Garmin Approach G8

The Garmin Approach G8 is Garmin's top of the range golf GPS. I have been using this product now for 6 months and having owned other GPS devices, feel this offering must be one of the best all round GPS products currently on the market. 

The basis of the unit is a 3-inch color touch display that has as standard more than 39,000 international courses pre-loaded. The greatest feature I feel is that this unit offers is the ability to upload updates free for life via a Wi-Fi connection. Yes, no monthly/annual charge and no more connecting the unit to a computer to update it. The unit itself connects very quickly to the satellites and you are not spending vasts amounts of time waiting for the unit to be available at the start of play. Its battery life is approximately 15 hours on full charge, however I do recommend trying to recharge the unit after every use as if you are a week between rounds like most of us, the unit may not last the distance over two rounds when they are a week apart. 

Another feature that this Garmin offers is the "Smart Notification" feature. This feature allows you to get SMS's and emails delivered directly from your iphone via Bluetooth to unit. Thus you can have your phone on silent, leave it in your bag and still make sure that important messages can be read when they come in. A tip for using this feature with your iphones is that if you have notifications turned on, they will all flow to this device, meaning you may get way too many messages from sources such as Bloomberg etc that you may not necessary want on the golf course. But overall this is an excellent feature that sets this unit apart.  

The standard screen itself is full colour and features layup arcs at 100, 150, 200 and 250 meters/yards (depending on your set up) so you know exactly how far the trouble is and how far you need to hit it when laying up. It also offers touch targeting (right) that lets you touch any point on display and get the precise distance to exact spot selected. This can be fairway, hazard, landing area, or the front, middle and back of the green.

The unit also allows you to Zero in on the pin with Green View feature. By touching the flag on the map to zoom in on the green and then dragging the flag to position it where you see it, providing a precise distance to the area selected from where you are standing.

The unit also acts as a digital scorecard and allows you to not only keep a track of your scores and up to 3 other playing partners, but also offers the ability to keep a track of fairways hit, greens in regulation and putts per round. Stats can be accessed during the round, and even downloaded to your PC afterwards. The scorecard feature allows you to score in the following formats: Stroke Play, Stableford, Skins and Match Play and offers the ability to load with adjustable handicaps. These can also be uploaded to Garmin Connect to allow for a more in-depth history of your games and performance. 

A great feature that many GPS units do not offer is the Play Like feature. This features provides the user the distances to the target, adjusted for gradient associated with uphill or downhill shots. You can set the unit to offer club advice, a nice feature, but one that i have chosen to turn off. 

So the cons, well there are not too many. The unit itself has auto advance, however I do find that its sometimes not to be trusted if you are on an altered format. The unit will change easily from for instance the 5th to the 6th, however go the 5th to the 7th, it does need a manual adjustment via the screen. Also, The screen does not have a protector, so I recommend getting a generic screen protector as the opportunity for scratches in the golf bag are many. 

I often use this unit combined with a laser. To use a laser or GPS unit singularly has pro and cons. To use them in combination offers I feel the best of both worlds. The laser will give you an exact distance to the flag and really that's about it. It takes away thining about landing points on a green. Blind shots and non visibility of the green when using a laser means you could potentially be hitting a shot into trouble. The Garman G8 allows you to really plan how you want to attack a hole. Measurements to hazards, adjustments for gradients, lay up zones and landing spots can all be pin pointed giving you better course management, which is a major difference between a professional and an amateur.  

Would I recommend this unit, absolutely. I would like to hear from other users that have experiences with the G8. Remember to sign up to follow my blog. Thanks SJ 

Golf Pride MMC Plus golf grips

I am very focused on ensuring that my clubs grips are always clean, have enough grip, able to handle any moisture and most importantly...are comfortable. I had always used a full corded grip and like many users had the tell tail wear points on my non gloved hand. When Golf Pride released the new Decade MultiCompound (MCC), I immediately knew this was the grip for me. A corded brushed cotton top for the top hand/gloved grip and a soft rubber on the lower hand that enabled you to get the feel and touch i love. I have been using these grips for a number of years with the standard 2 wraps of tape under each. Besides different colours, these grips have not changed significantly for a number of years. Could they get any better? I am not sure they could.

BUT... this year at the PGA Merchandise Show they released the Golf Pride MMC plus 4. Being one to track products i love i was curious the see what was the difference in this new product. So what is the difference? The major difference is that the grip now features a larger lower hand grip and users a softer grade of rubber. So why a larger lower hand? Well this is not new. Pros have been doing this for years through the use of an extra two wraps of tape on the lower hand. So if i was using a traditional grip, i would have my two wraps of tape down the entire grip and then and extra two wraps under the bottom hand.

The larger lower hand is supposed to encourage a lighter grip pressure, thus reducing tension and increasing power. The MMC Plus 4 is designed to negate the need to use the extra wraps and essentially means the grip is now has limited tapering down the shaft. The increased size of the lower hand is actually a 4.6% increase than what a normal grip would be. They come only in 3 colours (blue, red and grey), which for the avid MMC fan may be disappointing, given there are 10 different colours in that base range.

So what are they like? For me, this has been a significant change and improvement. The reduced tapering means gripped down shots do not feel much different and i do believe that the desire to grip heavily during times of tension on the course is reduced. The rubber is also softer than the original MMC and moisture control remains excellent. Alot of people see my grips and notice the difference and when they pick them up their first comments are usually how great a larger lower hand feels on the club. I find the greatest areas this grips assists with are when using the driver and when chipping. If you struggle with tension in your hands whilst chipping i would really recommend the switch, given you do not have the tendency to hold on tighter as you move down the taper and do not get that snatching feeling.

I was lucky enough to be in the USA and pick up my grips whilst i was there. They are still yet to be released in Australia which means to order them from here means many consumers are paying a substantial premium that takes a $9.50USD grip to almost $17.50USD in Australia and then postage on top of that. Are they worth it, yes. So Golf Pride, please hurry up and release these in Australia.

Love to hear from anyone that also has these grips on and using them.