PGA Show: SkyCaddie SG5 is top dog in GPS device wars

ORLANDO – Guys wearing mini-backpacks with antennae sticking up wandered around the SkyCaddie exhibit Friday. Kinda weird, because you got the feeling they might zap you with a stun gun or something.

But the GPS device wars are heating up, and SkyCaddie brought out the ground troops to illustrate why they are the top dog. These are the mappers, the ones who use survey equipment and walk and measure every inch of the 30,000 courses the company says will be in its database by the end of this year.

Apparently none of SkyCaddie’s competitors do it this way and thus are not as accurate. Everybody else relies on satellite imagery or Google Earth to give you yardages, and with its new SG5 model, SkyCaddie figures to dominate the market.

It has a bright color display and is the easiest to use of the devices I saw at any booth Friday. It’s got a feature that rotates the shape of the green to the angle of your approach shot. You could be in the far left rough and hitting a blind shot over a large mound and still have a view of the shot you faced.

Also, you can aim the crosshairs anywhere on the green and get a yardage. Not just front, back or center numbers. The exact yardage.

You can measure your own shots, too, using a ball mark feature. Golfers who love gadgets surely will pay $429 for it, but in the long run, with the advanced technology and information the SG5 gives you, it’s worth the price.