Customer Reviews

OnPar Golf Touchscreen GPS

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I have tried a total of 4 golf GPS this past season in the hopes of finding the "Right" one. Of the four units I put to the test, it came down to two. The Sonocaddie V300 and the OnPar. The other two units were the Callaway UPro and Skycaddie SG5. I will start off by stating why these two units did not make it into my final comparison. The UPro was very nice however in order to maximize its potential, you had to pay $5.00 for each course in the Pro Mode. This enabled the GPS to display the actual picture of the hole itself. It is very cool, very cool however I play approximately 20-35 different courses every season. I would have to pay an additional $100 to $175 for all my courses, assuming they were all available. I did not like the additional cost aspect. Same goes for the Skycaddie SG5. You had to pay an additional $50 per year to utilize this system. That's $50 a year, every year. If you do not pay the $50 annual fee, it renders your unit useless. None of the courses will be available for use. This is not very good at all if you plan on using this device for a couple or even a few years and then decide you no longer want to pay the $50 annual fee. All your courses you had downloaded currently and in prior years, puff gone. WTF is that??? Not my cup of tee. (Pun intended).

Now on to the OnPar. Most of the bad reviews here and at other sites were very early reviews, soon after the product was released. They simply had very, very little golf courses available for download. Only a handful were mapped. OnPar has been hard at work adding approximately 1000 courses every month since its initial release. Now they have an unbelievable amount of courses available. The system itself has gone through a couple of firmware updates since its release. I must say that the time I have spent with this device has been nothing short of amazing. The system is incredibly stable and it has a ton of courses mapped. Every course I play with the exception of one is available. I requested this course to be added and per OnPar, once you register your product, you will have one request for your home course they will map within 1-2 weeks. That is pretty solid.

This GPS is just incredible. All the courses available are free, nothing, nada when you register. Thank God for that! Once you purchase this unit, that is it. No additional cost. The price of this GPS has come down considerably since its release as well. The early adopters payed $479 for this unit. You can now get this unit from $399 via OnPar website which includes a free belt clip, car charger and temporary cart mount. Very good deal. You can also get just the unit for anywhere between $350-370 on Amazon. I personally purchased mine on EBay for $277.00 brand new in its original packaging, never been used. Now that was too good a deal to pass up. Now you know why the two other devices I mentioned above were not even close economically speaking.

As far as the performance goes, it works just as advertised. It acquires the satellites very quickly and maintains its lock. The battery life is great lasting a full two rounds before it needs charging. The unit itself is very easy to see in all types of light especially direct sunlight. It has a light sensor built in that automatically adjusts to current light conditions. Very cool. The touchscreen is sensitive but not overly sensitive. You can use your finger, a tee or golf pencil to mark your points. You can use your hand even with a golf glove on. It is very easy to mark this device to see the yardages to bunkers, lakes, creeks, other various hazards so you can avoid them. You will always see your remaining distance no matter where you are. It continually updates your position and yardage. This device will hold up to 300 courses. Yes, 300!! That is way cool!! It will track your shots which is very easy to do and keep your critical statistics. After a few rounds with this device, it will even learn your distances you hit with every club and then recommend a club for every instance. How cool is that!! There are many more features to this unit, but I have covered the main points. Everything, and I mean everything has worked flawlessly. I bet if the early adopters would review this product now, they would have a totally different opinion and rate this product much, much higher. If Amazon would allow more stars, I would give it the max.

The only criticism I can give it is as follows. I wish this unit displayed predetermined way points on each of the courses. Trust me this is just a nitpick. All you have to do is just touch the front of a bunker for example to get that yardage. Touch the back of the bunker to get the carry yardage. It would just be nice to have some of these already listed on the map. Other than that very little nitpick, there is no doubt I have found the "Right" Golf GPS.

