If you’ve checked out Qwowi’s golf section at all before, you’ve probably already read at least one of my numerous posts about the uPro Golf GPS (recently acquired by Callaway).  I’ve had my eye on the uPro since it was announced almost a year ago.  My take from day 1 has been that the uPro’s would prove to be a real catalyst for innovation in the area of GPS technology for golfers.  With the astounding visual features of flyover mode, and the precise measuring capabilities of uPro’s AnyPoint Technology, quite frankly, what I’m talking about isn’t just the most visually impressive golf GPS available.  The uPro’s beautiful graphics are backed up by the most robust set of features on the market today.

In the interest of full disclosure, although I do have a uPro in my possession, I haven’t been able to get it out on the course yet.  As (lack of) luck would have it, we got our first snow fall the day after I received the uPro.  Subsequent attempts to get out on a golf course proved equally as futile.  Fortunately, however, the uPro includes a preview mode which gives you access to most (if not all) of the uPro’s features, just as if you were on an actual golf course.

I think of Preview Mode as “What If” mode; as in what if I got a uPro a week earlier, what if I didn’t live in the Northeast, what if we didn’t get an early snowfall, or what if just moved somewhere else.  For everyone else, however, Preview Mode provides an easy and highly effective way to study a course.  I can see this feature being particularly helpful the night before playing a new course for the first time.  Simply load up the course in the uPro and check things out before hand.  If you’ve purchased a Pro Mode course you’ll even be able to do a bit of shot planning using the uPro’s Any Point technology.

Physical Features

In one of my previous uPro posts I compared it physically to a Microsoft Zune.  Having held it my hand and given it a good looking over, I think that comparison still holds true.  For those unfamiliar with the Zune who are seeking an alternative comparison, I discovered that an ordinary AA battery is an amazing point of reference.  The   is almost exactly as thick as a single AA battery.  Lay that battery on its side and you’ll equal the width of the uPro.  Finally, stack two of those same AA batteries and you’ll have the height of the uPro.  Granted, it’s not a particularly glamorous reference point, but it works, and who doesn’t have a couple of AAs lying around?

The uPro itself is constructed from black plastic with a matte finish.  It’s extremely lightweight, and the outer shell has a little bit of a soft feel too it.  I’m in no position to swear by the durability (this isn’t consumer reports, I don’t go around wrecking stuff just to see what it will take to break it), but I suspect that if you can avoid running it over with a golf cart it will hold up just fine.  There is an optional case/protector for the uPro, which I would recommend on principle.

The LCD is bright and graphics are crisp (especially for the non-satellite imagery used for hazard view).  The button layout is pretty much what you’d expect from just about handheld device manufactured in the last few years.  There is a large center “uPro” button which serves as the de facto enter button.  It is surrounded by 4 directional buttons which are used to scroll the image, or to plot points on the course using uPro’s AnyPoint Technology.

There are a pair of buttons located immediately below the LCD which act as selector buttons for the available features of a given menu or screen (just like your cell phone).  There is also a button located on either side of the unit.  The Pro Mode button is used primarily to move in and out of Hazard View.  The opposite button, labeled “VR” currently serves no purpose outside of preview mode, however; I did find some references to voice command features, so perhaps (and I have no actual information in this regard) it’s related to some potential new features.

Finally, there is the a small button that functions primarily as the on/off switch, but it is also used as a back button for returning to a previous screen or menu.

Working All Those Buttons

I will admit that I had reservations about what sort of effort and learning curve would be involved in navigating the various features of the uPro.  My concern was that a good bit of the capabilities of the uPro would be buried deep in the menu system, and that some of them would be rendered functionally useless on the golf course where time is an issue.  In an on course scenario, where slow play is a concern (or it least it should be), one shouldn’t allow himself to get bogged down in a flurry of technological button pressing when he should be hitting the golf ball.

