Bushnell Golf challenged Shawn Royster, an avid speed golfer, to play a round of golf with the Bushnell neo+ GPS rangefinder and one without it. Royster captured his day on the links and created this video to show how the Bushnell neo+ improved not only his score, but the time it took him to play his round.

Bushnell Golf  neo+ GPS Rangefinder

• The neo+ is the smallest, most compact golf GPS unit available and is simple and easy to use as it works right out of the box.
• The key to the performance is an improved technology that helps provide “Instant Course Recognition” and “Auto Hole Advance” to enhance the golfer’s experience as the device automatically displays a map of the golf course and begins to interact with each hole. Once you get to the course and turn the unit on, you can play your entire round without ever touching another button!
• With no membership fees ever throughout the life of the product, users have instant access to more than 16,000 pre-loaded North American golf courses.
• The neo+ gives the user quick and accurate readings to the front, center and back of the green, as well as up to four preloaded, customizable hazards per hole with minimal interaction.

Bushnell neo+ GPS Rangefinder $149.95

Last month Bushnell introduced the Hybrid Golf Rangefinder, which combines a laser rangefinder with a GPS for the ultimate all-in-one distance and measurement device. Watch this video of John Novosel from Bushnell, walk through the features of the Bushnell Hybrid Golf Rangefinder from the 2011 PGA Merchandise Show.

Bushnell Hybrid $499

Laser rangefinders are great for finding distance to the hole, hazard, etc. But sometimes a laser rangefinder isn’t helpful when you have a blind teeing shot/approach and have no point of reference. To solve this problem, Bushnell Golf has combined a laser rangefinder with a GPS to give you the Bushnell Hybrid golf rangefinder.  Debuting at the PGA Show, January 27-29, and available at retail in February, at a retail price of $499, the Hybrid is the first of its kind in the market.

GPS + Laser Rangefinder
The Bushnell Hybrid is a revolutionary combination laser and GPS product.  The laser rangefinding technology engineered into the Hybrid provides golfers with precise distances within one yard to virtually any point on any course in the world.  Over 90% of PGA Tour pros and top amateurs trust Bushnell laser rangefinders to provide them the most accurate distances available in golf today.

The Hybrid’s GPS function allows users to access more than 16,000 North American golf courses which have been pre-loaded onto the device, making it ready to use right out of the box without ever having to pay any membership fees.  The Hybrid’s GPS provides simple, at-a-glance distances to front, center and back of the green.  The Hybrid also offers four custom points on a hole that can be extremely helpful to reference on blind tee shots/approaches on a golf course.  The GPS distances are also convenient on days when it is “cart paths only” when golfers are deciding what clubs to bring with them.  Another great feature is the shot distance mode that makes it easy for the golfer to gauge how far a drive or an approach was hit.

With the Hybrid, you can now acquire exact distances to the flag, lip of a bunker, tree, or any other object on the course.  Knowing the exact lasered distance to the flag, as well as the GPS provided distance to the front, center and back of the green, enables the golfer to strategize and hit every approach shot with confidence.  Having the ability to use both laser and GPS technologies, the golfer now has the best of both worlds in one unit.  The Hybrid is legal for tournament play under USGA decision 14-3/0.5 that permits a committee to establish a local rule that allows a player to use a distance-measuring device to obtain distance information.

Available February. MSRP $499

www.bushnellgolf.com

Finding the right golf gift can be a little stressful, with so many options out there. Here are our picks for the best golf gadgets  for the golfer in your life.

rulesixteen Divot Repair Tool

rulesixteen from rulegolf is the first divot repair tool and putting alignment ball marker designed to make both green repair and putting simpler. The rectangular shape of its ball marker allows you to visualize your putting line and sink more putts. Its well-weighted stainless steel body is easy to find in your pocket. And its flip-and-slide action even gives you something to fidget with between shots. On the greens, rulesixteen puts precision within reach. www.rulegolf.com $15

Trion: Z Active Wristband

Rickie Fowler, Brittany Lincicome, Rory MciLroy, and Ryo Ishikawa wear them, so why not give the Active from Trion:Z wristband a try. Active combines the negative-ion and magnet technology that has made Trion:Z products so popular among professional athletes with a waterproof silicone band to be the perfect combination for active sports enthusiasts. Colorful, stylish and comfortable, the Active™ is sure to be a hit among young and old alike. www.trionz.com $21.99