///Update 4/28/10///: I have now used this GPS for over 15 rounds of golf played so far this year. Four of these courses were the first time I played them. Thank goodness for the OnPar. I was able to see the entire hold when standing on the tee and plot my strategy. Not knowing where the various hazards were could have changed my entire round. With the OnPar, I was able to avoid any hidden dangers. As a result, I shot a 77 on a course I never played before. I guarantee I would not have shot this well without the OnPar. This course was very difficult with too much hidden danger. Not the case with the OnPar.

Also, this unit just works great. The auto hole feature is cool and so far has worked EVERY time. Keeping track of my shots works as advertised. No problems. The new Mojo Reporting section of the website is totally cool. If you keep track of your shots, you can view each hole and see how/where you played each shot. The picture is an actual satellite picture of the hole with your shots captured every step of the way. Very cool indeed.

I have now become dependent on my OnPar. It is officially part of my regular gear. I can not imagine playing a round without it. It is THAT good.

Pros:
When I bought OnPar over a year ago, I did so because it was the only model I found that kept detailed scoring (putts, GIR, FIR). Like other users have said, you have to read the entire manual to fully understand how to use the device. It is not complicated, just take the time to read the manual and you will get the hang of it quickly. I know at least on my home course, the yardages are accurate to within at least 5 yards. I am not Tiger Woods nor Arnold Palmer, so that is close enough for me. I love that the device allows you to zoom in, as well as move your target around. If you are on the tee box and want to be 100 yards out on your second shot, the touchscreen allows you to set your target distance in order to set up the 100 yard second shot. Another great feature is the ability to measure each shot and apply a club to each shot. This will give you an average/min/max distance for each club as well as make suggestions based on your averages. You also have the ability to mark the clubs you carry in your bag. The only con to this is that it still shows EVERY club when applying a club to a measured shot. The list should be narrowed to the clubs you have selected as being in your "golfbag". So far the battery life has been as advertised. I can go an entire round and not even use up half of the battery life. You do have to download courses, and if there is a course they don't have, you can request that course be added. I did this once and it took only about 2 weeks for them to add. Sounds like some users have had a much longer wait, but my experience with getting courses mapped has been positive. There is one negative to this and I have listed it below. At least there are no extra fees for downloading courses.

Cons:
The device firmware does have some freezing issues. This usually happens to me around the 14th hole. It still works but will not automatically update your position/distances to the green. I wasn't sure if it was a bad device or the software. I emailed customer service about this and they said they are working on an update for the freezing issue with the software. The only other main issue I have is that I have a Macbook Pro and the device is not compatible with Mac yet. I even have Windows on my Mac, but CS said you have to have a PC. The OnPar website states "(Mac version coming soon)" and has said this since I first bought my device over a year ago. When I first emailed CS about a release date for the Mac software, they told me by the end of 2010. I emailed them again on this issue and they now tell me that it will be the first half of 2011 before the Mac version of Synchro is released. I do not have regular access to a PC so this makes it difficult to update the device firmware, add/delete courses, and check my stats. I guess I do not understand how it can take so long to create the Mac version. I guess they have a few other issues to work out first. OnPar also maps their courses via satellite images. They do not "walk" the courses as Skycaddie claims. I live in TX and at my home course, there are a few holes where rivers/creeks/ponds were obviously dried up when they did the mapping because they do not show up when using the device there. I know where they are so it's not huge issue for me, but a golfer who has never played that course, may have no idea the hazards exist and that there may be water in them. You can also send a request to UPDATE a mapped course (which I need to do), but you are still relying on a possibly inaccurate interpretation of the hole. I question whether Skycaddie has really walked all the courses they have available for download, so I do not know how much more accurate it may be than OnPar.

I paid $400 for this thing and would not recommend paying that much for it. Knowing what I know now, I would probably pay about $200 for the device as it is right now. I know it's cheaper now, but with the Skycaddie SGX (I have read very mixed reviews on this as well) now available with many of the same features, do your research before buying either one. As I have yet to see a retailer who buys/sells used GPS units, so once you buy it you're stuck with it (short of selling it on ebay/craigslist). I love my OnPar when it does not freeze up. I rate this as 3 stars now, and will update to 5 stars if/when they fix the freezing issue and the Mac compatibility issue. With the kinks worked out, this could be one of if not the best, golf GPS units available. Well, that's my take on the OnPar GPS device, I hope it helps you one way or the other.