In practice, however, I found myself a little bit shocked by the simplicity of the uPro.  None of the key features are more than a couple of clicks away.  More importantly, I found that navigating the various features of the uPro was exceptionally easy.  Accessing and using all of the various features is an exercise in intuition.  For me anyway, the device works exactly like I “feel” it should, which means no hunting around for a given feature, and no wasted time on the golf course.

Navigating the Links on the uPro

As I said, using the uPro is very simple, but the sake of completeness I wanted to give you rundown of how the uPro might be utilized in an on course scenario.  To paint the most complete picture possible, I’m going to assume you’ve paid for a Pro Mode course.  More on Pro Mode vs. Basic Mode in a bit.

The Flyover

One of the things I’ve loved about the uPro since the day I heard about it are its video flyovers (Pro Mode only).  As the name suggests, a flyover gives you an satellite view of the entire hole.  From tee to green, and everything in between, flyovers allows you to see not only where you need to go, but exactly those places you’ll want to avoid (bunkers, ponds, and on some of the courses I play, houses).  Flyover mode also clearly displays yardage  for 200, 150, and 100 yards, which ties in nicely with the idea that uPro not only helps you plan for the shot in front of you, but for the next shot as well.

If you were to ask me if I thought the flyovers alone are enough to justify the cost of a Pro Mode course, my answer would be this: It depends.  How’s that for helpful?  Actually, in and of itself, a satellite flyover as an extra cost poses a bit of a conundrum.  If you’re talking about your home course, or a course you play often, and are generally familiar with, then aerial imagery isn’t going to reveal much that you don’t already know.  If you’re playing a course you’ve never played before, or don’t play very often, then yeah, flyovers can be an invaluable tool to help you avoid hidden hazards.  The obvious question is, however; if you’re playing a course you’ve never played before, and may never play again, do you really want to spend an extra $10 (the cost of an individual Pro Mode course) just for 18 holes worth of flyover?  I guess it depends on the course; Sawgrass, yeah.  My buddy’s club, not so much.

Minor Gripes with Flyovers

uPro was kind enough to preload some ProMode courses on my device, so I’ve had the chance to simulate play on a handful of different courses.  While I will say that flyovers are a really, really cool feature, the imagery on my uPro isn’t nearly as stunningly impressive as it appears on the uPro website.

There are a couple of potential explanations for the difference.  It is possible that the folks at uPro are doing an extensive amount of cleanup on their maps before they display them on their website.  If this were the case, I’d be calling shenanigans and whatnot, and would take back every nice thing I’ve ever said about the uPro, but I don’t really believe this is the case.

More likely any perceived discrepancy in quality results from a combination of course conditions and timing.  What that actually means is that, at the risk of stating the obvious, conditions vary from course to course.  A $30 a round golf course (my sweet spot), isn’t likely to be as well conditioned as a $150 a round golf course.  Boundaries between fairways and rough, and even the boundaries around hazards tend to be more clearly defined on more expensive courses.  As cliche as it sounds, $150 grass tends to be a bit greener too.

As for the timing aspect of things…while I can’t say with certainty that I absolutely know where uPro gets its satellite photos, I’m fairly certain it isn’t from the uPro satellite.  Since uPro (most likely anyway) relies on a 3rd party provider for their imagery, they don’t have any real control over when those maps are created.  If the the satellite pictures of a given course were snapped on a bland fall day, than that course isn’t likely to look as good as those of a course taken in the heart of the summer when everything is all lush and green.  It’s sort of the unfortunately reality of life on earth.  What I’ve found through some google mapping is that expensive courses in warm weather climates look a whole lot nicer than the less expensive ones where I live.

My point;  it’s safe to assume that some courses will look better than others.  It’s common sense  (not to mention marketing 101) that uPro would choose to showcase a best-scenario course instead of a local Muni. It’s hard to fault them too much for that.

One other issue I have with flyovers, and actually the presentation of the aerial imagery in general, is that, while groups of trees are easy to spot, individual trees tend blend in with the ground.  Again, it’s less of a problem if you know the course, but you’ll want to make sure to give the map a good looking over if you have any doubt about whether or not there’s a tree in your way.  I’m not sure of the feasibility of adding the feature, but it would be pretty sweet if there was a way for the uPro to highlight individual trees.  Yes, I know I’m nitpicking.

