Golf cart GPS systems Accurate?

[3putt]

Or does it depend on who set them up? Played Monday on a course where all
the carts were fitted with the system. The two carts in our foursome
registered the same distances when side by side. When compared with the
fairway markers they were fairly the same. But when calculating the drive
from the tee to the ball the driving distance seemed to be way off.
Example. The ground marker at the tee was 400yds. The GPS system stated
401 yds. Hitting the ball to the fairway 150 yd ground marker to the green,
the GPS system was measuring a drive as only 208, where the actual distance
should have read about a 250 yd drive. Where did the other 50 yds go? Both
carts had the same readings on the screens when sitting side by side. It
was like this for all of the par 4/5 holes.

[Søren Jacobsen]

typical accuracy for most users averaged between 20 and 50 meters the
majority of the time

http://www.lowrance.com/Tutorials/Printable/gps_tutorial.asp

[sfb]

Probably moved to alternate tees and didn't tell the GPS system.

"3putt" <golfi...@thetee.SC> wrote in message
news:BXytg.19676$so3....@southeast.rr.com...

[Tony]

As I understand it, there is often a local transponder for courses that
use the GPS on carts.

I'm not sure, but the units could be programmed to show the monument
distance when you're near the tee box (a 'waypoint' could have been
established there).

Remember, the official yardage to a hole is pretty much the sum of two
straight lines. If you cut the corner of a dogleg you could have gotten
to the 150 marker on a 400 yard hole with a 210 drive. It would have
been a hell of a dogleg though.

[Larry Bud]

That's just not true for golf GPS:

http://www.proshotgolf.com/index-1b.htm

To triangulate, the GPS measures distance using the travel time of a
radio signal. A GPS-equipped golf cart traveling around a golf course
needs to receive signals from at least three satellites to calculate
its position. Triangulation among these 'visible' satellites will
determine the approximate position of the cart, accurate to within 20
to 30 yards.

A differential base station, located on the golf course, receives the
same information from the satellites. The base station, using
proprietary correction technology, then broadcasts a correction factor
to the golf carts, taking into account the factors in the atmosphere
that delay signals.

This procedure, called differential correction, modifies the position
information to achieve accuracy to +/-1 meter... a very acceptable
margin of error in golf. This corrected data is then sent via radio
signals to the cart so it can display the more accurate yardage.

[Howard Brazee]

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:30:09 GMT, "3putt" <golfi...@thetee.SC>
wrote:

>The ground marker at the tee was 400yds. The GPS system stated
>401 yds. Hitting the ball to the fairway 150 yd ground marker to the green,
>the GPS system was measuring a drive as only 208, where the actual distance
>should have read about a 250 yd drive. Where did the other 50 yds go? Both
>carts had the same readings on the screens when sitting side by side. It
>was like this for all of the par 4/5 holes.

Was there a dog-leg? I suspect the GPS is always crow's flight
measurement, while markers in the fairway follow the fairway.

Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com

[Larry Bud]

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:30:09 GMT, "3putt" <golfi...@thetee.SC>
> wrote:
>
> >The ground marker at the tee was 400yds. The GPS system stated
> >401 yds. Hitting the ball to the fairway 150 yd ground marker to the green,
> >the GPS system was measuring a drive as only 208, where the actual distance
> >should have read about a 250 yd drive. Where did the other 50 yds go? Both
> >carts had the same readings on the screens when sitting side by side. It
> >was like this for all of the par 4/5 holes.
>
> Was there a dog-leg? I suspect the GPS is always crow's flight
> measurement, while markers in the fairway follow the fairway.

Not necessarily. I've seen GPS systems where the system is smart
enough to know that if you're within 100 yards of point A (say, the tee
box), then measure from A to B, then B to C, instead of A to C.

[Howard Brazee]

On 14 Jul 2006 09:20:24 -0700, "Larry Bud" <larryb...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>> Was there a dog-leg? I suspect the GPS is always crow's flight
>> measurement, while markers in the fairway follow the fairway.
>
>Not necessarily. I've seen GPS systems where the system is smart
>enough to know that if you're within 100 yards of point A (say, the tee
>box), then measure from A to B, then B to C, instead of A to C.

It's useful to know what a measurement is measuring. I suspect most
golfers don't know whether a marker in the course is direct or follows
the dog leg. Now we have another variable.

[Larry Bud]

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On 14 Jul 2006 09:20:24 -0700, "Larry Bud" <larryb...@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> >> Was there a dog-leg? I suspect the GPS is always crow's flight
> >> measurement, while markers in the fairway follow the fairway.
> >
> >Not necessarily. I've seen GPS systems where the system is smart
> >enough to know that if you're within 100 yards of point A (say, the tee
> >box), then measure from A to B, then B to C, instead of A to C.
>
> It's useful to know what a measurement is measuring. I suspect most
> golfers don't know whether a marker in the course is direct or follows
> the dog leg. Now we have another variable.

In the GPS systems I've seen, it tells you what it's measuring. If
you're on the tee it will tell you the distance to a bunker in the FW,
distance to the 150 marker, etc. As you drive off the tee, the screen
changes to tell you the distance to objects around the green.