If you like to have state of the art toys, this range finder is it. not really fair to just call it a "range finder" though, b/c these gps untis are so much more these days. I like how it has the touch and drag function like my iPhone- to use for actual pin placements.
Easy to see in the sunlight b/c its bright. I really like the GIR tracking. I expected to have problems with the battery charging b/c the screen is bright, but I haven't had the problem. I have a laser range finder as well, but it doesn't come out of my bag anymore. It costs a few bucks, but it's taken more strokes off my round than my new R9 driver...

The biggest concern has been availability of courses. Fortunately, here in Scottsale/Phoenix the majority of the courses I play have already been mapped.
I did have some difficulty getting the synchro software to function (and not available for MAC) but the customer service was the best I have ever used for any electronic device company. Always a person on the end of the phone who walked me through the installation and registration process ( and it required about four phone calls for me to get it right)(why would a company choose reg numbers like VH0dkt1400Lmz2?). There is room for improvement beyond adding new courses; the fact that each time you update your course list you have to download ALL the courses again, rather than just adding the new courses. Same for deleting..this does take some computer time. Perhaps best value is the courses (up to 300) are free! This will probably force the other manufacturers to stop charging for a course download. Another suggestion I would make for improvement would be the inclusion of a stylus and stylus slot in the body for accurate screen touching. I use one from an old palm pilot.

I think it is a given that most golf GPS units provide reasonably accurate distances from a given point on a golf course to the front/middle/back of a green. The better units allow you to position the pin on the green to match its position on a given round, providing distance to the pin, not just the front/middle/back of a green. The best available units also provide 1) graphical hole depictions that show bunkers, hazards, etc. and the related distances to them, and 2) provide a method for tracking shot distances so you can determine how far you hit various clubs during actual playing conditions.
After spending weeks researching the myriad golf GPS units on the market, I followed the usually reliable Amazon user recommendations and purchased a Golf Guru 4. Boy was I disappointed! First it does not come with the desired graphical hole depictions. Rather they have to be purchased for approximately $8 per course. Second, even after you purchase one of their AerVu maps you find that their usefulness is restricted by the small screen size. Another serious flaw is that the shot tracking feature is minimalist at best. It is awkward to use, and worst of all, it does not provide a way to track or upload the data. Rather you have to record the information by hand after each round. UGH! Finally after using the unit for a dozen rounds I found that it repeatedly experienced freeze-ups (3 or 4 times per round). Needless to say I returned the unit.
I then purchased an OnPar unit. It turns out to be a much better unit in all regards.
It provides absolutely free, great graphical depictions for over 10,000 courses (with 1000 more being added each month). Furthermore, although the screen sizes are comparable, the OnPar unit provides the ability to easily "zoom-in" on each hole to get very accurate distances to any point on a hazard, bunker, etc.. The OnPar unit also has an easy to use feature for tracking shot distances. It then tracks the last 18 rounds worth of data and can even, if you want, based upon this data suggest the club to use for each shot. Finally, the OnPar unit provides a simple feature that allows you to create your own distance marks on any given hole. These marks can be used to identify locations like the end of a flat area on a fairway, or the carry distance for a water hazard, etc.. To be fair the Golf Guru 4 has a similar feature.
I found that both units are readable in full sunlight, although it helps to move them into the shade to read them. Each unit holds a charge that lasts several rounds. Each unit provides separate views of the green for each hole, and the ability to drag the pin around to its actual location on a given round in order to provide the distance to the pin, not just the front/middle/back of the green.
In summary, the OnPar golf GPS unit is as good or better than a Golf Guru 4 in every regard. It provides great graphical depictions for free. It has an easy-to-use zoom feature that allows the user to get very accurate distances to every point on each hole. Finally the OnPar unit has a nifty feature for tracking the distance of your shots.
The clear winner of this comparison is the OnPar.