SmartView

Another great Pro Mode-only feature is what uPro calls SmartView.  SmartView, which sort of just happens by default, enables quick, 3-click access to the most pertinent information about the current hole.  The first view presents an aerial view of the entire hole.  Click once and you’ll see what I’ll call the logical landing area.  It’s basically the general area that the uPro thinks you should be hitting your ball to.  Click again and you’ll see a zoomed view of the green.  Click again and your back to the full hole view.

All three vantage points provide you with measurements to relevant points on the screen (front and back distance to hazards, and well as front, middle, and back distances to the green).

SmartView could almost get lost in the shuffle among all of the uPro’s features.  It doesn’t actually “do” anything.  No video motion, no user initiated measurements.  It just simply displays information.  Of course, the information it provides is clutch, but because it’s sort of just there, one could almost take it for granted.  From anyone of the views, you can zoom, pan, and scroll to your heart’s content.

Flyovers give you the big picture, SmartView gives you the details.  So yeah, if you’re asking, with SmartView on top of Flyovers, would I recommend purchasing the ProMode course?  In just about every case I can think of, the answer is yes.

MeasureMode/AnyPoint

If you had asked me before I got my hands on the uPro what I thought the coolest feature was, without hesitation I would have told you it was the flyovers.  Now that I’ve had a chance to play with the uPro a little bit, and examine the features more closely, I can say that, without a doubt, AnyPoint Technology is the single most important feature of the uPro, and the one I know I’ll get the most use out of.

While there are an infinite number of situations where you might want to use AnyPoint, let me share a specific example.  The 18th hole (one of my favorites) on my home course (Kingswood Golf Club in Hudson Falls, NY) is a short par 5 dogleg left.  Fairway bunkers come into play on both the left and right side of the fairway.  There’s also heavy, heavy, take a drop rough both immediately off the tee, and to the outside of either bunker.  Finally, the green is protected by 3 bunkers, and depending on your positioning and inclination, your approach shot will very likely be over water.  There are quite literally dozens of ways to get into trouble.

My ideal drive on 18 is 250+ to the center left of the fairway, which leaves me somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 yards, over waste, water, and sand (in that order) to the green.  Now if every tee shot worked out as I’d like them to I wouldn’t need the uPro, but since ideal only happens a few times a year, let’s look at how AnyPoint can help me make the most of my not-so-ideal situation.

AnyPoint allows me to precisely answer the question, “now what?”.  Assume I’ve landed in the rough to the left of the left-side bunker, but not so left as to be in the deep weeds (it’s a safe assumption since it happens just about every time I tee off on 18).  There’s absolutely no way I’m getting on in two from here, so my objective is to put myself in the best spot possible for my approach shot.  For the sake of keeping it simple, let’s assume there’s no wind.  From a distance perspective I want to be about 120 out (a full pitching wedge), and I want to be far enough up the fairway that there’s no water or sand between me and the flagstick.

A single-click of the uPro allows me to enter MeasureMode.  I use the navigation button to locate the approximate location of the flagstick on the green.  I click once to place a pin on the green, and then slowly begin to navigate towards the area where I think I want to hit my next shot.  As I’m scrolling away from the green, the uPro is constantly updating the pointer’s distance, not only from the green, but from my current location.  When I’ve reached 120 yards out (which in this case is the far right edge of the fairway), not only do I know exactly where my ball needs to land in order to be at that happy 120 yards spot, I also know exactly how far I have to hit this shot in order to get it there.

Now unfortunately what I’ve actually done is define my next ideal shot (and we know how well that worked out the first time), but at least the uPro has allowed me to find the most ideal landing area.  Actually hitting it, well, that’s a whole other problem.

Even without SmartView and Flyovers, MeasureMode with AnyPoint Technology is all the justification I need to go for the ProMode courses, especially for those courses I play most often.

