NEW GENUINE BUSHNELL NEO GOLF GPS RANGE FINDER IGOLF

About This Product   Brand Bushnell NEO GPS Rangefinder Model Bushnell NEO Model# 368050 BONUS Accessories Leather Belt Case - Car Charger - Storage Case Custom Points 4 Front/Back/Centre YES Distance Calculator YES Battery Type Lithium Ion Battery Battery Life Up To 16 Hours GPS Reciever Sirf Star III Screen 80 X 120 High Contrast LCD Dimensions 88 X 48 X 19 mm   Product Info and Contents Equipped with the latest in GPS technology, the iGolf Powered Bushnell Neo helps eliminate the guesswork by quickly and precisely providing key distances from anywhere on the course. This allows golfers to choose the right club, swing with confidence and enjoy the game more. The iGolf Powered Bushnell Neo weighs 71 grams, uses an internal Lithium-ion battery, is weather-resistant and works on any golf course in the world. Bushnell NEO GPS Navigation Unit 240 Volt Australian Power Adapter Standard With Purchase USB Sync Cable Software CD ( Drivers and Sync Application ) Belt Clip Quickstart Guide Complete User Manual Australian Hardware, Warranty and Support Bonus Car Charger, Belt Case & Storage Case Key Features Hold 10 GPS Course Files Unit 4 Custom Reference Points Per Hole Powered By Internal Lithium Ion Battery Work On ANY Golf Course Around World No aiming or line of site required Improved Course Management Features Accurate Shot Distance Feature Helps Lower Your Scores and Handicap Warranty - Full 12 Months Manufacturers AUSTRALIAN Warranty (Only Available EXCLUSIVELY from Monsterputt / GPS Golf Aust)   The iGolf Powered Bushnell Neo is ready to use out of the box without the requirement of any additional software or hardware if you want to map your own golf course. However a computer and internet access are required if you would like to download pre-mapped golf courses from iGolf (CONTACT US for the best deal on your GPS Data). In order to download pre-mapped golf courses you will need a Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me or Windows 98* or MAC computer with a USB port. You will also need a subscription to iGolf. *Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Bushnell NEO Golf GPS     Product Contents iGolf Powered Bushnell NEO 240V Aust Power Adapter Australian Warranty Australian Support USB Sync Cable Software CD (Drivers/Sync App) Belt Clip Quickstart Guide User Manual BONUS ACCESSORIES: Belt Case Storage Case Car Charger Contact Us For Availability.

Stride onto ANY Golf Course In The WORLD With Supreme Confidence Knowing The Precise Distance To The Hole And The Exact Club You Need To Use Without
Breaking A Sweat And Without Having To Think!!

How many times have you been on the golf course and not known which club to use on your approaches to the pin or on your par 3 tee shots? Countless no doubt. If it's anything like my game, you would probably hit the right shot on only afew occasions, while hitting the rest either too long or too short.

If you are an avid golfer or beginner what would your options be in such situations?? Guessing is about your best option, closely followed by HOPE watching the ball fly through the air and willing it to SIT... or GO...!!

Rest assured you're not alone. Millions of golfers around the world are suffering the same fate when it comes to shot selection. Not everyone is lucky enough to have their very own caddie to tell them how far they are from the hole and in turn which shot to play into any given setup. Until Now!

• How would you like to take your Golf game to another HIGHER level?

• How would you like to have your very own "POCKET CADDIE" to help you with your shot selections?

• How would you like to take the guesswork out of your approach and tee shots?

• How would you like to know the PRECISE distance to the pin, front or back of green?

The iGolf Powered Bushnell NEO GPS is the LATEST from the Bushnell Golf's Golf Navigation Systems. The benefits of having this "POCKET CADDIE" with you during a round are sure to lower your scores and improve your game in no time at all.

Monsterputt and GPS Golf Aust is proud to be the Exclusive Australian Distributor/Agent of the Bushnell NEO and can offer you the greatest deal available on the product with Australian Hardware,Warranty and Support NOT available from anywhere else or by any other seller.

Are you still pacing off yardages? How many times do you find a marker that seems inaccurate? Wouldn't you rather have a rangefinder? I know, they're expensive, but now there's one that costs less than a new fairway wood.

The Bushnell Neo represents the new entry point for GPS rangefinders. At $379AUD RRP (plus a $50AUD annual subscription [Contact Us for the BEST DEAL on your GPS Data]), the Bushnell Neo will make owning a GPS rangefinder a more likely proposition for many golfers.

