The Golf Rangefinder Shop

The SkyCaddie SG5 has been retired. Check out our current recommendations for today's best golf rangefinders..

1. Accuracy
2. Easy Computer Set-up and Downloads
3. Easy to use
4. Lots of courses
5. Improves golf game
6. Intelligreen – exact shape of the green rotates to match your angle of approach
7. Fast distance acquisition from satellites
8. Speeds up play
9. Up-to-date
10. Color screen
11. Easy to read and easy to see in bright sunlight
12. Email support responds quickly
13. Digital Scorecard
14. Holevue – on some courses – graphic view of the hole that allows you to zoom and get yardage to desired target
15. Alternate targets – hazards, carries and layups
16. Stat tracking – fairways, GIRs and putts
17. No charge for feature upgrades
18. Good Customer Service (note: more people complained than complimented)
19. Good battery life
20. Intelligreen Pro – available on some courses. Displays green contours
21. Size
22. Club SG – Upload your scores and stats for analysis and sharing

1. Annual membership fee
2. Poor Customer Service
3. Limit of 10 courses stored – $20 upgrade to 20 courses
4. If you don’t renew your membership, the courses stored on your device will stop working
5. Too big to fit easily into a pocket
6. Steep price
7. Learning curve and no instructions
8. Not waterproof
9. Doesn’t take Alkaline batteries, so if don’t get to recharge it before you play, you may be out of luck.
10. Software Problems
11. Does not come pre-loaded with courses

Golf Rangefinder Shop Summary: The one thing mentioned more often than any other in all the reviews we read, was how accurate the device was. One reason may be that SkyGolf, the maker of SkyCaddie GPS rangefinders, ground-verifies every course in their database. This means that an actual person goes to the golf course with specialized equipment to make sure the yardages are accurate. All other golf GPS devices use only satellite imagery. We don’t know of any studies that have been done to prove it, but this might mean SkyCaddie GPS devices are more consistently accurate than other units. Although nobody likes paying the annual SkyCaddie membership fee, many of those who mentioned it as a negative, felt it was worth it for the accuracy. Although ‘Annual membership fees’ was the most mentioned CON, “Poor Customer Service” was the one that really got our attention. There were several users who had good experiences with customer support, particularly email and chat support, but there were more who had bad experiences. From telephone wait times to rude comments, over 10% of the user reviews we read, were unhappy with some aspect of technical support. Considering how many users are thrilled with their SkyCaddie SG5, we’re guessing most of them have never needed to contact Customer Service. That in itself is a PRO. We at the Golf Rangefinder Shop have set-up many SkyCaddies and downloaded many courses with no problems at all.

• If consistent accuracy is the most important feature that you want in your golf rangefinder AND a laser rangefinder isn’t your thing, then the SkyCaddie SG5 should definitely be on your short list. You should also be prepared to defend your decision to pay annual fees (hopefully for more consistent accuracy), as several GPS models are now coming pre-loaded with thousands of golf courses and no membership fees. Also remember that you can only store 10 courses at a time on your SG5 (20 courses after a $20 upgrade).
• If you have computer phobias and little patience with things like bad customer support, then you should look into getting a pre-loaded golf GPS device instead.