Ladder Golf Tournament Edition

No this isn’t a gadget, but this game will be a huge hit at your next party. Leave the Corona Beer (maybe not the Corona) and frat boy lifestyle behind and graduate to some serious fun with Ladder Golf. Just setup the ladders 15 feet apart and start hurling your balls (bolas are made of real golf balls, specially designed brass inserts and premium nylon rope) and hope for it land on a rung or knock your opponents off. First person to score 21 points wins! Comes with 2 ladders, 4 sets of balls, and nylon carrying case. www.laddergolf.com $104

Golfscape Augmented Reality Rangefinder iPhone App

Golf GPS and rangefinders on the iPhone are nothing new, but this app takes the cake as the must have app for your iPhone. Why? Golfscape is unlike any other rangefinder because it uses augmented reality to pinpoint your position on the golf course, allowing you to identify potential hazards, choose your desired landing area and see real 360-degree viewing while on the course. With over 35,000 courses mapped and no annual subscription fees, this will be your first and last GPS rangefinder app for your iPhone. Golfscape iPhone App $19.99

Bushnell Yardage Pro XGC+

So you don’t own an iPhone, but you want a GPS rangefinder with no subscription fees, a color screen, and won’t break the bank. Problem solved with the Bushnell Yardage Pro XGC+. The Yardage Pro XGC+ features 16,000 course preloaded and ready to play, distance to any point on the hole, auto course recognition, and hole advance, and 2.2″ color screen. Best of all it’s tournament legal. www.bushnellgolf.com $180

Oh, you shouldn’t have

OptiShot Golf Simulator

You don’t need a ton of space or a ton of cash to have an indoor golf simulator thanks to this affordable golf siumulator from OptiShot. Optishot Infrared Golf Simulator combines Dancin’ Dogg’s award winning accurate swing and shot analysis with our own proprietary three dimensional visual golf software called “3DD Golf”.  All in the comfort of your own home. OptiShot $399

AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder App for iPhone

Do you have a copy of AccelGolf’s GPS Rangefinder for the iPhone, Blackberry, or Android? If so, one lucky user who posts the most golf rounds using their app via Twitter starting 12:00AM EST Saturday, July 31 thru 11:59PM EST on Friday, August 6, will win a $50 gift certificate to the golf retailer, driving range, or instructor of their choice.

AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder is a mobile app for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, that provides statistical analysis of your golf game, calculates yardage, keeps score, and more! The best part is there is no annual fee to use the app or download courses.

What have you got to lose, except maybe some pride and a few dollars?

www.accelgolf.com

Foursquare the location-based social networking service has been on a roll lately, with over a million check-ins a week, a plethora of business partnerships with mainstream appeal, and brand awareness that took twitter a long time to achieve.

What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. When you’re out and about, you check-in at location telling everyone where you are. This can be anywhere from a bar, a museum, restaurant, etc.

Foursquare uses the GPS in your phone to determine your location and bring up a lists of places nearby for you to choose from. If it’s not on the list you can add it. And Foursquare users can leave Tips (John the waiter was very friendly) at places they check-in at to share with other users, or leave To-Do’s for themselves (try the hamburger next time).

If you visit a place enough times you can become “The Mayor.” Being “The Mayor” has its benefits such as bragging rights and discounts at locations offering them to foursquare users. For businesses, this is win-win, because foursquare users vying to become “The Mayor” are repeat customers, and repeat business is great for the bottom line and buzz!

Here are four ways the golf industry can leverage location-based social media like Foursquare:

1) Fan Engagement and Participation at Golf Tournaments
Foursquare users at PGA and LPGA Tour Events could explore the various venues at a tournament and earn points, share tips on viewing the tournament, where to park, alternate routes, earn discounts on merchandise, etc. Similar to a game Foursquare created for Harvard students to explore the campus. Local businesses in the area for a golf tournament could also participate by giving special offers or discounts to Foursquare users.

2) Increase business and customer loyalty

Golf courses can also capitalize by offering specials and discounts to forusquare users. “The Mayor” can earn free rounds of golf, discount on cart rentals, free drinks, etc. Foursquare users could also leave tips about playing conditions, pin locations, pace of play, etc. Driving ranges are another area where location-based services would be useful. “The Mayor” of a driving range could get a free bucket of golf balls, a reserved hitting bay, etc. By recognizing Foursquare users at your driving range, you have the opportunity to increase repeat business with your customers and loyalty.