I know what you're thinking, a GPS rangefinder for $380AUD RRP? It must be seriously limited in features. Well, as a matter of fact, this review is a bit overdue, because I've been enjoying playing golf with the iGolf Powered Bushnell Neo instead of writing about it. The debate over whether GPS or laser is the better technology wages on in forums and elsewhere (you can find my thoughts in a Trap Five article). Overall, each technology has its pros and cons and like everything else, you should go with the one that works best for you.

One drawback of both technologies (that is improving in each camp) is the size of the unit itself. The Bushnell Neo is the smallest golf-specific device that I've seen to date. There are devices for running and hiking that are smaller, but those units generally don't require the same level of intelligence that a golf unit does (to follow hole-to-hole routing, for instance).

Honestly, I didn't expect that much from the Neo. At this price and size, just how well could the thing work? Surprisingly well, it turns out.

Design and Construction
Weighing in at 71g the Neo is a compact but functional rangefinder. At 1.75" x 3.25" x .75", the Neo is about the size of a closed flip-style cell phone or pager. I had no problem reading the 80 x 120 high-contrast LCD screen even in bright sunlight. For those twilight rounds, the Neo also has a backlight that you turn on and off by tapping the Power button.

All of the buttons are found close together along the Neo's lower edge and are, therefore, necessarily a tad on the small size. Still, I found them easy to use, though I wonder if moving the Power and ESC/Menu buttons to the sides or top of the device to spread functions out a little might make the Neo even more user friendly. For the most part, you'll use the Screen and Up/Down buttons the most and they are located adjacent to each other making it easy to switch between holes and get the information you need quickly.

The Neo and the entire iGolf powered line is manufactured by Bushnell Golf , which has a substantial presence in manufacturing GPS units for Golf and for other applications.

Though the Neo is small in size, it is reasonably tough. I managed to drop mine onto the cart path from a moving cart a few times, and, aside from a few scratches, the Neo continued to work well.

Getting the Neo Ready to Play
You can use the Neo right out of the box (after charging the battery) if you want to map your own course. Chances are you'll want to download courses for the device, however, and happily there's not much to setting up the Neo. I didn't even read the directions, and everything worked out fine. You just load the Bushnell Neo Sync software onto your Windows or Apple MAC computer from the included CD, and you're ready to start downloading courses from the iGolf website.

Your computer will be the storage device for most of your courses. The Neo only holds 10 (or fewer) courses at a time. It also serves as the archive for any Custom Points you add to existing courses and for any courses you map yourself. If you use these functions (and you'll probably want to add at least a few Custom Points to your home course), you'll want to be sure to use the Save Course function in the Bushnell Sync interface, which uploads courses from the device to the computer. Once you customize a course, you probably won't need to add additional customization, so most of the time you'll use the interface only to download new courses.

Because the course information is saved on your computer, if you plan to use the Neo on the same bunch of courses you always play, it's possible to pay the $35USD per year subscription the first year, download the courses you want, and drop your subscription the following year (Contact Monsterputt/GPS Golf Aust for the BEST deal on GPS Data). If, like me, you play several new courses each year, then the subscription price starts to sound fairly reasonable. Especially when you consider that many resort courses are charging $20-30 for GPS rentals these days.

Most of the courses that I play were easy to find on the website. From lower-range publics to all but the most exclusive privates, I was able to download GPS information for nearly any course in my area as well as courses when I vacationed in North Carolina. There are omissions (a C-list 9-holer near me and a new semi-private were missing), but for the most part you should be able to find the courses you play. You can establish whether your course's GPS information is available even before purchase by doing a simple search on the iGolf site. You don't have to log in until you want to actually download the information.

Once you've downloaded the course information you want to add to the Neo, you hook up the included USB cord between the Neo and your computer and hit the "Sync Courses" button on the main screen of the Sync program. You're then prompted as to which courses you want to download. From there, it's just a click to load the info onto the Neo. I experienced no problems at all with the process.

Playing Golf with the Neo
The basic functionality of the Neo is simple to use. The toughest thing to remember is that you have to advance the device manually from hole to hole using the Up and Down buttons, which is not all that tough. The screen clearly shows the hole the device thinks you're on in the upper right corner, so you can always make sure you're getting yardage to the right green.

To begin a round, just turn the Neo on by holding down the power button until the welcome screen appears. Then you just select "Play Golf" from the Main Menu, which brings up a menu of the courses you have downloaded to the device. Select the one you want to play, and you're ready to go… almost. You will want to turn the Neo on several minutes before your tee time, because it will generally take a few minutes to locate three satellites and start calculating distances. Until then, the hole information will remain blank. Make sure that the Neo has an unobstructed view of the sky, and the Neo will be displaying yardage in no time.

Bushnell has crammed a good bit of functionality into the Neo. It provides Front/Back/Center readings to every green, as well as four additional yardage points. In general, downloaded courses will have two of these additional points used to mark distance to bunkers or water hazards. You can use the other two points to mark custom distances to make the Neo even more useful on your most often played courses.

