Calling All Golfers! Your Phone is Now Your Caddy
GreenFinder GPS turns your mobile phone into a distance measuring device
At NiceBallz we’re discerning golfers. While we don’t take ourselves or our amateur golf games too seriously, we do take our equipment seriously and we want it to work well.
GreenFinder GPS, a distance measuring application from Itinerant Software, turns your mobile phone with built-in global positioning system (GPS) capabilities into a golf range finder. GreenFinder is available for iPhone 3G and BlackBerry phones and a version apparently is being developed for Windows Mobile and other devices. The product does what it claims, giving you relatively accurate yardages to the green in a simple and low-cost package. But it is slow and occasionally frustrating.
In the interest of transparency, GreenFinder representatives provided us with a free access code to test their software by downloading the app and enjoying a one-year subscription, a USD $34.99 value. We have some positive and negative feedback about the GreenFinder app (v1.1.6). Let’s start with the good.
PRO: Installation
First, the software is simple to download, taking advantage of the ease-of-use and familiarity of the Apple iTunes App Store. A couple clicks, a password and a few minutes later GreenFinder was installed on our iPhone 3G test phone. Three days later we received an easy-to-read receipt via email from the iTunes Store. No problems here.
PRO: Customer Service
Merely minutes after install we received an email from Itinerant Software thanking us for our, umm, purchase and seeking to “pro-actively answer some questions you may have on how GreenFinder works” including topics such as extending battery life and requesting an unavailable golf course.
Friendly follow-up with GreenFinder’s promotions people included an offer to make almost any course available ASAP. It just so happened that we had a tee time in a couple days in Central Oregon at Tetherow Golf Club, a highly-regarded new club designed by the original designer at Bandon Dunes.
GreenFinder informed us they are often able to have a course ready in as little as 24 hours – impressive – but they were unable to make yardages for Tetherow available, a course that has been open nearly two years and is surely popular as it was rated in 2008 by Golf Magazine as the Best New Course You Can Play. Tetherow is available on competitor SkyCaddie but not iGolf or GreenFinder. Still, the GreenFinder support and communication was swift, clear and honest, which is better than many brands. Our experience was that their customer service is a clear point of differentiation from some other companies, golf brands or otherwise.
PRO: Usage
The application works like many others on the iPhone and is intuitive, with just a few simple buttons to press. Manually advance to the next hole or check the distance to hazards with a single, simple touch. The elegance and ease of the software is hard to match. The last thing you want on the golf course is to fumble around with a complicated product and GreenFinder is very easy to use.
Where GreenFinder really excels is with its powerful course search feature. The company claims more than 10,000 courses are available. But the beauty of GreenFinder is in its ability to search for locally available courses right now. Where other dedicated devices require users to connect to a computer to download GPS coordinates for a specific course in advance, and typically hold only 10 courses in memory at any one time, GreenFinder allows you to search for all nearby courses from your phone whenever you want. Within just seconds, a list of courses – sometimes dozens depending on where you are – is instantly available. The advantage is you have the flexibility to play more than just those few courses that you thought to download in advance. This is an incredibly powerful feature, which draws on the strength of the wireless Internet and GPS capabilities of your phone, and is a clear upgrade over many of the dedicated golf distance devices. No more synchronizing at home the night before a round.
In summary, GreenFinder is simpler to use than some competitors and has more powerful, instant course search capabilities. But, there are some drawbacks to this product, too.
CON: Screen Lock
While the application is easy to use for the most part, GreenFinder is hamstrung by the limitations of the iPhone itself. For one, battery life can be an issue. The full-color screen and GPS receiver use a lot of power. One way to maximize battery life is to manually lock the screen after getting your yardage. This turns off the display screen, but unfortunately also disengages the GPS receiver. When you unlock the screen, when you arrive at your golf ball in the fairway, for example, it takes a while for the phone to reconnect to the satellite and give you your yardage. Sometimes this takes just a few seconds, other times you are ready to hit your shot and are waiting and waiting – and may abandon the distance altogether.
And, the iPhone screen automatically locks after a specified time period, requiring the golfer to enter a passcode. No one wants to enter codes on the course. While this can be disabled on the iPhone, corporate phone users won’t have that luxury.
CON: Distances
When the GreenFinder was recently compared against a SkyCaddie SG4 and an iGolf Neo, all three products provided slightly different yardages. In most cases we are talking about just one or two yards difference to the front, center or back of the green, which is perfectly acceptable for almost any golfer. Remember, this is a phone; pretty cool.
However, more than the other products the GreenFinder made a habit of providing widely different distances at first and then slowly dialing in the distance over the course of maybe 10 or 15 seconds. In other words, when you first approach a hole GreenFinder will often give you an initial reading that may change by five, seven or up to 10 yards by the time the first player in your group has teed off. You could pull the wrong club based on your first glance at the yardage. That defeats the purpose, so be patient.
Summary
GreenFinder GPS does everything it promises. It gives you reasonably accurate distances; just give it a little time. You already have your phone with you so with GreenFinder there’s no need to carry, recharge and synchronize another dedicated device. That’s nice. And, the course search function and ability to instantly download a golf course on the fly is unlike anything else we’ve seen. You can’t ask for much more than that for $35. Where other dedicated distance devices can cost up to $400, the GreenFinder is less than $40. GreenFinder is great for travelers, salespeople or others who are on the road often, and infrequent or high handicap golfers who can’t justify or wouldn’t benefit from owning a dedicated golf range finder. Ask yourself what you really need and how much you’re willing to pay for it. For many people the GreenFinder is a great find.
However, hardcore golfers – while perhaps impressed by the simplicity – will surely grow frustrated by the delayed distances and limitations of the phone itself. For those more demanding and more frequent golfers, a dedicated distance measuring device that is designed specifically for their needs may make for a more enjoyable round. These rival products will cost you much more, but may be worth it.
Overall, GreenFinder offers a lot of functionality for a low price. They’ve brought innovation to the market, strong customer service and a certain cool factor by allowing you to use your phone on the golf course in a new way. But remember the old adage, ‘You get what you pay for.’ In our case it was free (thank you) and it is fun, but GreenFinder hasn’t supplanted a dedicated range finder as our primary tool for measuring yardage. Whether our game is good enough for it to matter is another thing.
-Corey Grice
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I’ve used GreenFinder and pretty much agree with your review of the app. It’s convenient and provides exactly what it says it does but won’t replace my range finder. I also tried a similar app called nRange Golf GPS which seemed to acquire distances a bit quicker but only provides distances for front, middle and, and back… no support for hazards, bunkers, etc.
Hootie and I were playing the other day and we agreed cell phones here at Augusta are inappropriate in any conceivable use and that yardage finding machines go against everything Bobby and Cliff (we still call him Bobby) stood for.
Hootie stopped allowing them at the Masters Tuna-Mint years ago…
Can’t use cellphones at Augusta? I thought only women couldn’t use cell phones there. Perhaps TIME or Play Golf Designs would care to comment.
I’m working on testing this product side-by-side against my Sky Caddie. Not to pimp my site, but look for that in a week or two.
I liked greenfinder so much I created my own BlackBerry GPS golf Application called BBGPSGolf… only mine is free!