3) Change the way we watch television
Just recently Foursquare signed a deal with Bravo TV, to integrate the game aspects of Foursquare with the locations featured on the various shows on Bravo TV. What if the Golf Channel did this with some of their original programming? It’s another way for people to interact on a different level and engage your viewers.

4) Make reading your favorite golf publication more interactive
You flip through your favorite golf publication, like Golf Digest or Golf Magazine and see a really cool golf shirt, shoes, clubs, etc and wonder where to buy it? Yes, they have a shopping directory in the magazine, but that’s so old school. What if Golf Digest inks a similar deal, like the one Lucky Magazine did with Foursquare?

In the deal with Lucky Magazine, Foursquare users check into stores in Lucky’s coveted “Shopping Directory,” and you earn the “Lucky” badge.
Once you check-in to a Lucky recommended store, users can read tips from the Lucky editors, etc. The basic idea, is to give users the inside scoop or incentives to check-in at these locations. You check-in enough and you could get discounts or deals at these locations.

For Golf Digest, this type of deal could be very beneficial to local golf stores and shops across the country. You could take the same concept and apply it to golf courses featured in the magazine or advertisers of luxury goods. It’s a win-win for both the magazine and the advertisers, but also the consumer.

Beginning to see a pattern here? Like the old saying in real estate, its location, location!

What other ways could the golf industry leverage Foursquare and location-based social media?

Laser Rangefinders are a great accessory to have in your bag when the golf course your playing doesn’t have GPS enabled golf carts or you don’t own a handheld GPS unit. One of the biggest problems with laser rangefinders is that they can sometime inadvertently capture background target images instead of the target your aiming at. This is the problem that Bushnell is trying to solve with the Bushnell Pro 1600 Tournament Edition with PinSeeker.

[View with PicLens]

How Laser Rangefinders Work
Bushnell’s laser rangefinders use an eye-safe Class 1 Laser beam which is invisible to the human eye, that is bounced off a distant object when you press the button on the rangefinder. Next, a high-speed digital clock measures how long it takes for the laser beam to reach the target and back. In less than a second, the rangefinder can calculate the distance within +/- 1 yard and displays the results on the LCD display of the unit. Viola! You now know the distance of your target.

Bushnell 1600 Pro Target Modes
The Bushnell Pro 1600 Tournament Edition Laser Rangefinder offers two modes for determining the distance of your target: PinSeeker and Scan.
The PinSeeker mode is designed for you to easily get the reading of the flag without capturing background target distances, like surrounding tree, or bushes. In the event more than one object is detected, the closer of the two objects is shown on the LCD display.

The other mode is Scan mode, which allows you to pan across the landscape and get updated distance information displayed on the LCD of the distances between you and the targets you are scanning. This would come in handy if your wanting to scan the distance of a greenside bunker or water hazard, etc.

Performance
The Bushnell Pro 1600 rangefinder can measure ranges anywhere from 5 -1600 yards and 400 yards to the flag with +/- 1 yard accuracy, which is great on long par 4 or par 5 holes on the golf course. The unit itself is 100% waterproof with Rainguard HD which is a patented, permanent, hydrophobic, oleophobic lens coating that causes moisture from rain, snow, sleet and your breath to instantly bead-up into smaller droplets and scatter. In other words the lens won’t fog up, like an untreated lens would, which is great when playing in a hot and humid environment or in the cold.

The size of the unit is much larger than the Tour V2 and may seem a little big, but it’s actually very comfortable to hold in your hand and not heavy. The unit does come with a zippered and magnetic closure carrying case that can be snapped onto your golf bag or carried around your waist like a fanny pack.

The Pro 1600 sits very comfortably in your hands and has a nice textured no-slip surface on the top and bottom of the rangefinder, making it very easy to hold while wearing your golf glove. The eyepiece for the unit can be retracted by twisting it, so it will fit more comfortably against your face. The Pro 1600 has 7x magnification and does a great job of making distant object seem very close. I found that extremely helpful when trying to find the flag from 300 yards out and identifying hazards on the golf course.

The two target modes of the Bushnell Pro 1600 worked really well in my tests. On a very tree lined course in a residential community, I found the PinSeeker mode to work very flawlessly and not capture the surrounding trees for my measurements. I verified this, by comparing my results against a handheld GPS unit for the course I was playing. One thing that is important to mention, is that the 1600 doesn’t require a reflective prism to be on top of the flag to get your measurements, which is great.

