhere on the golf course. After about the 6^th hole my curiosity got the best of me, I had to take a closer look. One of the first features I liked was one of the simplest, tee the ball up, push a button on the GolfBuddy unit & let her rip! Now, after locating your drive, the unit will show you exactly how far your tee shot was, that was pretty cool. Another feature that I didn’t know about was the ability to set your own markers (sand traps, trees, water hazard), so you can have each hole mapped & dialed in for the next round you play at that particular course. But the feature I liked the most was how the map of the green changed on the unit as your angle to the green changed, giving you a better feel where the pin was located (especially if the green is raised).

Overall I was pretty impressed, the GolfBuddy was easy to use, yardage readings were very accurate, and by the end of the round I found myself wanting to use it for every shot! The unit comes preloaded with 20,000 golf courses and also gives you the ability to download more if needed, all for FREE (most other GPS unites charge a monthly/yearly fee to be able to download courses onto their units).