There is lit­tle doubt that a golf GPS sys­tem will improve your golf game and lower your scores. The big ques­tion is “Which one is right for you?”. All golf GPS sys­tems will tell you the dis­tance to the front, cen­ter and back of every green on the course. Most sys­tems also tell you the dis­tance of your last shot. Addi­tional fea­tures vary from sys­tem to system.

Many peo­ple will have a pre­de­ter­mined amount of money they are will­ing to spend. Golf GPS sys­tems vary in price from under $150 to almost $500. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for in terms of fea­tures. One impor­tant thing is to dis­tin­guish between price and over­all cost. Many sys­tems require an annual sub­scrip­tion to be able to down­load courses. Be sure to base your buy­ing deci­sion on over­all cost (price + annual subscriptions).

Con­sis­tently hit­ting more greens is the key to low­er­ing your score. A low cost golf GPS sys­tem under $200 will help you accom­plish this. Select a GPS sys­tem that will allow you to map your own courses if you are will­ing to take the time to map the courses your­self. This will allow you to skip the annual sub­scrip­tion required to down­load already mapped courses and keep your over­all cost at the bare minimum.

Golf GPS sys­tems over $300 will have color screens and pro­vide a view of the hole lay­out. These sys­tems will also have addi­tional way­points on each hole for bunkers and water haz­ards. Dig­i­tal score­cards and game analy­sis are also com­mon fea­tures in this price range.

Touch­screen GPS sys­tems are a pop­u­lar choice for the golfer who is will­ing to make the invest­ment. You have the abil­ity to see the dis­tance to any tar­get on the hole with a touch of a fin­ger. The abil­ity to drag the pin around on the green will give you the yardage accu­racy to shoot for the flag! Another ben­e­fit of these sys­tems is that they require no sub­scrip­tion fees. They hold hun­dreds of the thou­sands of courses that are avail­able for down­load. More courses are added the list each day. One word of cau­tion – Do the research and make cer­tain your favorites courses are cur­rently avail­able. Many peo­ple buy these sys­tems only to find that their favorite course is not yet available.