Each screen in Play Mode gives you distance to the Center mark, so even if you are checking distances to bunkers (or measuring the distance of your drive) you can get the distance to the center of the green. If your course provides pin sheets that give you yardages from the center to the flag, you can get a very accurate yardage to go pin hunting. Otherwise you can make a reasonable estimate of the distance by going for the midpoint between Front and Center (or Center and Back, as the case may be) or by eyeballing how far up or back the pin is and taking your best guess.

First of all, the preset points (aside from the Front/Center/Back green yardage) are not necessarily those you (or most rational humans) would choose to map. Occasionally on a hole with a forced carry or a fairway bunker in play, the download will give you distance to the right and left greenside bunkers. Since there's no diagram of the hole, there's no feature to place a cursor on the hole to determine the distance to that point. Happily you can work around this by customizing the course.

The second issue is closely related. If you approach a green from a different direction than the "normal" course of play (or if the person who originally mapped the course lost their mind on a hole), the Front/Center/Back readings will be out of whack. On a course I play fairly often, there's a short par 5 where most golfers will have a shot at the green on their second shot. The downloaded course, however, maps the Front/Center/Back distances from the lay-up area, 90° from general direction of play. Therefore, the Front/Center/Back distances are exactly the same from the center of the fairway. It's goofy, but you still get a good idea of where the center of the green is. And, again, you can always add custom points to get around this limitation.

You'll run into the lack of lay-up/carry information more than you will find the green distances askew, but the Neo provides workarounds for both situations. Overall, the Neo gives you useful information for getting around the golf course. I played two tournament rounds with one (yes, it was legal) and a bunch of casual rounds. I found the device helpful and easy to use on the course.

Carrying the Neo
The Neo will fit in your pocket easily or even in a cell phone holster. At 71g., it's not going to weigh you down or be too uncomfortable to carry. Good thing, because the included belt clip lasted a mere round and a half, and then broke. I've heard others complain about the belt clip, as well. Basically I just wouldn't count on the plastic belt clip that comes with the Neo. If you don't want to carry it in a pocket (preferably one without divot tools and tees to avoid scratching the screen), your golf bag, or the cart, you can always order the $35.99AUD belt case available at GPS Golf.

For the record, you can pick up other optional equipment at GPSGolf, including: a car charger ($35.99AUD), a storage case ($35.99AUD), a replacement wall charger ($14.99AUD), and a replacement belt clip ($14.99AUD). They even offer a package that includes these items at no extra cost.

Over about 15 rounds this summer, that was the biggest annoyance I had with the Neo, and it wasn't exactly a big deal to me. While, I wouldn't recommend purchasing a replacement belt clip, I would recommend considering the Neo if you're looking at rangefinders and getting a bad case of sticker shock from the $500AUD+ models. At this price and size, it's easy enough just to carry it in your pocket.

Additional Functionality
On top of the basic yardage measurements and the ability to customize maps or create your own, the Neo has a few other tricks to show off.

Want to know for sure how far you hit the ball off the tee? Just hit the OK/Shot button once to turn on the Shot Distance feature and then again to mark the point from which you want to measure. Then you simply walk or drive to your ball. The Neo keeps updating from the point you hit the OK/Shot button the second time until you press it a third time. That means you can go by your buddies' balls on the way to yours and tell them how far they hit it, and, by subtraction, how much farther past them you blasted it. The Neo continues to show yardage to the Center, so you don't have to quit the Shot Distance operation to give a friend the yardage to the green.

You can use the Map Golf Hole feature to add Custom Points or even modify existing points from a download. While on the hole you want to customize, simply press the ESC/Menu button to return to the Play menu and select Map Golf Hole. You then use the Up/Down buttons to find the yardage point you want to modify. When you select it, using OK, the device prompts you to move to the position on the course you want to mark. When there, you hit OK, again, and you've added your custom point. You can then add another, or use ESC/Menu to again return to the Play menu and select Return to Game to get back to the yardage screens.

You can map an entire course using the similar functionality of the Map Course feature. You can either modify an existing course or create an entirely new mapping with this feature. I did not map an entire course, as it didn't strike me as good use of time. If the iGolf site lists the course you need - even if it's one - I'd consider the $50AUD annual subscription a bargain compared to the time it would take to properly map a course. If you play a course that's not listed or you still prefer to go without downloads, this feature will allow you to map your local course(s). This process would take a few hours on the course, and you probably wouldn't be able to do it while playing without slowing down play substantially. I'd recommend mapping a course either early in the day or late in the evening or during the week when the course is relatively empty.