GreenFinder GPS: A Golf GPS on Your Smart Phone

by Ryan Ballengee on Jun 2, 2009 1:23 PM EDT Comment 4 comments

As all of you know, I'm a golfer. As many of you may know, I'm a Blackberry user. I really enjoy the Blackberry because it allows me to manage anything communications-related to Waggle Room or my personal life. What I didn't realize I was missing was a golf GPS on my phone. I also didn't realize that one existed.

That changed, though, when I was contacted by the folks at Iterant Software. They make software for your iPhone or Blackberry device (Android and Windows Mobile forthcoming) called Greenfinder GPS. The Greenfinder GPS boasts over 10,000 courses that you can access on your phone for $35/year. They provided me with an access code to download the software to my phone from their website and try for this review.

Downloading the software was as simple as any other piece of mobile software. Installation was quick and easy. Loading the software from my BlackBerry was also simple and flawless. The software asked me if I would like to use the phone's internal GPS to determine my location or search for a course in particular. I chose the internal GPS option. Greenfinder took about 10 or 15 seconds to find courses near my location and I selected Timbers at Troy - where I played the round I tested this product. This was a huge advantage over other products that require a user to connect the GPS to a computer via USB cable and download course data files to the product (up to some maximum) from their Web-based service.

Timbers is a course over a decade old and is well established, so I didn't have to worry about it being on the GPS. But, smaller and newer courses may not be in the library. The monster round I played at the Latrobe Elks Golf Club wasn't accompanied by the Greenfinder because it wasn't supported by the software. Nearby courses were in the library, though. Greenfinder support claims a 24-48 hour turnaround for courses not in the library, but I didn't have to test that kind of turn around.

Immediately out of the pro shop, Greenfinder found my location relative to the first green. It gave me the distance to the front center and back of the green on one screen. With a click into the BlackBerry Storm, I could see the distance to hazards, bunkers, and other objects of note on the hole. Though I have an intimate knowledge of Timbers, the Greenfinder verified the measurements very well.

At times, the GPS' measurements did not match the placards on the tee boxes of the course - off by maybe 5 yards. That happened in two instances in my round. In the other times, though, I found the tee box yardage to be very accurate. On one hole, I ran a comparison to the tee box marker, the Izzo GPS, and the Greenfinder. The Greenfinder matched the placard with the Izzo one yard off of the two.

The phone didn't do badly at all with the BlackBerry battery. I started with almost full power and the four hour round only rained about 1/4 of my battery life. Considering the weak battery of the Storm phone, I was impressed. The strain on the battery, though, all depends on your phone, what you're doing with it during the round, and if you leave the Greenfinder connected and the phone unlocked throughout the round.

NiceBallz recently performed a review of the product and reached a very similar conclusion to that I did. The Greenfinder software is convenient, value-priced, and a great complement for the golfer on the go. If you want lightning-fast readings, you may want to pursue a product like SkyCaddie, but you will pay quite a premium for it. The Izzo GPS product required a $135 investment and was somewhere in the middle in terms of performance and features. It was faster to read distances, but had less measurements to offer than the Greenfinder.

Basically, choosing a GPS for golf all boils down to the features that you want in it. Consider the following things

Response time for distance
The number of measurements on the device
Device memory size/download requirements
Cost

Ultimately, considering these factors will drive you to the GPS unit that you choose. But, you certainly would do very well with Greenfinder.

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A pleased GreenfinderGPS user

I recently picked up this software, as well, for my Blackberry Curve 8310. As stated in the review, downloading and installing was trivially easy. I took the free trial option at first, which gives you five course downloads before you need to register the software.

A scan of courses by location revealed they had fewer than half the local courses mapped. All of these courses have been around for decades, but this area isn’t exactly a hotbed of world golf activity so I suppose they qualify as “smaller courses.” I used the online form to submit the missing courses, then sent them an e-mail asking about turnaround time. In e-mail the customer support folks said they get about 150 new course requests a week and are backlogged about three weeks. On a brighter note, however, after a couple of Direct Messages with their account on twitter they jumped my favorite course to the head of the line and had it ready for me within 24 hours!

In testing, the software behaved very nicely. It needed a little time to “settle down” after carting between ball locations, but once the numbers stopped fluctuating the distances given seemed quite accurate. A few times it disagreed with the tee box placards, sometimes by as much as 10 yards, but with these courses it’s not always certain the placards are that accurate—when they’re even available. By the end of the round the others on my foursome were asking me to stand over their balls and read off numbers—a sure sign of acceptance for the tech.

One additional nice feature is the spot-marking. You can mark your spot, then as you move away it reads off the distance to that spot. Very nice for measuring how far your ball flew.

When I decided to register the software that process was very painless. I provided my Blackberry’s PIN as part of the process, and that was it. No codes to enter, nothing new to install, the software simply knew it was registered (it “phones home” every time you start it).

I can’t help but feel the dedicated GPS products out there would react a bit quicker, might even be a bit more accurate, but for the money you can’t beat the Greenfinder!

Spinny

by Spinland on Jun 2, 2009 1:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

the big disadvantage...

You have to leave your phone turned on when you play golf. I suppose this is OK for people who can’t bear to be without telephone/text message/twitter/whatever service. Personally, I’ll turn the phone off and get more information than the smart phone app provides, albeit at a price, from SkyCaddie.

Truth has a well-known liberal bias.

by dianemarie on Jun 2, 2009 2:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

GreenFinder has pros and cons

Ryan,
When we tested GreenFinder GPS on an iPhone at NiceBallz.com we, too, enjoyed an easy install and simple downloading of thousands of courses. But the usability leaves something to be desired in that acquiring distances can take time after the phone goes to sleep in your pocket. It does what it says, is one less device to carry and is an incredible value. But you can get a more seamless experience from a dedicated device, though they are spendy. I’m sure you’ll enjoy another take on GreenFinder at NiceBallz.com:

http://blog.niceballz.com/2009/05/28/calling-all-golfers-your-phone-is-now-your-caddy.aspx

GolferWriterGuy
Co-Founder, NiceBallz.com

http://blog.niceballz.com
http://twitter.com/GolferWriterGuy

by GolferWriterGuy on Jun 2, 2009 10:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I enjoyed your guys’ review (in fact, read it before I wrote mine to see your thoughts!), especially since you all used the iPhone instead of the a BlackBerry. I was really pleased with the response time even after I brought the Storm back from sleep mode. I’m curious how the difference in phones plays into the reaction time of the GPS.

Now if only MLB made their GameDay app for the Storm. I would be set for life.

Email me any comments or questions at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.

by Ryan Ballengee on Jun 2, 2009 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs