The best golf GPS devices seem to be getting larger and larger, offering golfers in-depth detail on golf courses across the world on the huge screens. Pinned Golf's 'The Caddie' is one of the largest, if not the largest, on the market with its massive 8-inch screen dwarfing the likes of the SkyCaddie Pro 5X or Blue Tees Ringer. But does size really matter? I took The Caddie onto the golf course to find out.
Straight out of the gate, I need to clarify that this is not the device to use if you're primarily a walking golfer. Such is the size of this device, you'll need to be using it either in a ride-on cart - where the strong built-in magnet allows it to sit conveniently on the cart - or by using the accompanying mount for an electric trolley. As a walking golfer, this device is simply too large. It can't fit in a trouser pocket, and you'll do well to find a pocket in your bag to easily store and use it. It's a non-starter here. That being said, the trolley mount I tested it with was highly effective, so trolley golfers will also be able to enjoy this product's benefits.
But The Caddie was never designed with that type of golfer in mind, so with that out of the way, I want to talk about all the reasons why The Caddie might be the right device for you. Firstly, the size is genuinely impressive. It's by far the biggest screen you'll be able to get on a dedicated golf GPS device, and it allows for a vast amount of detail to be shown on the screen.
At the start of each hole, you're shown a 3D flyover on the 8-inch full-colour touchscreen, detailing the exact shape of the hole, any hazards in the way and the exact shape of the green. The touchscreen allows you to scroll, zoom and search yardages to your heart's content and get a full 360-degree view of the hole ahead of you. You can touch any part of the hole to get a yardage to that area (very useful for calculating layups), while the bottom of the screen will show you in large font the distances to the front, middle and back of the green. Another nice feature is that yardages will hover above the front of a hazard like a bunker, which allows you to see the yardage without having to click on it before. The same goes for the back edge and front edge of the green.
I'll be honest, the quality of the graphics was a little disappointing. The textures are quite grainy, especially on the trees, and remind me more of an old Tiger Woods PlayStation 2 game than a modern piece of technology. There was certainly a little lag time in the touchscreen, too, and the 3D tree graphics were often depicting trees that were a lot larger than the trees I could actually see on the golf course.
The detail of what was surrounding the hole was lacklustre too. On the first hole at North Hants golf club - a long par three around 210 yards - a line of fairly dense trees sits around 20 yards over the back of the green. Though the green shape, hazards and yardages were all correct and detailed, the display on the Caddie showed no signs of these trees, thus leaving me without the info on how far over the green would be in trouble. This was one of many instances where the device's detail came into question.
That being said, the amount of information on the screen is impressive, and the ability to touch any part of the hole on such a large screen does allow you to get a clear picture of what is ahead of you and allows you to make better decisions because of it.
My favourite part of The Caddie is its scoring and game tracking features. The Caddie has modes that allow you to keep track of stroke play formats, match play or even a scramble, something I've not tested on any other GPS device of its type. Inputting the handicap index of your playing partners also allows The Caddie to let you know who has shots on which hole, a nice quality of life feature that keeps everyone in the group in the know as to who has shots where.
The game tracking is a nice addition, too. The Caddie prompts you at the end of the hole to input whether you hit the fairway, the green and how many putts you had. It's a fairly quick and easy way to keep track of some topline stats about your game, all of which are saved onto the device. All of this comes with no subscription fee, which also includes any future updates to the software, of which I'm sure there will be plenty over the lifetime of this product.
Though this might look like a delicate piece of technology you wouldn't want to risk breaking in the elements on the golf course, I can confirm this device is more than built to last outside. The case it comes in is incredibly rugged in case of any accidental drops, and it is fully weatherproof, and the screen is easily visible in all light conditions, which is a clever bit of design. The magnet in the back of the device is incredibly strong, and nearly no amount of rough terrain traversed by either your trolley or the ride-on cart will knock it off.
Overall, size really could be the winner here for a certain type of golfer. Though the graphics and the screen lag leave a little to be desired, I've got no doubt future updates will see The Caddie become an even more in-depth GPS device than it already is. The scoring and game tracking features are ideal for group golfers, and anyone who primarily plays golf in a ride-on cart will reap the rewards from this large, bright and intuitive GPS built to help golfers enjoyment of the game.