The scan mode also performed well at giving me updated distance measurements of targets as I scanned the course of the hazards. For example, I wanted to find out how far I needed to hit my shot to clear the creek running across the fairway, it was very simple. All you have to do to change modes is click on Mode button located to the left of the retractable eyepiece with the unit powered on.

There’s a reason why Bushnell’s laser rangefinders are so popular on the PGA Tour, and that’s because they work. As a consumer, you might balk at the idea of paying $399 for a laser rangefinder and opt for a GPS instead, but you don’t have to download course maps, etc when using a laser rangefinder, and it works on any golf course. If your serious about golf and want accurate distances, this is a sound investment.

Bushnell 1600 Pro Tournament Edition Laser Rangefinder $399

A big trend at the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show had to be the number of companies offering a GPS for golf. One company in particular, OnPar stood apart from the others because it was the first touchscreen GPS, similar to that found on an iPhone. I had to go checkout what was being dubbed as the iPhone of Golf GPS, with its easy intuitive touchscreen.  

[View with PicLens]

The OnPar has your standard GPS Rangefinder features, like distance to the targets, hole overview, etc. But none of them offer you the ability touch anywhere on the screen get your layup distance from anywhere on the course, zoom in on the target, track your location, distance, club used and stroke, and give you personalized club suggestions based on your average distances.  

A feature that isn’t talked to much about, is the Statistics Screen and Golf Bag Screen. These two features are in my opinion the coolest and biggest differentiators.  The Statistics screen can keep track of up to 18 rounds of golf, it can track how well you play each hole at that course, and it can give you a cumulative average over 18 rounds. The Golf Bag screen allows you to pick and choose the clubs in your bag, with a simple touch of the screen. What cool about this is that when you use your 5 Wood on your home course it will track how far you hit that club on a particular hole in the Statistics screen, but it will recommend your next club you should hit based on the data it collects as you play each round of golf.  So if your on the 9th Hole and you have 160 yards to the green, OnPar will recommend the club in your bag that will get you on the green based on the statistics it has tracked. It’s like having a caddy play with you all the time and get the advice the pros get on Tour.

To load up your courses there is no software to download just connect the OnPar GPS to your computer with the supplied USB cable and sync the unit. And there are no membership fees or course map fees. Also included is a protective sleeve for the OnPar GPS.

I can’t wait for the weather to warm up in Chicago, IL so I can test out the OnPar GPS. 

The OnPar GPS retails for $ 479 http://www.onpargps.com/index.php

Congratulations to Joe Meissner Jr of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Joe has won the uPro GPS! Thanks to everyone who entered. Check back soon for other contests.

Touted as “the Apple iPhone” of GPS Technology. The uPro™ distance measuring device gives golfers the best of both GPS and Laser technologies in a sleek, user-friendly system. With aerial photography, video flyovers and high resolution color display, the uPro is the most functional, and intuitive hand-held rangefinder in the industry. Golf Views and uPlay have teamed up to give away a new uPro GPS to one lucky reader.

uPro GPS Features:

• Easy to understand graphics that display golf hazards such as sand traps and bunkers, as well as your current location on the golf course.

• Large 2.2 inch, high-resolution 320 x 240 color screen that is easy to view outdoors in bright sunlight.

• Through the use of SmartView™ technology, the uPro automatically presents dynamically generated “viewports,” which show you information based on your next potential shot. As your position on the course changes, so does the view of the course.

• The uPro is thinner, sleeker, and lighter than any other product on the market. It fits easily in the pocket or on a belt without obstructing your swing.

• As an add-on software download, the device can accept voice commands to make menu navigation virtually hands free.

• Provides the user with a list of all golf courses in the U.S. The GPS technology programmed in the uPro provides an automatically sorted list of golf courses closest to the current location of the user.

• The uPro™ does not require the additional download of any drivers or software to use.

• No Annual membership fees

uPro GPS retails for $399.99

How to Enter

Answer the following three  questions correctly to be entered to win the new uPro GPS:

1) What is the uPro GPS touted as?
2) The uPro GPS gives golfers the best of what two technologies?
3) What is the screen resolution of the uPro GPS?

Once you have answered the above questions, send it (all in one email) to contests@sandbox8.com with the subject “uPro GPS Contest.” One uPro GPS will be awarded to a randomly selected contestant with all three questions answered correctly. All entries must be recieved by Noon PST on December 14th,  2008.  Good luck!

Contest Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE CHANCES OF WINNING.
All winners must be 18 years of age or older
Eligibility is limited to residents of the United States
Only One Email Entry Per Household Daily.

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