SkyCaddie PRO 5X: Miles Ahead of the Rest

Playing Through: SkyCaddie is the ONLY golf GPS company that has people go to courses to physically map each and every hole and hazard you come across. As a result, SkyCaddie and its PRO 5X is THE most accurate golf GPS on the market. Combine it with features like click-and-drag distances to targets and green-closeups that reveal contours from the angle you are actually approaching from, and there’s a good chance you’ll score your best once you add the PRO 5X to your golfing toolkit.

Like football, golf is a game of inches (but also sometimes feet and yards). And to play your best golf, you need to know precise, accurate distances to various points on the golf course. Distances from the tee box to the cover, a forged carry or the water hazard on the far side, or distances to the green and adjacent bunkers.

Technology, fortunately, has helped us come a long way. Golfers are no longer dependent on tee box and fairway markers or the white post that signals you’re 150 yards out. Now, every phone is equipped with some sort of GPS technology or, at the very least, the ability to download an app that can provide an overview of the hole you’re playing at any given course.

The dilemma here is that whatever app you’re using is, sadly, not that accurate. Indeed, there’s a very good chance—nearly a guarantee—that the app is using some third-party satellite imagery that, ideally, isn’t comprised by bad weather or shadows or, in some cases, outdated imaging that doesn’t reflect course renovations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And that is where SkyGolf’s SkyCaddie products separate themselves from every other GPS option. SkyCaddie is the ONLY golf GPS company that will send people to the course to walk and map—step by step—each and every aspect of the course, where the tee boxes, fairway edges, rough, bunkers, water hazards, greens, and hole boundaries are each precisely located down to sub-meter accuracy. That is to say, SkyCaddie’s GPS devices are the most accurate in the marketplace. Full stop.

So when you’re on the tee box with, for example, a PRO 5X, you can decide what shot to hit with confidence because that pond in front of the green you need to clear is exactly how far away the PRO 5X is telling you, regardless which one of the more than 35,000 courses it comes preloaded with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The PRO 5X—which is more appropriately described as an “Electronic, Interactive Yardage Book,” which is completely tournament-legal—is currently SkyCaddie’s flagship GPS handheld. The 5.5” color touch-screen is comparable to your modern smartphone (just without the annoying mid-round work emails); it provides perfectly clear images of the hole and, at the touch of a finger, will immediately provide distances to whatever target you select or, instead, scroll through additional information, such as the close-ups of the green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And because its sole purpose is helping you play your very best golf, the PRO 5X’s battery is rated for 18 hours of continuous use. So even if you enjoy torturing yourself with the slowest of slow play at the county municipal course, you’ll have plenty of battery for (at least) 3 full rounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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But what makes the PRO 5X really special is that it’s more than just a GPS device. Instead, it’s like having an experienced caddie that’s readily available no matter where you’re playing. For example, IntelliGreen Technology means that the PRO 5X not only displays you a hyper-accurate depiction of each green you’re hitting into, but it also automatically pivots to whatever angle you’re approaching from. Hit a draw that ran across the fairway, no problem; the PRO 5X automatically readjusts so it shows the green from the more left-biased angle you’re approaching from.

And if you upgrade to IntelliGreen Pro (for as little as $30 per year), the PRO 5X will also display major tiers, contours, false fronts, and mounds on the green from (again) the angle you’re approaching from. Just like knowing where the danger is (e.g., OB long or water short), players can confidently modify their approach strategy and favor a number closer to the front, middle, or back of the gree,n depending on where the flag is located.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The PRO 5X also features Dynamic HoleVue, which can be described as IntelliGreen, but for the remainder of the whole, fairways, hazards, and the green all pivot depending on the angle you’re truly approaching from. And to help strategize whether driver, fairway woo,d or iron are the best-suited strategy, Dynamic HoleVue with IntelliPath adds a target arc for your clubs—showing you what good (and bad) are in the potential firing range and, thereby, allowing you to preemptively plan around the danger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Finally (and perhaps most exciting), there’s SwingTrax 360, an all-new entry in shot tracking technology that does so much more than just pinpointing how far you’re hitting each club. Since playing with a teaching studio isn’t a viable option, SkyCaddie’s new SwingTrax sensors allow you to collect the data you need—swing speed, swing tempo, swing path, etc.

With the data, SwingTrax will collect, no longer will there be any gap between the range or swing lessons and playing on the course. Golfers, instead, will be able to see (without having to carry an uber-expensive launch monitor around) what exactly is happening in their swing while they’re playing (and, ideally, fix what’s holding them back from playing better).

Sadly, I didn’t have the opportunity to test SwingTrax. But spring is (hopefully) only a few weeks away, and it’s something I’m certainly very interested in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Regardless of your handicap and skill level, if you want to play your best golf, you need to know how to approach a golf course—where you’re trying to go and what you need to avoid along the way. The SkyCaddie PRO 5X will, in all likelihood, help you the most. Unlike a laser, it doesn’t require you to see the target and, simultaneously, shows you so much more than what is just visible to you. And unlike other GPS devices, it is the most accurate. And in a game of inches (or feet, or yards), that can be the difference between your best round of golf, a club championship or state qualifier.

Cover Image via Golf Monthly