Basic Mode Features

With Basic Mode courses you get Hazard View and Green View.  Hazard View, as the name suggests, is a concise view of all the hazards on the current hole along with measurements to the front and back of the hazard based on your current location.

Green View works the same way, except (apart from showing you the distance to the green), it includes an additional measurement to the center of the green.

Even in Basic Mode the uPro has a “Mark Shot” features which gives you the option of measuring the actual distance that your last shot traveled.  It works like this: First, hit one you like.  Then, from either Green View or Hazard View, click the Mark Shot button.  Go to your ball, click the button again, and the uProwill display the actual distance the ball traveled.  I refer to the Mark Shot feature the dream crusher since, more often than not, it’s going to tell me that my beautiful 300 yard drive only traveled 275.

The really really really (yes, 3 reallys – and now that’s 4) cool thing about Basic Mode courses is that they don’t cost you a dime.  In past uPro posts I outlined cost differences between Basic and Pro Mode courses.  Either that didn’t sit well with customers, or the uPro is doing extremely well.  Either way, the uPro folks are no longer charging for Basic Mode downloads, and of course, with uPro there are never any subscription fees.  Basically, your purchase price entitles you to all the Basic Mode courses you want.  All of the Basic Mode features are available with Pro Mode courses.

Sure, Pro Mode courses do offer some really enticing additional features, and I suspect I’ll be going Pro Mode more often than not, but what’s great about the uPro is that, for a price that’s competitive with other golf GPS units, you get many of the same features of those other units, while still maintaining the option to play in Pro Mode anytime the mood strikes.

One Other Gripe

I’ve already addressed a couple of minor issues with the uPro flyovers (trees).  One other little area where there appears to be room for improvement has to do with how distances are calculated in Hazard View.  Again, my information is based on what I see in preview mode, so it’s possible that once I get the uPro on the course, this may not actually be the case, but…

In Hazard View (and in SmartView), the uPro displays both the distance to a given hazard and the carry distance of that hazard.  It appears that the displayed carry distance is calculated from bottom to top (essentially the widest point of the hazard),  that’s all well and good, but more often than not, the widest point isn’t what’s between me and the hole.  It’s easy enough to work around this using AnyPoint, but ideally the displayed reach/carry distances would be calculated based on a straight line between you and where you need to go.

Early adopters reported problems with the uPro locking up, or being generally slow.  Had I written the review this time last year, I might feel differently, but recent firmware updates have addressed both issues, and customers seem to be generally happy with the results.  There are also a couple of adjustments you can make to improve overall performance.  Disable the power saving mode (on by default).  You’ll lose something in battery life, but because the uPro won’t have to reacquire a satellite each time it wakes up, so you should see a significant performance boost.  uPro also recommends reducing the backlighting to conserve battery.

Final Thoughts

Prior to the uPro, I was definitely more of a rangefinder guy than a GPS guy, but the uPro has made me a convert.  I never imagined so many useful (and that’s the important part) features could be packed into such a small, easy to use device.  With the possible exception of wind speed (maybe we’ll get a built in anemometer in the next version), the uPro golf GPS provides the golfer with all the relevant information he’d ever need.

The biggest complaint from potential buyers was that, although there’s not subscription cost with uPro, you had to pay for each course you download.  As I said, uPro has resolved those issues by offering all Basic Mode course maps for free.  The reality is, however; what truly sets the uPro apart from other golf GPS units are the Pro Mode features, which means to get the most out of it, you will need to purchase Pro Mode Courses.  While I do wish that Pro Mode courses were a little less expensive (actually, I wish they were free), my recommendation is to buy credits in bulk to take advantage of uPro’s weighted pricing model.

As I said, I’ve used a rangefinder, I’ve tried out my buddy’s GPS unit, I’ve played with on-cart models, and with the single exception of being able to order a hot dog, the uPro beats them all.  Without question, the device lives up the hype (and I’m partially responsible for that hype). I couldn’t be happier to add the uPro to the growing list of gadgets in my bag.

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