Let me start off by saying I did not buy this on Amazon, but I bought the OnPar from my local club about two months ago and feel it is important to share my experience with other potential buyers.

I will also admit I have not used any other GPS units, so I cannot provide a head-to-head comparison. I did, however, do quite a lot of research and can explain why I feel this is the best unit for me, and why I bought it instead of one of the many other similar items. Let me start with that...

Why I bought the OnPar:
The two dominant features that I used to select the OnPar were: (a) no subscription and/or per course fees, and (b) a beautiful hole map that allows you to see at a glance where you are, where you are going, and what the distances are. I know some other units have these features, but the OnPar in my research was the only one to have both AND has a large course selection that includes ALL of the courses I tend to play at home and in my common vacation location.

I have used the OnPar now for almost two months and there is a lot to like....and some frustrations. Let me share both ends of the spectrum...

What to LIKE about OnPar:
1. The screen is indeed beautiful, and the holes are wonderfully depicted. I saw some feedback in here about zooming being a pain. This is true, but the hole pictures are so good I never even feel I need to use the zoom function!

2. The customer service is OUTSTANDING. My first try with the OnPar I felt some of the holes at my course were inaccurate (comparing the plate yardages to the OnPar). I wrote them about it, and within 2 days they wrote me back that they had *remapped* my course for me and asked me to try again (and yes, the results in my next round were MUCH better)! I then went on vacation in Michigan and also found some discrepancies with maps (yardages and missing traps, etc.) at three different courses. I wrote them, and bingo within 2 days they again had remapped the courses I mentioned! So, the feedback on Amazon that says they do not respond to course requests is OLD information. Now that their "backlog" of courses is cleared out, I am finding them VERY responsive to course requests.

3. The BEST unexpected feature on the OnPar is the ability to MARK spots on the course and have it remember them "forever" and then give you yardages to those spots from wherever you are standing. Do you have a hole with a creek running through it you want to lay up for? The first time you play, walk up to the creek, tap on "Mark" to place a mark where you are standing, and that spot will show up on your hole map from then on, with yardage indicated. So the next time you play, you know how many yards away that creek is and can club accordingly. VERY handy!

4. OnPar allows you to measure the length of any shot with ease, and it stores that info for download into your computer for later analysis. It will even suggest clubs, if you turn that feature on (I don't, but it's there). This is handy if you want to get a feel for your club distances, and as far as I could tell in my research this device is the only one that will measure, store, and later output your club distances and averages.

What is FRUSTRATING about OnPar:
1. Freezing. I've seen the comments here on Amazon, and sadly it is true. The OnPar does have a tendency to freeze up at times. I had hoped the issue was older generation units and/or software they had resolved. It is not. My OnPar was bought in May 2010 and has frozen up solid in more rounds than not. When this happens, the screen is unresponsive and your only recourse is to shut it down and "reboot". In the process you lose all data from that round so far (scores, shot lengths, etc.). This is the MOST frustrating part of owning the OnPar. As another example of good customer service, OnPar accepted my unit back and replaced the "firmware" to try to resolve the issue. Sadly, in my second round after being "fixed", it still froze on me. I am still working with them on what to do next. I suspect the real issue has to do with spots on my course where the satellite signal is weak, the OnPar is in "suspend" mode, and when it "wakes up" for me to check a yardage and cannot find the satellite again, the underlying software gets confused and crashes. But that is a guess. This issue as of today is still unresolved.

2. The touchscreen is sometimes a bit less responsive that you'd like. They are quick to point out this is NOT an iPhone/iTouch (with its amazingly versatile touchscreen), so some of it is probably user error. But I find sometimes the "tap/drag" action of moving the screen misses my tap or selects something I don't want. This leads to unnecessary delays on the course as you fiddle to get yourself back to where you want to be. Not horrible, but annoying at times.

