Callaway Golf Company uPro GPS Receiver

I had been comparing and pricing Golf GPS units and playing some rounds with my brother in law who has a different brand. I hadn't bought one yet because of price, annual fees and course downloading fees pushed the cost up close to $450-500. When the Callaway uPro (refurbished unit) came onto eBay as a daily deal for $90 I jumped on it. There was no annual fees, all course basic downloads are free and it came with one free "Your Choice" Pro-Mode course download (a $10 value). I play my home course 3-4 times a week and I've been using this unit since iI got it. It has helped me dial in the yardage I hit each of my clubs and my handicap has dropped 2 strokes in the last month. I'm using the basic mode which gives accurate yardage to greens and hazards, and allows you to mark when you hit, walk to your ball and it gives you yardage you hit it. The Pro Mode allows you to mark off yardage on the unit for measuring lay-up yardage and gives an actual visual picture floover of each hole. Pro mode costs extra, but if going to a course you don't know it's well worth it. and you keep the courses without the paying the annuals fees. There is another feature which I haven't purchased yet, but plan to. For $20 it's a game/club tracking program which would help even more with club selection for each yardage. The Callaway upro is so much better than the unit my brother in law has, just as accurate and no annual fees like his. If you're looking for a Golf GPS this is it.

Shop Around. Good unit if you can find it for the right price.

Pros:
Size (small and slim not a distraction)
No recurring fees
Fairly easy to learn
Shot tracking to keep stats and per club stats can help game ($25 extra)
Flyover and distance to hole from current position can save strokes.
Large course library (can be checked pre-purchase)
Battery Life is ample and standard USB charge port.
Nice display even in sunlight.
Open data format (all data in XML format can be exported for own use -programmer)

Cons:
Price per course depending on package
Additional fee for statistics capability enable
No Supplied case and accessories expensive (buy own and best buy phone type)
Voice enabled will probably never be although capable.
Requires viewing video tutorial on unit. Is not intuitive enough to use Stats without first familiarizing yourself with operation before going to course. Take it to the practice range ;-)

This is the first golf gps devise I've purchased and have found it to be extremely useful. The best thing is the confidence from knowing you have an accurate distance not only to the green but to the hazards as well. It's especially useful for lay up yardages. I used it in a three day tournament recently and it had a substantial impact on my scores. In pro mode one of the things that I didn't much care for is the flyover occurs on every hole. It's great if you haven't played the course before but if you know the course it takes up time before it's ready to give you the yardages you need. The SmartView feature gives you all the information you could want, outlining distances to hazards and the green in one screen. The screen itself is large enough and bright enough to be easy to see even in bright sunlight. I know it doesn't give exact yardage to the pin, but frankly I can't pull out an eight iron and hit 156 yards every time. If the pin in the front I usually half the front edge number with the middle number and most times I'm pretty close to correct, my club choices for the tournament were usually right on (I shot
76-76-75, now I'm bragging). Anyway, I feel this is an excellent product and a good value for the price.

What I love most about this unit and the main reason I purchased it is that "IT WORKS RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX WITH NO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE NEEDED!!!!"

It has many courses already loaded which is a plus. It gives you one free 2D layout of the course with yardage to any point.

The yardage seems to be pretty accurate and great for when you can't see the pin.

The battery holds a charge for an all day rounds of golf.
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What I didn't like was the price although it was a better price than the competition who also require a subscription to work.

You can't choose which course you want the free 2D version applied to as it will be the first course you use the device on. (Fortunately for me it was my home course that I used it on first.)

You have to pay $10 for each additional course for the 2D layout which can add up and pretty pricey if you know you will only play a course once or maybe twice in your life or for a long time like if you happen to play a course out of the country and you know you won't be back for years, seems to be a waste.

It takes about a minute to just power on, so power that puppy up when you take your clubs out of your vehicle at the course or you will regret it at the first tee because....

It sometimes takes just under a minute to find the GPS signal for the course you are on.

The joy stick can cause you to make a selection you didn't really want which will cause you to go through the screens from the beginning; I suspect with a little practice that can easily be overcome.

Knowing what I know from owning this unit, if I had to make a purchase again, I would still buy this unit or the uPro without the "GO" upgrade if I had the money to spare.

Your golf mates will have you walking all over the course just to give them a reading (I may start charging them for the service.)

They should do something about the price though!

The uPro golf GPS has a very simple and smooth interface. Very easy to use, and sometimes I even get the feel that the interface is over-simplified, but certainly has just about every feature you will need. The basic funcionality of giving distances to the front, middle, and back of the greens works excellent, and yardages were very accurate (I used this alongside my smartphone gps app, and old yet reliable gps receiver to verify). With the basic functionality alone, it is worth the price, but I wish they included the Scoring Plus mode with the unit. I paid the extra $20 for the feature, but it was well worth it! You can keep your score plus the rest of your foursome, track greens in regulation, fairways hit, and number of putts for up to 50 rounds. My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE feature in Pro Mode is the tracking distance of every club in your bag. Every shot you take, you simply mark the shot and tell it what club you are hitting, and it tracks the average distance of each club. I would pay $150 for this feature by itsef. I have not found a way to export this information to my computer for more in-depth tracking, but I hope they come out with an update for this. The battery got me through an entire 4.5 hour round of golf and I still had 1/4 battery remaining. I'd like to have a bit more life, but it's serviceable. All-in-all I would give this unit an 8.5 out of 10 with a half point deduction for battery life, extra charge for scoring, and simplicity of interface.