3. The interface is at times "quirky" and not as intuitive as you'd like. For example, when measuring your shots, there is a menu that pops up with a series of clubs to ask you which club you hit. Well, I only carry 14 clubs in my bag and told the unit at initial setup which 14 they are. But this menu always presents me with an expanded list of all possible clubs to select from, forcing me to scroll around to get passed those I do not carry. Another exmaple: the OnPar tracks if you hit the green in regulation and your score.... then asks how many putts you have. Ummm, it seems to me it should be able to do the math and tell me how many putts it thinks I had...which I can change if for some reason it is wrong. Instead, I have to enter everything individually with multi-taps, which feels cumbersome and consumes time.

In summary, some minor interface quirks aside, I LOVE this device...when it doesn't freeze up. But the freezing issue is still unresolved and a major problem (even after a return for repair), so I just cannot give it as high a rating as I would like. And potential buyers need to be aware that at least in my case, the comments I have seen about potential freezing problems are still true even with a unit purchased recently and with the most updated firmware installed. I will update this report if the problem is resolved in the near future.

All the 1 star reviews are bringing down the image of this great product, and all because their favorite courses were unavailable when they bought it a year ago. They should have reviewed the available courses at the onPar site, which is what I recommend any potential purchaser to do. Now, 13,000 courses are mapped, similar to all other similarly priced GPS devices.

I received this as a gift from my wife and it took about one round to get used to using the club marking function, pretty simple to use once you realize you just hit the white ball where you are to show the club distance. Then you just click the black box where it shows the club and distance and adjust the club if is different form the recommended club. Easier to use than explain.

Once you finish your round, you hook it up to the computer (if you want, you don't have to), and you can review your shots with the Mojo report and it will show you a "google map" version of your round with review totals and clubs listed above. I think there is only room to improve here. And the stats that are stored in the device are easy to read and understand, as well as being helpful. It can be a little confusing on how to upload the data online to be reviewed on the mojo report. You have to click the "sync" button which makes you feel like you are going to download courses, even though that isn't your intention, then you just click it, and you can see that a checkbox will come up that has courses AND stats and scores, just "unclick" the courses and then sync away.

The best part about this product so far has been the customer service for me. During only my second round and during a small tournament I organized, I dropped my onPar GPS and it landed right on the cart path. The screen fractured and my heart sank (I did not have the gel coating on it or use the included lanyard, which I recommend for each of you to avoid losing a couple hundred bucks). I called the company, and knowing that this was normal wear and tear and not under warranty, I plead my case. They offered me a refurbished unit at a discounted rate. I called on a Saturday, which is not normal business hours for them, but they emailed me back within 10 minutes. After a short email conversation, I was instructed on what to do.

I called them the following business day, and was met with the very nice customer service/support department. After hearing my story, they even threw in a belt clip for free so something like this would not happen again. A very thoughtful and unexpected surprise. Awesome!!

I can't wait to get back to using this cool gadget. For the short time I had it, the statistics function was easy to use. It was dead on accurate for my courses in Long beach, Palm Springs and San Diego. And it gets a lot of attention from the golfing group. I can't recommend it enough. I have not used any other handheld GPS devices, and I'm sure others have great features, but I just want to let anybody know who is purchasing this unit, they will not be disappointed. Especially if you can find it closer to 300 bucks. I also love the no fees and no subscription. That was the original reason that I looked into this unit. And the scorecard is very easy to use. Complete package!

ONPAR HAS SHUT DOWN THEIR OPERATIONS _ SEE MESSAGES ON WEBSITE



I am giving this 4 stars because it could use some improvement. The accuracy is OK but I still rely on my laser rangefinder for more accuracy when I can see the flag. There is no instruction manual so you have to go to the website to figure out how to use the options. The touch screen is really sensitive so do not shove it in your pocket. You will mark your shots inadvertently. It also has a problem on courses that have more than two nines. If you get too close to another nine, it thinks you are changing courses and asks if you want to end the current gold session. It asks repeatedly. Onpar is working on this glitch.

My primary purpose in owning this is for use with new courses. So far it has been a big help. It has helped me decide where I want to aim when I have no idea of what is ahead.

I have found all the courses I need to be readily available. I avoided any GPS that required annual fees or fees per course. Downloading a course is easy. I even downloaded courses while traveling with my net-book hooked up to my cell phone.

I like being able to track the shot distances so I can have a more accurate idea of what my clubs actually do. This is handy on my home course. I can easily see the screen in the brightest sun and read the information without my reading glasses.

I have called tech support twice. Once was before purchase and once after. Always had a prompt and courteous response.

I wish the temporary cart mount was not so expensive. Until I can find one more like $25, I will do without.

Overall I am very pleased with the unit.

Make sure you check the courses that are mapped on the OnPar website before you buy this item. You can check on the OnPar website before you buy to see if your course is mapped or you have to request that it is mapped, which can take some time......in my case 2 mos. I would go to three stars for mapped courses, although the touch screen causes it to go into futility loops and crashes if you keep it in your pocket.

I will try not to cover previously addressed issues; however, I have additional feedback on the software.

The good:
- Great GPS, accurate, fast, and reliable. I've played 20+ rounds with the OnPar and the GPS is rock solid accurate.
- Best screen available, readable in any light condition, bright, and details are easy to read
- Excellent features; drag to locate shot distance; pre-load pin locations from pin sheets; scorecard; shot statistics; club selection and power; next hole; etc are all great ideas.

The "less" good:
- I've seen the GPS drop the signal
- Touch screen is not ready for prime time. It is not nearly as accurate or predictable as your iPhone, iPad, Droid, or similar smartphone. This becomes extremely irritating as you scroll through courses. Scrolling is extremely unpredictable and you will often find that you unexpectedly open a course when you thought you were scrolling.
-- The scrolling issue can cause delays in your play especially since it manifests itself again if you must modify the club used for your last shot, a feature explained on the OnPar site. You should be progressing up the course, instead you are repeatedly trying to scroll to the correct club, and likely increasing your stress. This would be a simple fix (addressed later in "the really bad.")
- Failure to record the end of a shot after highlighting the beginning of the shot will destroy your club averages. You can indeed enter your tee shot location on hole #1 and fail to record the start of your 2nd shot until hole #3 and record a 1200 yard drive, which necessarily gets captured in the average club distance. I once played a round with a 127765 driver average.

The "really bad - this sucks"
- Maybe GPS developers should use more software because the user interface and common user access model for OnPar software is some of the worst I've ever used.
- There is no undu if you make a mistake, except in the scorecard. If you accidentally record the wrong club, fail to record a stroke from a highlighted starting point, etc, you are hosed. If you accidentally highlight the wrong hole (9 instead of 8) where the default start point would be the back tees, you cannot correct your starting point once you arrive at the 9th hole. Providing an undu is baseline software functionality. I think this points to OnPar's heritage as a GPS company 1st, a golf GPS company 2nd, and a software company 3rd. GPS is great, scorecard function is solid, but the rest is suspect.
- The support staff is largely unhelpful and defensive regarding nearly any topic - course availability, product availability, distribution, software, etc. The desktop software installation will likely produce a filename that your antivirus software will identify as a possible trojan, due to the naming convention used by OnPar. They know the problem exists, but refuse to address the issue.
- Catastrophic failures are too common and manifest themselves as GPS failures or power failures. In either situation, the software does not recover, will not allow to you end the round gracefully, but will assume you quit on whatever hole the device last completed. The ramifications are significant since the recorded results feed into your scores, statistics, and club averages - rendering what would otherwise be terrific tools, useless. Golf data must be tracked over many rounds to be of much use. If you must constantly reset the device, erasing previous data, what is the point?
- The synchronization process is iffy at best with limited accurate feedback about course downloading or updating

In short, if all I wanted was a GPS and scorecard, I could make any number of alternate choices. OnPar promises a lot, but the firm's lack of software heritage undermines the brand's promise.